Chapter 19 #2
He laughs. “How about we head into town in a bit?” he suggests, running the tips of his fingers up and down my back.
No longer content, I stop drawing circles on his chest and eye him warily. “Is it safe?”
“It’ll be a flying visit to one store. Mostly tourists shop there, but there’s some nice stuff in there I think you’ll like.”
“Clothes?” Feeling guilty, I add, “A lot of the locals already donated a bunch of stuff, and you’ve given me so much—too much already. I don’t need you to buy me anything.”
The lacy underwear the boutique owner donated had made Elias’s eyes glaze over when he saw me in them.
Days later, I still have the occasional flash of memory of him kissing me through them and the hungry groan he’d let out that I’d felt vibrating against my pussy.
I have never worn such nice underwear before, but if it’s going to keep having that effect on him, I’ll wear nothing else.
“I want to buy you things, darlin’.” Tilting my chin up, he claims my lips in a bruising kiss.
“Not clothes this time. Soft blankets and cushions and whatever else you like the feel of, since we don’t have a lot of soft and cozy here.
We’ll make the drive into town, put whatever you want on my credit card, and then you’re not pulling the comforter from your bed whenever you want to nest.”
This man is intent on spoiling me, and I want to let him.
My eyes widen. “Wait a sec, how’d you know I was pulling the comforter from my bed?”
I only started doing it today, and I returned all my sheets and comforter to the bed once I realized I was building a nest. It has never made sense to me, but the bed is for sleeping or napping. I can’t nest in a bed. Most omegas can’t. It just doesn’t feel the same.
His lips tilt in a teasing smile. “Your heat is coming, sweetheart. Means you’re gonna gravitate toward soft and cozy like crazy. I can’t think what you have in your room that you could build a nest with that isn’t the sheets on your bed.”
“You’re smarter than you look,” I tease, and immediately pay for it with five minutes of unrelenting rib tickles that has me howling with laughter.
Once my laughter has died down, I wipe the tears from my cheeks as Wyatt smiles down at me, head on his chin.
I’ve come so far since I moved into the farmhouse.
Back in the diner, all it would take was Nico giving me a friendly pat on the arm to make me want to bolt.
I never would have teased a man like this before.
But I hadn’t even hesitated. Whatever I say to any of the men in this house won’t lead to pain.
“What?” he asks, his smile growing wider the longer I smile up at him.
“Feeling pretty lucky.”
“For?”
“You. That I get you.”
Grinning, he bends his head to touch his lips to mine. “Compliments will get you everywhere. Now, what do you say to upgrading your nest?”
I let out a sigh, wanting to say yes, but conscious he’s not made of money. “You don’t have to do that. My comforter is fine.”
I made do with less in my motel room in Nevada.
He runs his fingers through my hair and kisses the tip of my nose.
“You deserve better than a pile of sheets on the floor, sweetheart. I wouldn’t want to spend my money any other way than on you.
After we’ve finished the condo, we can make a trip to Cedar Rapids.
You’ll have more choice, and we can pick up stuff for the house as well. ”
Cedar Rapids is a couple of hours away. I could have stopped there instead of Rios, but it’s a much bigger city than I wanted to stay in. When I left Nevada, I promised no more big cities. Small towns only.
“But you have a whole house full of stuff.”
“Nope. We travel across the country for work, so we bring clothes and enough to get by. We all have stuff stored with our parents, but almost everything in this house belongs to the landlord.”
I tilt my head, curious. “Didn’t the landlord need all his stuff?”
Wyatt gets to his feet and crosses his room to the dresser, pulling on a pair of pants.
“He lived here with his wife a few years ago,” Wyatt explains, grinning at me when he catches me staring at his ass.
“When she passed, he wasn’t ready to sell, and his kids all have families of their own and moved away from Rios.
He’s renting for a bit until he figures out what he wants to do with the place. ”
“It must have been so lonely for him to live in this big house on his own without his family.” I sit up and wrap my arms around my raised legs as I take in his bedroom, a dark wood and navy blue masculine space. The furniture is a little dated, but it’s sturdy and good quality.
Wyatt hums. “It was, but he’s happier living in town closer to his friends and the stores now.
” He stops buttoning the blue button-down shirt he pulls from his dresser to look at me.
“He was hesitant to rent the house to a bunch of construction workers, but we met him, told him a bit about ourselves, and made it clear we’d take care of the place and not trash it. ”
I smile. “It was his home. And it feels like a family home. Did he agree once you’d reassured him you’d look after it?”
