River Wolf(58)

He could make her stay. The opportunity seemed ever present anytime they grew physically close. But he didn’t want to force her into anything nor manipulate her. Yet, am I not manipulating her?

“Business?”

Raising his eyebrows at the question, he took a sip of coffee.

“The envelope, you were talking to someone—I thought maybe a messenger or someone from that mysterious office in town you never go to.”

His wolf raked his claws along his insides silencing the lie he considered telling her. Whether Colby could scent dishonesty or not, she didn’t deserve it at all. Protecting his pack and their identity was one thing, keeping secrets about her? “He works for me—after a fashion. More locally than at the office, which is in Manhattan. I rarely go there because I don’t care for the city.”

“Too crowded?” Wariness crawled through the curiosity in her eyes. He hated the way she withdrew, loathed the need on a very primitive level.

Packing away the potential for violence Pierce’s observation awoke, he nodded to the porch and they walked over to the step. The short distance gave him time to admire her choice of clothing—white shorts which showed off the natural honeyed tone of her legs and a dark green tank top, which reminded him of the forests in spring.

She sat on the top step and he settled next to her, not quite touching. When her bare thigh settled against his leg, however, he relaxed a fraction. Despite her cautious nature and gradual retreats, she wasn’t running away from him. Not truly.

Setting the envelope to the side, he focused on her. When he reached out to run a finger down her cheek, in part to remind himself she was there and in part to test her reaction, the quizzical look overtook the wariness once more. “Something’s wrong.”

Something was always wrong. “Not at the moment.” Not when they could enjoy the day together. “If I invited you to go hiking with me today, would you go?”

“I don’t know. Are you going to invite me?” The tart response succeeded in parting the dark clouds of his mood.

“I’m considering it. But it occurs to me I don’t know if you like to hike or nature for that matter.”

“Nature is fine. Not a big fan of snakes.” She shuddered. “Or bears.”

Snakes he understood immediately. “Met many bears have you?”

“Two, actually.” She wrinkled her nose. “The first one was when I was really little. Trapped us in our car for a couple of hours because it was settled right in our driveway. Mom didn’t even notice it till she parked. Eventually it wandered off.”

Intrigued, he trailed a finger from her cheek to her shoulder then down her bare arm. When she captured his free hand and locked her fingers with his, he allowed himself to relax further. “And the second?”

“I had to put my trash out, it was late, and I didn’t look before I opened the door and ran down to the curb. We have—had bear resistant trashcans. Didn’t even see it until I was nearly on top of it.”

His wolf stilled at the potential threat described in her memory. She’s right here and she’s safe. With as much bare skin as he could glimpse, he saw no claw marks. “You do not get to leave the story there.”

After taking another long swallow of coffee, she set it aside then released a sigh. “It was kind of weird.”

“I’m listening.”

“Promise to hear the whole thing and not make fun of me?” That she even had to ask stretched his nerves taut. Someone along the line had made fun of her. Had belittled her experience. Idiot.

“I give you my word.” Building even a fragile trust between them might allow him to tell her the truth. Brett paused. He wanted to tell her. He wanted honesty between them and he wanted the freedom to pursue her fully. Accepting the knowledge, even with the potential issues Pierce mentioned alleviated more of his dark mood.

“Okay, so I get to the trash can and you kind of have to screw the lid on and off?” Familiar with the type of container, he nodded and she continued. “So, I’m in a hurry, I just want to toss the trash and get back inside. I think there was a movie coming on I wanted to watch and I only had a couple of hours until my parents get home from wherever they were. I’m all of seventeen at the time, and we didn’t have cable or a VCR or anything more than regular television because it was too ‘distracting’ from life and if I wanted to see my movie, I had to have my butt in the chair.” Waving her free hand once before reclaiming her coffee mug, she said, “Anyway, sorry you didn’t need the boring details—”

“I like the details and you’re not boring. But yes, continue.” Busying himself with his own coffee kept his need to put her in his lap for the story in check. Not all women wanted to be lifted and carried everywhere nor did they want to be held nonstop, even if it was in his nature to offer her the affection. Few were there left for him to be openly affectionate with—and he put a pin in the thought. Yes, his pack issues still needed to be resolved, but he wanted to hear Colby’s story.