Page 9 of Loan Wolf
“I’d like that,” Clara said, “but I’m not ready to go yet.” There was something about the darkness—and Gabe’s solid presence—that made her feel like she was right where she ought to be. She threw another rock into the pond with a satisfying thunk. Gabe followed it with one of his own.
“Did it work?” Clara finally had to ask. “When you made your wish here?”
They were sitting close enough now that she could feel Gabe shrug. “She lived for six more awful, awful months in terrible pain. Was it because of me, or because she was too stubborn to go quietly? I’ll never know.”
“That must have been awful,” Clara said, reaching out in the darkness. She found his thigh with her hand and thought she must be very shallow to find the touch electric and exciting when they were talking about such terrible things.
“I almost came back to swim again and take back my wish,” Gabe admitted. “It was the cruelest thing I could have done, to keep her here past her time.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Clara said, rubbing his leg the slightest bit. He didn’t shy away, as Clara half-expected him to.
“Maybe,” he admitted. “But that didn’t make it any easier.”
“My mother died when I was a baby,” Clara volunteered inanely. “Not that it compares.”
“It’s not a competition,” Gabe said, putting a hand over hers. “You’re still allowed to miss someone you never got to know.”
How was he so kind? Clara wondered. How did he know just what to say to strike straight into her heart and make her feel heard?
How was his hand so warm and his thigh so perfect?
“Anyway, it’s not like we had a perfect relationship,” Gabe said. “We argued all the time. I was a terrible kid.”
“I’m sure you weren’t a terrible kid!” Clara said quickly.
“I’m sure you weren’t a terrible kid,” Gabe countered. “I snuck out at night and got tattoos and played music too loud and got arrested for vandalizing the library.”
“You vandalized the library?!”
“Spray-painted a penis on the back wall. Penises are edgy when you’re fifteen.”
Clara had to giggle. “That’s probably the biggest crime to happen in Green Valley since I left!”
“Completely ruined my reputation,” Gabe said matter-of-factly. “Cemented my image as Green Valley’s screwup. Validated all my mother’s low opinions of me.”
“I’m sure your mother didn’t have a low opinion of you,” Clara said earnestly.
“You didn’t know my mother.”
Clara thought about how lucky she was to have a mother who loved and supported her. Two, even if she only remembered one of them. “I’m sorry?—”
“Don’t be. I can’t stand pity.”
“I can’t, either.”
It was some combination of the safe darkness and his warmth and their raw conversation that made Clara brave enough to let her hand slide further as she leaned into him and found his mouth with hers.
9
GABE
Gabe knew he should insist on taking Clara back to her hotel and drop her at the door before he did something he regretted, but he couldn't resist talking to her a little longer, and a little longer, until he was confessing things to her that he’d never told another person, lapping up her company. He felt like he was peeling away layers of her, and drinking in a person no one else might ever see, and she was seeing into his own soul like he was transparent to her.
And then she kissed him, her hand trailing in between his thighs, and Gabe was so surprised and desperate that he kissed her back instead of pushing her straight off.
Once he had the taste of her in his mouth, he knew that he was lost forever. Her lips were so soft and perfect, her body against his, her hair in his fingers, her hands…
It took every ounce of his self control to take her by the shoulder and pry her away. “Clara,” he said achingly.
