Chapter 24
“W hat?” Honey stared at Buck, wondering if she’d misheard him. “Are you seriously suggesting that we pretend we are fated mates?”
“We need to hide your secret. And the only way to do that is to convince the kids that they’re right. That we’re…” A muscle flexed in Buck’s jaw. “An item.”
Honey’s treacherous imagination immediately supplied a vivid picture of exactly how they might do that.
She’d felt the heat of his body as he’d carried her down from the ropes course; the flex and shift of muscle, the grip of his hand on her thigh.
It was all too easy to imagine that hard strength pressed against her in a very different context.
What am I thinking? Honey shook herself free from the ridiculous fantasy.
“This is crazy,” she said out loud, more to herself than him. “Buck, think for half a second. There’s no way we could pull this off.”
“Sure we can. Look, I’m not saying we need to—to actually get into bed together.
” Buck stumbled on the words, as though the prospect was so mortifying he had to force them out.
He turned, setting off for camp again at a brisk pace.
“They’re just kids, after all. It won’t take much to convince them we’re as good as married. ”
“And everyone else will conclude that you’ve lost your mind,” Honey shot back. “Buck, it’s not going to work. You said that shifters recognize their mates on sight, and I’ve already been here for weeks. I’m pretty certain you haven’t been going around telling all the staff that I’m your mate!”
“That’s the beauty of it.” Buck’s mouth twisted in a grim, ironic smile. “Everyone knows how I feel about motherloving shifters. They’d expect me to deny it. Fight tooth and nail against fate, all the way to the bitter end.”
There was, she had to admit, a certain truth to that. “But… but they wouldn’t expect me to do the same. The kids might not realize that I haven’t been acting like a shifter who’s met their mate, but the staff will quickly figure out that something’s fishy.”
“Don’t be so sure.” Buck hesitated, raking a hand through his hair. “Look, you remember when we first met? Back in Zeph’s office?”
As if she could forget. That moment was permanently stamped in her memory. His raw physical presence, hitting her like lightning… that dark, intense stare, fixing on her as though nothing else existed in the world… the instant response of her body…
“Oh God.” Her hands flew to her mouth. “Buck, did you… you thought that I’d recognized you as my mate?”
His gaze slid away from her, off into the shadows. “Well, you did a damn good impression of a stunned shifter. So yeah.”
No wonder he’d flinched away from her like she was his worst nightmare brought to life. She remembered the first words she’d ever heard him say: Oh hell no. And then there had been the way Zephyr and Conleth had seemed to be repressing grins…
“Oh no. Zephyr and Conleth.” Her whole body went hot with mortification. “ They think I’m your mate too, don’t they?”
Buck blew out a long sigh. “Yeah. They’re not the only ones. Pretty sure half the staff have a damn betting pool going on as to when we’re finally going to fall into each other’s arms.”
She thought of the staff campfire later, seeing Leonie and Moira’s questioning in a whole new light. Now she understood all those odd little comments.
“But—but you knew the truth,” she stuttered. “ You knew I wasn’t your mate. Why didn’t you tell them?”
“I did.” That thin, tight smile cut across his face again, like the blade of a knife.
“Didn’t do any good. Like I said, they expect me to resist. I could have a sworn testimony signed by Cupid and it wouldn’t do any good.
They’re all convinced I’m in denial. That I’m just refusing to listen to the damn beast sharing my skin.
And to be honest… I wasn’t certain they were wrong.
I was pretty confused as to how one of us could feel the world rock every time our eyes met, when the other didn’t even seem to notice. ”
“You weren’t entirely sure yourself, were you?” she said slowly, pieces fitting together in her head. “Before you found out that I wasn’t a shifter, you thought maybe you were mistaken. I made you think we might actually be mates, even though you didn’t feel it yourself.”
He grunted. “You remember what I told you at staff training?”
She cast her mind back. “That I was the most confusing woman you’d ever met?”
“I meant every word I said that day.” He shrugged, still not looking at her. “But in any case, it’ll work in our favor now. Believe me, nobody’s going to think it’s weird if we start acting like an item. Hell, knowing Zeph and Leonie, they’ll probably throw a party.”
“But…you said that shifters mate for life. And I’m going home at the end of the summer. What are you going to tell everyone?”
“That’s my problem, not yours,” he said firmly. “Let’s not look too far ahead for trouble. Got enough of that as it—”
Buck broke off, his head jerking up. For an instant, moonlight caught in his pupils, reflecting a flash of silver.
Wolf eyes. Her breath caught. Buck was so much himself, sometimes it was easy to forget that he shared his skin with something else, too. Now, however, the air around him felt charged, prickling with power like a storm about to break.
She dropped her voice to a whisper. “What is it?”
Buck’s nostrils flared. Without a word, he caught her arm, pulling her against his side.
“We’ve got to get back,” he said, projecting his voice so that the words carried clearly through the trees. “If we’re much longer, the kids will start wondering where we are. Come on.”
Honey found herself hustled along at double pace, tripping over her own feet as she tried to keep up.
“Don’t look back.” Buck’s lips barely moved. He stared straight ahead. “Damn it, woman, I said don’t look back. We’re being followed.”
With an effort, Honey kept her head facing forward. “The kids?”
“I think so. Sounds too small to be one of the staff, and it’s definitely on two legs rather than four.
The wind’s in the wrong direction for me to get a scent, but I’m guessing it’s Estelle or Flora.
