AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kier.
He was right here. She didn’t push him away. She found joy in reaching for him instead.
Chapter 7
Kier
Kier’s breath caught as Taylee came tumbling from her seat, across the middle of the truck, and straight into him. There wasn’t much room in the truck to begin with, so she had to angle sideways between him, the dash, and the wheel. He reached for her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself in close. He could barely believe this was real. She’d flayed herself open, coming to him like that. After the accident, she’d been closed off while she healed, shutting him out. He wasn’t offended, but he was used to giving her distance and time.
She hadn’t shut him out with this, and she wasn’t shutting him out right now. It felt more like she was coming home than ever, but they weren’t there yet. He knew it was way too soon, but he couldn’t stop himself from cupping her face, his thumbs sweeping over the smooth skin of her cheekbones. He kept going, until his hands reached the soft strands of her hair.
She burned bright at his touch, her cheeks flushing, the lights coming on in her dark eyes. He felt her energy filling up the truck and he could scent her desire. She smelled like fresh flowers, like a citrus grove, like the wind and the rain and the forest. He felt the energy of her like the sun had been thrust into the truck with them.
She gave him the softest, shyest smile he’d ever seen on her and then her fingertips skimmed over his lips. First the top, then the bottom. Hers parted and her pupils blew out. She leaned in and kissed him.
He wanted to control himself and let this just be a kiss, but even their first kiss had been wild, and this one was no different. Taylee kissed him like she’d missed him, but she also kissed him like it was the first time. It was wild and uncontrolled. All passion.
Kier had so many memories. Happy and sad, ones full of excitement and thrills, ones where he stood in silence and awe. He remembered the first time they’d kissed like it was just a few minutes ago. He had that same shivery, bigger than himself feeling now. Like all the knowledge of the world had been dumped into him and then stripped away just as quickly, leaving him buzzing and half crazed, and in a perpetual state of blissful wonder.
The kiss overwhelmed him. He loved the taste of his mate. He’d needed this so badly.
No matter how much he needed this, the physical connection he’d longed for and hoped for and thought that he might have lost forever, his mate urging him close, pulling him to her, frantic with the need for him, he still needed, above all, to make sure she was okay.
He pulled back and looked her in the face. Her eyes were pretty much all black. He kept his hands in her hair. They trembled slightly. No, more than a little. He was shaking all over.
“What’s wrong?” Taylee panted. She didn’t move or look betrayed. She wasn’t angry. She leaned in and kissed him gently, lingering against his lips long enough to make him groan, but she did pull back. “You think I’m not in my right mind. That’s what’s wrong, isn’t it? Or maybe I’m doing this wrong. Maybe it’s not like it was before and you liked it better before and you don’t like it now.”
“No.” He kissed her because he couldn’t not and still be alive. “No, it’s not that at all. It’s just that I don’t—I just want to be sure.”
“I’m sure. Are you not sure?’
“I’m always sure when it comes to you, but we’re both emotional right now.”
Taylee flung herself back, hit the dash, winced, and angled herself back into her seat with a thud as her back hit and her head slammed against the headrest.
“You think I can’t know what I want.”
“Tay. That’snotwhat I meant.”
“I get it.” She blinked at him. “I went from wanting to reject you so I could self-destruct to kissing you. That probably says I don’t know what I want, but I think that I do. Even if my brothers were perfectly rational men and wouldn’t have done a single thing other than inform our alpha and await his decision to act and go on guard to protect us as a family, I wouldn’t have told them first.” Her eyes burned and glistened. She blinked furiously to clear them, and he felt the pressure growing in his chest. It slayed him that he’d had to deny her. It hurt him even more than she might have suffered even a sliver of hurt or seen that as a rejection.
She pushed a stray strand of hair back, then tucked her hands into her lap. She never stopped looking right at him. “It was you I wanted. Out there in the woods, when I was running back to my parent’s house with Onyx. As soon as I got there, it was you I wanted to call the whole time. Not because I need you to solve my problems, even if I can’t do this on my own, but because I wanted you near me. I wanted you as part of what makes me whole. I wanted you on instinct. That didn’t come from my mind. It came from something so much deeper running through me. I know I hardly have any of my shit together. I don’t have my bear or my brain or my life under control, but I know I wanted to kiss you right now.”
“I just want to be respectful. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Okay.” Her lips wobbled and she turned to stare out the window.
“I didn’t mean to offend you or imply that I don’t want this. You could probably feel that I did.” She’d been pressed upright against him. He wanted to adjust himself even now because he’d never been so hard in his life. He could feel his face heating up. It must look ridiculous on a man as big as he was. A man who looked like he was meant to inflict physical damage.
She turned back to him. “I know. I know you remember me before and I can’t. I know you’re trying to make sure that I’m sure. It must be so unnerving, being with someone who is nothing like the old me.”
A low, animal sound escaped his throat. “You’re so much like the old you. You might not have access to your memories, but you feel like you. You still have so many of the same mannerisms. You still think like you, in that you’re kind and selfless. You love your family. You love being out in the wilderness more than being indoors. You love the smallest things. You’re so empathetic.”
“I’ve been selfish and—”
“No. You haven’t. I understand.”
He wanted to reach for her with everything he had, but right now, there was a threat out there that could harm them all. He had to think clearly. The first thing about guarding Taylee and keeping her safe was to figure out who was behind it, put a face to the man she described, and research him in and out. He could do everything in his power to keep Taylee, Misty, and Onyx safe, but he couldn’t do it alone.
