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  Liv pressed her tongue to him and he thrust one more time, his fingers in her hair, his palms blocking all outside noise. She was lost in a soundless moment where he was letting go. His eyes flashed silver, then blue, then silver again and he looked nearly hesitant. Until his lips closed in a harsh seam and his jaw clenched and then it all went away when he smiled and just gave in to his orgasm. His body bucked and Liv smoothed her hands against his skin to feel all of him moving that way.

  And then he was coming and she was lapping at him, thinking he was so powerful and yet, somehow, so vulnerable. Maybe more vulnerable than her.

  ———

  “Hot food is totally overrated,” Garrett said, forking up microwaved scrambled eggs.

  Liv snorted, spraying crumbs from a room temperature biscuit. “Are you kidding? After that, I could eat rocks and twigs and be happy.” She sipped her coffee watching him.

  The strange look on his face had vanished once they were dressed and moving about the kitchen in domestic good humor. He had only seemed off for the blink of a moment and then he was fine. His hand came down on hers and he squeezed. It was an affectionate gesture and besides kind of turning her on, it made her feel good. Liv squeezed back.

  Another lawn mower kicked on and the sun was still shining in through the curtains but not as bright. “Storm’s coming,” he said.

  “Last mow of the season then,” she laughed.

  In their neighborhood, half the folks were older and retired and their schedules revolved around yard work. Mr. Scott mowed out front on Fridays, out back on Saturdays, handled weed and debris on Sundays. Mr. Towers up the street mowed the whole yard on Saturday, weeded on Sunday and did “landscaping and upkeep” on Monday afternoons.

  She polished off her last piece of crispy bacon and wondered now what? Assume the day was theirs? Assume she should go? Before she could ask him, the doorbell rang.

  “Sit tight. Maybe we can run up to the farm for some apples and that pumpkin pie they make once a year.” He rose and she was so grateful for him wanting her around she thought she’d fold up on herself right there. She was nearly weak with relief that she wasn’t overstaying her welcome.

  Liv heard a woman’s voice at the door and turned. She stared, knowing she shouldn’t but doing it anyway. The woman’s profile was regal and she was staring Garrett in the eye, so she was tall. Over six foot. Her long chestnut hair was tied into a windblown single braid and her face was ruddy with the October chill.

  After a brisk but affectionate hug, they spoke softly at the door and Garrett dropped his head, stepped back, let her in.

  Liv stood, feeling very much out of place now. She put her napkin on her plate and headed for the steps. “Excuse me,” she mumbled. “I’ll go up and…” She was going to say, take a shower but settled on, “Get out of your way.”

  “Hi there,” the strange woman said.

  Liv froze, turned, tried to read Garrett’s face but it was unreadable. She could tell by the air and body language that this was not a rival for his affection. This woman had a more maternal feel to her. Someone he respected and maybe even deferred to. “Um…hi. I’ll just…”

  She had never wanted to run more in her life.

  “Go on and take a shower, Liv,” Garrett said. His voice was low and controlled. He was struggling to keep a rein on his emotions. It boggled her mind that she could tell that already just from his stance and his tone.

  “Nice meeting you,” the woman said.

  “Likewise,” Liv said, wishing it were true. She didn’t know how to feel about the woman. And she didn’t know why she was suddenly so nervous.

  She ran up the steps and when she slipped into the hot steamy shower, she tried to get her heart rate down. She tried to calm the nerves that danced in her stomach. And she tried to figure out what the hell she was so nervous about in the first place.

  Chapter Eight

  The Truth

  “Is that her?” Kelly asked, stepping past him into his kitchen. The low wall that separated the kitchen from the foyer sported various potted plants and she touched each one in turn.

  “Her who?” Garrett turned his back on her to shut the door. Rather rude to do to an elder but he wasn’t feeling very polite at the moment.

  “The her who has grabbed you by the balls. And the heart,” she said, laughing when he started at her gruff language.

