Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Phoenix
Am I insane?
No, but I’d be careful, even if my wolf was dancing in my head like some excitable puppy. It had been known, of course. Mates came in various shapes and sizes. Emery just wasn’t what I expected. I nearly laughed at the understatement.
My mate couldn’t be a man. Not now. Not when our very existence relied on me producing heirs. In years gone past, yes. My dad would never have objected, but it was a different world now.
“Where am I going?” I asked as I turned the engine on.
“Do you know the bakery at the end of Main Street? My apartment’s over it.”
My eyes widened. “Really? I’ve been in there tons of times. It’s a wonder we’ve never met.” They sold really good coffee. And the custard tarts were amazing.
Emery nodded and shivered. I immediately turned the heat on, knowing humans ran colder than shifters, even if it had been warm today. He’d only had a shirt on to go with the jeans. The fuck-me jeans. I tightened my hands around the steering wheel and waited for it to crack.
Before I thought better of it, I reached down and clasped the trembling hand fisted on his knee. “Are you cold?”
“Not really,” Emery replied noncommittally, but he didn’t jerk his hand away, so I left mine where it was.
I knew I was attracted to him. The faint smell of his arousal teased my nostrils, but he seemed to settle in the seat almost immediately when I touched him.
My wolf also took an easy breath and relaxed.
The animal’s reaction to so many scents at once was the reason I hardly ever went to bars, but it seemed very content at the moment. Which puzzled me.
“How long have you lived in Minton?” I glanced over to where he was watching the road, his face mostly in shadow.
“I moved out here right after college and got my teaching certificate. I was lucky to get experience here, and then Mrs. Mossley retired to live with her daughter. I applied and got the job. From what Danny said, it sounded like your family’s lived here for a long time?”
“Back at least seven generations,” I confirmed. Of course, that was in wolf years. If we were talking about human lifespans, it would’ve been more like ten. Wolves lived at least a hundred, hundred and twenty years, often more, which was another reason we mostly kept to ourselves.
“That’s amazing,” he said, and I could hear the wistful note in his voice and risked another question.
“What made you move out here?”
“I grew up in a lot of places. Mostly Seattle, but we moved a lot. Big cities. And I fancied something completely different.”
I had a feeling there was much more to that sentence. “Is your family still in Seattle?”
“No. My mom and dad got divorced when I was fourteen. Dad is an investment banker, and he moved to Tokyo. My mom didn’t want to go, which was the excuse for a divorce. She remarried three years ago and lives in New York.”
“Wow, that must be cool for vacations,” I said, but really, just for the sake of something to say. He didn’t look thrilled to be talking about it. “No brothers or sisters?”
“No, you?”
“No, but I spend enough time with Kaylan and Bayer, they might as well be,” I said ruefully. I’d often wished it was so.
“Do they work with you?”
I shook my head. “No, Bayer’s family runs a logging company not far from Richland, and Kaylan’s has a hotel out near Leavenworth.”
He seemed to think about that. “That’s quite some distance for you to be friends.”
“Do you often go to Molly’s?” I asked, changing the subject, and signaled to turn onto Fenton. We would be at his apartment in less than five minutes.
“No.” He chuckled. “Actually, it’s my birthday.”
I swung my head to look at him. “Really?” Then I laughed.
“Uh-huh,” he said hesitantly, obviously wondering what was so funny.
I grinned. “Because it’s my birthday today, as well.”
Emery’s jaw dropped. “Wow, well, happy birthday.”
I lifted Emery’s hand, which I still hadn’t let go of, to brush a quick kiss on the back of his knuckles. Emery drew a sharp breath in.
“I’m thirty,” I offered.
“Twenty-five.” He grinned as he said it, but twenty-five? That was some coincidence. The age at which all female wolves got their first heat.
“You work in construction?” he asked after another minute of quiet.
“Yeah, my dad and uncles build custom homes, but we take on smaller jobs for locals as well.” The pack had plenty of money, and the small jobs we took on were another way of making sure the humans were safe.
Danny’s family, for instance. His sister had moved back home when she’d gotten pregnant, and her boyfriend had run in the opposite direction.
It’d taken nothing to extend and remodel so she had her own space, and Danny’s mom had basically just paid for the materials. “You’re a teacher?”
