Chapter 11
Eleven
L una hummed in blissful satisfaction. She was topless and lying on top of her bed, Oliver kneeling over her with his slippery hands kneading gently at her back.
“You’re better at this than I thought,” she said, twisting lazily to look back at him. “What’d you do, watch a YouTube tutorial?”
Oliver ignored her, his hands sliding oil over her shoulders and pressing to loosen the knot of muscle there. He’d already worked on her legs, which were still stiff from the morning runs he’d been dragging her on. She went on the occasional jog in LA, but never a snowy slog through a forest. Sometimes they even started going uphill , which only stopped because Luna sat down and refused to move, and Oliver could only go so far without stumbling in pain. He’d still stumble for a while before grudgingly stalking back .
Luna let out another happy hum. “Whatever, it feels good. Does it feel good for you?”
She gave him a sly look. Oliver had been sporting an impressive erection since the first few minutes of the massage. He’d been gentlemanly about it, hovering over her so it didn’t press into her ass. Even without the physical evidence of his arousal, the bond inside Luna was thrilled to have him so close. It had been almost a week since their day of marathon sex, and the warmth in Luna’s chest had been roiling ever since. Urging her to get close again. Even now, with his hands smoothing up and down her bare back, it wanted him closer. He had to be feeling the same thing.
“’S fine,” Oliver said. He shifted above her, still not allowing himself to grind down against her towel-covered ass.
Luna rolled her eyes. She was about to ask him to take the towel off her when her phone vibrated next to her head.
Luna grabbed it, grinning as she saw the text from Beth. It was another message thanking her for posting about her store, which Luna had continued to receive every day since she posted it. She’d sold out on the very first day. Now she was just playing catchup, queuing orders and buying more packaging so she could ship them across the country.
“ Aha ,” she said, holding it up to show Oliver. “What’d I tell you?”
Oliver glanced down at the text. “I’m still surprised that your followers care so much about monster chocolate. Most of your photos are about iced coffee and your new clothes.”
“Coffee and chocolate go great together,” Luna said distractedly, typing out a string of kiss emojis to Beth. Then she paused. “You looked at my socials?”
“No,” Oliver said immediately.
Luna giggled at his harshness. Like he’d rather get his fingernails pulled out than admit he looked at his temporary wife’s social media.
She put her phone down. “We need to go to the store tomorrow. I’m doing a consult for Beth. I think I can talk her into doing some cute lil’ coasters and mugs. And I’m in talks with a few other brands for some promo swaps.”
“Can she afford all that?”
“I’m doing it for free,” Luna admitted. Then, when Oliver’s hands stilled on her back, she added, “I’m BORED, Oliver! There are only so many times I can go to the movies with you and Leo. Or go shopping in town. Or get dragged on runs. Or play Connect Four with Sabine. Everyone’s busy with their own lives, and I’m stuck here while you do laundry.”
“You could help with the laundry,” Oliver suggested dryly, his hands resuming their firm, gentle press.
Luna laughed again. “I was thinking of something actually fun .”
She turned over. The sheet fell and pooled against her stomach.
Oliver actually had the gall to look away. Just for a moment, his mouth tugging down into a frown as he examined the headboard. It didn’t have the gusto of his usual frowns. Like he was putting it on for his own benefit. Then he looked back at her, gaze drifting down to her exposed breasts, and the frown went slack. His eyes flashed with hunger, something she’d seen several times this week. She’d reach up to adjust her necklace, and it would flicker over his face as his gaze dropped to her collarbones. Then it would be gone, the conversation continuing like nothing had happened. Like he was still trying to shove back against that bond pulling them together, even though they’d already been shown how good it felt to give in.
“What?” she said as he tried to scowl. “You saw that weather report this morning. The snow will thaw soon. We should make the most of the time we have left.”
He didn’t move. Maybe he just enjoyed torturing himself, Luna considered as she toyed with the sheet pooling around her bare stomach. He seemed the type.
Luna’s phone rang. She sighed.
“Hold that thought,” she said, gesturing at his erection. “Hello, this is Luna.”
A crisp, friendly voice came down the staticky line. “Hi, Luna. I’m Vi Harper. I work at Sweethelm Books in town. I got your number from Beth; I hope that’s alright. Beth said you helped her out with some marketing issues she’d been having.”
“Well, I love those adorable little chocolates,” Luna said. “I’m actually really busy right now, so you might have to talk fast.”
Oliver folded his arms over his chest. Luna winked at him .
“Of course,” Vi chirped. “I won’t take up too much of your time. I just wanted to call and ask if you know much about setting up an online store. I’d do it myself, but it’s really not my area of expertise, and I’ve been?—”
She faltered, her polite tone faltering. She cleared her throat.
