Chapter 12
TWELVE
Gryff
Honey leads me out of the storeroom and back into the main part of the store, and I clench my fist to keep from licking my hand clean of her sweetness.
I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that I’m going to smell like her for the rest of the day or the fact that I am seriously considering never washing again so I’ll smell like her for as long as possible.
Fuck!
I’ve been pushing away my wolf every time he howled in my ear, but I can’t deny it any longer. Honey is my fated mate. The mate I’m not supposed to ever find. The mate I’ll never deserve.
She’s the one I’ve really been hiding from ever since I moved to Mosswood. Away from my pack, from the females who would have taken me as a mate because of who my father was.
The one I ran from only to move into the house next door to her. Well, I guess that’s why they call it fate.
And I’m fucked. So very, very fucked.
I can hardly think straight. When Honey turns down aisle seven I don’t even have the wits to remember what we’re looking for.
Instead I trail after her like an imbecile, breathing in deep, trying to catch more of the rich, sweet smell and satisfy the deep gnawing hunger I know I’ve got no chance of satisfying.
There’s nothing that’s going to slake that need. Not until I have my face buried right at the source. Not until I spill my balls deep, deep inside her and stuff her full with my knot to make sure not a drop gets wasted.
Which is something I’m not going to do.
I’ve already done far, far too much. She’s my friend’s daughter for fuck’s sake!
Unfortunately, that does absolutely nothing to lessen the filthy stream of thoughts that fly through my mind even as I try to concentrate on what we’re doing here.
Honey tugs at the hem of her dress, which only highlights the way it skims her upper thighs.
My cock throbs against the seam of my jeans trying to escape.
I’m still half-shifted, my ears long and pointed, my claws sharp and elongated, and my body covered with fur.
There’s no help for it. I’m just surprised I’ve kept hold of my human shape enough to still be walking on two legs.
Where is here again? I blink around me in surprise at the shelves of paint samples until I remember what the fuck we’re supposed to be doing.
“Aisle twelve,” I force out with an effort. The sooner we leave here, the better. In this state I’m a danger to every alpha in a twelve-mile radius.
She turns back to me and her cheeks are still all flushed and her hair is just the right amount of mussed to make me want to haul her right back into that storeroom and repeat the process a hundred more times.
“Oh, right!”
Thank fuck she turns away before I can grab her and press her back against the shelf right here and kiss that dazed look back onto her all over again.
I shake my head trying to clear it, but my brain is fighting through the fog of arousal and the vivid image of pushing aside her hair so I can sink my teeth into the bare flesh of her neck.
Honey’s brows furrow. “Gryff, I know you said I didn’t hurt you—”
“You didn’t.” I hate the look of concern on her face. The hurt she carries inside because other people can’t control their reactions to her. I’ve got to get hold of myself. “I’m fine.”
At least that snaps me out of my fugue. I stride forward with renewed purpose, taking the lead. Desert sand and scorching sun and explosions. “Let’s just get the tiles and get out of here.”
“Yeah. OK.”
Now I’m moving so fast she has to trot behind me to keep up, but I don’t slow my pace. My claws are digging into my palms, and if someone so much as brushes past her as they cross our path, I’m going to have a hard time not tearing his head from his neck.
I’m not safe to be around right now. Let’s face it, I’m never really safe to be around.
My one consolation is that my crazy doesn’t seem bent on harming Honey.
I guess that’s my wolf looking out for his fated mate.
When my human self gets lost in the ugly memories, my wolf does his best to keep us out of trouble.
He just does it in a wolfy way, so it often comes across wrong.
At least he’s got one thing right—no harm must ever come to her.
I locate the tiles at the far end of the aisle, up on the top shelves. My gaze narrows in on the red ones that match the roof of Honey’s home. The ones I pulled off and smashed when I let the crazy get to me earlier.
I wish Honey hadn’t seen that. Bad enough that the army-mandated shrink and everyone else in this fucked up little town knows I’m broken. It would have been nice to get to hide it from Honey.
I lift a box of tiles down from the shelf and grunt at the strain. I probably should have gotten a cart, but a little hard work might be a good distraction. So I pretend the weight is nothing and turn toward the checkout. “This will do. Come on.”
“Oh, aren’t they heavy? Can I help carry it?”
