Page 33 of The Alpha Option
There will be children in attendance. I think you can agree that protecting them is our highest priority.
Huckleberry Carter may escort you to and from the fairgrounds.
Looking forward to seeing you both.
Delaney.
Most of her anger vanished in the consideration of the Sunday event. Just the thought of more wolves, more shifters—
The idea made her damn near giddy on behalf of Stacy and Colt.
“That’s a happier expression than you were wearing a few minutes ago.”
She tilted her head up as she shoved her phone into her back pocket. Jace towered over her for a second before squatting at her side. His jeans were covered with dust, dirt showed in the ridges of his knuckles, and a dark streak was smeared across the bridge of his nose.
Even filthy, he looked delicious, and the thought pissed her off.
Stay cool. Stay even. “Invitation to the Sunday picnic.”
“Ah.” Jace nodded then adjusted position and began pulling weeds from where she’d loosened the soil. “It’s a pretty big deal. It’s a good step, considering you now live here and all.”
“I’m thinking about Colt,” she admitted. “He’s such a good kid, but he’s always felt different, which, hello. He is. I think this will be good for him.”
Jace stayed quiet for a minute, using the pitchfork from a kneeling position and prepping the next section of the flower bed without breaking a sweat. “All kids need to feel they belong. Forget that—everyoneneeds to feel they belong.”
He gave a pointed glance in her direction before going back to work.
She rocked back on her heels, knees resting in the freshly turned dirt. “What are you implying?”
He gave a gentle lift of his shoulders. “You said you needed to make this work. Timberwolf Lodge. The whole move to Jasper. That you burned bridges. Sounds as if where you were wasn’t where you needed to be.”
Nail on the head. And that just pissed her off all over again.
“Where do you get off telling me what I need?” Cassidy demanded. “I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I’m saying I don’t know if I want to have a conversation with you after you’ve been who the hell knows where for the past few days. You pull me along on some magical, mystical werewolf carpet ride, and then I can’t find you to ask questions. I see you across the yard chopping wood in nothing but your jeans and sexy, sweaty muscles, and I can’t sleep at night because every time I close my eyes, all I see is you, and I ache.”
Damn it.Cassidy wanted to slam a hand over her mouth, but it was now obviously five miles’ worth of words too late.
Jace squatted there beside her, balanced on his heels, a hungry look in his eyes and that cocky grin pasted on his face. Dimples in full force. She couldn’t take it anymore. Bastard.
She leaned forward, planted both hands on his chest, and shoved with all her might.
Somehow, between touching his torso and setting him in motion, the entire world rotated. He wasn’t flying away from her; she was moving in unison with him, hovering in mid-air for a split second before landing gently on her back with him over her.
Muscular arms were braced on either side of her head. His thighs rested on either side of her knees, pinning her in place from the waist down as he lowered himself until their groins connected.
His chest rocked in and out in an unsteady rhythm. His midnight-blue eyes shimmered with silver. His nostrils flared for a second, and then his eyes closed as he seemed to savour the scent of her.
“That’s not what I thought would happen,” she confessed, her voice a near whisper. As if she could say or do something and make this vanish. Make it change. And dear God, she might not know what the hell was going on, but she did not want it to stop.
“Cassidy?”
God, his voice. Like a velvet vibrator straight between her legs. “Yes?”
He lowered. Another inch. Lips closer. Gaze fixed straight on hers. “I ache too.”
And then he kissed her.
This was going way too quicklyafter having been stalled for way too long. Just touching her, being over her, was enough to make his wolf go wild.