  “She’s just a friend.”

  Kelly tossed back her head, green eyes glittering like beach-glass and sniffed. “Really? Just a friend? I don’t recall you ever smelling that way after being around me.”

  “Ches would rip me to shreds,” he said.

  “Chester would not, because you would never feel that way about me.”

  Garrett pushed down the anger swelling in his chest. Seeing Kelly was too much. It brought to mind all the hurt and rage he had lived with before finally leaving. “Please, Kelly,” he said. “I can’t handle this right now.” He threw his hands up, facing her, trying to make her see. “I need to rebuild my life a shred at a time.”

  “Why are you being so safe with her?”

  He blinked, confused. “What?”

  “Oh, I smell sex and sex and sex,” Kelly laughed.

  He actually felt his face color as if there were any reason to be embarrassed by having sex in his own home. “Well, that’s great. Thanks for sharing.” Garrett pushed past her and started to load the dishwasher. When he looked at Kelly he saw the pack. When he thought of the pack, he thought of Eileen. And when he thought of her, he thought of the woman he adored, loved beyond measure, dying a horrible long death in a frozen winter wood, having been mistaken for a deer by a drunk who never should have had a weapon to begin with.

  “But I do not smell mating.” Her eyes were darker green now. She sat at his table and played with the small red napkin holder.

  “I don’t want to mate.”

  “She’s nearly fertile.”

  “I don’t want to mate!” he roared, crashing a plate down so hard it severed into three ceramic jigsaw pieces.

  “But you could. She smells…potent. Like her blood would be receptive to our—”

  “Stop,” he whispered. All the fight gone out of him. “No more.”

  “Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, you’re not mating with her because if you have unprotected sex, with the potential for conception, you might smell it on her?”

  “Smell what?” But he knew and yes, he realized. He was being so militaristic about protection despite the Pill and the clean bill of health because if he had sex with her with nothing between them but sweat and air and emotion, he would smell that she was to be his mate now. And that would mean letting Eileen go forever.

  “You know. A new mate. A new life. Fuck, Garrett, a second chance.”

  He put the broken plate in the trash and smiled. “So how is Chester, anyway?”

  Kelly frowned at him but conceded, nodding her head. “He’s good. Ornery as ever. Got any coffee for me before I hit the road back to town?”

  “Sure thing,” he said and poured her a cup.

  He’d changed the subject and she could tell, after knowing him all her life, that the subject would stay changed. No matter how much he loved her and Chester. No matter how much he missed the pack.

  Vengeance had been denied him. The life he was supposed to lead had been denied him. Maybe he was willing to take life up on its offer of a second fucking chance.

  ———

  He was impressed that Liv didn’t ask about Kelly. Liv had taken a long shower and then had stayed upstairs until Kelly’s pickup pulled out of the driveway. She had then come down nonchalantly enough, drying her hair with one of his thrift store towels as if she had not been waiting upstairs for the other woman to leave. He had let the nicety go but had been unable to suppress the urge to hug her for her kindness. So he had hugged her. He had pulled her in and hugged her so hard she gasped a little.

  Now in the apple orchard, he took her hand an
d led her to the best trees. “I always come to these trees,” he said, handing her a basket.

  “You’ve been here before?” She kept her eyes ahead and he could feel the uncertainty radiating off her in waves.

  “Sure. Every year. We eat apples, you know.” He laughed. “And the farm is just north of here. My home and family, I mean. And when I left…” he trailed off, part of him wishing he had never said it. Part of him hoping she would prompt him to ask. It would be like lancing a boil in many ways.

  “I thought wolves were pack animals,” she said, eyes on the tree. She was smiling but there was curiosity in her voice. She turned and smiled at him, her brown eyes a lighter chocolate shade in the sunlight. “Why are you staring at me?”

  “Because you’re gorgeous,” he said. The truth will set you free. “And I know you hung upstairs for me and Kelly and thank you. Oh and we are.”

