Chapter Five
“I have to leave for a couple of days,” Tabian told Tru.
Tru had been relaxed on his couch, telling him to move the TV mount left and right to make it look centered.
At his admission, she sat up straighter and the smile fell from her pretty lips. “Oh. Oh, I understand.”
“I don’t want to. It’s for work.”
She was nodding and wouldn’t meet his eyes. Her demeanor had changed.
“Woman, I would invite you, but you are a super-stepmom. I’m not sure Bay would be okay with you just picking up and leaving for a camping trip for a few days.”
She frowned and lifted those pretty blue eyes to him. “A camping trip? To Change into your wolf?”
“No, I can Change in the woods here whenever I want. We back up to a national park. Plenty of space here. No, I test out camping equipment for a living.”
She relaxed back onto the couch and drew her knees up to her chest. “You can make money doing that?”
“Yeah. I have sponsors, and I edit videos of the trips when I get home. Outdoor companies send me gear and ask me to test them publicly, and I get paid from the advertising and from the engagement on my social media platforms too.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you some famous internet guy?”
“What? No. Not at all. My Pack doesn’t even know what I do. It’s just something that earns me a good income and it’s kind of…I don’t know.”
“Kind of what?”
He pursed his lips and drilled the mount into the wall, then turned to her and let the drill fall to his side.
“I kind of love my job. If you saw it online, you would think it’s lame, but I have fun doing it.
I’m not stuck in a career I hate. I get to go out a couple days a week and find new places to set up and test out all this state-of-the-art gear.
I mean I get hate on the internet. I’m a werewolf and I don’t keep it a secret.
There’s some vitriol, but there’s also good parts to it. The good outweighs the bad.”
“Okay, now I’m completely invested in this.” She grabbed her phone, opened up the internet, and typed out his name, but nothing came up except for the bare minimum information about him being a Rogue.
“It’s under Wolf Outdoors. Look, you don’t have to search for it right now. Maybe check it out while I’m gone.”
Why was he suddenly so insecure about her seeing him on there? She was probably going to think he was so lame.
Her phone dinged, and her eyes went serious as she read whatever text came through. “Oh, I’ve got to get home. Bay is headed back.”
A glance at the clock on the microwave said it was midnight. “He’s heading back from a camping trip in the middle of the night. He was only there for the evening.”
“Yeah, he’s particular about camping,” she uttered, brushing off any real explanation. “Sometimes he stays overnight, and sometimes he changes his mind and just wants to come home.”
Huh.
“Are you okay to drive?”
“Yeah, I sobered up hours ago.” She stood and reached for her zippered hoodie on the arm of the couch. Damn. He’d been enjoying the view of that little cleavage-baring tank top. Fuck, she was so pretty.
She pulled her hoodie on and met him in the middle of the living room. “This place looks homier already,” she said, smiling sleepily up at him.
Tabian brushed a curl from her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. She had the softest hair in the world. “I don’t want you to go,” he admitted.
“I got sucked into this other world here,” she said. “I meant to drop by for five minutes and now look. I’ve been here for hours and met most of your Pack.”
“They like you,” he said. “You’re easy to like.” She should hear all the nice things he thought about her.
She gave him sweet smiles when he complimented her, and God, he would do stupid things to create that look on her pretty face.
The way she looked at him made his heart race faster, every time.
“Want to walk me to my car?” she asked.
He wanted to ride home with her and put his scent all over her den and then fuck her senseless, but sure, he would walk her to her car and pretend it was enough for tonight.
He didn’t bother with shoes, just followed her out and padded across the porch, trying to control the urge to hold her hand.
He didn’t want to freak this one out. She startled easily, and he’d learned that Liam really had been right—Tabian did need to be patient with her.
She’d been deeply hurt. Moving too fast with this one would chase her off, and he couldn’t stomach the thought.
Not after spending time with her tonight.
He really liked her. He really liked her calm vibe and the way his wolf went completely silent and watchful and protective around her.
She made it feel easier to be him, and he wanted more nights like this.
So…patient he was. He opened her car door for her and waited for her to get in. Tabian had never wanted to kiss a woman more than right now, here in the dark, by his new home, saying goodnight.
She looked deep into his eyes and he thought about it. God, he wanted to. Instead, he reached for her hand and pulled her knuckles to his lips, staring deeply into her eyes as he laid a kiss there.
When he released her, he saw that smile on her lips and heard the faster pace of her heartbeat. Maybe she liked him back. He hoped she did. He hated that he had to go on the camping trip now. Bad timing.
