“Thank you,” she said, wishing she didn’t blush so easily. “What is your angle?”
“There is no angle.”
She shoved him. “Yes, there is! Why are you here today, all of a sudden, throwing all this money around?”
He raised his eyebrows, giving her his best “Who, me?” look. “Can’t a wolf have a little fun?”
Furious, she pushed him again. “No, you son of a bitch, not when it comes to getting my mother’s hopes up! She’s obsessed with marrying me off! She will be really upset when she finds out this was fake!”
She could have sworn he muttered, “It wasn’t fake.”
“What did you just say?” she demanded, astonished.
He shook his head, heaving a sigh. “Nothing.”
“I am sick of you messing with my head!” she yelled, and when he started to laugh, she hooked her foot behind his knee and sent him tumbling. As he fell, he grabbed her, and she landed on top of him.
He quickly rolled over, pinning her underneath him.
“What the hell is it with you assaulting me?” he demanded. “Do you want my truck keys again? Because I can just hand them to you.”
“No, I don’t want your truck keys!” She was yelling again, for no good reason. But Austin was too close to her, and she could feel the thick hardness of his erection pressing into her stomach, and he smelled so good that she wanted to lick him and see if he tasted even better.
“Then what do you want?” he demanded, with an intensity she’d never heard before. He reached down and gently brushed a lock of hair from her face, and she stifled a moan. Her arousal was a fiery furnace, consuming her from within.
Before she could stop herself, she found herself kissing him.
He cupped her chin in his hand and deepened the kiss, his tongue thrusting into her mouth and swirling around hers. He tasted of sweet coffee, and she moaned as his tongue led hers in a sensual dance, probing and thrusting.
His fingers tightened in her hair, and he swallowed her groan of pleasure as he held her chin firmly. She couldn’t move, she was deliciously trapped, and she could have lain there kissing him until she died.
An annoying whine cut through the air.
“Savannah! We’re out of chocolate torte! Your mom says to come make more!” It was Anthony. And she was going to murder him. And her mother had probably sent him to make sure that Savannah wasn’t doing exactly what she was doing right now.
Austin rolled off her with a groan and sat up.
“Don’t come to the barbecue tonight,” Savannah said, her voice husky. She scrambled to her feet, brushing pine needles off her clothing.
Austin slowly climbed to his feet as well. “Wow.” He shook his head, his voice laced with hurt. “I’m that bad of a kisser?”
Savannah blinked away sudden tears and looked away. “I didn’t say you were bad. It’s just…you and me? It isn’t real. And everyone I know will be there, and this is a small town where people remember things forever.” Savannah’s heart pounded in her chest. If Austin made fun of her, she’d kill him. Or worse, actually cry.
“Listen.” His voice went gentle. “I have some more money I’m going to bring – half of the take from all the marks I stole from you. Sixteen thousand dollars. If you don’t want me to stay tonight after I drop off the money, I’ll leave. And tomorrow, I’m gone. For good. I’m actually leaving the state of Washington, and I won’t be back. I just…I’d like to have dinner with you. If you want to.”
She stared at him, utterly speechless. There was a look on his face she’d never seen before. A haunted look. It stung her to her very soul, as if his pain were her own.
“I’ll see you tonight,” he said, and walked off.
She had a feeling that she knew where he was going tomorrow.
He was going after Roy. And he thought it would be the death of him.
For the first time, she felt uneasy, a chill settling over her and trailing icy fingers of fear down her spine. Goosebumps pebbled her skin, despite the summer heat. If Austin didn’t think he could survive Roy, what chance did she have?
Chapter Five
There were easily three hundred people at the barbecue fundraiser that night. There were even wolf shifters from Greenville there. Country music blasted from the speakers – all pre-selected by Laurel, to ensure it was family friendly. The air smelled of sweet, tangy barbecue sauce, and woodsmoke, and French fries dunked in sizzling oil.
