Page 63 of Pack Baines

“You really went all out,” she quips, a hint of surprise in her voice.

“For you? Always,” I assure, squeezing her fingers and gesturing to the food compiled on her thighs. “Tuck in, sweetheart. Once you’re full, we’ll go exploring or something. Whatever you want to do, we’ll do it. Just keep an eye on the sun.”

“What for?” she wonders, opening a tub with one hand like she doesn’t want to let mine go, before tucking into the chocolate strawberries and oranges I made for her last night.

“The view,” I answer vaguely, before helping myself to another peck on the lips when I can’t fight temptation as she bites into a strawberry.

Once I can taste strawberry and sugar on my tongue, I sit back and enjoy spending time with my little omega, listening as she talks, making her laugh, and catching up on all of the time we missed growing up. We talk and talk as the sun goes down, bundled up in blankets, picnic eaten quickly until we’re both too full to move.

Eventually the chatter dies down and despite my chair sitting close enough to Juno’s that I can feel her arm brush against mine, it’s simply not enough. So, while the sun only just hits the horizon and the wind grows a little colder, I reach over and drag Juno into my lap. She comes easily with only a squeak of surprise before settling against me with a laugh, bringing with her delicious scent and body heat.

“Didn’t like me having my own seat, huh?” she snorts, sinking into my embrace as she peers out at the ocean, snatching one of my hands and hugging it to her stomach.

“Why have your own when you can have the best seat at the seaside?” I volley, kissing her jaw, grinning against her when she laughs while I bundle us both back up and wrap my free arm around her. I rest my chin on Juno’s shoulder, nuzzle her neck, and my lips brush against her skin as I whisper, “Just wanted you close when you finally see why I brought you here.”

“It wasn’t for the picnic and conversation?” she wonders, genuinely curious.

“Good food and company was always a given, sweetheart. Now sit back and watch the view. Oh, and make sure you have your camera ready,” I instruct, reaching for the abandoned camera bag and plopping it in her lap.

As expected, it takes only a few short minutes before the sun begins to dip behind the horizon that the most magical view I’ve ever seen happens. Well, other than Juno finally coming home to us. But this is a close second.

Where there had only been a few scattered clouds floating in a blue sky now displays a sea of pinks, oranges, and yellows. The sunset spills warmth of color over the sky, mirrored beautifully by the water, making the sunset seemingly endless.

“Holy shit,” Juno breathes, clutching at my hand that little bit tighter as her awe-filled gaze takes in every inch of the prettiest sunset I’ve seen in years. I’m not even going to pretend it’s only the prettiest because I have Juno here with me to witness it, every other time before paling in comparison to right now. “This is stunning.”

Acting like every cliché in the book, I keep my eyes on my omega as I whisper, “Damn straight.”

Juno smiles without even looking at me, already aware that I’m watching her, and that simply won’t do. I want her eyes on me, if only for a brief moment, and then she can continue to marvel over nature’s beauty while I marvel in hers.

Gently, I turn her head to face me and I roam my eyes all over her, beautiful features washed in the warm tones of the sunset. She’s relaxed for the first time in a week, her scent strong and sweet and everything it should be, if not sweeter as she watches me take her in. The high cheekbones, the freckles over her nose, her pert nose that scrunches when she’s irritated. That smart and sassy mouth smiling at me. The row of pearly white teeth as they bite into her abused lower lip.

Fuck me, she’s gorgeous. And here. Andmine.

Heart beating hard enough to thunder right out of my chest, a funny warmth filling my body from head to toe as it finally sinks in that I have my dream girl back in my life and she’s here willingly, that she actually wants a life with us, I cup Juno’s jaw gently and confess, “I love you, Juniper Baines. With my whole fucking heart.”

The soft smile she’d been wearing only seconds before slips away, her whole face slackening with shock before an intense happiness practically radiates from her. Glittering tears fill her eyes, and a shocked little giggle slips from her mouth, right before she leans in and brushes her cold nose against mine before she harshlywhispers, “You have no idea how much I love you, Evron Gatlin. This date has been perfect. You’re fucking perfect.”

I couldn’t stop the unhinged grin on my face even if I tried, my heart full to bursting, the words I’ve been desperate for filling me so thoroughly that I could easily strip her bare and take her right here on the beach, public be damned. I couldn’t even stop the purr that rattles through my chest, the vibration damn near rattling my bones.

“See, even that crazy look in your eyes is perfect to me,” she kids, fully giggling when I lean in and nip at her chin.

“You’re pretty damned perfect to me, too, sweetheart,” I admit, kissing where I bit her, right before pressing a sequence of kisses along her jaw and neck, loving the way her whole body shivers under my touch. I love the way she moans at the back of her throat when I hit a particularly sensitive spot of her neck with my lips, her scent thickening with sugar as it mingles with the scent of the beach.

Sadly, mother nature takes that as her moment to step in before I get ahead of myself, a gust of wind forcing me away from Juno’s skin and bringing some semblance of clarity with it.

With a sigh, I pull back and teasingly demand, “You might want to get those photos done now before I haul you back to the car, drive us all the way home, and make that after-party happen. I’ve needed you since long before I hit puberty, Juno, but I really fucking need you right now. So, make magic with the camera so I can get you beneath me.”

Juno shivers once more, and it has nothing to do with the chill in the air, her pale eyes darkening with a flood of arousal that has her scent growing even sweeter and sugary, the piña colada scent filling my mouth with saliva.

It takes a Herculean kind of strength to let her go, but when I finally unlatch myself from her, I sit back in my seat and simply watch the woman I’m going to make a pack with and spend the rest of my life with as she snaps picture after picture, long after the sun has gone down and the last embers of the small bonfire die out.

It’s only when the stars speckle the sky and the chill in the air grows too sharp to stay out any longer that I finally drag Juniper back to the car, driving like a careful bat out of hell all the way home with a singular goal in mind.

I’m making Juniper Baines mine tonight.

Chapter 24

Juniper

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