Page 29 of Oakheart

Aleks walked around the island toward me, and I flinched. I mean, I had bent over like—like that might be what I was going for already, but he didn’t move behind me.

He stood at my side, and his broad hand swept up from the base of my spine to squeeze the back of my neck. It was a soothing pattern he kept up, and his voice was so gentle when he said, “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

I let out a sound half between a laugh and a sob. “I fucked up,” I argued into the space between my folded arms. “I poked the bear.”

“He’s a wolf.”

“It’s just a saying. I—I didn’t have to provoke them. I could’ve...” What? Certainly not gone along with what they’d said. I’d seen the panic in Uncle Tommy’s eyes, and when I realized he wasn’t going to say a damn thing, I knew the stakes, and they hadn’t mattered more than stepping in. “Fuck, I’m sorry.”

Aleks made a low, dissatisfied sound. “You should not be sorry. You have done your best.”

I shook my head. I should’ve been able to avoid the flash of anger that’d made me jab at them. It might’ve been easier for everyone if I had just capitulated and made myself an ally rather than a problem.

But Aleks kept rubbing my back, and having him close helped. It took a minute before I could breathe, but eventually, I relaxed enough to inhale fully.

When I could stand up again without my head spinning, I stepped back. “We don’t... we don’t have to do this. We can fake it. I’ll make it convincing, but you shouldn’t have to?—”

Finally, a tiny smirk appeared on his lips. I knew that look; it was one of my favorites.

“I just mean, I—” He’d left his hand on my shoulder even as I straightened, and the way his thumb swiped up the side of my neck scattered every thought I had. “I didn’t mean to drag you into this.”

“Do you think I’ll hurt you?” He frowned, and I worried I was messing up already.

I shook my head. “It’s not that.”

“Good,” he said. “I wouldn’t.”

“I know,” I whispered.

“Do you not want to?” His hand stilled. The way Aleks was looking at me then was placid, entirely calm, as if none of this particularly moved him one way or another.

I bit my lip. Heat flooded my face.

It felt wrong to lie to him, and even if I did, I wasn’t very good at it. With a werewolf, to lie and get away with it, you needed not only to have masterful control of your inflection and expression, but also the hormones that changed your scent and the beating of your heart. It was hard to lie to one of our kind, and I just wasn’t that talented.

Rather than try, I asked, “Do youwantto?” Nerves squeezed my throat and made the question come out squeaky and strange.

It didn’t matter what I wanted, and it didn’t matter what Grant expected. There were other ways to get Aleks’s scent on me, and I’d simply have to figure out how to lie. I’d avoid Grant. I wasn’t ever going to press anyone to do anything with me that they didn’t want to do.

I didn’t want to be a bleak spot on anyone’s life, especially not like this. Aleks could have anyone, and I didn’t have any reason to think the list of people he wanted included me, but for my own part? I... wouldn’t mind. He was beautiful, steady, and kind.

I doubted, even if we did—well, I didn’t think Aleks would be anything like what Grant had in mind for me.

Aleks stared into my eyes, and I couldn’t read what was in his. He was scanning my face. His thumb pressed beneath my jaw, just over my hammering pulse.

I was giving everything away, and right then, I was hard-pressed to care. I wanted someone, wantedAleks, to take all the fear and doubt and second-guessing away from me, and if it didn’t mean anything tomorrow, today, it’d be better.

Hell, it’d been years since I’d been with anybody at all, and with his hand still on me, I?—

Yes, I wanted him.

That just didn’t matter if he didn’t want me too.

Rather than answer, his hand slipped around, pulling at the hair at the nape of my neck. I gasped, and he pulled me in. The second I stumbled into his sturdy chest, his mouth was on mine,open and tasting, his tongue delving in with claiming strokes that left me moaning.

He swallowed down every sound I made, his free hand flicking open my belt and the top button of my worn jeans. He pulled the zipper down before slipping his hand inside. His palm found me already hard for him. All it took was a kiss and his strong arms around me, and I was lost.

Pleasure sparked with every stroke, dancing across the base of my spine, skittering up my lower belly until I was whimpering into his mouth, gripping his shoulders, bucking into his touch.