Every folding table and picnic table on the front lawn, every table in the restaurant, was full. Shifters slow danced with each other to the twangy country music, and there was a pleasant din of conversation buzzing in the air.
The evening’s take still wouldn’t be enough to pay off their debt to Algernon, but it was wonderful to see the community support. Their mother was in tears of gratitude as she stood at the smoker, serving out ribs.
Savannah stood off to the side near an overflowing garbage can, trying to pretend that she wasn’t scanning the crowd. Jessamine sidled up to her, with a smirk on her face.
“Who’s the hot date?” Jessamine taunted Savannah. “Is it the wolf that you’re in luuuuv with? Does he know how big of a dork you are?”
Thou shalt not murder thy annoying sister. Thou shalt not murder thy annoying sister.
“There is no hot date!” she snapped.
“You changed your dress five times. But you only have two dresses, so you just kept going back and forth between the pink one and the green one. You should have stuck with the green one, by the way, the pink clashes with your hair. You’re wearing perfume, which I’m pretty sure you stole from me. You showered again, even though you showered this morning. And oh my God, is that lipstick?”
“The entire community is here tonight, and I am simply dressing to represent our family in the appropriate manner,” Savannah said huffily.
Jessamine looked at the assembled crowd. Savannah followed her gaze and winced.
Anthony was wrestling with Niall in a mud puddle, and a crowd was cheering them on.
The mayor of Foxhaven was chugging beer that was being poured into a funnel.
The police chief and the owner of the rest stop gas station were having a belching contest. And people were actually putting money on it.
“Whatever,” Jessamine said, tossing her hair back over her shoulder, and went to help behind the bar they’d set up outside.
“Oh, screw this,” Savannah said furiously, and stomped back towards the house to change into jeans and a T-shirt. She was not that girl. The giggly-fun-date kind of girl. She was Savannah – short, chubby, freakishly strong, far too good at kicking ass to be sexy, best friend but never girlfriend.
Then the tingling in her pink bits started.
“Savannah.” Austin’s voice was a sexy rumble.
She whirled around to look at him.
He was wearing jeans, motorcycle boots, and a white T-shirt that looked as if it had been painted on over the curve of his biceps.
“Oh, hey, Austin,” she choked out, desperately trying for casual and missing by a mile. She tried to stick her hands in her pockets, but she didn’t have any pockets, so her hands just slid straight down to her hips and stopped.
Austin didn’t seem to notice. His eyes were locked on hers. “You look gorgeous.”
“I definitely did not dress up like this for you.” She was blushing so hard that it actually hurt. She would have given anything for a bucket of water to dump on her head right then, to cool her heated cheeks.
“Of course not.” Amusement twinkled in his whiskey-colored eyes. “Hey. I dropped the money off with your mother. She put it in her safe.”
“Thank you,” she said stiffly.
“So. Did you want me to stay, or go?”
She struggled to find words, and felt as if she were choking. She wanted him so badly it frightened her – and she was someone who chased down crazy shifters for a living. She’d never felt anything like this before.
High-school
taunts drifted through her mind again. “She’s so fat, when she steps on the scale, it says ‘To be Continued…’”
Her ex-boyfriend Marvin and the rage on his face after they were confronted by a group of bullies, and she stepped forward and chased them off while he frantically dialed his bodyguard…
This wasn’t real. She wasn’t the kind of girl who got lucky in love.
She heard words coming out. “You can stay, you can go. Do whatever you want.”
Had she really just said that to him?
“Okay.” She thought she saw a faint spark of hurt in his eyes. And he turned and walked away.
* * *
Austin stood by his pickup truck, at the end of the parking lot, and told himself that it was better this way.
He didn’t know why he’d told Savannah’s mother that he was her boyfriend, or why he’d come here tonight.
He guessed he just wanted one last good night. One last good time. Because even if he survived to bring Roy back, how long could he survive the devils plaguing his own mind?
