Dane
The reception finally started winding down sometime after midnight. Guests drifted toward the exits in loose clusters, heels dangling from fingers, jackets slung over shoulders.
Everyone seemed flushed from dancing and champagne and too much emotion packed into one evening.
More importantly, Seth was still standing close enough beside me that our arms brushed every few seconds.
I leaned back against the bar for a moment, watching him laugh quietly at something Elliot’s aunt had said before she wandered off toward the house.
Seth turned toward me afterward, still smiling faintly.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I quickly mumbled.
“You’ve got your suspicious face on.”
“I do not have a suspicious face,” I pointed out.
“You absolutely do.”
I huffed out a laugh. Seth’s tie was gone now, stuffed somewhere into his suit pocket hours ago. The top few buttons of his dress shirt sat open too, exposing just enough skin to become distracting.
Not that I’d been noticing all night or anything. Well, that was a lie. I’d noticed constantly, especially during the last dance.
It shouldn’t have affected me that much, but it had.
My thoughts drifted briefly back toward the speech earlier. Darryl’s father raising his champagne glass while everyone listened. Talking about fate, about Darryl “finding his way” after meeting Elliot.
Nobody had meant anything cruel by it, but all I could think while listening was this: What the hell did that make Seth then?
Five years together reduced to a stepping stone. I’d glanced at Seth during the speech expecting hurt. Instead, Seth had just looked tired. That unsettled me more somehow.
It made me wonder how many times he’d already forced himself to make peace with it.
“You okay?” Seth’s voice pulled me back immediately.
I realized he’d been watching me carefully for the last several seconds.
“Yeah,” I said automatically.
He narrowed his eyes slightly. “You disappeared into your own head again.”
“Dangerous neighborhood in there,” I joked.
“I believe that.”
I smiled despite myself. I gazed into the distance, at the ocean that stretched dark and silver beneath the moonlight. Seth followed my stare.
“Want to get out of here?” he asked softly.
“Absolutely,” I told him.
A few minutes later we slipped quietly out of the estate together, leaving behind fading music and drunken relatives attempting karaoke near the dance floor.
The beach stretched nearly empty this late at night. Waves rolled steadily onto shore beneath moonlight. Seth kicked off his shoes first, and I followed a second later.
Then we started walking slowly, and close enough that our hands brushed every few steps before finally settling together naturally. Seth threaded his fingers through mine.
My wolf sighed happily. For a while neither of us talked much. It didn’t matter though as the silence didn’t feel awkward.
The tide curled over our feet occasionally while we walked near the shoreline, damp sand cool beneath us.
“You know,” Seth said eventually, eyes still on the water, “I thought tonight would feel worse.”
I looked over at him immediately. “Yeah?”
He shrugged one shoulder slightly.
“For a while after we broke up, I kept imagining this day.” A small laugh escaped him. “Which is probably unhealthy behavior now that I’ve said it out loud.”
“That feels pretty normal actually,” I told him.
“Does it?” Seth asked.
“Yeah.”
Seth glanced down briefly at our joined hands before continuing. “It used to bother me more.”
Something about the quiet honesty in his voice tightened my chest.
“You spend five years building a life with someone,” he said quietly, “and then suddenly everyone talks about it like it was just leading to the real thing.”
The waves crashed softly nearby. I didn’t know what to say to that. Honestly, it made me want to fight somebody. Maybe Darryl.
The idea that Seth had somehow been less important because things ended pissed me off. I tightened my grip on his hand slightly before I could stop myself. If Seth belonged to me….
I didn’t dare continue that train of thought, not yet anyway. Seth looked over at me.
“For a while,” he admitted softly, “I thought maybe I’d done something wrong.”
That did it. Something protective and fierce moved low in my chest so suddenly it almost startled me.
“You didn’t,” I said immediately.
Seth blinked. “You don’t know that.”
“I do.” The words came out rougher than I intended.
How could someone spend five years loving Seth and make him feel like he hadn’t been enough afterward? It made no sense to me. Seth stared at me quietly for a second.
Then his expression softened in a way that nearly wrecked me.
“You’re very sweet when you’re defensive,” he murmured.
“I’m not sweet,” I immediately blurted out.
“You absolutely are,” Seth pointed out. “I’m just glad this chapter of my life is over and done with.”
