Page 15 of To the Grave

It was early when Wolf pulled up outside Cassie’s Cuppa on Friday morning. I’d finished my workout and was looking forward to two days off — from the gym and work — to sleep in and work on the house.

I’d been surprised when Locke had said, “See you Monday.” He’d been ruthless all week — and I had the sore muscles to prove it — but when I’d questioned him to make sure he’d said what I thought he’d said, he told me my body needed rest and lots of water and good food for recovery.

He didn’t have to tell me twice. My appetite had come back with a vengeance, but it wasn’t the donuts-and-pasta appetite of the last three months. For the first time in a long time, I wanted giant salads and grass-fed burgers, Thai food and clean soups.

Wolf turned off the car. “We could sit somewhere else. On the other side of the coffee shop.”

“You won’t even know we’re there,” Otis said, leaning forward from Benji’s back seat.

“You’re not coming in,” I said. We’d already had this discussion. I was meeting Ruth for coffee before she drove tothe local community college for the classes she took there one day a week. It was a program for accelerated students, and since Ruth was as much a superstar student as she was a superstar cheerleader and a superstar lacrosse player, she was enrolled in the program. “That would be weird.”

“Would it?” Otis asked.

“Yes,” Wolf and I said at the same time.

“We’ll keep an eye on you through the window then,” Otis said.

“That doesn’t sound creepy at all,” I said.

“Does it?” Otis asked.

“Yes,” Wolf and I said at the same time.

“I’ll be fine.” They never let me go anywhere alone anymore, the only exception being Cantwell. They still drove me to work and picked me up, but even Otis acknowledged I was probably safe inside the office building with everyone else. They weren’t worried about a mass serial killer — just someone who had it in for me. The same someone who’d started the fire that had killed Jace.

I missed tooling around in the Mustang, but I got it.

I reached for the door, then felt Wolf’s hand on the back of my head. I turned to look at him and fell into his blue eyes.

“Hey,” he said. “I think you’re forgetting something.”

I leaned over to kiss him and lust surged through my body, my pussy pulsing with hunger until the quick kiss I’d meant to give him turned into something heated, our tongues sparring. My nipples were hard when I forced myself to pull away.

“Damn,” he said.

“I’ll take some of that,” Otis said.

I twisted in the front seat but the angle was bad so I ended up giving him a quicker kiss than I intended. Still, his lips were pillowy on mine, enough to remind of what it felt like to be in bed with him and Wolf, their lips and fingers everywhere.

“Sorry,” I said, a little breathless.

“If you’re apologizing for my hard-on, you can make it up to me this weekend,” Otis said.

I smiled. “Deal.”

I got out of the car and hit the pavement feeling better than I had in months. I still felt like I couldn’t breathe when I thought about Jace, but when I could tuck that into a dark corner of my heart, my body and mind felt alive.

Awake.

And my body was more than ready for playtime with Wolf and Otis. Not the sad sex we’d been having, where I came and came only to fall apart crying when it was all over, but actual mind-numbing fucking.

I was glad I was wearing my sports bra. My nipples were so hard they hurt and my cunt throbbed at the thought of two whole days at home with Wolf and Otis.

I stepped into Cassie’s feeling almost embarrassed by the thoughts running through my head.

The coffee shop was packed with weekend tourists. I lifted a hand to Cassie when she caught my eye and she met me at the end of the counter with my latte.

“Sorry I can’t chat,” she said. Her copper hair was as shiny as a new penny, pulled back into a ponytail, and her hazel eyes looked more blue than green. “You know how it is this time of year, the world is about to run out of pumpkin spice everything.”

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