  “Are?” She was watching his lips, her attraction for him blinking like an invisible neon sign that only he could see.

  “Pack animals. I left for various reasons.” He looked down and she looked up. He waited to see which way she would push him.

  “So that lady is…”

  So she would not poke at why he had left. She had a lot of courtesy, Liv did. “That is Kelly. Kelly is very much the matriarch of the pack. Her husband Chester is alpha patriarch.”

  “I’ve never understood that alpha stuff.” She selected a reddish gold apple and set it gently in the basket.

  “It’s complicated. And it’s not.” He shrugged. “I guess if you’re raised with it, the structure of it makes perfect sense. Chester is alpha and eldest. They are not necessarily one and the same.”

  “So are there other alphas?”

  “Yes but there can only be one. Mostly.”

  “Like Buffy,” she said and laughed.

  “Joke’s on you, little girl. I watched that show. I was, in fact, a die-hard fan.”

  “Ah, well, then you know what I mean.” Another red fruit went in the basket “Yes, that the lines can blur and it can get complicated.”

  She nodded. “Exactly. I always wanted to be a strong badass like someone on TV or in a comic. I always wanted to walk without fear.”

  He remembered her dream and dropped his own apple in the basket. “We all want power.”

  “Not even power, so much. More a sense of peace…safety.” She suddenly stood on tiptoe and kissed him. It was an entirely sweet and innocent gesture and it made his chest warmer than the sun ever could.

  “What was that for?”

  “Well, you’re away from home and from your pack. Your mom, so to speak, is clearly worried about you and I’m pretty sure wants you to come home but you still found time to save me and take me in and…make me feel good. And now,” she held another fruit high so he could smell its sweet perfume. “Apples!”

  “You like apples?” His blood had leapt when she’d kissed him. Garrett glanced around, seeing no one. They were far back in the orchard and the overcast afternoon had brought fewer visitors than normal.

  Liv nodded, kissing him again. This time her breasts pressed flush to his chest, the basket crushed between their bellies. “I love apples. They make me ready for fall. For pie and then snow and the holidays. They make me happy.”

  Garrett walked her back to the sagging wooden fence. The cluster of trees around them so thick the air was rich with the cidery smell of fallen apples and the lazy buzzing of the die-hard bees who fought the fall chill. He pushed at her jeans and her panties. She didn’t fight him. She in fact wriggled to help him and he bit her lower lip a little and she started. “Will this make you happy? We could get caught, you know. Someone might find us here.” Even as he said it, he pushed his finger into her pussy and found her drenched.

  “I don’t care,” she said into his mouth, her tongue sweeping in after the words. “I don’t care. Right here and right now. If we’re caught, we’ll have a good story to tell.”

  She shimmied her pants down and drew one leg out with a small move that reminded him of a ballerina. Garrett fished for his wallet and Liv tugged his belt. He freed the foil wrapper from the pocket and for one heartbeat he almost put it back. He thought of Kelly’s words. He wondered what he would smell if he put the condom back and just took her. Took her and made her his.

  In his mind a flash of sex and scent and the white blur of teeth at her nape. He shook his head, broke the packet, rolled the condom on but not before she touched his cock with her small cool hand. The feel of her skin on his skin nearly changed his mind right then and there. Again.

  Too soon. Too hard to deal with…

  He pushed her back, forcing that free leg higher up and driving into her like he was punishing her. But in the best possible way. She thrust up to meet him, clenching around him like a hot wet fist. The perfect amount of tension in her cunt, the perfect amount of lips on his as she kissed him. Her mouth hot and lush like her pussy. Her eyes closed, lashes brushing his cheek. The golden light flashed in her long blonde hair as it tangled around her face. She looked very much like a painting and moved under him very much like a dream.

  Garrett touched her everywhere. Moving over her and into her. “Right there,” she said. He rocked against her, finding his rhythm, reading her body, inhaling her sweet breath. She came, gripping up around him, and he had to close his eyes to hang on.

