Page 51 of Entangled in the Woods
Everett chuckled to himself and ran his hand over his scruffy beard. “When have I been lacking in insight, Elise?”
“Well, these”—I put my finger on the rims of his glasses—“must not work very well. I’ve been in front of you many times, and you still can’t see what I want.”
I looked away quickly after I spoke. Where was this banter coming from? I was falling into his trap again. Everett did something to me that made me lose all common sense around him.
He grabbed my fingers from the rim of his glasses and dragged them under his nose, inhaling deeply. I gasped, holding my breath at the sudden interruption of our conversation.
“What did you do, Lyka?” Everett kept my fingers to his nose and continued smelling deeply. The short hairs on his upper lip prickled my fingers.
“What are you talking about?” My fingers probably smelled like whiskey sour and the soap I had washed my hands with a couple of minutes ago in the bathroom.
“Did you pleasure yourself after our run in the woods?” His voice was low and husky. The black pupils surrounded by gold swirls dilated as he waited for an answer.
I tried to pull my hand back, but he kept smelling my fingers. He was enjoying himself. How could he know what I’d done? I had showered and washed my hands multiple times before he just picked them up and smelled them.
I panicked, trying to come up with an appropriate answer. “I washed my hands.” My voice was squeaky and timid, no louder than a whisper.
“Lyka, you forget how good you smell to me,” he said. “Thatsmell won’t leave your skin for days. I bet every wolf in here can smell what you did earlier.”
My face flamed as I looked around the room.
“Are you that desperate for release that you had to use your hand?”
I looked back at Everett, shocked that he was asking me that. My eyes met his, and a wave of confidence came over me. I refused to take his teasing anymore. “Every time I’m with you, you touch me and kiss me and make me want more,” I said. “Of course I’m desperate. You haven’t helped me finish anything you’ve started.”
Everett growled at my response. It was obviously not what he’d been expecting. We had caught the attention of our table, and Kleio smiled as big as the Cheshire Cat, pleased with what was happening between Everett and me. Jenny looked confused, and her mouth dropped open as Everett lifted me off the chair, cradling me with one of his arms under my shoulders and the other under my knees.
“I can fix that.” His voice was confident and steady.
My legs squeezed together, trying to hold in the pressure that was building between them. He nodded at Gavrill and Jack before he stalked out of the bar with me in his arms.
I looked behind his shoulders. The shifters acted as if this was normal behavior. The only one just as shocked as me was Jenny. She stared at us with wide eyes and a gaping open mouth.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Keys.”Everett’s one-word request had me scrambling for my car keys in my purse.
“Jenny. How will Jenny get home?” I couldn’t just leave her.
“Gavrill will see that she gets home,” he said. “Later. Much later.”
Everett set me down next to my car and took the keys out of my hands. He opened the passenger door for me, and I slid into the seat, buckling my seat belt. Walking around the car, Everett’s shadow followed him. The shadow cast an ominous light around the car that sent shivers down my spine. We skidded out of the parking lot, sliding slightly on the gravel road.
I grabbed onto the door handle to steady myself and looked over at Everett. He looked calm and unbothered by his fast speeds.
“Don’t you think you should slow down?” The speed the car was going would likely get him sent to jail for the night.
“I don’t want to risk you changing your mind,” he said.
The confession made my heart skip a beat and butterflies flap wildly in my stomach. Apparently my signals had not been strong enough for him to know that there was no way I would change my mind. I had imagined this happening so many timesonly to be let down. There was no way I was going to let him get away.
Everett made me into this wild and needy creature that was both meek and assertive. Not afraid to take whatshewanted, but nervous enough to worry it wouldn’t be good enough or it wasn’t whathewanted. He had sent so many mixed signals to me that I felt chaotic.
We pulled up the driveway, and I jumped out of the car as he slid into Park. He walked up behind me and threw me over his shoulder, carrying me the rest of the way into the cabin. I squeaked as the air rushed out of my lungs from the pressure of being held against his massive shoulder.
“Your fucking hand,” Everett mumbled as he stomped down the hallway, still holding me like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder. He set me down on my feet carefully once we were in my room.
“It wasn’t even that good,” I confessed. It had barely taken the edge off, and after touching and talking with Everett, I was right back where I started.