Emery’s shoulders drooped. “Yes, kindergarten.” He sounded sad.
I glanced at him. “And you don’t enjoy it?”
“No.” He licked his lips. “I love it.” I just stopped the low growl in my throat at the action and swallowed heavily.
“It’s complicated,” Emery hurried to add.
He’d obviously taken my response for the beginning of a question and not my body’s reaction to him moistening his lips.
I heard the leather creak under my fingers and tried to remember what he’d said. Oh yeah, his job.
I wanted to ask what was wrong, but it was really none of my business, and he stayed quiet as we pulled up opposite the bakery.
I knew trying to fix things was an alpha trait, and this time, I didn’t mean building extra rooms. I glanced up and down the empty Main Street.
All the stores were closed now, but I had no intention of pulling up right outside for so many reasons, the chief one being I hoped I would be staying here for a good few hours.
Emery squinted up at me. “Thank you so much.” Then he looked down at where my hand still lay on his as if he’d forgotten it. “Would you like a coffee before you head back?”
I wanted so much more than a coffee, but I would settle for just that if that was all that was on offer. “That would be great.” I let his hand go reluctantly and opened the truck door, leaving the keys inside in the hope one of the guys would need to collect it.
I waited while Emery stepped in front of me, then followed as he walked to a door at the side of the shuttered store window. “Does it wake you when they open at five?”
Emery unlocked the door. “It used to, but even if it does now, sometimes the familiar can be comforting.”
Which was true. I followed him up one flight of stairs and waited as he unlocked another door and followed him through. Boxes. That was my first impression. “You’re moving out?”
Emery walked into the small kitchen and immediately began filling the coffee machine.
“Tomorrow, actually,” he said with a catch in his voice. I leaned back against the counter, watching him measure granules.
“But you don’t want to,” I said, completely convinced, but I held my hand up at Emery’s hesitation. “It’s complicated.”
Emery’s green eyes suddenly swam at me as I tossed back his earlier words to him, and I felt like such a jerk.
“Ah, hell. I’m sorry,” I said and took two steps, which was all I needed to get close to him in the tiny kitchen.
Emery stared down at the floor, swallowed, and looked up. His smile was bright and totally false.
“It’s fine. I surrendered the lease. I’m—”
If someone had asked me afterward, I couldn’t have ever sworn who made the first move. Whether Emery seemed to invite me in or I closed the gap, all I knew was the need to taste Emery’s lips was all me, and it was totally my fault Emery never finished his sentence.
I nearly groaned out loud at the first tentative flutter of Emery’s fingers on my arm and then the slide of Emery’s hand across my back as he pressed closer.
As if a switch flicked, I cupped my hands under Emery’s ass and lifted him.
Emery answered the unspoken demand by wrapping his legs around my hips.
So soft. Emery’s lips molded to mine, and I turned him around so I could sit him on the counter and free my hands.
Emery wrenched his mouth free for oxygen, but I simply mouthed the nearly stubble-free skin on his neck until he arched for more.
“Phoenix,” he moaned and tilted his head to offer more skin.
How was it possible for one person to taste so perfect?
Was it because I was finally allowing myself simple pleasure?
That a give-and-take for nothing other than enjoyment could be such a rush was immense.
I’d had sex—of course I had—but the lupine females I’d pleasured were all hoping for a deeper bond that had never happened, and I’d never dared touch a human female, scared of what it might mean to the pack.
Kaylan loved his human partners. He said being free of the responsibilities of pack and breeding made for such a heady encounter that it quickly became addictive, but I’d never believed it right up to this point.
His jeans needed to come off, and I slipped a finger into Emery’s waistband and, with a flick, undid the button.
“Please tell me you have something with you?”
I paused, my fingers on one hand splayed across his cheek, my other around his back to pull him forward. Something? “I—” Damn. It had never occurred to me, and I groaned.
“I take it that means you don’t?”
I shook my head and leaned it on Emery’s chest, closing my eyes and counting my breaths. I needed to calm down. “I’m free of anything that would harm you, but obviously, you don’t know me.” At least I wasn’t risking pregnancy.
Emery brought his hands up, gently cupped my face, and lifted it. “And I’m just supposed to take your word for that?”