Cooper blinked. “Really? I mean, yeah. Yes. I’d like. That. I’d like that.” He cleared his throat. “If you’re sure.”
“Good. I’ll let Cola know. Soon.”
Cooper nodded dumbly, and neither of them moved. His gaze darted down to Oliver’s lips and the faint scar there. There was still so much they didn’t know about each other. And now, maybe they’d have the time to find out.
The scar started to fade, and Cooper realized Oliver was smiling at him slowly. “When you said you didn’t mean what you said in the mine,” Oliver started, watching him closely. “Were you talking about...everything?”
“What? Oh.” Cooper felt his face flush. “Uhhh...” Oliver’s thumb started rubbing slow circles over his wrist. “Not everything, no.”
“Good.” He brought Cooper’s wrist to his mouth, inhaled deeply and then brushed his lips across the racing pulse point. “You’re afraid.”
Cooper nodded, then let his head tip back, gasping, when Oliver pulled him closer still and moved to nuzzle over the scars on his belly.
“Why?”
“Because you can hurt me.” It slipped out without Cooper thinking, and he almost kicked himself when Oliver pulled away to stare at him seriously.
“I would never.”
“Not like that. You could hurt me because I... I care.” The last words were nothing more than a mumbled exhale that your average person wouldn’t have heard.
Oliver heard.
He stood, their bodies pressed together, and he leaned in so his mouth was hovering over Cooper’s. “In that case, you scare me, too.”
Cooper’s heart pounded and he tingled all over. “Yeah?”
He felt Oliver’s smile on his lips. “Special Agent Dayton, I’m absolutely terrified, and I couldn’t be happier about it.”
Cooper kissed him properly then, lips and tongues moving together in gleeful reunion. Oliver was right. Feeling this good, this safe, this happy, even if just for a moment... It was worth the risk of whatever might happen later.
Cooper ran his hands through Oliver’s hair, pulling their bodies tighter together. They had each other right now. What else was there to say?
* * * * *
Stay tuned for the next book in the BIG BAD WOLF series, THE WOLF AT BAY, coming in September 2018!
Author Note
Florence is a town of my creation and neither it nor any of the people in this book are meant to represent any real place or person. The White Mountain National Forest, however, is very real, very lovely, and can be quite dangerous, but generally has less murder and mayhem than I’ve imagined it to have here. So don’t let me stop you from checking it out one day.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to the whole Carina team for choosing to take a chance. And to my family, who didn’t have much choice but chanced it with me anyway.
About the Author
Charlie Adhara has always loved a good story and, on occasion, a bad one. After getting her degree in neuroscience, Charlie decided she’d much rather study the heart. She now writes contemporary, mystery, paranormal, queer romance. Or some assortment of that. Whatever the genre, her stories feature imperfect people stumbling around, tripping over trouble and falling in love.
Charlie has done a fair amount of stumbling around herself but tends to find her way back to the northeast U.S. After all, home is where the dog is.
To learn more and stay updated, follow Charlie on the usual suspects:
Website: CharlieAdhara.com
Twitter: Twitter.com/Charlie_Adhara
Facebook: Facebook.com/people/Charlie-Adhara/100018475721121
She’d love to see you there!
Introducing the Carina Press Romance Promise!
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ISBN-13: 9781488089329
The Wolf at the Door
Copyright © 2018 by Charlie Adhara
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
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