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But Leith? Leith kissed like he could see straight through me. Through every wall meant to keep others out, every anxiety, and every worry.
He’d been the first person to really chip all of that away—long before either of us had met the others.
It had terrified me at the time and caused me to use going back to Seattle to warn Brynn about Nash as an excuse. But when I’d woken up in his arms that morning, the deliriously happy feeling oozed out of me had made me think I was walking right into the same future my mam had with a smile on my face.
Leith was the complete opposite of my father in quite literally every way, but the fear had still been the same.
I didn’t know what good karma I put into the universe that put him back in my path, but I was sure glad for it as his tongue pried my lips apart in order to taste me.
Finally coming up for air, Leith rested his forehead against mine, his eyes intent on my face. “Was that okay?”
“It was more than okay,” I told him, my fingers tracing the lines of his jaw. “Thank you for letting me join your pack.”
“Thank you for not running away from me this time.” Leith leaned against the headboard of my bed, dragging me with him until I was cradled in his lap. “Can you promise me that you’ll stay and talk with us if things get hard?”
I thought about it, looking down at my hands. I wanted to say yes and leave it at that, but that wouldn’t be totally honest.
Whenever anyone in my family asked me why running was my knee-jerk reaction, I couldn’t quite explain it to them.
It felt as if I’d been running my entire life from my problems and breaking that habit wouldn’t be easy.
“I’ll try,” I finally said, resting my head over the place where his heartbeat was the loudest. “I can’t make the promise though.”
Leith’s sigh was tinged with disappointment, but he pressed a kiss to my temple anyway. “That’s all I can ask, I suppose.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes until I felt myself start to doze off.
“Will you go on a date with me?” he whispered, causing me to stir.
“Aren’t we already past dates at this point, Leith?” I asked with a yawn.
Leith shook his head. “No, I never got a date with you. One that’s out in public for the world to see.”
Guilt over that filled my chest as I sat up to look at him. Leith Dougall deserved to be shown off in public, not hidden the way I’d done in Scotland. “I think we can arrange that. Can I plan it though?”
He frowned. “Are you sure?”
I nodded with a slow grin. “Yep, it’s my turn to woo you, good sir, so prepare yourself to be courted by Ciara Callaghan, dating extraordinaire.”
Okay, that was a lie. My dating experience equated to the week and a half that Wiz and I had been dating, and while it may have felt like ages since then… I still didn’t have much to go off of.
“But you all have to meet my family first.”
Leith grimaced. “I’m sure they’ll be really pleased that you’re showing up with an entire pack in tow.”
“I’ll be sure to hide anything heavy that can be thrown,” I said cheerfully, snuggling back into his chest.
There was a pause. “You aren’t serious, are you? Ciara?”
I just smiled and pretended to fall asleep until I actually dropped off, comforted by the closeness of his scent and his warm body.
I was sure it would all work out, the dads couldn’t be that mad… right?
Chapter twenty-seven
“So let me get this straight,” Alexei Maxim said, his voice calm despite the sharpness behind his blue eyes as he stared at all of us from across the kitchen table.
We’d gone to their house to meet the rest of Ciara’s family and needless to say it was going… poorly.