  “Give me one more, sweetheart. One more. I like to watch your face as you come.”

  She opened her eyes then and there was so much trust there. The words hovered on his lips. Telling her how he felt, for no reason other than from being around her, would either be the smartest thing he’d ever do or the dumbest. He swallowed the words. “Come on, Liv,” he whispered against her neck.

  He shifted his hips a bit, going deeper but slower, feeling every nuance of her reaction. She hooked her leg behind his waist, pulling him in but surging up to meet him with her hips. Her mouth popped open, bringing to mind many X-rated thoughts, and he groaned. “Come with me,” she said.

  Garrett nodded, kissing her before running his teeth down her neck so she shook under him. Her tight pussy gripped him taut and she pulled at his shirt. The fence groaned with their added weight and then she was coming, little spasms gripping his cock until he lost the battle and came with her. He’d never lost a better battle.

  “Wow,” she said. Her eyes flying open just as he heard the distant voices of some people approaching.

  “I think someone’s coming,” Liv said and they both laughed. “Not us!”

  “I think—” But he never got to finish because the fence collapsed on them and dumped them on the ground. A tangle of clothes and limbs and apples.

  Chapter Nine

  Pie

  “Jesus, please us!” Liv couldn’t stop laughing though as Garrett fumbled to yank up her jeans and then actually help her up off the hay-scattered ground. He grabbed the fence and stabbed the post back into the ground deep enough to keep it upright. Probably deeper than it had been to begin with. “I’m guessing a normal man couldn’t have done that?”

  Garrett shrugged. “Probably not.” He buckled his belt just as a family of four rounded the bend, toting apple baskets with them. Mom, Dad and the two young boys smiled and started grabbing fruit from the trees. “Whew. That was close.” He bent to collect their apples and Liv let herself admire the broad muscles of his back jumping under his navy pullover. The way the late afternoon sun somehow turned the coffee color of his hair to burnt caramel in places. The way he smelled.

  She bent, brushing his finger with hers as she helped pick up the scattered fruit. He turned his head and she boldly planted a kiss on his mouth. “Close but worth it,” she whispered, her lips pressed to his earlobe so only he could hear.

  “Careful,” Garrett growled, snagging the last apple and plopping it in with the others. “Keep that up and it’ll happen again. And I don’t want to scar the Brady Bunch for life.”

  She nodded, giggling but that sharp jump o
f excitement in her made her feel electric. Garrett Gustafson did really, really weird things to her. Things she liked.

  “Let’s go then, we have enough for me to make you a pie,” she said. An odd domestic bliss had settled over her. She rarely made pies, though the ones she did make once in a blue moon were damn good. She had no one to make pies for. During the holidays she would bake for Ellen and the office and if she went home to visit, she’d bake with her mom. On a weekly basis, though, her sweets were store bought. No sense in getting fancy just for yourself.

  “I love pie. You’d better make two. One for me and then one for me and you to share.”

  Liv laughed but believed him. Apparently shifters ate like horses. She’d seen him put away a huge breakfast and now his stomach was rumbling. “Maybe we should grab a pit beef sandwich before we leave.”

  Garrett threw back his head and sniffed. “I’d tell you to lead the way but…” He’d taken a sharp left up a dirt hill, past a small ragtag band playing bluegrass and to the hut that held a pit and men serving up beef on rye bread with horseradish sauce.

  “But we’re here!”

  “Exactly. You find a table, I’ll get the food. You want one or two?”

  She chuckled but realized he wasn’t joking. “Um…one. They’re huge!”

  Garrett bounded off, looking very much in that instant like an overgrown boy. Liv let the happiness in her flare bright and hot for just an instant and then she wrangled it. She was being silly. This was hooking up at the least, dating at the best. No reason to feel all warm and fuzzy. She snagged them a small plastic table set with two green chairs, a chrome napkin holder and salt and pepper shakers.