Page 41 of Wolf It Down, Knot Me Up

I’m trembling, every sensible thought long gone. “That’s not my dream,” I whisper. “That’s yours.”

He chuckles, low in his throat. “Keep telling yourself that, songbird.”

I narrow my eyes. “I’d outrun you.”

“You wouldn’t.” He says it with maddening certainty. “You’d glance over your shoulder to make sure I was still coming.”

My stomach flips. “Cocky much?”

“Then I’d catch you, and you’d be mine, here in the woods.”

I come apart at the seams listening to him, and somewhere far off, a sensible part of me is genuinely reminding me that tomorrow’s coming with its difficult choice and I can’t lose my head tonight.

“You’re funny,” I manage, easing back an inch, finding my grin.

His eyebrow lifts. “If you’re so convinced that’s not your fantasy…” His mouth curves upward slowly. “You could always chase me.”

My stomach does an alarming little flip. “Oh?”

He watches my face as though he’s already enjoying the thought. “You might have fun catching me.”

I laugh, shaking my head. “Careful. I might actually do it.”

His grin widens. “Fuck…” The word comes out almost under his breath, like the image has already taken hold. “I could get behind that.”

I swat his arm, laughing despite myself, and he catches my wrist. “I’m serious.”

“Yeah, well.” I press him back a step. “Maybe one day. Right now, I have to get home because, I swear, if I walk back to that fire, I’m not making it to my own bed tonight.”

“Tragic,” he agrees. Then his hands settle around my waist, and he lifts me off the stump, setting me on my feet. “Come on. I’ll get you home.”

“And when Roman and Grayson lose it that you came back without me?”

“I’ll handle them. Another few minutes with you, and I’ll happily take whatever they throw at me.”

We stroll toward the gold glow of the lodge, the woods drawing in around us, quiet now except for the steady crunch of our boots on foliage. “You’re not what I expected,” I say.

One dark eyebrow lifts. “No?”

I smile to myself. “Honestly? I don’t think I know what I expected anymore.”

The lodge rises out of the trees far too soon. We stop on the porch, and Wolf plants one hand against the doorframe above my head, leaning in until the space between us all but disappears. Heat rolls off him in slow waves. I laugh and flatten my palm against the middle of his chest before he can steal another kiss.

“Good night, Wolf.”

His mouth curves. “Cruel woman.”

“You’ll survive.”

“Will I? Pretty sure you’re sending your Alpha back into the woods with nothing but bad ideas and your scent stuck in his head.”

I bite back another smile. “That sounds like a you problem.”

“It becomes a you problem around three in the morning.”

I laugh, giving his hard chest a gentle shove. “Go.”

He doesn’t move.