Page 68 of The Wolf's Kidnapped Mate

My ears twitched. That sounded like Kylie.

Had she been here the whole time?

Dim light shone through an opening that grew brighter as the whispering palms allowed me to exit their ghastly tunnel. Didn’t matter how many times I walked through there. It never failed to give me the creeps.

Kylie sat on the ground next to my evergreen plant, Oscar. She wore a pink tank top and skinny jeans with white sandals. Her hair was tugged into a loose half-ponytail away from her face. She was spritzing some water on his bushy leaves that rose in a cone shape toward the ceiling. He had grown a few inches since I’d left him earlier, likely a byproduct of Kylie talking to him.

So, she was good with plants.

That made me reconsider plenty of things.

She set the spritz bottle down and ran her fingers over his leaves. “He’s really nice under all that doom and gloom. You probably know that.”

My expression flattened. Alright, that was just plain rude.

“He’s handsome though,” she added. “He’s smart. He makes me feel safe.”

Warmth glowed inside me as I stepped toward her, slowly reaching my hand out to touch the back of her head.

Upon contact, Kylie squealed loud enough to make Oscar shudder and the whispering palms crackle menacingly. I spun around and waved at them while shushing them.

Kylie bounced from the ground and joined my task. She easily calmed the branches, urging them to get back into their place before they accidentally poked someone’s eye out.I watched her soothe them. I admired the way she reverently stroked their branches.

“You’re a natural,” I stated. “I’m glad to see it.”

She blushed enough to turn her autumnal tan from gold to blazing scarlet. “Yeah, well…I just…I don’t know. I just like talking to them. It’s nice.”

“Yeah, it is nice.”

“What are you doing here?”

I squinted at her. “I could ask you the same thing.”

She breathed deeply while tucking her hands behind her back. “I came to talk to you, but you weren’t here. And the palms, well—” She laughed while motioning to them. “They blocked me in.”

“Funny.”

“You think me getting trapped is funny?”

I shook my head. “No, I mean, I was looking for you too, actually.”

“When?”

“Just now. Earlier.”

She grinned up at me. “What a lovely thought.”

“There’s my sunshine.”

Sparks exploded in her eyes while she melted right in front of me. Her smile turned bashful, her eyelids fluttered, and her lower lip disappeared between her teeth. There was one surefire way I could keep her looking like that.

And it all started with another trip into town.

I waved toward the whispering palms. “You wanna take a ride into town?”

“That depends.”

I chortled. “The Jeep was destroyed. I’m afraid the Behemoth will have to do.”

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