“Too busy to learn,” she continued. “My boss?—”
Another voice cut in on her end of the line, old and croaky. “Is that that rich lady who bagged the grumpy werewolf? Tell her we’re fine! People need to get off their butts and come into bookstores, that’s the problem!”
Luna snorted. Oliver’s hands faltered on her back, proving that he was listening in to her phone calls like he always said he wasn’t. Luna turned to give him a smug look, which he resolutely ignored.
“Thank you, Chester,” Vi said. Then, into the phone, “Sorry about that. We’ve been running into a lot of problems. I’ve been doing what I can, but it’s not exactly my wheelhouse.”
Chester’s voice echoed over the line again. “Every step needs you to do a hundred things first! I have a life, you know! I don’t know how to validate a domain! I don’t even know what a domain is ! And the website helpers are no real help. It’s like they’re speaking gibberish?—”
“We were wondering if you’d be available to help,” Vi said over him.
Luna sighed, twirling her hair around one finger. She’d only let the phone call go on this long because she was entertained by the old guy’s ranting.
“Vi,” she started. “Cute name, BTW. Like an old-timey detective. Anyway, unfortunately, I don’t work with website design or any of that. But I’m sure you can find someone else.”
Vi paused. For a second, Luna thought she might get more of that strain that she’d gotten a glimpse of when Vi mentioned she was too “busy” to learn. But when Vi spoke, her voice was as crisp as ever.
“Of course. Thanks for your time.”
“Byeeee.” Luna hung up, throwing the phone back down on the bed and lying down next to it. “Now. Where were we?”
Oliver didn’t move. He didn’t even look down at her breasts, still prominently displayed above the sheet. “Who was that?”
“Vi. From that little bookstore in town.” Luna reached up with her bare foot, skimming his hip.
He stepped aside. “What did she want?”
“I don’t know,” she said, chasing his hip with her foot until she could hook her toe into his belt strap. “Boring stuff.”
“Boring stuff?”
“Website stuff. Online store crap. It can get stupidly complicated. I let everyone else deal with it for me. Good luck if she’s going to do that herself; she did not sound like she was having a good time—hey!” She pouted as he unhooked her toe from his belt loop and pushed her foot away.
“I thought you wanted something to do,” Oliver said.
“I do,” Luna replied. “But I’m not that bored. ”
She sat up, reaching for his shirt.
He stepped out of the way a second time. “So, someone gave you something to do, and you’re going to go back to painting your nails, looking at spas you’re going to book when you get home, and complaining about how bored you are?”
Luna beamed. “Yes!”
Oliver gave her a flat look. He tried to dodge a third time, but Luna grabbed his shirt and held him fast, leaning in to skim his cheek with her nose.
“Since when,” she asked, tongue darting out to lick his stubble, “do you want to help these people?”
“I don’t,” Oliver said hastily.
She smirked against his cheek. He would have, once. Last year, before he got surly and closed off. Even now, he would help Vi if he actually gave a shit about her. She’d seen everything he did for his family—cleaning, cooking, driving the kids around, helping with homework, endlessly fixing up the inn.
“Then it sounds like you should stop arguing,” Luna said, kneeling up so the rest of the towel pooled around her knees. “And get on me.”
A low growl rumbled in his throat.
Luna grinned. She tugged the back of his neck, and he followed her down onto the bed.
That phone call was still in her head as she watched Sabine make lunch later that day. The frustration in Chester’s croaky voice, the strain behind Vi’s polite tone when Luna told her she couldn’t help. She probably could. She didn’t know how to set all of that up, but she could find out. A few YouTube tutorials and a call to her secret marketing team and she’d have it sorted.
“You look serious,” Sabine commented from the counter where she was chopping carrots. “Never seen you look so serious before!”
“I’m serious,” Luna replied.
Over on the common room couch, Uncle Roy snorted. He’d been glaring daggers at her since she dared step into the room. He did it less when Grandmother Musgrove was around, but she was taking a nap right now, which meant he could glare to his wrinkled heart’s content.
Luna sidled up to Sabine. “Can I help with anything?”
“Don’t,” Uncle Roy called. “Sabine, I’m telling you.”
“He thinks you’re going to put wolfsbane in it,” Sabine told her dryly, dumping a handful of carrot slices into the pot boiling on the stove. “Come over here, squeeze some lemons. We’re making lemonade later.”
“Don’t,” Uncle Roy snarled.
Sabine turned and growled at him, teeth sharpening. Luna wondered how her slashing scars only made her look more beautiful when Uncle Roy’s burn scars made him look so vicious.
“She’s fine , Roy,” Sabine said, teeth still sharp. “If she tries to drop anything in the soup, I’ll slap it right out of her hand.”
Uncle Roy bared his teeth and lurched off the couch. He stalked into the hallway, slamming the door behind him.
