Chapter 27
TWENTY SEVEN
Gryff
I stroke the stray hair from Honey’s face and draw in a deep breath against her neck as she finally stops fighting and succumbs to sleep in my arms. I know I shouldn’t have knotted her again.
Now that I’ve satisfied her and my head is clear, I can scent that her heat has clearly passed.
I let my desire and my emotion get the better of me, again.
Upbeat music echoes through the street and for what might be the first time since moving to Mosswood, I’m grateful that tonight is the Moonberry Festival.
The music and cheerful cries from Main Street may have been enough to cover the moans and cries I drew from Honey last night.
I sure made little enough effort to keep her quiet, and I’m certain I made enough noise myself to give us away.
Not that I could help it.
When she took me in her mouth. Fuck, when she looked at me like I meant something to her. All this time I’ve been telling myself she could never have feelings for me. That I’m too old and too broken, but what if that’s not true?
My hand tightens on her waist, and she stirs on top of me. My knot softens, and I slip from her but can’t bear to move her yet. I’m not done holding her.
She stirs and I soothe my hand over her soft skin, thinking.
Is it possible she feels more than gratitude? More than the desire stirred by her heat? The fact that she came seeking me out tonight seems to suggest it, but it’s almost impossible for me to wrap my head around.
I lie as still as I can, inhaling her scent, mulling it over until my own tiredness overtakes me.
It’s a testament to how right she feels here that I drift to sleep myself with no nightmares. In fact, I have no dreams at all and wake as the early light filters through the tent roof.
I’ve shifted back to human in my sleep, but Honey is still snuggled up against me, her curves fitted against me in a highly satisfying way.
I look longingly at the smooth, blemish-free skin where her neck slopes into shoulder and wish for a long moment I had given in to my possessive urges and left my mark there last night.
Then I remember—her parents are staying with me! And they are not late sleepers. They’ll be awake any moment, looking for Honey and wondering where on earth she is.
They cannot find her out here with me stripped naked and curled into my arms like she belongs here.
With regret, I rouse her, whispering against her ear. “Honey, it’s almost morning.”
“Hmm? But it’s so nice right here.” She turns sleepily and nuzzles against the fur of my chest hair, and I suppress a groan and will my dick not to get any ideas.
I give her a little shake. “Honey, your parents. Remember?”
She comes to life then with a little gasp. I place my hand over her mouth. “Shh. If you get dressed and move quickly you should make it back to bed in time.”
Her eyes go wide, and she gives me a little nod to show she understands.
I have to direct my gaze up at the roof and think unsexy thoughts about roof tiles and sand dunes and the particular sound an enemy drone makes flying at night to keep from getting fully hard as she crawls around the tent, searching for her shorts which I tore from her last night and presenting her ass and bare pussy to me in the process.
There are teeth marks in my fist by the time she’s got them on.
This is the part where I stop looking at her like a moonstruck pup.
Where I rein my emotions back in and try to wipe the sappy smile off my face before she realizes just how fucking hung up on her I am.
Every other time I’ve been able to do it somehow.
To force the gruff words out only to watch a little bit of her happiness curl up and die inside her.
But this morning she gives me a shy smile as she hesitates at the tent entrance, and something about it makes my heart skip a beat.
It’s not hunger in her flushed cheeks or the sugary scent that engulfs me.
No, it's something so close it’s hard to distinguish at first, but she reaches up to tuck one golden lock behind her ear and it crystallizes in my mind. She does. She actually likes me.
My wolf is wagging his tail so hard I could almost take off like a helicopter. Then she leans back toward me and presses her lips against mine in a sweet kiss that still manages to leave me breathless. “What? You’re looking at me all funny. Have I got something on my face?” She flushes.
“How is it possible?”
Her frown deepens. “How is what possible?”
“You do like me, don’t you?”
She laughs. “Of course I do! It’s always you taking care of my needs, thinking about what I need before I even know it sometimes. Of course I think you’re amazing. God, I’ve been taking advantage of you with the way I pushed myself into your life—”
“Never,” I growl. I take a breath and soften my tone. Hesitantly, I scratch the back of my neck, searching for the right words. “Do you know how rarely I sleep for more than two hours together? How often I wake feeling well rested?”
She shakes her head.
“Not since the war. Not until I met you.”
She blinks. Then her smile gets three times as radiant and she dives back into the tent, wrapping her arms around my neck and bowling me over backward. I can’t help the laugh that bursts from me as she attacks me with a hug. “This is why. You have this anti-gravity effect on my sour attitude.”
A bird chirps in the tree outside, and I curse.
“You’re too good for me. Always will be, but I like seeing you smile way better than I like seeing you cry, Honey; that’s a fact. Now get back in the house and we’ll talk more about this later.”
I am forced to kiss her several more times before I eventually convince her of the urgency of the situation. By that stage my cock is rock hard and aching, and I can’t accompany her or else we’ll definitely be found out.
She gives me one final grin before zipping the tent closed again. “You promise we’ll talk more later? And you’ll stop dodging all my questions?”
