Page 20 of Leave Me
“Might stay for a while this time.”
Riley’s words took a second to penetrate my brain. He wasn’t going back out on another assignment right away. “Yeah?”
“Kind of want to put down roots.” Riley bit his lip and stopped. We’d reached his place, but I was reluctant to say goodnight. Talking to him felt comfortable, like the quilt my grandmother crocheted on my bed at the pack house. “Maybe shift my career and work from home. From Blue Lake.”
“That would be a big change. I thought you loved traveling the world?”
“I did. I do.” Riley nodded, and we started up the path to his mom’s front door. Riley had never lived anywhere else permanently, aside from a college dorm, so I could see the appeal of wanting to stick around.
Part of why I’d let us lose touch was not wanting to hold him back from his dreams. He’d offered to transfer to a university in San Francisco, but he had a full scholarship in Southern California. And big dreams. I couldn’t be the one who caused him to lose sight of that.
“What changed?”
Riley turned to face me at his door, and I could see he was choosing his response carefully. “It’s just time to come home.”
His words hit me square in the chest, and I felt a mix of wanting to hold him close and also to run away.
“Goodnight, Fowler,” Riley whispered, his words deciding for me.
Pulling him to me, I wrapped my arms around his back, tucking my face into the crook of his neck. It was a mistake. I was scenting him without permission, but damn, he smelled good.
Instead of pushing me away, Riley held me tighter and chuckled. “Do Ismell good?”
“Mmm,” I hummed, filling my lungs as I rubbed my beard and cheek along his neck. “Warm. Like an apple tree. But stronger. Sweeter than you used to smell.”
My face heated at the admission, but my wolf practically purred in contentment. He liked rubbing our scent on Riley.
“You smell stronger too,” he started and hesitated. “Still like cherries, but more like almonds. Richer, like a whole cherry tree in bloom.”
Riley had never told me he could smell me in high school. We were pretty sure he was only a quarter shifter, and his senses were barely above any human’s. He pulled back, and where I expected to see embarrassment in his eyes in the porch light, I only saw lust.
Swallowing hard, I licked my lips and asked for what I’d been thinking about all night. “Can I kiss you?”
“Yes,” Riley answered without hesitation, his voice breathy.
Pulling him close until our bodies aligned from hip to chest, I ran my nose along his, nudging Riley to tilt his head so I could have my way with him. He obliged as if I’d spoken the command, closing his eyes as I pressed my lips to his.
Sparks of lust and longing raced from my lips to my limbs when Riley sighed and parted his plush, pink mouth. Licking at the seam, the tip of his tongue met mine, and I was gone.
Our kiss after prom had been sweet and turned me on—everything turned me on when I was a teenager—but I’d held backthen. It had been Riley’s first kiss, and I denied my wolf, who pushed for more. Now, my wolf wanted to ravage the man in my arms.
Yes.
Ours.
Take!
Breaking the kiss before my wolf took control and hurt Riley, I nuzzled back into his neck. I could smell his arousal, tart and crisper than his softer scent from before, and I could feel his hardness against my upper thigh.
Holding Riley, kissing him, felt more like home than I’d known in a decade.
I was so fucked.
Chapter fourteen
Riley
Waking up to the memory of lips on mine, the feel of them rubbing against my neck and face as he scented me, should have put me in a good mood. A great mood, even, considering who had been kissing me. I would think it was a dream if it weren’t for the beard burn I felt on my chin, but that wasn’t what woke me.
