You aren’t your family. I want to tell her that. I want to believe. Because if she’s damned for being a Lynch, then I’m ruined as a Wolf. Shannon broke me. There’s no coming back from that—not serving my sentence, not visiting Mr. and Mrs. A, not building Lone Wolf.
I settle for saying, “You aren’t too wild.”
“After all the things I said the last time we were in this room?—”
“I had you on a leash.”
“I could have?—”
“We both were wrong.”
“I’m sorry I?—”
“So am I. I’m so, so sorry that I ever?—”
She sets a single finger against my lips. I barely resist the urge to catch the tip between my teeth. “Turn around,” she says.
“What?” I’m confused.
“Face the wall. Or better yet, step outside the room.”
“I— What— Why?”
“I’m going to set my password. And I don’t want any chance you’ll see what it is.”
I close my eyes.
“No,” she says. “Out of the room.”
I do as she says. I stand in the hallway like a trained hound, waiting for a command to hunt.
It takes her less than a minute. “Thank you,” she says when she joins me.
“For what?”
“For the network. For taking care of Granny while I was gone. For saying that you’re sorry.” She takes a deep breath and raises her chin. “And for taking me downstairs and proving you truly want me home.”
56
KATE
He treats me like his equal. He doesn’t ask if my offer is real. If I truly mean it.
Instead, he leads me down to the dungeon.
It’s colder than I remember. The shadows are darker in the corners. The armoire is taller, its doors open to reveal more shelves. A shiver folds through my entire body, like I’m slipping through ice into a winter pond.
He sees me. He sees everything.
His palm burns the back of my neck as he pulls me close for a kiss. Improbably, impossibly, with all the things we’ve done down here, all the ways he’s fired every nerve in my body, this is the very first time we’ve kissed—aside from one quick peck at our farce of a wedding.
His lips play mine, promising, quickening. He growls as our tongues meet, or maybe that’s me, moaning. His fingers tangle in my hair, his palm cupping the back of my head and tugging me even closer.
This kiss is two melting into one. This kiss is a reminder of all the days—and nights—we’ve spent together. This kiss is a promise of all our tomorrows.
Heat radiates from his chest as I spend all the breath in my lungs. His thighs light a fire against mine. I’m reeling when he finally breaks away, and I wonder whether I’d fall if his hand wasn’t still clasping my nape. He inclines his head until his forehead touches mine.
“Red,” he whispers, the word almost a grunt. “If you need me to stop. Yellow, to make me slow down.”