I snorted softly. Seth smiled. Dang it, maybe it was the moonlight or the ocean or the champagne still lingering in my bloodstream, but suddenly I needed to kiss him again.
I reached up without thinking, brushing windblown curls back from his forehead. Seth went still immediately beneath my touch. He didn’t pull away, merely watched me.
We stood close enough to each other now that I could see the reflection of moonlight in his eyes.
“You keep looking at me like that,” he murmured softly.
“Can you blame me?”
His breath caught slightly. This was very encouraging, I decided.
I stepped closer instinctively. Seth didn’t move away. The ocean roared softly behind us while my hand slid slowly down the side of his face.
His skin felt warm, soft and nice. Seth leaned into the touch before he could stop himself. That tiny unconscious movement nearly destroyed my remaining self-control.
I kissed him, slow first at first, then not slow at all as hunger consumed me.
Seth kissed me back, fingers curling into the front of my dress shirt while I pulled him closer against me.
Everything about this felt different tonight, needier somehow. My wolf practically glowed.
Seth moaned when my hands found his waist. I deepened the kiss instinctively, and Seth responded so eagerly it sent heat rushing straight through me.
We stumbled slightly in the sand. Seth laughed breathlessly into the kiss, then kissed me again before I could recover. Dangerous man.
Eventually we somehow made it back toward the hotel still tangled together like idiots.
Kissing in elevators should probably be illegal, especially when Seth smiled against my mouth like he knew exactly what he was doing to me.
By the time we reached the room, both of us were breathless and grinning a little stupidly. The second the door shut behind us, Seth pulled me in and kissed me again.
There was no hesitation this time, merely hands and warmth and mouths and wanting.
I backed him gently toward the bed while kissing him slowly, carefully, like I wanted to memorize every reaction he gave me. Seth’s hands slid beneath my jacket first.
Mine followed beneath his shirt moments later. I became distinctively aware of warm skin everywhere.
At one point Seth pulled back just enough to look at me, breathing unevenly, and for one terrible second, something uncertain flickered across his face.
It almost felt like he expected this moment to disappear, the way temporary things always did. That expression cracked something open inside me. I kissed him softer after that.
Seth relaxed beneath my hands almost immediately. This didn’t feel reckless. It felt inevitable.
Seth’s breathing was uneven against my mouth, like he couldn’t quite decide whether to pull me closer or slow things down. That hesitation lasted about three seconds.
His hands slid up my chest again, firmer this time, tugging at my shirt like he’d stopped asking permission from his own nerves.
I let out a quiet laugh against his lips, more breath than sound, and helped him pull it over my head. The cool air hit my skin for half a second.
Seth looked at me properly then. It was as if Seth was silently cataloguing me. My wolf went still inside me in that alert, quiet way it only ever did when something felt undeniable.
Recognition filled both of us. Mine. Seth was ours for the taking, and the moment was now. The thought didn’t feel like panic the way it should have.
Seth’s fingers brushed my shoulder again, slower now, like he was testing whether I’d disappear if he moved too quickly.
I stepped in closer instead, closing the space until there wasn’t really any distance left to question.
He leaned in, pressing another kiss to my mouth, softer this time. It wasn’t rushed like before. It was warm and deliberate, like he’d decided he didn’t need to pretend he was holding back anymore.
My hands slid down to his waist instinctively, steadying him as he shifted closer. Seth exhaled into the kiss, and I felt it like a pull in my chest, something that made the rest of the room feel irrelevant.
The hotel, the wedding, the world outside the door was gone. It was only him, this. Us.
Seth pulled back just enough to breathe, forehead resting briefly against mine.
“You okay?” I asked quietly, even though my voice didn’t sound very steady anymore.
“Yeah,” he said, smiling. “I just… didn’t think tonight would end like this.”
Neither did I. That thought should’ve scared me, but it only made my grip on him firmer. I kissed Seth again before he could think too hard about it.
I moved more confidently, sliding my fingers along his back, tugging him even closer until there was no space left between us worth naming. Clothes started disappearing piece by piece.
Every time Seth looked at me like he trusted me not to turn this into something careless, it did something sharp and grounding in my chest.
At one point, Seth paused again, just briefly, his hand resting against my shoulder as he looked at me like he was checking something in my face.
It felt like he was still waiting for the moment I’d remember all this was supposed to be temporary. I leaned in and kissed him gently, slower this time, letting it answer the question without words.