by T. S. Joyce
“Matt the ignoramus,” he said with an empty smile.
Willa snorted and choked on her drink beside him. “Yeah, about that. I was rude and shouldn’t have called you names.”
Gia clomped back to them on unsteady heels with a tipsy smile on her bright red lips. “Creed, dance with me,” she said in a long, drawn out, whiny voice.
These women were usually Matt’s exact type, so why was he turned off by them tonight? His dick had gone hard once, and that’s when he’d watched Willa wave around the handful of condoms and talk about her virgin magical temple.
He laughed out loud. The nerd had got him hard where the Barbies had failed. He was going mad. It was happening now, his decent into insanity. His alpha, Creed, was going to have to put him down sooner than he’d planned. Fuck.
“You okay?” Willa asked, touching his forearm.
Matt jerked back at the burning sensation that blasted through his nerve endings where she’d touched his skin. “Sorry,” he rushed out when he saw the hurt on her face.
The corner of her mouth ticked as her attention drifted back to the drink on the bar top in front of her. “Don’t worry about it. I get that reaction a lot.”
“Bullshit. That was all me. I don’t like being touched.”
Her eyebrows shot up, and she jerked her startled brown gaze back to him. “Why?”
Torture, scars, pain, dark madness, hurting everyone… “I don’t know. I just don’t.”
“Well good, because I hate to be touched.” Her eyes danced, and her teasing took the edge off the tension that sat in the air between them. “I’d rather lick a toilet seat in a port-o-potty at a construction site than get a hug.”
“Seriously,” he played along. “I’d rather lay face first in a fire ant mound than cuddle.”
“Ack,” she said, throwing her head back. “Exactly that. Good. Well, Griz, now we know where we each stand. No touching or this friendship is donezo. Deal?”
He chuckled and tinked his beer glass against her drink. “Deal.” Damn, he liked talking to this girl. “So, how long are you in town for?”
“One week. We’re camping out at the state park—”
“About that,” Kara slurred from Matt’s other side.
He stifled a growl at the interruption.
“Me and the girls actually made a reservation to stay the week at the hotel down the street.”
“Wait, I thought we were having a girl’s campout.”
Willa’s tone sounded hurt again, and Matt wanted to shred everything.
Settle down. She can take care of herself. She’s tough.
“We just said that so we didn’t have to feel guilty we’d picked Saratoga. You wanted to go to the beach, and we know you’re super into camping.”
“But…I brought the camper. Why would you help me set it up and not tell me you aren’t going to stay there, too? I bought food for cooking out for all of us.”
Kara scrunched up her nose and attempted to look remorseful. “You can stay at the hotel with us if you want to. You know I hate camping. The bugs…” Kara gave off an overdramatic shudder.
“Oh.” Willa frowned and shook her head like it was no big deal. “That’s okay. I understand.”
“There’s a pool at the hotel,” Gia said helpfully from the other side of Creed. “It’s kind of like the beach.”
Seriously?
“Willa, you want to go to the beach?” Matt asked, surprising himself with what he was about to offer her.
She took a long pull of her drink as if she was trying to settle her emotions. “It’s okay. It’s not a big deal.”
More bullshit. Her voice was shaking now.
“I’ll take you to a waterfall that only the locals know about tomorrow. It isn’t the ocean, but it has a sandy beach. We’ll go swimming after I get off work.”
“Ewey, that sounds amazing,” Brittney chirped up. “I’d love to go.”
“Invite only,” Matt gritted out.
Brittney pouted her lip out and made her soft gray eyes really big. He imagined that look got her a lot of things she wanted, but Matt wasn’t affected by womanly wiles. Not tonight.
“You know the rules, Matt,” his dark-haired alpha, Creed, said, voice void of humor. “No woman on Gray Back territory.”
“No, you said no potential mates on Gray Back territory.” He tilted his head toward Willa and smiled. “Willamena here has been friend-zoned.”
