Chapter 13 #2
I direct my glare to Wren, trying to convey how even her best friend can see the situation is fucked up.
“Seems she offered, and he didn’t see a reason not to take her up on it.”
I still remember the way I had to bite back a rude response when Jed told me that, instead of giving him what I think may have resembled a smile, but I can’t confirm.
“I’m sure you misunderstood,” Wren says, and I shake my head.
“I’m sure you give people way more credit than they deserve in your quest to please everyone you come into contact with.”
Her jaw goes tight before she opens her mouth to retort, but Hallie cuts in almost gleefully before she can.
“I get what’s happening now,” Hallie says with a satisfied look directed toward Wren. “Oh, I like him for you!” Wren shoots her friend a deadly look, but Hallie’s attention is on me. “You, sit. Tell me all about how my best friend is once again not taking care of herself.”
“No! Do not sit! You are not welcome at this table. I can’t believe you just interrupted a private conversation like that!” Wren says in the closest thing to a yell I think she has, ignoring her friend and turning to me with fury in her eyes. “Why did you do that?”
Her fury is goddamn cute.
It sparks something in me, making me cross my arms on my chest and smile at her. The feeling of it is foreign on my face.
“Are you really gonna argue with me in front of all these people, Birdie?” Hallie lets out a small squeak, but my focus remains on Wren. “Small towns talk, right?”
Her jaw goes tight, a look I like on her, not because I want her angry, but because something else tells me she doesn’t allow herself to get angry very often.
No, not Wren, the sweet small-town princess who feels an intense urge to help everyone and anyone, even if it means staying up half the night to get it done or nearly falling off a roof.
Wren would rather work herself to the bone than disappoint those around her or mess with the perfect vision she’s curated for herself, much less get angry at them.
She looks around the bar and probably doesn’t miss how a handful of eyes are in fact on us. It’s strange, having eyes on me and not feeling the need to hide away, to shy away from them. As I had hoped when I settled in here, it seems no one in this town realizes who I am.
Wren lets out a little huff before standing, then grabs my arm and tugs me toward the back.
“Ooooh, hell yeah, girl!” Hallie says, and Wren snaps her head in her direction, giving her a glare that is meant to quiet her, I’m sure, but instead makes her smile go wider.
“Don’t listen to anything she says, Adam. She wants you, and she needs someone to help her stop saying yes,” Hallie calls after us.
I let out a laugh as Wren pulls me toward a somewhat secluded area in the bar, which seems to be a coat hallway on one side and a collage of photos on the other, featuring everything from Little League photos to newspaper clippings of township accomplishments.
“Why did you do that?” she asks through gritted teeth, eyes flaring with anger, hands on her hips. I know it’s not the right time to smile, and surely not the right time to tell her how fucking cute she is, so I have to fight back both reactions.
“You can’t stay up all night for some undisclosed timeline feeding kittens that are not your responsibility, Wren. That’s too far, even for you. You have to know that.” There’s a flash of something, maybe understanding or agreement, in her eyes before it’s gone, stubbornness taking its place.
“You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do, Adam,” she says, crossing her arms on her chest and turning fully to me, her back to the collage wall.
I shrug. “Someone has to.”
She gives me a disbelieving look. It’s cute. Again.
“No, they do not.”
“You’re surely not going to value your own time, energy, or health. Who else is going to do it?” She looks like she wants to argue my point, but decides it’s not worth it.
“God, you are just so frustrating!”
I lift an eyebrow at her. “Why, because I’m the first person to challenge your idea that you have to be everything to everyone?”
She sputters before shaking her head in disagreement. “No! Because you are the absolute worst! You refuse to decorate to participate in a town tradition. You stole my freaking nutcracker—”
“I gave that back,” I cut in, but she’s on a roll, clearly rambling on and not stopping any time soon.
“And you are stalking me, watching what time I go to sleep—”
“Someone has to.”
“And you keep giving me shit for helping people as if I’m hurting people! There’s nothing wrong with wanting to get help from people!”
“If you’re hurting yourself along the way, there is,” I say softly.
“You give me all this shit, tell me I can’t help put up lights, and manhandle me, then press me to my door and look at me like…
” She pauses, trying to find the words, but shakes her head.
“Like you did. And then you won’t even kiss me!
You stand there all grumpy, save my life, and you tell me I have to tell you to kiss me.
But everyone knows that’s the man’s job!
God, if a woman is staring up at you all goo-goo-eyed and parted lips and bated breaths, you fucking kiss her, Adam! You don’t make her—”
That sounds like as much of an outright request as I’m ever going to get from her, and considering I don’t need much to convince me to kiss her once and for all, I give her exactly what she seems to be asking for.
I press my lips to hers, shifting my body and hers until her back is to the wall and my body is towering over her, shielding her from anyone who might walk past. There’s a split second when her body tightens, but just as quickly, the resistance melts away, her body going lax in my arms, her lips parting gently so that mine fit perfectly between them.
My hips move, pressing her into the wall, and she gasps.
I use the opportunity to slip my tongue between her lips, brushing against hers.
The tiniest, sweetest sound leaves her as I taste her for the first time, and I groan, deepening the kiss.
I shouldn’t be surprised that Wren matches my energy, devouring me the same way I’m inhaling her, but I am all the same.
It’s hot.
It’s intense.
It’s so much fucking more than I ever thought a kiss could be, not just with her, but in general. I’ve kissed my fair share of women in my life, but it’s never been like this. And I know down to my gut it’s because it’s Wren.
And in that moment, I decided that Wren King was mine.