“Wow! You appear to have brought me to a field... in the middle of nowhere.” She tried to eye him speculatively. Impossible in a blindfold. “If you’re an axe murderer if you have to tell me you know.”
“Nah if I was an axe murderer I wouldn’t have picked you up in front of your sister and Jolene. I would have made you to come to me, and I would have given you a fake name.”
Kira smiled wryly. “I can see you’ve thought about this.”
Gabe squeezed her hand. “I’m nothing if not thorough. Come on we’re almost there.”
Gabe stopped moving and placing a gentle hand on her waist maneuvered her to the right. “Wait here.” He whispered in her ear. She shivered as his breath tickled her skin.
The she-wolf flinched as a tinny rendition of ‘baa baa black sheep’ began to blare at her. It was followed by a lumbering, mechanical sound.
Instantly Gabe was by her side carefully removing the blindfold. “You can look now.”
Kira gasped. In front of her was an old fashioned carousel ride. The bright smiling horses bobbed up and down as they slowly made their way round and round. She spied a powder blue horse with bubblegum pink hair and her face lit up. It was beautiful! Just like the one she remembered. She spied a picnic basket in one of the chariots. He’d thought of everything!
“I figured I wasn’t exactly cut out for real horses so I’d give mechanical ones a try.”
She turned to Gabe practically bouncing up and down like a bunny rabbit. “How did you find it?”
Gabe shot her a lopsided smile that sent warming jolts directly to her womb. The flickering lights of the carousel danced over his chiseled features. God he was beautiful!
“I’d like to say I searched high and low but really I just got lucky. I ripped up a few parking tickets for the guy who owns it.” His brow creased. “Please don’t tell Alec.”
Kira giggled before throwing her arms round him. “I won’t. It’s the loveliest thing anyone’s ever done for me. I love it! I love... it so much.” Heat suffused her cheeks and she buried her face into his hard chest. She was going to say ‘you’ but stopped herself. Her wolf had been all for it and was now extremely disgruntled.
She felt that she loved him but it was too soon to say it. Right?
Gabe felt a sharp twinge of disappointment but quickly shook it away, ignoring his love sick beast. Slow and steady. That’s what he kept telling himself. The time for ‘I love you’ would come later. Slow and steady. If only his wolf and his arousal would listen.
He plastered a smile on his face and angled her away from his body. He didn’t really want to freak her out by just how turned on he was right now. “Well come on! Don’t you wanna take a ride?”
Kira beamed. “Oh god yes! Race you!”
Kira sprinted toward the carousel and leapt aboard weaving her way through the horses and carriages. Chuckling Gabe chased after her.
She climbed onto the powder blue pony and laughed at seeing the big wolf tentatively walking toward her, steadying himself on each pole. His legs flailed a little.
“What’s wrong? You look like Bambi taking his first steps!” It was freaking adorable!
“I’m fine when the ground isn’t moving...” Gabe grumbled, none too happy about looking weak in front of her. His wolf snarled at him. Get it together!
Kira hopped off her horse and glided toward him. Show off. She put her hands on his waist to steady him. The warmth of her soft touch seeped through his body, he almost groaned in satisfaction.
Her deep brown eyes sparkled at him. “You’re just no good with horses of any kind are you Bambi?”
Gabe relaxed his grip on the poles and tried to suppress a smirk. “How do you know it wasn’t my plan to get you to hold on to me?”
Kira raised an eyebrow and dropped her hands. He immediately flapped his arms and she hooted with laughter before grabbing him again.
She leaned up and unexpectedly placed a chaste kiss on his lips. Gabe sighed and licked his lips, delighting in her taste. Strawberries. The brief, tender touch subdued his wolf. Even the slightest affection from her was glorious.
“You’re not that good of an actor.” She drawled huskily as her wolf simpered. “Now come on, I want a ride on that horse.”
Carefully she led him to the horse next to hers and much to his chagrin she helped him climb on. His manly pride was taking a battering at the moment.
Kira nimbly climbed on her horse and smiled affectionately. Gabe relaxed a little and focused on watching Kira enjoy herself. She was like a kid in a candy store.
After what felt like seconds to Kira and hours to Gabe, timidly Kira reached over and tugged on his shirt collar. She pulled him toward her and swooped in for a kiss. It wasn’t easy to maintain the kiss with the motion of the horses lifting up and down but the briefest of touches virtually set them on fire.