Chapter 29 #2
This was the last place I wanted to be. Not when talking about my future and hers.
At this point I certainly couldn’t use the pronouns ‘we’ or ‘us.’ There was no we in the scenario.
I stood next to a tree, watching and enjoying the way the light breeze tickled her long hair against her face.
She was constantly tugging at it, trying to force the strands behind her ear, but the wind wasn’t in the mood to play.
Her frustration and uncertainty were thick, her mouth twisted as it did every time she was disgruntled about something I said or did. Which was just about all the time.
Just thinking about the day we’d met, the insolence in her eyes and that way her shirt had tightened across her luscious breasts kept me rock hard and in desperate need. That would go over like a ton of bricks. Maybe I should have taken my father’s advice and stopped somewhere to get her flowers.
I noticed a patch of them off to the side and grinned.
At least I was selecting them myself. Remaining as quiet as possible, I kept in the shadow line of the trees, removing my Swiss Army knife and kneeling, and started clipping.
When I had a nice-sized bouquet in my hand, I finally decided to make my move.
She tensed long before I’d reached her, but wasn’t moving or attempting to look in my direction. When I slipped the flowers in front of her, she still didn’t react. At least not at first.
“Where did you get these?” she asked. I couldn’t tell by the demure tone in her voice whether she remained angry with me, furious with the circumstances, or was simply eager and ready to move on. As long as it was far, far away from me.
I sat down beside her, immediately wrapping my arms around my bent legs. “I won’t lie. I picked them. I know, not very romantic but I didn’t think about stopping on the way.”
“How did you find me? Did my parents tell you this is where I liked to go when I need to think?”
I shook my head. “I thought if I talked to your dad, he might castrate me.”
Her laugh was hollow with a hint of maniacal. The woman confused the hell out of me. “My father thinks you’re very special. Interesting, huh?”
“Wow. That’s… terrifying since I’m certain you told him.”
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“Thanks for the flowers, but if you picked them here, you ripped apart one of the projects created by kids with cancer.”
“What?” I groaned and snapped my head in her direction, absolutely horrified. When I noticed the cutesy grin on her face, I immediately shoved her down onto the grass, pressing half my body against hers without thinking.
The biggest shock was that her smile remained and I doubted if she had a knife in her possession she had any intentions of using it. We were making headway. “Just teasing.”
“You’re incorrigible. You need another spanking.” I don’t know what prompted me to tell her that other than the first real hint of our mutual attraction had been the day I’d spanked her in the middle of testing my skills.
“You wouldn’t dare.”
To prove my point and maybe my masculinity, I pulled away, immediately yanking her across my outstretched legs.
The flowers flew from her hand, petals landing softly around us.
Sadly, her skirt was too tight for me to jerk past her bottom.
I’d need to suffice with providing a few harsh smacks over the material.
Which I did in a hurry, grinning the entire time.
“You cannot do that!” she moaned.
“I can do anything. I have the power of the beast.” Maybe the joke was in bad form, but when I brought my hand down several more times, she moaned and groaned, the sound entirely different than before. Plus, she was scooting back and forth across my groin. A dangerous situation.
My carnal needs could turn into a disaster.
“We’re in public,” she whined.
“Good of you to notice. Should I take a picture? This could make a perfect post. Imagine the comments.”
“If you do, I’ll cut your heart out.”
“Ouch,” I teased, swatting her bottom a couple more times and slowly rolling her over so she was forced to look into my eyes. Man, she was stunning, her cheeks flushed and her eyes twinkling with an emotion akin to thoughts of murder.
Yet her eyes searched mine and a strange sense of closeness returned as we’d shared in my kitchen. Call it kismet, but I felt like our relationship might turn the tables after today.
Not that we had a real relationship. We’d fucked a couple of times and argued over my bad form. Maybe my father was right and that indicated a match made in heaven.
I grinned in response. “You look beautiful when you blush.”
That broke the magical spell and she tumbled off my lap, backing away. “You are terrible. How did you find me? I need to know.”
I pointed to my nose. “I didn’t hire a private investigator if that’s what you’re thinking. Your scent is painted on my skin and infused in my system, Lily.”
“How poetic. I’m serious. Did you have me tailed?”
“I’m serious too. You figured it out all along. Shifters have special attributes, although I’ve never wanted to explore mine too much. Some of it came easy like running and lifting cars and shit.”
“Lifting cars. As in you’ve done that?”
“Yeah, easy. I lifted a big Cougar with a hemi-block off a guy who got pinned underneath. They said I saved his life.”
Her taut little lips pursed and those sexy eyes of hers opened wide. “You did that. You saved a man’s life at risk to your own.”
“That’s what all decent people do. Right?”
“Weren’t you asked questions like how the hell did you do that? You could have exposed your true self at that moment.”
Shrugging, I honestly couldn’t remember. “Maybe, but who cares? A lot of people have a huge adrenaline rush when trying to save someone’s life. You’d do the same thing.”
