Page 18 of Can't Help Growling in Love
Later next week, I’ll take time off to spend the full moon alone as usual. I’ll have to decide if I want to lock myself up in mypadded basement overnight or if my mindset is steady enough to run free in the conservation area behind my house. It might be worth it, even if there’s a chance I could run into the members of the Harmony Glen pack in the forest.
Ideally, a wolf spends his full moon with his mate, but even if June reallyismine, we’re nowhere near that. I don’t want to scare her this early in a relationship—not that we have a real relationship yet. One kiss doesn’t make her my girlfriend. And now I sound like a fifteen-year-old experiencing his first rush of lust.
Which is appropriate, given that I never really got to experience that normal high school life, and my sex life has been almost nonexistent up until now.
My anticipation builds with every passing minute, and I even step outside, staring at the overcast sky, wondering if she’s done with work yet.
Then I shut the door firmly and tell myself to calm the fuck down. She’ll be here soon enough. Freaking out won’t bring her here any faster.
My phone screen lights up at twenty minutes after five.
I’m here.
I take off my headphones and trip over the cable in the rush to get to the door. Just before I open the padded inner door, I force myself to take a deep breath and chill. A second or two won’t make a difference, and I’ll appear less feral to be with her.
But when I step into the entryway and see what’s outside the glass front door, I rush forward, flicking the lock to let June inside.
“Oh, shit, are you okay?” I reach for her hand and yank her over the threshold, getting her out of the rain and into the dry entryway. “I didn’t know it was raining.”
June bounces in place to shake the water from her clothes. “Um, yeah, it just started as I was leaving.”She tilts her head back and smiles at me. “Hi.”
I frown at her in return. “You should have called. I would have come to get you.”
“It’s no big deal. You’re working, after all.” She shrugs out of her jacket. “Is there anywhere I can hang this to dry?”
I sense that she doesn’t want to talk about this, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy with her arriving soaked through and chilled. I stomp into the studio and motion at her to shut the door behind her, then rummage through my stash of clothes and pull out a pair of sweats that might have shrunk in the dryer and an old hoodie.
“Here.” I hold out the clothes to her. “There’s a bathroom behind that door. You can change if you’d like.”
She takes the clothes from me. “You won’t be happy until I’m dry, will you?”
I shake my head. “Please.”
Smiling, she disappears through the door, and I whirl into the kitchen to put on the kettle for tea. Something about finding June shivering on my doorstep sits wrong with me, and I’d rather do something about it than brood, so I take two mugs from the shelf and set the teabags inside.
By the time June emerges from the bathroom, drying her hair with her t-shirt, I have two steaming mugs ready for us, complete with teaspoons for stirring the honey I put in the tea.
June accepts the mug and takes a careful sip. “Mm. You have a sweet tooth, don’t you?”
“Too sweet?” I ask, watching her closely.
“Nope, just an observation.” She sets the mug on the counter and turns to look at the room. “So, this is where the magic happens?”
I snort, taking in the well-used space along with her. “Yeah. Or rather in there.” I point to the twin booths, one of which is darkened while the other is waiting for me to return to the mic. “We usually only use the left one, but Stella has let me use the other one to record the audiobooks and stuff.”
I put in two hours of recording time soon after I arrived for my shift in the evening, while I was still fresh. I’m nearly done with this audiobook, and then I’ll get to start on the documentary my agent has hooked me up for.
“You don’t have to be in there throughout your shift?” June motions at the booth. “I always thought you sit there and listen to the music.”
I take a damp curl resting on her shoulder and give it a gentle tug. I twine it around my finger, marveling at the smooth texture, then let it go. “No, we cue up music and pre-recorded segments so we’re not constantly live. It would be too exhausting to beonfor an eight-hour shift.”
June walks to the wall of records, studying the titles. “I missed out on theDraculachapter tonight. We had a traffic accident, so I was called in to assist.”
“I’ll send you the recording. You can share it with the nurses if you’d like.” I move closer to her, unable to stay away, even if it’s just on the other side of the room. “Was it bad? The accident?”
She makes a so-so motion with her hand. “A smaller car ran the red and T-boned a larger truck. The car driver was critical for a while but will make it with some damage to his legs. It’s the passenger in the truck who was really lucky. If that car was any bigger, she’d be dead.”
“But she’s fine?” I frown at her, wondering how she can be so calm about this.