“Not at first.” He pulls a pair of black socks from his dresser and crosses over to the bed, sitting on the side to pull them on. “I could tell things weren’t going our way, so I got my mom on the phone. Five minutes later, and the place was ours.”
I arch my brow. “He liked your mom?”
“My mom can convince anyone to do anything,” he says with a boyish grin, turning to wink at me when he finishes pulling on his socks. “A Southern woman can be dangerously charming when she puts her mind to it. Once she knew we wanted this house, the landlord never stood a chance.”
“Like you with me?”
“I’m no charmer.” He tucks a strand of blonde hair behind my ear.
“You charmed me into falling for you,” I tell him. “I went from liking it when you stopped by at the diner to needing to see you or it would feel like something was missing.”
His eyes burn. “Is that what I did?” he asks, his voice husky.
“Absolutely.”
His kiss is frustratingly short. “Time to get dressed, darlin’. I intend to spoil you.”
“Am I allowed to say no?” The spoiling sounds nice, but the thought of spending the rest of the day in bed making love sounds much better.
“You are absolutely allowed to say no.” He kisses me, his expression serious. “But this is important. You need a nest. That means it’s important to me.”
“There’s that Comeaux charm in effect. Okay. Let’s go,” I say, taking his hand, and he helps me to my feet.
His eyes drop to my naked body, and he groans. “You are not making this easy, woman.”
Smiling, I step toward him, so light and happy as I slide my arms around his shoulders and tilt my head up for a kiss I know is coming. “Good. I like making every part of you hard.”
Half laughing and groaning, he gives my ass a swat and kisses me long and deep. “Come on, let’s get you a nest you deserve, darlin’.”
He refuses to let me walk to my bedroom, lifting me in his arms and carrying me down the hallway before setting me on my feet in front of my dresser.
Standing with his arms crossed and back against the wall just inside my room, he groans loudly as I step into one of the lacy panties that nearly exploded Elias’s brain.
“Fuck. I shouldn’t have seen that,” he mutters, closing his eyes and tilting his head against the wall as he adjusts himself through his jeans.
“It comes with a matching lace bra,” I tell him innocently.
“I’ll wait for you downstairs.” He turns and walks out, running into the doorframe first and proving he wasn’t lying when he said a very specific thing made him clumsy: me.
Grinning, I slip on my bra and one of the V-neck floral dresses made of light, breezy cotton that I love to wear. After I brush my hair, I apply chapstick and head downstairs. My brown sandals are in the coat closet by the front door, so I’ll put them on before we leave.
Wyatt sets the alarm for the house, closes up his workshop, and we head for his truck.
We hold hands, listening to the radio as we make the thirty-minute drive into town. The music is soft rock with the volume low; the sun warms the arm I stick out of my window, and this day feels so hazy and perfect it’s like I’m in a music video.
Wyatt pulls up in front of a pretty-looking pastel-painted boutique with cushions and women’s clothes in the windows.
He cuts the engine, unsnaps his seatbelt, and is out and around his truck to open my door before I can reach for it.
We’re in the store seconds later, a smiling redheaded woman asking if we need help.
Wyatt was not joking when he said he intended to spoil me.
We hit the home goods section of the store hard, leaving the boutique an hour later and needing Alicia’s help carrying out large bags of blankets, cushions, and silky fabrics that felt so good on my skin. I absolutely needed them in my nest.
Surprised when we drive past the diner, I glance at Wyatt. “We’re not stopping?”
He shoots me a rapid glance and slows down his truck. “Hungry for lunch?”
I shake my head. “Not yet. I thought you might be.”
It’s nearly midday, and he has a big appetite. All my alphas do. No matter how much pot roast, spaghetti, or whatever else we make for dinner, there are never any leftovers.
“I’m hungry, but not for food,” Wyatt says enigmatically, driving faster now that he knows I don’t want to eat.
I scrunch my nose. “Then what for?”
“You.” He lifts our joined hands to his mouth and brushes a kiss across my knuckles. “After seeing you touch all those cushions and silk material, food, drink, and even breathing went out the window. I have plans to take you home and to my bed, Maisie Lucas.”
My belly tightens at the husky edge creeping into his voice. “So I can touch you?”
He lets out a frustrated groan. “No talk like that while I need to focus.”
I grin. “Okay. I’ll just think about touching you instead.”
He groans so loudly that I can’t help but laugh.