Page 41 of Alpha Wolf's Nanny
“Felix,” she said quietly, “I thought you said that this can’t happen.”
He leaned forward slightly, “What can’t?”
“You know what.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked. “You think I haven’t tried to stop it? Tried to ignore it?”
Cassie’s heartbeat quickened. She didn’t want to look away from him, didn’t want to lose this fragile, impossible moment between them. But her body was already on edge, buzzing with anticipation she wasn’t sure she had the strength to deny.
She drew in a shaky breath. “Then maybe we’re both idiots.”
That startled a small huff of laughter from him. He leaned back again, arms resting on his knees, head tilting back against the tree once more. But the heat in his gaze never left her.
“I’ve been called worse.”
Cassie tried not to smile. “Bet you have.”
The crackle of the fire filled the pause, and for a moment, it felt like the rest of the world had fallen away.
Felix shifted, his voice softer now. “When you asked me to stay, was that because you were afraid?”
She hesitated, then shook her head. “No. It was because I didn’t want you to go.”
Felix’s lips parted, just slightly. His eyes darkened in the firelight.
He stood slowly, the blanket slipping a little as he crossed to her side of the fire. He didn’t sit beside her, not quite, but close enough that she could feel the heat of him. Close enough that if she reached out just a little…
“I won’t touch you,” he said, voice rough, “unless you ask me to.”
Cassie didn’t move. “I thought you wanted to stop this. Ignore it,” she whispered.
He knelt before her, his hands hovering between them, reaching out but still so far away. “I do.”
“Then why are you—”
“Cassie,” he said, his voice gruff, almost pained, “staying away from you…it’s impossible. No matter which way I turn,what I do, or how I try to distract myself, nothing works. It’s killing me.”
She took his hands in her own, feeling their warm weight, the roughness of calluses. “I don’t want you to be in pain.”
His dark blue eyes seemed a glowing dark amber in the firelight. “I won’t take you,” he said, “not here in the woods, not after what’s happened tonight. But I want…I want…”
“Yes?” she prompted, leaning forward, her heart racing.
“You,” he said finally, “I want you.”
Cassie’s breath caught.
The world seemed to narrow until it was only him. Felix, kneeling before her, his voice rough with restraint and longing, his hands warm in hers. The forest around them hushed, the crackling fire dimming into the background as her heart thudded a slow, thunderous rhythm in her chest.
She didn’t speak. Didn’t need to.
Instead, she let her fingers trail slowly up his forearm, to his shoulder, skimming the curve of muscle until her palm rested lightly at the base of his neck. His eyes fluttered shut, just for a moment, like her touch undid something tight in him.
‘Cassie,’ he whispered again, her name a plea this time, a tremble at the edge of his restraint.
She didn’t wait for him to move.
She leaned in first.