And he wasn’t surprised that Savannah didn’t want him to stay. Why would she? He wasn’t offering her anything. He’d told her he was leaving and never coming back.
Wistfully, he looked over at Laurel, who was standing next to Jessamine by the bar now. Jessamine said something to her mother, and her mother lightly flicked her on the head, then ducked. Jessamine pretended to try to smack her mother, and Laurel grabbed her in a fierce hug. Jessamine wriggled out of it, pretending to look annoyed, but then she shot her mother a look of such pure love that it hurt Austin’s heart.
The only time his parents had ever touched him…well, his father, when he was around, had broken Austin’s bones over and over again, which had hurt like a bitch even if Austin did have super-healing.
And his mother had never, in his memory, hugged him. Not once.
Other pack members had tried to help, when Lloyd wasn’t around. The pack healer, Anita – her mother Sue would take him aside and read stories to him while he sat on her lap. She’d pour her healing energy into him. It was the only reason he hadn’t gone feral as a cub.
He’d cried when Sue died. Only time he’d ever cried in his life. When his mother died, he’d just shrugged, popped open another beer, and returned to the game he’d been watching.
When his father died, he’d celebrated with a three-day drunk.
Maybe that had been a kind of mourning, in its own way, but not for the loss of a parent. It had been mourning for the loss of the cubhood he’d never had.
As he watched, a fox shifter walking past Jessamine reached out and pinched her butt. Austin snarled and started to move forward, instinctively, but Niall, covered with mud, was on the drunk fox in a heartbeat, punching the him in the face so hard he spun in a circle and went face down on the grass.
Then Niall and Jessamine exchanged high fives.
They were family. They’d do anything for each other. They drove each other crazy, but they’d die for each other.
He’d never have that.
He’d tried to bond with Tully’s pack, he really had. They’d done everything they could to make him feel at home. They invited him to every meal, to every pack party. They watched out for him like one of their own. They always had his back.
They felt like friends, but they didn’t feel like family.
If he had a family, it would be something like this. This crazy, ridiculous little bunch of foxes.
No pretensions, no putting on false airs. And no dressing up for dinner and sitting at a twenty-foot-long dining table set with thousand-dollar gilded place settings, like his brothers Cliff and Grant did with their mates.
Oh, their mates were okay. They were nice women – down to earth, sweet, strong, loyal. But they moved in a world that didn’t have space for him. Both of his brothers’s mates had made a point of inviting him to pack gatherings, to christenings, to cub showers. They’d sent him pictures of their cubs.
He just couldn’t bring himself to visit Hidden Hills very often. Too many ugly memories. Every time he set foot there, he felt the ache of broken bones ghosting through his body, and his late father’s taunts echoed in his ears.
This here…this felt like home should feel. At least how he imagined it would feel. Scrapping, torturing each other, teasing each other, but when push came to shove, every single one of them would be willing to take a bullet for each other.
As he watched, Jessamine and Laurel, arms around each other’s shoulders, started singing “American Pie” at the top of their longs. They were terrible. They were so out of tune. How do you mess up “American Pie”, for heaven’s sake? But the crowd joined in, roaring their approval.
His heart ached with envy.
“Hey!” Savannah yelled. She was heading towards him across the parking lot, with a hesitant look on her pretty face.
“Hey,” he said back. She stopped when she reached him and just stood there in front of him, hugging herself and avoiding his gaze.
His heart surged with hope.
She stared down at the ground, clearing her throat and shifting from one foot to the other, until she finally looked up at him. “When I said that you could do whatever you wanted… Uh… I meant… I thought you wanted to stay here. I mean, you don’t have to stay here. But you could. If you wanted to.”
He grinned at her, loving the flush on her smooth porcelain cheeks. “You know what? You’re terrible at flirting.”
