Page 82 of The Lunatics

Shush.”

“I’m not the one who just tripped over a pebble. You shush,” I said.

It was nearly dawn. Michael and I stumbled through the last few feet of forest behind my parents’ house with all the stealth of a drunken elephant. He couldn’t stop chuckling. I couldn’t stop grabbing his ass.

We were both exhausted and starving. My hair looked like I’d gotten in a fight with an octopus, and there was blood on my collar from where he’d bitten me. His left nipple was visible through the hole I’d widened in my haste to rip his shirt off. It puckered tight in the early morning chill, and I wanted to reach out and pinch it, but every time I tried, he batted my hand aside and said, “Don’t start that again.”

We looked like we’d spent the night brawling, which was why we were currently—unsuccessfully—trying to sneak back to the summerhouse.

It was a mark of how much he distracted me that I didn’t smell her. Grinning like a fool, I stepped through the thin scrim oftrees into my parents’ backyard. Mom stood on the porch, leaning against the deck rail, sipping coffee. She wore her favorite cotton bathrobe and the most antagonistic smile I had ever seen.

I froze, throwing my arm out to stop Michael in his tracks.

Mom’s grin only widened. “Good timing. Your father just ran out to pick up breakfast.” She leaned forward and took a deep breath through her nose. “You two might want to shower before he gets back. And then burn your clothes. You reek of bodily fluids.”

My face paled. Oh, Goddess. Dad. I didn’t think I could live through the awkwardness of him realizing something had happened between me and Michael. It was one thing to know your daughter had sexual partners, another thing to have the smell of it shoved up your nose.

Mom chuckled as she disappeared inside. I glared after her. One of these days, I was going to find a way to embarrass her the same way she did me.

The bonfire still smoldered in the center of the yard. Michael walked toward it, pulling his T-shirt off as he went. Judging by his haste, hereallydidn’t want Dad to realize what we’d done. He chucked the shirt onto the ashes, kicked his shoes in—seemed excessive, but okay—and then stripped off his pants, underwear, and socks, and tossed them in as well. There was a bottle of lighter fluid on a nearby table. He walked over and leaned down to scoop it up, giving me a spectacular view of the finest ass I had ever seen.

I heard a low whistle of appreciation from inside the house. Thanks to his increased senses, Michael did, too. Embarrassment flared over the bond. Turned out our connection was stronger after we blew it wide open last night, because I felt his cheeks burning.

Damn it, Mom!

She could tease me all she wanted, but Michael was intensely private, and it irked me to no end that she’d made my mate so uncomfortable.

“The outside shower is right over there,” I told him, pointing. “Go on. Everything you need is already inside. Including towels.” We kept it well-stocked for post-shift cleanup.

He handed me the lighter fluid and retreated, hands over his crotch to preserve what little modesty remained to him.

As soon as he was safely inside the shower, I turned and flipped off the back windows. Emphatically. With both hands. Mom laughed from somewhere on the second story. The woman was a menace.

I stripped my dirty clothes off and threw them on top of Michael’s. Then I added a few logs to the embers and doused it all in lighter fluid. The coals reignited a minute later, and flames soon licked over the evidence of last night’s fun.

Uncaring of what Mom thought, I joined my mate.

“I’m sorry about her,” I told him.

“It’s okay.” He stood with his wide back to me beneath the gentle stream of water.

“What’s wrong?” I could feel that there was something troubling him beyond his embarrassment.

“I almost gave myself away,” he said, quiet.

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

He turned and pulled me into the water with him, wrapping his arms around my upper back. His thighs caged mine in. My breasts flattened against his pecs. His lips brushed the shell of my ear, voice low so it wouldn’t carry. “I shouldn’t have been able to hear her. She did it to goad you, not me.”

But hehadheard her and blushed in response.

I stiffened within his arms. “You kept your back to her. She didn’t see.” And even if she had, would she have put two and two together?

“I know. But if that had happened in the city…”

I let out a thready breath. He didn’t have to finish the sentence.If it had happened in the city, we would have been screwed. I’d already learned that city preternaturals were forever looking for weaknesses in those around them. Whether an enemy witnessed his slip, or his mother, the cat would be out of the bag. Or at the very least, it would put a question into their minds that we really didn’t need there.

I’d been so worried about his power giving him away that I’d overlooked all of the small ways his increased senses might do the same.