“Creed, she don’t look anything like his type,” Jason said, staring at Willa like she was a bug. “Matt ain’t tryin’ to hit that.”
Jason was trying to help, but Matt still wanted to crack his skull on the counter.
“I don’t want to be any trouble,” Willa said, touching Matt’s arm again.
She jerked her hand away and muttered an apology, but she didn’t need to. Her fingers burned his skin less this time. Weird.
“Nah, you’re right,” Creed said. “It’s no trouble. Matt can take you up to Bear Trap Falls tomorrow, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tweet that shit. We like our privacy up there.”
“I’ll take the secret locale to my grave,” Willa said.
Her voice rang with such honesty that Creed nodded his approval.
Matt released the breath he’d been holding.
He’d just made sure he would see Willa tomorrow.
Now he knew for certain he was going mad.
Chapter Two
Willa was sloshed.
Okay, in her defense, she rarely drank, and when she did, it was one glass of wine. Two long island ice teas, plus the beers Matt had ordered for himself but given to her, and she was three sheets to the wind and feeling invincible. She kissed her tiny biceps as she stumbled into the parking lot behind the bar.
“Steady there,” Matt said, hooking his arm around her waist and pulling her from what felt like a ninety degree angle.
“This parking lot is tryin’ a kill me,” she slurred.
“I’m pretty sure you’re the clumsiest person I’ve ever met in my life, Nerd. The parking lot is just an innocent bystander.”
“Ha! You’re a funny bear.” Willa flung her arms around Matt’s neck to stop the world from spinning.
“Jesus,” he muttered, hesitating only a moment before scooping her up and pulling her against his chest.
“Oh, damn,” she muttered, poking the hard planes of his pecs. “You’re like a well done steak.”
Matt snorted above her, but didn’t look down. He’d been avoiding her gaze for an hour now, but she couldn’t figure out why. “Are you hiding your eyes from me, Griz? Because they don’t scare me, so you don’t have to.”
He lowered his gaze to her, his piercing blue eyes gone to a blazing silver color that should’ve terrified her, but she was too inebriated.
“It unsettles people, and I didn’t want to frighten you.”
“I’m not scared of anything,” she sang out, stretching out one leg and tossing her arm back over her head.
“Clearly.” He settled her into the front seat of his jacked-up Chevy and pulled the seatbelt over her lap.
“Safety first!” she crowed. “Oh, by the way.” She leveled him a scowl. “I have a Taser. Don’t try anything untowa…untoward… Don’t try anything sexy with me, Griz.”
“I definitely won’t. You drank all my drinks, though, and now I’m completely and annoyingly sober. And I don’t want you riding with your idiot friends, who refuse to take a cab.”
“What time do you have to work?” she slurred, feeling dizzy again.
“I have to be on the landing at six in the morning.” He looked at his watch and frowned. “So in four hours.”
“Bad decisions all night long,” she said sympathetically.
“You and me both, Nerd. You’re going to be feeling this tomorrow.”
“What’s the landing?”
Matt shut the door and jogged around the front of his truck, then slid in behind the wheel and jammed the key in the ignition. The
engine roared to life. “The landing is where I work. I’m a lumberjack.”
“Gasp! You’re a lumberjack werebear? That’s so cute!”
Matt rolled his eyes heavenward and pulled out of the parking lot, but the smile on his face said he didn’t hate her yet.
She stared at him to stop the truck from spinning around her. He had the body of a linebacker. Thick neck, baseball cap over his honey-colored hair, and eyes so blue they rivaled the sky. Well, before they’d gone silver. His nose was straight and handsome, and his cheekbones were sharp as glass. Across his strong jaw, he sported that designer scruff that looked like he didn’t care, but the cleanly trimmed lines said he actually spent time looking this damn good. His tricep flexed as he turned off the main road toward a sign that announced the state park was five miles away. Unable to help herself, she touched his bulging muscle there.
“Do you work out?”
“Yeah. Some. Mostly my job requires a lot of physical labor so it keeps me in shape. Now, stop poking me and sit back.”
