Page 42 of Rocky Top

Hot.

Confused as hell.

My wolf was still growlin’ low, pacing in my chest like a caged animal, pissed off I’d stopped when I did. Pissed off I’d pulled away at all. Because as far as the wolf was concerned, that wasoursin there. Her scent. Her skin. Her sounds. Her pussy. Ours.

“Thanks for taking me today,” she said. Her voice was soft. Sweeter than usual. “It was… one of the best days I’ve had in a long time.”

I swallowed hard, tryin’ to keep my damn claws from showin’.

“Yeah,” I said. “It was.”

We reached her porch. She turned to face me, her keys in her hand but not movin’ to unlock the door. There was a pause, heavy enough to drown in. She stepped closer, like she was waitin’ for me to follow her inside.

I didn’t.

Couldn’t.

She tilted her head, brows liftin’ just slightly. “You comin’ in?”

I should’ve.

God, I wanted to.

One step. That’s all it would’ve taken. One step across the threshold, and I’d have her pressed up against the wall, her name on my lips like a prayer and a curse. I could already see her head thrown back, the little sounds she’d make, the way she’d taste if I kissed her deeper.

But if I went in that house tonight, I wouldn’t leave until she was marked.

Until I sank my teeth into her skin and made her mine in a way, she couldn’t come back from.

And she didn’t know what that meant yet.

Didn’t knowwhat I wasyet.

I clenched my fists so tight I felt the skin pull.

“Nah,” I said, voice like gravel. “I gotta get back to the Wild Dog. Knox wants a word about something. He’s the boss.”

It was a lie.

A weak one.

She knew it. I could see it in her eyes.

“Right,” she said, lips twitchin’ into a half smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Club stuff.”

I hated the look on her face. That little flicker of disappointment she tried to hide. Like she thought maybe she wasn’t enough to keep me interested.

But it wasn’t that. Not even close.

She was too much.

Too important.

Too dangerous to everything I’d tried to lock away inside myself.

I stepped in close, close enough that her breath hitched and her gaze dropped to my mouth.

I tilted her chin up with two fingers, gently, like I was touchin’ somethin’ holy. “Birdie… if I go inside, I won’t stop. You get that, right?”

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