“It’s fine. I’ve got it.” That would have sounded a hell of a lot more convincing if it wasn’t spat through gritted teeth, but I turn nonchalantly toward the checkout, regretting a lot of past decisions.
I’m not as young as I once was and haven’t worked out properly in years.
Probably would have stacked on the pounds since I was retired if I ever remembered to eat properly.
I carry the box to the checkout and set it down, trying not to sigh with relief and let Honey know yet another way in which I’m a useless washed-up has-been.
Not that it matters. It doesn’t matter what she thinks of me because she’s never going to know she’s my fated mate. I’ll take that one to the grave.
The lynx shifter at the register gives me an odd look. “Oh hi, Gryff. Haven’t seen you out and about for a while.”
I make a noncommittal noise trying to scour my memory for her name. I’m not surprised when I can’t locate it.
The smile falls from her face as the awkward silence drags on, and she glances down at the box. “I’m not supposed to lift boxes this weight. Could you turn it over for me?”
With a huff, I twist it so she can scan the barcode.
I brush Honey aside when she offers the cashier her card. “Have you already forgotten what I told you?” I have to swallow the urge to let the pet name babygirl slide off my tongue yet again. I can’t seem to control myself with her.
She flushes anyway like she knows it wanted to pop out, and I have to turn away, willing my wolf under my control again. Down boy. Not now. Not ever.
The shifter behind the counter lifts a brow as if she wants to make a comment about how inappropriate it is for such a sweet young thing to be with a guy like me, and she’s not wrong. Then her eyes widen. “You look awfully familiar, love. Are you Bill and Sonia’s girl?”
Honey smiles. “That’s me. I’m back in town for a little while.”
Brenda—I finally spot the name on her badge—gives Honey a weak smile.
“Well you take care, OK? Bill and Sonia are just the nicest folks in the world. And you let me know if there’s anything you need while you’re in town.
” She glances back at me as if she’s about to offer Honey some pointed advice, and my wolf rises with a warning snarl.
“She’s fine. I’ll make sure of it.”
Brenda’s brows lift, but she doesn’t comment. She rings me up and hands me the receipt. “You should really take a cart.”
“I’m fine,” I say, hoisting the too heavy box with a grunt.
I realize I might have over done it when a disc in my lower back locks as we get to my truck. I try to shift the weight so I can get my keys, but it’s impossible. My back twinges.
Shit.
“You OK, Gryff?”
I grunt again. “Get my keys for me? The back left.” I probably shouldn’t be asking my neighbor’s daughter to fondle my ass in the parking lot, but it’s that or drop this motherfucker on my toe.
She frowns, stepping a little closer and really pushing her hand in there, and I can’t help my mind from stripping us both naked so she’s reaching around to pull my hips forward while I—
Shit. My cock is fully erect again in an instant.
“Uh, Gryff, I can’t feel any keys.”
God damn it. I put them in the front, didn’t I?
When I was distracted and trying to do anything to help hide the bulge tenting the front of my jeans.
The same bulge Honey is definitely going to notice when she reaches in to get them now.
“It’s fine. I’ll just find somewhere to put this down. ” My arms are shaking.
“Don’t worry about it—Oh!” She slides her hand into my left front pocket, not finding the keys, which are in the right, but instead finding the outline of my aching cock.
My knees tremble, and I almost lose the box.
I think I could break my whole foot right now and not care at all; I’d just stand there frozen to the spot wishing she would never take her hands from me.
Honey pauses for a long moment, and we just look at each other. My dick throbs against her fingertips, and I know she feels it. Her eyes widen.
What I wouldn’t give to be able to drop this stinking box, hoist her onto the front of my truck, and rut her into the next century.
I shut my eyes and let out an uneven breath. “Right side.”
“Right. The right side, I mean. Sorry.” She withdraws her hand, and I clamp down on the urge to howl my frustration at the loss.
Tentatively, Honey scurries around me and reaches into the correct pocket, delicately retrieving the keys without brushing my cock again—more’s the pity. How pathetic that the merest brush of her fingertips has me right on the edge and probably leaking into my underwear.
I take another long breath in, which is counterproductive since everything smells like Honey’s need again.
At that moment the sky overhead rumbles with an ominous peal of thunder. Thank the gods for that small distraction, even though it’ll mean I’ll have to wait a little longer before I go back to my home alone and cum into my hand yet again.
“Can you get the trunk open?” I ask Honey. “I should have gotten that cart.”