“Right, touching is bad. I forgot.”
He cast her a troubled look, then returned his attention to the dark road, illuminated by the headlights ahead of them. “It’s not bad, per say…”
“Good, then feel my muscles.” She flexed her miniature bicep as hard as she could and waited. “Come on. Touch it.”
“Fuck, woman. Stop it.” He adjusted his dick and draped his arm back over the wheel.
“Did my bicep just give you a boner?” She swallowed down the squeal in her throat.
“No.” Matt rolled his head against the headrest like he was getting annoyed. “All the talk about touching did. Now cut it out. Just relax. I almost have you to the campground.”
“You can’t get boners over friends. It’s against the rules.”
“Tell that to my dick,” he muttered so low she almost didn’t hear him.
“Thanks for sticking up for me back there,” she said, sobering a little. “That was nice of you.”
“Willa, I’m not nice. Let’s get that out in the open right now.”
“Okay,” she groused, crossing her arms over her chest. “You know, you don’t have to take me to the Bear Crap Falls tomorrow. It’s late, and you were drinking when you made the offer, and I know it was out of pity, and you will be tired from lumberjacking on no sleep tomorrow, so there it is.”
“It’s Bear Trap Falls, and there what is?”
“Your out.” She wiped her hands together and flicked her fingers away. “You are free from your friend-zone obligations.”
Matt swung his gaze to her, a deep frown marring his sexy face. “I’m still taking you, so I don’t need that out.”
“Oh. Okay. I did wax my hoohah so I could look banging in my swim suit. Wait until you see it. I bought a sexy two-piece tankini with matching board shorts that cover as much as possible,” she said in a phone-sex-operator tone. “It’s polka dotted, like my granny panties, and baggy around the boobs. Does that give you a boner?” She was snickering on the last words and Matt’s grin came back. Thank goodness. He looked downright dapper when he smiled.
“Thank you,” he said.
“For what?”
“For getting rid of my boner.” He laughed as he ducked her swat.
“I’ll have you know I’m the subtle type of sexy.”
“So subtle I can’t see it.”
“Lies!” she yelled, laughing. “I have a worm farm. Does that turn you on?”
“A worm farm?” he asked, turning right into the campgrounds. “So that’s why you have dirt under your nails and smell like earth?”
“I stink?”
“Nah, you smell fucking delicious. Shampoo, soap, earth, and whatever flavor of lip gloss you’ve been slathering on all night. Cherry? Oh and…”
“And what? Finish it!”
“And you smell like arousal.” He cast her a quick glance.
Heat flooded her cheeks. “That’s not fair. You have heightened senses, and that is private information. Use your Spidey senses for good, not evil, Matt.”
“I have an obvious boner that you keep pointing out. It’s all fair, Nerd.”
Touché. Leaning forward, she pointed out the front window toward the pop-up camper she’d bought second-hand a couple years ago. “That’s me.”
“Sweet,” he murmured, turning in behind her Tacoma. “Is that one yours, too?” He gestured to the silver pickup. “Sure is, Griz. I use it to haul around my camper. Me and the bombshells had to take two separate cars out here, which is probably what saved my sanity.” Were her words even making sense right now? She felt like she was floating.
“The bombshells?” He twisted in his seat and trapped her with those striking, inhuman eyes of his. “You never told me why you’re on this trip with them.”
“Because we made a pact as kids. Have you ever had a group of friends you thought were going to be together forever?”
Sadness pooled in his eyes. He looked away and swallowed hard. “Yeah.”
“Well, that was the bombshells and me. We were inseparable all through elementary and middle school and half of high school. Then we kind of…drifted apart. I think I was too different, and they couldn’t understand me anymore. We’d always planned this trip, though. Right after graduating college, we were supposed to take a week long road trip together to someplace fun where we could just cut loose before we started looking for jobs in the real world.”
“You graduated college?”
