So, he reaches across the console to place his hand palm-side up on the top of Luca’s smooth thigh, inching that skirt up the tiniest amount, and even the Wolf shivers when Luca places his smaller hand in his for the rest of the ride.
Crafternoon Delightoccupies a quiet corner of a small mall, about twenty minutes from home. The mall isn’t much—just the craft store, a pizza joint, and a convenience store. The bell above the door is old-fashioned, giving a soft jingle as a rush of warm, scented air brushes their cheeks. The place smells like paint, paper, glue, and…Luca’s aroused embarrassment.
They’re greeted by a sweet-looking human girl about Rowan’s age, who’s checking a stack of small plastic envelopes against an invoice on the tall check-out bench. “Welcome to Crafternoon Delight, how can I—oh.Uh, Hi, Luca.”
“Hi, Lily! How was your New Year?” Luca asks.
And while Rowan may be a fool, he is not easilyfooled. Luca, with his round cheeks flushed pink? Check. Twitchy fingers and a sweaty palm in Rowan’s? Check. That aroused, embarrassed, and sneaky mocha scent turned chocolatey? Check. If he didn’t know Luca was loyal, in love, and fucking soul-mated up the wazoo, he’d think his beta was cheating. With thisgirl.
But since Luca owns a t-shirt that saysNo Taco Tuesday–Only Man-Meat Mondayon the frontandhe made it himself on that Cricut thing he bought here last Christma–oh.
It’s with shocked embarrassment that Rowan and Lily stare each other down. She is the clerk who helped Luca make the jar’o’dicks, and helped him choose paint in every shade of rose, lavender, peach, and tan. Because she has seen pictures of Rowan’s dick.
It only takes a second of searingly significant eye contact for Rowan to know that he and Lily have come to an understanding: what happened at the craft store last Christmas willstayat the craft store.
It’s a rule. Everyone knows that.
So he nods, dragging Luca toward the back of the store, where he can see the brightly colored skeins of yarn. Gritting his teeth so he doesn’t forcehis mate “up” out of his subspace for the second time, he starts pulling pink rolls of yarn off the pegs and trying to imagine which one would exactly match Grayson’s perfectly pink penis.
“Ro—” Luca sounds uncertain. Probably because of the hot spiced rum aura he’s sending out in waves. Fuck. He’s ruining this special day that Luca had plannedagain,and for what? Because someone had seen his dick without him knowing? That’s stupid. Rowan would show anyone who wanted it a glimpse. Hehasdone it. He’d put these freaking jeans on for just that purpose. It’s the ridiculous Wolf being all controlling and stupid, and Rowan is done. Again.
With a subsonic growl, Rowan wraps his hand around the back of Luca’s neck and hauls him up on the tiptoes of his sexy-ass boots. Touching his nose to Luca’s, he licks a hot, wet stripe across his lips and leans in to suck on his earlobe. “Luc. Go find what you’re looking for. Call when you need help, yeah?”
He’s rewarded with a whine and a tiny nod before he heads off to the end of the aisle, a hot-as-fuck wiggle on those silky-smooth legs. Rowan cannot be blamed for adjusting his hard cock in those loose jeans for the umpteenth time since he’d put them on.
“Uh, excuse me.” Lily is holding one of those store baskets out, trying to look professional while maintaining eye contact and blatantly avoiding looking down or past him to Luca’s skirt swishing around the corner. Rowan can respect that.
“Oh yeah, hey, thanks for this.”
“That’s the job.” She shrugs and straightens a few balls of yarn someone had put back into the wrong section before continuing. “Can I help?”
He looks at the two pink yarns he’s holding in his hand, and he can’t quite choose. Neither is perfect, and Grayson is—well, like he’s said before—he’s perfect. “Yeah. I need pink mohair for a project I’m knitting. Neither of these is right.”
“You knit? So cool. Me too. What are you knitting? Does it have to be mohair? That’s itchy as fu–heck.”
Rowan chuckles, remembering that’s why it has to bemohair. “100%. It’s a sweater. Sort of. More of an experiment, if I’m honest.”A dick-speriment to see if he can get Grayson to wear it or let Rowan fuck him while he wears it…that sort of thing.
Lily must have the memory of an elephant, because her face goes red and her jaw drops open. She stares around Rowan’s shoulder after Luca, eyes vague as if she’s caught in a memory. Not sure if he should startle her or not, Rowan just waits.
A few seconds later, she gives a full-body shudder, but there’s determination written all over her face. “Pink, you said? But neither of these is right?” It’s admirable and fascinating as she grabs a ball of the palest lavender and the dusty rose shade slightly darker than the bubblegum one in his hand. “If you blend these two, you should get the exact shade you’re looking for…uh, yeah.” She drops the yarn into his basket, and with a nod, she flees the aisle.
He can’t help himself; he laughs. She had recalled Grayson’s dick shade exactly from memory from three months ago. It’ll be perfect. Rowan can’t decide if he’s going to tell Grayson or not. Maybe he’ll save it up as a treat for when Grayson’s being extraextra.
Better go find his wayward mate before he has time to think too hard about what Rowan hopes is going to be a very exhibitionist afternoon, and they end up giving Lily more than she should be expected to endure on a Wednesday afternoon.
Luca is bent over at the waist, looking at boxes of garden stone kits. Anyone who is looking could get a look at that perfect, juicy red butt with a single white handprint on it. Gideon would have had to hit it in the same spot over and over with incredible precision. It’s pretty and something they should be proud of, but maybe not in the kids’ section of the craft store.
“Luc, baby. You can’t have your ass out here.” Rowan presses on his lower back and forces him into a crouch instead of bending over at the waist.
“Sorry,” Luca giggles and points to the kit with its cement and mold. “I like this one. It’s got a faster curing time. They’re going to be so pretty, and then when the babies are big, we can do theirs too. It’ll be a pack project and last forever!”
“That’s a great idea. Do we need eight? Or do you want to just take them all? For future projects? Maybe Tsuki and the cats?”
“Really? Yeah! But they’re heavy.”
He’s not wrong. There are sixteen kits, and while they’re not big boxes, they each weigh ten pounds. They pile Rowan’s arms high with ten kits while Luca manages three in the basket with the wool and another three in his other arm. It’s stupid that they don’t realize how revealing it is until Lily’s eyes bug out of her head. Because while a hundred pounds of art kits might be easily done by a Were, a human man might be sweating a bit more.
Luca must think so, too, because he drops the three he’s holding (easily) to the floor with a crash. “Ro! I said they were too heavy for me! You’re strong, but I’m not at all.” Rowan groans quietly, because it’s the worst acting Luca has ever managed, but it seems to do the trick for Lily.
