Luna rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry, isthattoo personal? Excuse me for trying to be polite for five seconds.”

His mouth flickered. He scratched it, but Luna glimpsed the curious smile he was hiding behind his hand. Even if it was gone when he dropped his hand back into the bag of chocolates.

“I didn’t think about all the upkeep when I was younger,” he said, popping another chocolate into his mouth. “I just… I don’t know. Liked the idea of offering a safe harbor.”

Luna couldn’t help it: she cooed, bright and teasing.

“Shut up,” Oliver said with the automatic reflexes of someone whohad grown up in a big family.

“What? That’s sweet. That’s the first time you haven’t been a complete asshole around me. A girl could get used to this.”

She rocked sideways and bumped their elbows together. They both went stiff, Luna’s arm blooming with delighted warmth. She looked over to see the muscles in his arm working where she’d touched him.

She leaned back. “Sorry. Or… not sorry?”

“I don’t want to drag you into this,” he admitted. “You did get yourself into this mess?—”

“Okay, if we’re going to blame somebody, let’s blame the guy who started drinking mystery booze at work?—”

“But you didn’t actually ask to be stuck here,” he said over her. “Especially not with some… asshole who passes out if you get too far away. My point is I won’t interfere. You’re already with someone, no matter what our magic says.”

She risked another look over and found him staring determinedly at the wall, jaw flexing. She wondered what the bond was doing inside him. Was it pulsing like hers? The others said it was more intense since he was a wolf. Maybe it was churning. Burning. Calling out. She could still sense a faint yank inside her own chest, drawing her toward him.

She watched him, considering. She was stuck at an inn until the snow melted. This was basically a holiday. Her last holiday before she got married. Hector had already given her his blessing, and if it was for the guy’shealth…

“About that,” Luna began. “Hector actually said he was fine with it.”

Oliver stopped, his hand still in the chocolate bag. “Fine with what?”

Luna hesitated. Then she put a hand on his leg, which was warm and bare below his shorts. Her hand tingled, unable to stop herself from squeezing the firm muscle there.

A groan cut off in his throat. He blinked hard, collecting himself. “Seriously? He’sfinewith his fiancée sleeping with another man right before their wedding?”

“We have an arrangement.”

Oliver shook his head. His leg shifted under her touch, but Luna could feel the heat in her chest getting warmer. Shifting. Curling outward, wanting closer.

“I can’t imagine being fine with giving what’s mine to someone else,” he said.

Luna snorted. “Okay,somepeople aren’t territorial, wolf boy.”

“It’s not a wolf thing,” he argued. He made a face. “Itreallyisn’t. I know way too much about my cousins’ love lives.” He shuddered. “Let’s not get into it. My point is we’re not all territorial like that.”

She dropped her voice a few octaves, letting it go soft and sultry. “Just a you thing, then.”

He didn’t say anything, looking down at her palm on his thigh.

She squeezed it again, enjoying how his muscles jumped underneath it. It had been a long time since a guy had made her feel this delicious anticipation. Some of itwas even from her, she was pretty sure. At least half of that want was bonafide Luna Stack—no bond required.

“You’re not disgusting either,” she told him. She shuffled closer until their legs were touching. “Actually, I thought you were kind of hot when I met you. Before I knew you were drunk and super rude.”

“I was having a bad night,” he said. His gaze dropped to her mouth. His pupils were huge, almost drowning out the dark brown surrounding them.

Luna grinned. “And it only got worse.” She reached up, tweaking that piece of hair she’d stroked off his forehead earlier. “We could make the best of a bad situation. What do you say?”

He blinked. He still looked disbelieving, but it was rapidly being taken over by a haze that Luna knew all too well. She could feel it, too, making the world narrow down to the two of them on the couch, their legs touching.

She leaned in.