She looked as if she was about to argue, then sighed. “What’s the point? I just don’t know how to act girly. I’m the tomboyest girl in town. Everyone treats me like their brother. I can outrun and outhunt and outfight every guy here. Take after my dad, I guess. He was this super-protective type who wanted to know that I’d always be safe, so he taught me how to hunt and kick ass from when I was a cub.” A look of sadness misted her eyes.
He shrugged. “It’s okay. It wasn’t an insult. I like that you just say what’s on your mind.”
She tipped her head back and looked up at him. “Okay then. Here goes. I want you to stay and have dinner with me. Even though you drive me insane. So, what’s on your mind?”
He looked down at her, staring into her light brown eyes. “I want to have dinner with you, and I want lots of other things too. Things that would involve me taking you somewhere else and doing very bad things to you while you beg me for more. I wish I was staying here longer. But I can’t. I have to leave, and I can’t come back to Washington, ever. I just want you to know…you were the best part of it, of my being here. I’ll miss our little tussles. And handing you your butt every time. And what a sore loser you are.”
She grinned back, relaxing. Her eyes shone in the moonlight. “You were almost sweet there, you know? Just for a second.”
“Good thing I stopped myself in time.” But he smiled back, and a warm, comfortable feeling loosened his muscles. This felt so right. So good.
Savannah glanced towards the loud, raucous gathering in front of the restaurant, then stared off into the wooded area towards the eastern part of the property. The sun had sunk below the horizon. “I want to show you something.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Really. Well, I want to see what you want to show me.” There was a lascivious gleam in his eyes.
“It’s not what you’re thinking! Pervert.” Savannah shook her head reprovingly, turned and walked off, and he hurried after her. She moved surprisingly fast for a short girl.
She pushed through the underbrush, plunging into the woods, and he jogged along to keep up.
“How do you know what I’m thinking?” he demanded. “Maybe you’re the pervert. Maybe I was thinking that you were going to show me your Beanie Baby collection.”
“Ha. Maybe you’re a big fat liar.”
“I’m not fat. I’m not a liar.” He winked at her. “I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.”
They walked for about twenty minutes, farther and farther away from the big, raucous crowd. The sound
s of music and loud, happy party-goers faded away. A fat white moon hung in the sky overhead, nearly full. Around this time, shifters of all species would be feeling the call. They were more aggressive, more sensual, hungrier, wilder.
They stopped at the edge of a clearing, and she gestured ahead. It looked as if the stars had fallen from the skies overhead and were floating through the tall grass of an open meadow. Thousands of fireflies, their tiny white lights winking on and off in the darkness. An invisible chorus of crickets creaked rustily, and the faintest of warm breezes ruffled their hair.
They stood there in silence together, side by side. He breathed in the sweet scent of her musk, and arousal flowed through his veins like hot rivers of lava.
“My favorite place. I love it here in the summer. It’s like magic,” she said. “My daddy was the first one to bring me here, when I was a little girl.”
“This is beautiful,” he murmured. “Thank you for giving me this.” He’d take it and store it away forever, and hold it in his mind when his final seconds were ticking away. This night, this very moment, with her by his side. Where she should be always.
He bent down and kissed her neck, right in the soft curve where it met her shoulder, then stopped himself. “Sorry. No, actually, I’m not,” he corrected himself, then kissed her again.
She bit back a whimper, and he thought he might explode in his pants, right there.
“Should I stop, while I still have an ounce of control left in my body?” It came out in a pained groan.
“No.” Her voice was husky with desire, and she turned around and looked at him. “If you’re leaving, I…want to be with you. And if you make fun of me, if you give me a hard time, I swear…”
He grabbed her chin and tipped her face up so she was staring into his eyes. She was fierce and fiery and wonderful, and she had no idea how gorgeous she was. It broke his heart that he couldn’t stay here forever and show her how ridiculously hot she made him, every minute of every day.
“Babe,” he murmured. “I have had a nonstop erection from the minute I first laid eyes on you. There is only one kind of hard time that I want to give you.”
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