She’s a pup, I remind myself. Or as good as one. And no pup ever listened the first time. They’re ruled by their nose, raw instincts, and the need to explore anything that might look like fun. That’s why they need an alpha to teach them.
I grab the scruff of her neck. “Briar, get on the fucking floor. Now.”
Another blink, but no move to follow my order.
For the first time, I understand a little of what Dad must have had to deal with when I was a boy. Briar isn’t an alpha wolf. At least, I don’t think she is. But I was, and the stubbornness of alpha wolves is without question.
When Mom didn’t survive childbirth, every little wrong thing I did fell on Dad to deal with, and it was alot.
Sorry, Dad. No wonder you were always threatening to toss me on the fire pit.
An approaching car engine drags my attention from hers, and I focus on a pair of Jeep headlights pulling off the main road and into the parking lot.
Fuck, tourists.
There’s space for maybe ten vehicles, but if those tourists decide they want to be friendly and wander over here…
I wrench my gaze back to Briar, who’s staring at me with dawning alarm that tells me she’s thinking what I’m thinking, or close to it. Panic widens her eyes before they dart all around the interior of the truck. The floor, the center console, the passenger door, and even my lap.
“You can’t hide in my lap,” I snap.
But I wouldn’t have a problem if she wanted to as a human.
Fucking hell, Keane, what the fuck is wrong with you?
She doesn’t listen.
I’m soon in a battle to keep her in her seat as she scrambles to get into my lap, all while I try to keep a close eye on the parking tourists.
“Briar, getdown.”
With panic adding to her instincts that already don’t want to listen, my order sails right over her head.
And she’s strong. Much stronger than the human Briar.
My elbow hits the car horn. I curse at the extra attention we don’t need right now.
“Fuck,” I swear as I fight to haul the wolf off me and back to her side of the truck. “Get the fuck—”
She shifts.
Fast.
One minute I’m fighting with a small reddish-brown wolf, and the next, my arms are full of a soft, naked woman.
Since she’s straddling me, she can’t fail to feel what this position is doing to me. Which has to be the reason she freezes, her eyes wide.
I don’t know when it happened, whether she was a wolf at the time or not, but my hands circle her slender waist, and nothing could compel me to let her go.
Tucked between her thighs, my cock throbs, and the sultry scent of her arousal fills the space.
Fortunately, her hair is long enough that it’s covering most of her bare breasts. If it wasn’t, I have no idea what seeing them would do to my already frazzled state of mind.
“Keane,” she murmurs, her voice unsteady. “What’s going on?”
“You crawled into my lap,” I say, my voice emerging husky as I battle with myself to do the one thing I’m suddenly desperate to do—tear my pants away so we’re skin to skin and I can surge inside her.
My eyes go to her lips, and I have a vague memory of how they tasted. I’d barely kissed her before the café explosion in town ended things. But now there’s no Diana Calla to blow anything up.