“Yes I promise, now go! Or I’ll have to run out of town with my tail between my legs and live like a wild wolf in the woods.”
She giggles. “OK, I’m going.”
I have to wait a good half hour before it’s safe for me to even consider checking to see if Honey made it safely back to bed without her parents noticing.
When I finally pull on some sweats and make my way into the kitchen, the house is quiet, and Honey is sitting on the sofa, her phone screen lighting up her face in the dark. She looks up and gives me a conspiratorial smile as she sees me come in.
“Not going back to sleep?” I whisper.
She shakes her head. “I’m up now.”
“Good. Then I won’t feel bad making a coffee. You want one?”
“No thanks.”
She goes back to whatever she was doing on her phone. She’s not doing anything special, just existing, and yet there’s a lightness in my chest I can’t remember feeling since I was deployed.
Goddess, I’ve been hauling around this load of guilt and anger and resentment, and just for a moment, when I look at her I can put all that aside and just breathe her in.
Of course, it isn’t long before the urge to be touching her is so great I have to turn away and concentrate on pouring water into the kettle and preparing the French press.
What I didn’t realize about letting myself put my hands and mouth on her is now that I know, I never want to not be touching her.
Luckily—unluckily?—at that moment, Sonia comes in with a bright greeting.
“Good morning, early birds. I hope you both slept alright. You have such a comfy set up here, Gryff, I feel amazing.” She stretches and yawns and shuffles over to the kitchen in the oversized slippers she has on.
“Now don’t stand on ceremony, Gryff. I’ll just bustle around and make myself some breakfast. You just pretend I’m not here. ”
I certainly won’t be doing that. If she wasn’t here I doubt I would have let Honey out of my bed this morning at all. I’m very grateful Sonia’s not a shifter so I don’t have to explain why I smell like her daughter’s pussy.
There’s something really fucking wrong with me because, despite the fact that she’s smiling and making happy morning chatter, I’m secretly grinning to myself and taking every opportunity to discreetly sniff my fingers as I make my coffee.
“I think I’d like to go to the festival today. What do you think, Honey? Are you up for it? I’ll need to stock up on moonberry jam if we’re moving. I don’t know what I’ll do without my favorite breakfast spread.”
I catch Honey’s eyes light up before she casts an anxious look over at me and adjusts her expression. “I guess it’ll be pretty busy…”
I scowl. She clearly wants to go and shouldn’t have to miss out because a few idiots can’t keep their thoughts focused and their hands to themselves. I guess that means I’ll have to go along and make sure they do. “I think I’ll join you,” I say to Sonia as casually as I can manage.
She looks around at me, surprised. “Oh! Really? Well that sounds lovely. There you go, Honey. I think you have to now, if Gryff will make the effort. You know, Gryff, I don’t think you’ve been to a Moonberry Festival in all the time I’ve known you.”
I shrug. “First time for everything.”
I’m gratified when Sonia turns away to butter her toast and Honey mouths a silent, “Thank you,” at me.
Bill opts to wait for the contractors who should arrive later today to begin repairs on their home, so it’s only Sonia, Honey, and I who dress and head into town as the music starts pumping from Main Street and the mercury nudges over eighty.
As we approach Main Street, the music gets louder, especially when I wind down the window of the truck so the volunteer—a shifter in a fluorescent vest—can usher us into the overflow parking behind the church hall.
Honey has on a pretty yellow sundress, and her long hair is loose over her shoulders.
It’s doing dark, twisty things to my chest that she’s showered and no longer smells like me.
To compensate, I let my glands swell and let off a little more musk than strictly necessary just to help mark my territory.
The minotaur from the hardware store casts a long look over his shoulder as we pass him.
“Hi, Frank.” Sonia waves and greets him, oblivious to the glare I give him until he is far enough away.
Sonia leads us toward the market stalls spread out at the front of the church, and my hand strays to the small of Honey’s back as I guide her through the crowd, monsters stepping out of our way in the face of my icy stare. It’s quite satisfying actually.
I arrange my expression into a smile, though, when she looks around at me in pleasure and surprise.
I lean close while Sonia is distracted chatting to a tall, slim monster with small horns on the top of her head. “I underestimated my need to have my hands on you. Humor me? I won’t let your mom see.”
She just smiles. “I like your hands on me.”
And I have to pull her in front of me for a moment to cover the bulge in the front of my jeans.
“I’m going to buy up my jam while there’s still some to buy,” calls Sonia. “I’ll meet you over by the church doors when you’ve had a look around. Don’t let me hold you up.”
Honey grabs my hand and tugs me off through the crowd, and I find myself following almost lighthearted, my feet covering the ground easily as if I’m floating, without seeming to cost the same amount of energy as usual.
Yeah, I’m still scanning the crowd for threats and analyzing every scent profile we cross, but it’s done subconsciously; it’s not my main focus any longer.
Instead my attention is drawn to the small, soft hand in mine and the bright smile she casts back at me over her shoulder.