“Listen, I’m headed to an area that doesn’t get a lot of reception, but I’ll text you when I can, okay?”
She nodded, looking uncertain. “It’s okay if you can’t. I understand.”
He wanted to pull her out of the car and kiss her. Fuck, he wanted his hands all over her body. He wanted to convince her that he was in it and wouldn’t just be ignoring her over the next couple of days on purpose. He wanted to reassure her that he liked her.
But she would run. He had a strong instinct that he had to move at her pace.
So, he told her goodnight, and to text him when she was home safely, closed the door for her, and stepped back to wave her off.
And oh, he hated it. Hated the sound of her engine, hated the way her headlights looked as she backed up, hated the distance she was putting between them.
She turned her car around and headed for the road that would lead her out of Rogue Pack territory.
He stepped behind her and shoved a hand in his pocket and waved with the other.
Her brake lights turned on, and her car came to a stop. The gears went into park, and her door opened.
Tabian’s heart kicked up to a pounding pace as he stepped forward. Maybe she forgot something.
Tru had put the hood of her hoodie up, but as she ran back to him, her flip flops clacking with every step, she shoved the hood back and then reached for him.
He grinned as her lips crashed onto his.
He caught her and lifted her off the ground, hugged her ribs and grabbed her ass to steady her momentum.
He angled his head more and pushed his tongue into her mouth just to taste her better.
Fuck, she was perfect. Her lips were soft against his, but demanding, and he loved this.
She wanted him. He could tell and it brought his entire body to life.
Tru wrapped her legs around him and hugged his neck so tight as she kissed him, and nothing had ever felt like this. No kiss, and no amount of intimacy.
He gripped the back of her hair and tasted her all he wanted to. The wind was whipping her hair around, and it was perfect.
This kiss…was…perfect.
He slowed them down and she eased back, pecking him. Peck, peck, kiss, kiss. She unwrapped her legs and he settled her onto the ground.
“I’m shaking,” she whispered, searching his eyes. “I haven’t kissed anyone in a long time.”
“Good,” he said, a growl in his voice. She didn’t seem afraid of the grit to his tone, or how bright his eyes probably were right now.
She was just offering him this baffled smile as she looked into his eyes, and fuck, did she know what she was doing? She was tethering him to her. She was digging out the loyalty that had been buried inside of him and placing it in a protective web around her. Pretty little spider.
He leaned down and kissed her again. And again.
Her phone dinged in her car.
“I have to go,” she whispered.
He nodded but he kissed her again. And again.
She stood on her tiptoes and nipped at his neck. “I really have to go.”
“Woman, you go biting at my throat and I’m gonna take you inside for the best five minutes of your life,” he joked.
“Five minutes? That’s your selling point?”
“You have somewhere to be. I can be fast.”
She belted out a giggle and leaned up, kissed him again and then made her way to the car, got halfway there and turned back around.
Kissed him again. This time when she tried to disconnect, he went with her, easing her back toward her car as he stayed on her, lips moving against each other, teasing her, tasting her. God she was something.
He let her kiss him as long as she wanted at the open door of her car. No way could he push her off and tell her to go home. She could stay out here all night with him if she wanted.
Her phone dinged again. “Okay, I have to go. Make me go!”
“No way,” he denied her.
“Tabian!”
“Tell Bay to come here,” he joked.
She laughed and pushed back from him. “Trust me, you wouldn’t enjoy it. That boy has an attitude about you.”
“You told him about me?” Tabian asked.
“Yep,” she said, getting into her car. “He doesn’t approve of bad boy werewolves.”
“Bad boy, good man though.”
Her cheeks were the prettiest shade of pink in the light of her car, and her eyes were so clear and direct on him. She’d somehow grown even prettier over the night here.
“I have to go. For real this time.”
Tabian leaned onto the open doorframe of her car, then knelt down and kissed her with his hand gentle around her throat. “Drive safe,” he murmured as he released her.
Tru blinked slowly and nodded. “Yes sir.”
He let off a wicked laugh and forced himself to back away from her car. “Careful with that, Tru. I’ll drag you back inside. Go now if you’re going to leave.”
Her smile was devilish and so fun as she nodded and pulled the door closed. Little tease. Little vixen. Little temptation.
He watched her car until it disappeared down the road and into the trees, and then he sat on the porch stairs until he heard her car hit the main road, just in case she decided to turn around.
She’d told her stepson about him. Whether he approved of Tabian or not, it was saying something that she’d mentioned Tabian.
He liked whatever that said.
Tru sure was a consuming woman.