Page 79 of Pack Frenzy
Her expression changes to surprise. “If I want,” she repeats, like she’s testing how it.
“Yeah. If you want.”
Eli bumps the door open. “I’ll start toast before Cassian eats cereal out of the box like an animal.” Then he disappears inside.
The silence that drops is easier this time. The bay shifts. Far out there’s a lighter strip of gray where the sun might show up if it feels like it.
“I didn’t—” Jess stops. Starts over. “I don’t want you thinking last night was about not wanting you.”
A fucking pain lodges behind my ribs. “I know,” I say, and I do. Her mouth on mine before we came here was real. But knowing that and feeling it at four in the morning are two different things.
Her shoulders drop. “Okay. Good.”
I look at her straight on. Let her see whatever’s on my face. “If you ever want me to back off,” I say, “just say it. You won’t hurt me.”
Her eyes meet mine. Dark. Steady. “And if I tell you not to?”
The air pulls tight between us. My hand finds the rail, grips. “Then I won’t.”
She holds my gaze, and her pupils go wide. Not omega biology. Just want and desire, or I’m fucking projecting because I want to fuck her, knot her, make her mine.
The fog wraps around us, making the world smaller. Just her slightly parted lips and my hands that want to touch so badly it’s a physical ache.
Color rises in her cheeks, spreads down her neck. She tucks her hair behind her ear with the cuff, looks away. “Brunch first,” she says. Almost a dare. “Then shoes.”
“Then shoes,” I agree.
I take the steps two at a time. The beach is cold and sharp and exactly what I need. Wet sand pulls at my feet. I run until the cabin disappears and the fog lifts enough to breathe. Until I’m just a body moving, heart pounding, lungs burning.
It doesn’t fix shit. The burn in my lungs just gives my want a rhythm. Meredith was love built slow—trust first, heat later. Jessis the opposite. Want first, logic after, and every breath feels like I’m choosing wrong and right at the same time.
I crave her bad enough that it’s making me stupid. Doesn’t change that Cassian got there first, and part of me is actually relieved because if it had been me, I don’t know if I could’ve kept it together. Could’ve stayed careful instead of claiming and biting, letting everyone see that she’s mine.
When I circle back to the cabin, the windows are glowing gold. Toast smell, coffee, voices layered over each other. Eli’s dry commentary. Cassian’s rough laugh. And Jess, softer underneath, weaving through it like she belongs here.
I stop at the steps. Let myself want this for one more breath. Us every fucking day with her in the middle.
Then I go inside.
Eli’s spreading butter on toast, and Cassian leans against the counter, looking smug as hell with wet hair and his coffee. And Jess turns from the counter, a smile already forming.
“Coffee?” she asks, running a finger down the French press.
“Yeah,” I say.
Not the promise I want to make. Not the one where I tell her exactly what I want to do with my hands and mouth. Not the one where I ask if she thought about me last night, even once. Not the one where I admit I’ve been half-hard since she walked into our lives.
Just the one where I show up. Where I’m steady and sure until she decides if she wants more.
Ifshe does.
The word tastes bitter. I take the coffee anyway. Let my fingers brush hers on the mug, watch her smile soften, and the noise in my head quiets for the first time since midnight.
Small victories. But I’ll fucking take them.
CHAPTER 19
ELI