“That’s him taken care of,” Sabine said, teeth back to normal. She motioned toward the lemons next to her on the counter. “Go on.”
Luna started chopping the lemons and pressing them into the squeezer, relieved that she knew how to do this at least. She’d squeezed lemons for cocktails before. If Sabine made her help with anything more advanced, then she’d be in trouble.
“What’s his deal?” Luna asked as she squeezed another lemon half into the bowl Sabine had set out. “I thought he was just like that with me, but we went grocery shopping yesterday, and he snarled at a mom for letting her kid walk too close! The poor kid behind the counter asked how his day was, and I thought he was going to take him out.”
Sabine groaned, emptying another handful of carrots into the pot on the stove. “Ignore him. He’s even more suspicious of outsiders than ever. Especially after last year.”
Luna latched onto it eagerly. She’d been meaning to bring it up during one of their Connect Four games, but there was always a kid or an aunt or an Oliver around making it difficult.
“What happened last year?”
Sabine’s knife paused on the next carrot. “Did Oliver tell you why we moved?”
“Yeah, he’s a real open book,” Luna deadpanned. “Can’t stop him talking about personal stuff. ”
Sabine laughed. It died fast. She wiped the carrot slices off her knife and turned to face her. “Someone burned our house down.”
Luna’s smile dropped off her face. “Oh my god. Like, on purpose?”
“Very much so.” Sabine headed back to the stove, stirring the pot as she continued, “It was a totally normal night. Dinner, movie, bed. Then around midnight, Oliver wakes us up, yelling at us to get out. The flames had blocked off the halls, so we had to climb out the windows.”
“Oh my god,” Luna said, heart racing. She hadn’t even considered something like that. “That’s awful. I’m so sorry. Was it a hunter?”
“She turned off the alarms. If Oliver hadn’t gotten up in the middle of the night for water and noticed the smoke… things could’ve gone a lot worse.” Sabine scratched her scar, the skin pulling tight as she gave Luna a tight smile. “We lost almost everything. I think it dragged Uncle Roy back to his childhood. Hunters tried to burn him. That’s why he has that scar. We heal a lot slower with fire. It’s a hunter’s go-to for wolves.”
Sabine gave the pot one last stir and went back to the cutting board, wiping it down with a washcloth.
“Lemons are looking good,” she said. “I’ll get the sugar.”
Luna startled. She’d completely forgotten about the lemons. She placed the next half in the squeezer, mind racing. The woman Oliver had been dreaming about, the one with dark hair and a bright smile, who had triggered all those terrible emotions… was that her?
“I didn’t know things like that happened anymore,” she admitted. “Did they catch her?”
“She’s in jail,” Sabine confirmed. “Life sentence.”
Luna sagged in relief. “Good.”
“I’m just glad we found out about Claw Haven,” Sabine said, bending down to slot the cutting board under the sink. “The mayor’s family were old friends with Grandmother. Once he heard about our situation, he reached out. It wasn’t our only option, but Grandmother liked the idea of a fresh start in a town that celebrates monsters instead of just tolerating them. Everyone’s been so welcoming. And they’ve really helped, even with Oliver turning down any of the big things. Beth’s chocolates, Jackson consulting for free. Claw Haven knows how hard it can be to get started.”
Sabine dropped a massive bag of sugar on the counter next to her. “Alright! Let’s get this party rocking.”
Luna kept squeezing lemons, nodding along to Sabine’s instructions and watching her pour sugar into a saucepan. But Sabine’s words kept rolling over in her head: Everybody’s been so welcoming. Claw Haven knows how hard it can be to get started.
She found Oliver fixing a bedframe in room 8. His nose wrinkled as she walked in. “Why do you stink of lemon?”
Luna wiped her hands on her jeans. Obviously, she hadn’t scrubbed as hard as she thought. She’d been distracted, eager to get out of the kitchen and find him.
“Can you take me into town after you’re done? I want to talk to that bookstore lady.”
Oliver looked up from the wooden slat he’d been sliding into place. “Why?”
Luna rolled her eyes. “I want to look into her online store stuff, okay? It’s not a big deal.”
She leaned on the doorway, all casual. If this was anyone else, they would’ve bought it. But Oliver just stared at her with an unreadable expression.
“Thought you weren’t that bored,” he said.
“Maybe I am,” Luna replied. “It’s really boring here.”
She examined her nails. He was still watching her with an intensity that made her nervous. Like he could see right through her. For a moment, she panicked that he’d call her out on it. She almost wanted him to. For him to drag it out of her: fine, I wanted to help. Are you happy?
She felt a strange rush of disappointment when he turned back to the bedframe, fixing the slat into place.
“Give me five minutes,” he said.