Page 41 of Finlay

“God, what I wouldn’t give for just one night with that man. Just one. Hot. Night. When I could let my hair down and forget everything except Finn.”

It was a good thing I was in my wolf form. If I’d been human, I probably would’ve swallowed my tongue. To hear someone as sweet as Chester asking for such a thing? It was so damn sexy. It made me want to peel back his other layers. To tease out the man who hid behind the walls. The one who’d been locked away by his ex.

I suspected Chester wanted him teased out too. I knew about his loneliness. About the friendship group he’d surrounded himself with, once upon a time.He’d lost it all because of Matt. Lost a huge part of himself. I so desperately wanted to help him find it again.

All in all, it presented me with one huge fucking problem.

Did I want one hot night with a gorgeous man like Chester?

Fuck yes. Obviously. That wasn’t the problem. The problem wasn’t whether I could make it good for him either. My hookups might have been limited to rushed one-night stands, but I’dalwaysleft my partner satisfied.

The idea of having Chester under me for an entire night…yeah. I’d make sure he felt good. Over and over and over again. No, the problem was that I wanted more than one night with the man. Our conversations might have been one sided with me in my wolf form, but that just meant I had nothing to do but listen.

And the more I listened to Chester, the harder I fell for him. His quiet smiles. His caring nature. His gentle sense of humour. His thoughtfulness. His beautiful voice as he sang in the shower.

All of it appealed to me.

One night just wasn’t going to cut it. But the other benefit of having spent all this time with Chester as ‘Buddy’ was that it had taught me that he needed to be handledwith kid gloves. This was a man who’d been burned badly. So much so that he was afraid to let anyone else in.

Anyone, that is, except Buddy.

It had crossed my mind that, if this thing between us developed as I wanted it to, I’d eventually have to come clean. Would that break the trust we’d built? Or would Chester understand why I’d done it and that it was the only way I could help him feel less alone? To be near him in a way he was comfortable with?

It was a bridge that would need to be crossed in the future, but the path we needed to walk to get there was a long one. Plenty of time for what-ifs and possible complications.

Chester had given Buddy a chance, now I just needed him to give Finn one too.

If what Chester wanted was one night with me, that I could do. I’d make it the most spectacular, earth-shattering experience for him. I’d show him all the different ways he deserved to be worshipped. I’d lavish praise on him until he forgot he’d ever heard otherwise.

I could do all of that. Hopefully, well enough that he’d be keen for a repeat.

Time was all Chester needed. Time to see that I was a safe person, that I’d care for him in the ways he deserved, and that having me in his life wouldn’t limit it but enrich it.

But it wasn’t just persuading Chester to give me more than a night that I was going to have to contend with.

“I doubt he’d look twice at someone like me.”

That was something else he’d said. As if he had no idea what he looked like. As if I hadn’t come with his name on my lips every night for the past few weeks. Like he wasn’t aware that he was all my fantasies rolled into one beautiful package.

One I was dying to unwrap.

Usually, I’d laugh at someone being so unaware of how others perceived them. Knowing Chester’s history, all I felt was anger.

Anger that someone had made him believe this about himself.

Fury that he’d been made to feel lesser.

Rage that he didn’t realise he was too good for me, and not the other way around.

Today though, I was going to start righting those wrongs. I didn’t care how long it took—Chester deserved to know how special he was.

And I was just the male to do it.

For the first time in weeks, I was about to face him in my human form. He still watched me every morning in the loch, but I wasn’t supposed to know about that. I’d been pushing my luck too, dropping my clothes and towel right outside his house.

I was uncharacteristically nervous as I pushed the door to Thistle Do Nicely open. Logan had gone to Edinburgh and picked me up several new shirts and a pair of black jeans. He’d kept the shit he gave me over it to a minimum too, for which I’d be forever grateful.

I’d paired a forest green shirt with the jeans. Well, I say ‘I,’ but really it was Logan. He’d refused to let me leave the clan house until I met his standards. Once again, I’d skipped the cologne.

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