He ground against her again, pressing against the most sensitive spot between her legs. She closed her eyes and gasped at how good he felt, even separated by clothes. Oh, she was well on her way to forgetting her name all right. And her birthday, hometown, and any problems as well. All she could think right now was the word Creed, whispered over and over on an unending loop in her mind.
“I want that. Do that,” she begged as he trailed his kiss down her neck.
Creed chuckled deeply and nipped at her neck, then eased away. “Here is not the place.” He jerked his chin at something behind her shoulder, and when she turned and looked through his truck window, Jason and Clinton were standing by the biggest machine, hands linked behind their heads, and pelvic thrusting. Lovely.
Creed gripped the doorway of his truck above her head and grinned, the epitome of cocky male. “Damn, I forgot how good you were at kissin’.”
Gia ducked her chin so he wouldn’t see her blush. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
“Hmm,” he said, noncommittally. He leaned forward and kissed her again, just a quick peck and soft nibble, then he pushed back away from the truck. “Come on. You’re about to see something no one else has seen before.”
“And what’s that?”
“How bad a C team crew of lumberjack bear shifters can fuck up a day at work. Don’t judge us based on the amount of blood we shed today. We’re still a work in progress.”
Gia sighed and followed behind the man who had burrowed his way into her heart in a staggeringly short amount of time. She wouldn’t judge the Gray Backs. Not anymore. Not after what Creed had told her about them.
So what if they were broken? She respected them more for not giving up and continuing to try. How many people did that? Not many in her experience. Not Brittney or Kara, or her parents. And not one of the Gray Backs had looked at her like she was disappointing when they’d found out she was pregnant with Creed’s child. All but Easton had accepted it without even a judgy quirk to their eyebrows. Brittney and Kara, who she thought were her best friends, had ditched her the moment she turned up preggers. The Gray Backs, however, had acted like, pregnant or not, that didn’t matter to them. And as scared as she was of Easton—or Beaston—he had told Jason not to call her “Bombshell.” He’d noticed she didn’t like the name by observing her reaction to it. In his own crazy way, he’d defended her.
She was beginning to learn just how big Creed’s heart was to accept all of these troublemakers into his crew. While she’d been living a life concerned with pleasing her parents, looking perfect, and finding the perfect job to live the perfect life, Creed had been in these mountains struggling every day to socialize a crew other alphas would’ve given up on.
On the way to meet the Ashe Crew yesterday, Willa had said, “It’s beautiful up here, isn’t it?”
As Gia slipped her hand into Creed’s offered one and looked over the edge of the landing to the mountains beyond, such a feeling of unexpected belonging filled her. Beautiful didn’t even begin to describe it.
Chapter Seven
Creed bit his thumbnail absently and watched Tagan, alpha of the Ashe Crew, back the trailer into the space Easton’s used to sit before the crew nut-job had dragged his singlewide into the woods to live like a recluse.
Tagan had his head out the window of the eighteen wheeler, eyeing the cream-colored trailer with the green shutters as he turned the wheel.
“Left,” Creed called. “Angle it a little more left. Yep. Keep going. Little more.” He held up his hand. “Stop.”
Jason began securing the trailer while Matt unhitched it from the back of the truck.
Tagan jumped out and came to stand beside Creed. “A few rules about this trailer.”
“Hit me,” Creed said with a nod.
“One, don’t fix it up with those fancy shingles like the rest of your trailers. Ten-ten is perfect just how it is.”
Creed cocked his head and squinted at the house number, 1010. The last zero was dangling and hanging on for dear life by one rusty, bent-up nail. “Okay, can I at least fix the number?”
“Don’t fix any of it. Brooke and the girls wouldn’t part with this place unless I promised them you wouldn’t change a thing. Also, there is an old field mouse in there somewhere. His name is Nards, and he’s special to the Ashe Crew. Please don’t kill him. He’s tame as a pet and will eat crackers right out of your hands if you let him. Just please, let him alone.”
“Great, I’m sure Gia will be thrilled to have a rodent for a roommate.” She probably wouldn’t freak out or scream bloody-murder any time she saw him at all, ha! “Anything else?”