“Yeah, two weeks ago with a degree in fine arts. Hold your applause, you sexy giant.” God, she hadn’t meant to say that last bit. She pouted her lips and squished them together with her fingers, lest they speak on their own again.
Matt chuckled and opened his door, so she did the same. She nearly fell on her face when she slid out of the lifted truck, but bless her legs, they didn’t fail her this time.
“You know,” she murmured, punching the soft earth with the high heels she’d borrowed from Gia and trying not to break an ankle. “I used to feel sorry for you.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, steadying her waist as she aimed for the trees.
When she was back on track and marching toward the camper, she said, “I wanted all the humans to leave you alone when you came out to the public. I thought you lived these sad, lonely lives afraid of the humans, but you’re not like that. I can’t imagine you are afraid of anything. And look! Now you have shifter groupies to put your dick in all the time.”
“Stop.”
His voice had gone hard, so she turned and frowned up at him. “I don’t feel sorry for you anymore is all I’m saying. You’ve changed my mind tonight.” She splayed her hands against his taut chest, over his nipples which had perked up against the thin material of his charcoal T-shirt. Matt shuddered under her palms, and a soft growl rattled his chest.
Whoa, he was sexy. “You may ravish me now.” She swayed but caught herself.
Matt gripped her wrists and plucked her hands off him. “Polite decline.”
“Come on, Griz. This is what you do. This is your game. You lure shifter groupies here with your sexy selfies and witty one-liners on your social media pages, and then you sleep with them to settle whatever dark, primal desires your animal has. That’s what everyone does nowadays, right? Boys sleep with girls and expect them to not get attached, and then they never call again. How many times have you done that? No strings attached fucking. How many times?”
Matt swallowed audibly and looked sick. Slowly, he shook his head.
“Ten? Twenty? If I don’t jump on the bandwagon, I’ll pass my prime and be an old, shrivelly-vaginaed shrew with nineteen cats and a pet pineapple. So here I am. A human telling your big”—she poked his chest—“bad”—she poked him again—“animal that he can have me.”
“Don’t,” he said. He looked pale in the soft campground streetlight.
She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. The growl in his throat grew louder as he grabbed the back of her
hair and shoved her backward. Her shoulder blades hit the side of the camper so hard it rocked. Matt forced her mouth open with his and drove his tongue inside. A helpless moan escaped her as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Pulling him closer, she angled her head as he brushed his tongue against hers again. Holy hell, this was hot.
Matt’s fingers trailed down her sides and dug into her waist so hard, it hurt, but she didn’t care so much about that right now. He was intense, and sexy, and she’d never had a kiss like this one. And that snarly animal sound in his throat was soaking her granny panties.
“No,” he gritted out, easing back. “No, no, no. This isn’t what I want.” She nipped his lip, but he jerked away. “Stop it, Willa.”
Oh, her real name. He must be serious.
The sting of rejection was fast and fierce. She yanked her hands away from him. “It’s because I don’t look like the bombshells, right?”
“No.” Matt’s eyebrows went up and his eyes pooled with honesty. “It’s because I don’t do virgins.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not the type of man who should be anyone’s first. You’ll remember it forever, and I’m not gentle or even that fucking nice, Willa. That’s a lot of responsibility on someone like me. I’m not doing it. I’m not going to be the one who ruins your first time.”
“You won’t just try to be gentle?”
He shook his head for a long time. “That’s not me.”
Willa swallowed hard and pushed off the camper. “Goodnight, Matt.”
She opened the camper door and stepped inside. She’d thrown herself at a man, and she’d still not been tempting enough.
Worst. Seductress. Ever.
Tears stung her eyes, and a sob escaped her as she made her way past the tiny kitchen space to the mattress at the end. Her duffle bag sat open, and she stared into the dark opening as Matt’s truck roared to life. Their waterfall date was definitely off now. And when the sound of his truck faded completely, she grabbed her bag of toiletries and stumbled miserably out of her camper. The crickets and cicadas were at scream-volume levels as she walked to the public restroom down the road.