“You’re making things up now.”
“Maybe.”
I flashed him a dark look.
He gave me a ghost of a smile. “Youwillget used to it.”
“You hope.”
“For both our sakes.” He squeezed my hip, and I closed my eyes with a soft sigh.
“What the ever-loving hell?” a familiar voice called out.
My eyes opened immediately as Jade speed-walked toward us like hell was on her heels.
“Shit,” I whispered. “Are you a good liar?”
“I don’t think so.”
“We’re screwed.”
“You’ll come up with something.” He squeezed my hip again.
“Hey!” I forced a smile, stepping away from Nico to give Jade a quick hug. “How are you?”
“Who is this?” she demanded, gesturing to the man I’d basically been snuggled up with.
“Nico,” I admitted. “I might not have told you the full truth about Moon Ridge.”
“Iknewthere were drugs involved.” She glared at both of us.
“Stop, there were no drugs.” I looked over my shoulder to make sure no one was paying attention to what could potentially be a dangerous conversation. Thankfully, no one was nearby. “Nico is friends with the guy who runs the shelter where I adopted my dog from. His friend names their rescues after people he knows. He thinks it’s funny. I ran into this Nico at the grocery store before I ended up adopting the dog. He gave me his number, and when I texted him a question, the conversation just kept going.”
I was rambling.
Totally rambling.
Being mentally exhausted after a full day of trying not to shift and eat women who were attracted to my mate wasn’t helping my already-shitty lying skills.
Jade looked zero percent convinced by my story.
“So you hooked up with a guy who your wolfdog was named after because…” she trailed off.
“Well, he’s hot.” I gestured to him.
Nico bit back a snort, but I knew no one was going to try to deny that.
Hot was a freaking understatement.
Jade finally looked at him. Her eyes were narrowed, but the way she looked him up and down made the wolf in my chest rumble in warning.
I played it off with a cough when her attention jerked back to me.
“Then what’s he doing here?” she finally asked.
That was a very good question.
If only I’d thought up an answer for it.
