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The walk to the coffee house set me right, the fresh air giving me the time I needed to compose myself before seeing Savannah again.
In control, I pushed open the door to Calendar Coffee, and noticed her immediately, chatting away with the owner, Chloe Calendar.
“Hi,” Savannah welcomed me. I clenched my fist so as not to pull her to me the moment her gaze met mine. She wasn’t that good an actress to hide her desire. And if not for me being well-practiced in tempering down my needs—or upping my guard—my rock-hard cock would have pressed against my jeans for the world to see.
“Hi,” I replied, noticing Savannah wore her jeans again today, but this time with a shirt that clung enough to whet my appetite. And boy, was I hungry.
“Shall we get the coffees to go?” I suggested after saying hello to Chloe.
“Sure. I’ll take an almond latte, thanks. Decaf.”
“I’ll just have the usual, Chloe, thanks.” I got out my wallet.
Savannah waved me off. “I’ll get this.”
“I don’t think so.”
She shrugged, taking a note from her wallet and handing it over to Chloe. “I’m not complaining. You’re better than a guy who gets out his calculator, but you got dinner last night. I’ll get the coffee.”
Chloe laughed. A bright smile hovering on an attractive face nearing middle age. Her actual age was older than my own. But she was a human mated to a wolf, and the mate magic kept her young. “It’s all about equality nowadays, Donovan,” Chloe said, handing Savannah her change. “We’ve got to ride with the times.”
“You can say that again,” I muttered, reluctantly putting my wallet away. I didn’t like it, wanting to care for her—my wolf even more so.She’s not ours!I roared back to the insistent furry and fanged part of me.
Savannah handed me the coffee in a reusable cup—Chloe refused to use the throwaway kind—and the hunter’s scent reached my nostrils. My wolf ignored my grumpiness and jumped to attention. Savannah smiled and waved goodbye to Chloe.
Following Savannah out of the shop, I let my eyes linger on the sway of her hips, imagining them on me, my fingers digging into her flesh as I pulled her back and forth on my cock.
“Where are we going?” Savannah broke into my thoughts, and I tugged myself away from the fantasy.
“There’s a place I’d like to show you. Warren’s Brook. It’s where I go to think sometimes. I think an artist like you will appreciate it.”
“Oh.” She frowned at the name of the place, and it annoyed the fuck out of me. She’d reacted to the mention of my original name, something Gideon would have given her. He wouldn’t know about the change to Donovan Darman, and she’d made the connection. And it affected her.
Why?
I shoved it aside, not wanting it to put a damper on the day. But it also gave me the reality check of stepping up my game, as Kyran said. I began by probing more about her home life. “How come you’re not traveling to Albuquerque with the rest of your family? Do you not live near them?”
Refusing to look at me, she replied, “I only have my uncle. And my aunt, of course.”
“Your parents?”
“They died.”
The hurt in her voice confirmed the information I’d learned about her. The facts said her parents had died in an accident when she was younger. But I knew little more than that they’d got killed in a hit-and-run and her uncle had taken her in.
“I’m sorry,” I replied, meaning it. I took hold of her hand, unable to help myself, linking my fingers with hers.
“It’s fine.” She glanced over and gave me a small smile. “It was a long time ago. Car accident.” She sighed. “Although it was no accident. An idiot taking the turn too fast caused my dad to swerve. He hit a rock on the road. The car took a tumble into the lake and trapped them so they couldn’t get out.”
“It doesn’t matter when it happened. It still hurts you.”
“Yeah.” She laughed, trying to convey her indifference. But it didn’t fool me. “It hurts. But sometimes you miss the ‘what if,’ rather than the memories, you know? Memories fade, but not the questions: what if they’d survived and saw me graduate? What if they’d survived and embarrassed me by taking photos of me in my prom dress? What if they’d survived and …?”
“And what?”
She took a sip of her coffee, gripping more tightly on my hand. My wolf curled up inside me, sated, happy at her touch.
“Nothing.” She changed the subject. “How about you? Does your family live here?”