I passed them on the path earlier. One of them probably came sneaking back to see if their plan worked. ”
They’d reached the edge of the camp. Honey started to pull away, but Buck’s arm was an iron bar around her waist.
“If we don’t give them a show, they’ll start asking awkward questions.” He didn’t slacken his pace, heading straight for her cabin. “We’re going to have to make this convincing.”
“Buck, this is insane,” she hissed, hoping his shifter hearing hadn’t picked up how her heart had just missed a beat. “There’s no way we can pull this off. I know you. You’ve got all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and about as much acting ability as the average bull walrus.”
His mouth twitched. “Thanks?”
“You know what I mean. There isn’t an ounce of pretense in your entire over-muscled body. Even if you try, nobody is ever going to believe that you’re infatuated with me.”
He stopped, swinging round so abruptly that her nose almost bounced off his chest. Before she could step back, his hands closed around her upper arms. She found herself pinned; by his strength, and his hot, dark stare.
When he spoke, his voice was a rough, rasping growl. “Won’t they?”
She couldn’t have pulled away even if he hadn’t been holding her. Her clothes should have slithered off her body, stripped away by that look alone.
She swallowed hard. Just an act, she tried to remind herself. It’s just an act.
At the moment, it was very hard to remember that.
He pulled her out of the dark, into a square of light.
Dimly, she was aware that they were standing right next to the girls’ cabin, but the whole world seemed very far away, and retreating further every second.
She could see him clearly now. The cozy glow from the cabin windows painted his familiar features with soft yellow light, but his eyes still held that wild, animal glint.
Very slowly, Buck’s hand slid up her spine. Honey’s pulse thundered in her ears as his fingers slipped under her hair to grip the back of her neck. His eyes never leaving hers, he dipped his head, coming closer.
Oh God, are we doing this? I think we’re doing this.
“One kiss,” Buck breathed, so softly she could barely hear the words past the thundering beat of her own heart. “That’s all. Okay?”
Just an act. Just an act. She held onto the words like a life raft in the rising sea of her own desire. It’s just a kiss. Stay cool, Honey. Don’t make this weird.
She moistened her lips. “Okay.”
She’d expected him to go for a light, chaste peck; just a brush of mouths. Even that might have been enough to melt her into a puddle.
Instead, with the lightest pressure, he tilted her head to one side. Stubble rasped against her cheek; the fluttering pulse point behind her ear. Lips barely touching her skin, he inhaled, long and deep.
Warmth radiated through her veins from that single point of not-quite-contact. She bit her lip, fighting not to gasp as he moved lower. Slowly, unhurriedly, he breathed in her scent again; moved a little, and did it again.
The side of her neck. The hollow of her shoulder. He pulled her t-shirt back a little, exploring the edge of her collarbone; dipped into the base of her throat. Again and again, as though each part of her held some unique, exquisite aroma.
By the time he raised his face back to hers, his arms were all that kept her upright. Her whole body felt liquid. She drew in a shaky breath.
“Okay,” she said, trying to sound casual, and not as if he’d just set her every nerve on fire by breathing , for crying out loud. “From now on, I’m not letting you duck out of the drama activities. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m convinced.”
Buck’s pupils were blown wide. The whole moon shone in them, full and silver in a dark, feral sky.
“Honey,” he growled. “I haven’t even started.”
His mouth found hers.
Everything else vanished, wiped out in that white-hot moment. There was nothing sweet about his kiss; nothing civilized. He pressed into her with savage urgency, like he was starving, like she was all that could keep him from death.
The warmth that had flooded her earlier was nothing to the shock that went through her veins now. It was like being kissed by a storm; like being hit by lightning.
Her back hit the wall of the cabin. Buck stayed with her, never losing contact, his mouth locked on hers.
She fisted her hands in his staff t-shirt, yanking him even closer. Buck made a low, hungry sound, tightening his grip. His hard body pressed her back against the rough logs. A deep, wolfish growl rumbled through his chest.
And behind them, on the other side of the wall, a tiny voice said, distinctly: “Woohoo!”
Honey froze. So did Buck.
“Estelle!” whispered a different voice. “Stop spying!”
“Oh, like you haven’t been keeping track of them with your pegasus senses this whole time, Beth.”
“Keep it down, you two! They’ll hear you!”
Buck broke off the kiss, pulling back. They stared at each other, breathing hard.
“So? He’s definitely not leaving after that . I told you this would work, Flora.”
Buck closed his eyes for an instant. Then he leaned in again. This time, his whisper in her ear was a lot less sexy.
“Honey,” he muttered. “Cover your ears.”
“What?”
His hands clamped on either side of her head.
“DON’T THINK THIS MEANS I’M NOT GOING TO SKIN YOU!” Even with Buck’s rough palms muffling all sound, his roar still rattled her brain. “EVERYONE WHO WANTS TO LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAWN HAD BETTER START SNORING!”
The light in the cabin instantly went out.
“Right,” Buck said in the sudden darkness. He cleared his throat, releasing her. “That should do it.”
“Er, yes.” Honey was profoundly grateful that he couldn’t see her expression. “I’ll… see you in the morning?”
She felt rather than saw him hesitate. For the briefest moment, his fingers brushed against hers. Then he turned, and was gone.
Safely alone, Honey sagged against the cabin wall once more. Shakily, she lifted a hand, touching her mouth.
An act. Just an act.
But it hadn’t felt like it.