“Maybe, except I can’t lift cars off people. Then again, maybe I can.” She looked away and it suddenly dawned on me why she’d visited her parents.
Had I pushed her too hard too fast? “What happened? You went to visit your parents. What did they tell you?”
“Yes, I did.” When she laughed again, the tone was definitely more maniacal. I prayed I wasn’t responsible for her losing her shit.
“You don’t need to tell me what happened if you don’t want to. I know I was an asshole last night. I didn’t mean to be. I also didn’t mean to scare you at all. I’m not a great guy, but I’m not into terrorizing women.”
She allowed me a quick glance of her gorgeous face.
With her slight smile waning, I could tell she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.
“You’re a great guy, Saint. You like hiding it, but you’d give the shirt off your back to a homeless man.
You’ve set up charities and you have no issue saving a man’s life at the cost of your privacy and exposing who you are.
You’re a great person in a world where it seems so few exist.”
Now she was painting me as someone I definitely wasn’t.
“Hey, thanks. First compliment you’ve given me.” I was trying to be funny, but the weight was pressing down on her.
“You know what’s crazy? I asked my parents whether I could be a shifter. Do you know what they said?”
I laughed, still trying to keep it light. “Should I ask or leave town by tonight?”
“They said yes. My great-great-grandfather was a pack leader. A powerful man with a heart.” She dragged her tongue across her bottom lip before bursting into laughter.
Her reaction had me laughing, which was close to disturbing. “Really?”
“Yes, I’m not kidding. They showed me a picture of him and everything. You should have seen his… Well, his…” She continued laughing, now doubling over.
“His dick?” I filled in and at this point, she was hyperventilating from hysteria.
She threw her head back, her long hair flying in the air keeping my attention. The current condition of my cock was getting very painful. When she held her hands apart by at least ten inches, I leaned forward.
“No!”
“Yes. Yes,” she moaned.
“Hey. Mine’s pretty big,” I boasted. “But you already know that.”
She punched me in the gut playfully. It dawned on me how much I enjoyed being around her.
As we both stopped laughing, the smile slipped from her face and she locked eyes with mine.
“What am I going to do? I’m your mate. Mom and Dad have no issue with the possibility.
I don’t understand any of this. I’m an intelligent, well-read, rational person, yet for some reason, I believe everything I’ve been told. Maybe I am out of my mind.”
Her unhappiness was significant. Forcing her into a relationship, no matter our strong chemistry, was just plain wrong. If I had to suffer for the rest of my life, so be it.
“You’re not out of your mind, Lily. You have every right to be confused and concerned. Look, whatever connection we’ve shared doesn’t need to mean anything. Not a thing. We can finish this and you go back to your life, I go back to mine.”
“Won’t there be irreparable harm if you don’t mate? With me?”
Her voice was so strained I couldn’t tell her the truth. That could crush her, hatred of me or not. “Nah. I’ll be fine. I’m not saying I won’t miss you, even when you’re furious with me, but I’ll make it through.”
“Oh. Okay.”
I cleared my throat and glanced at my watch. “Hey, I know we’ve got that meeting. So, I wanted to let you know that you don’t need to come with me to the away game. I’ll be just fine.”
Lily glanced away, picking up a couple of the fallen flowers. “No, I won’t miss your games. Not one of them. If that’s alright.”
Alright? I was practically giddy like some damn girl. “Sure. If you want to.”
“I do.”
An awkward silence pooled between us and this time it was much different than ever before. Whoever said the truth could set you free was a moron.
I cleared my throat. “I guess we should go.”
When she placed her hand on my chest, I not only hadn’t been expecting the gentle, almost loving move, but I was about ready to jump out of my skin.
“Thank you for finding me. And for caring. That means a lot to me.”
I’d done a lot of stupid things in my life, so many that I couldn’t count them with a calculator if I wanted to. Something overcame me that was mightier than a sword, bigger than a tidal wave.
I suddenly found myself on one knee, yanking the box holding the ring from my pocket.
To say the girl was shocked was an understatement.
As soon as I opened the lid, she gasped. She even placed her shaking hand across her lips.
“I just wanted to ask if… If you’d marry me, Lily Weathers.
I know I’m far from the man of your dreams and you certainly didn’t plan on betting saddled with a wolf shifter as a fiancé, but I will promise that while we’re together, I will never even look at another woman.
How could I when I finally met the most incredible, intelligent, precious, and gorgeous woman in the entire world? ”
I certainly would never be confused for a poet, but at least my words were heartfelt.
She lifted her head. “This is beautiful.”
“It was my grandmother’s. I hope that doesn’t take away from what I just said since I didn’t purchase the ring myself.”
Blinking, she shook her head a couple of times. There was a strange look of joy on her face. “No, this is perfect.” She held out her hand so I could slide the ring on her finger.
“Anyway, it’s short term so I hope it’s not too much of an inconvenience to wear it.”
When she lifted her head, she fisted her hand at the same time.
The joy was gone, sucked up by another wave of disappointment.
And hurt.
“Of course. Short term. I think you’re right. We need to go.”