“Shit,” Harry mumbled at the snow-covered ground.
Darnell was the first to react. He yanked off his sweatshirt and covered Harry with it, holding out his hand to help him up.
Harry tucked himself inside the sweatshirt, tugging it down over his muscled thighs as he rose.
Mara fought a girlish sigh and instead smiled at him. “You were awesome! You found Carl.”
Harry nodded and smiled back. “Yep.”
She wrapped her hands together behind her back as they began to walk back toward her cottage behind the others. “And how ever did you do that, Harry Emmerson? Was it due to your uncanny powers of deduction?”
“Nope,” he muttered low.
“Your superior detective skills, Castle?”
“No again.”
Mara mock gasped. “Wait. Could it be it was because of those werewolf abilities you so despise?”
“Maybe.”
“Aha!” she shouted before giggling. Score one for lycanthropy.
Harry paused, barefoot and almost naked, and grabbed her arm. “Look, Mara, I told you it’s no insult to you and your family, pack, whatever. It has nothing to do with this not being amazing, because it is, and under any other circumstance, I’d be all for it. I’m sorry if you feel insulted. That’s not my intention. And I don’t despise these abilities. I just don’t want them.”
Mara decided they had bigger fish to fry tonight than Harry’s inability to accept his fate. “And I’m just saying it isn’t all bad. However, that’s all I’ll say for now.”
Harry grabbed her hand and pulled her close, wrapping his arm around her waist. He looked down at her, a smile flirting with his lips. “Really?”
“Really,” she confirmed, putting her hand on his chest. “And thank you. We were all so caught up with worry we forgot to listen for Carl. You, on the other hand, were brilliant.”
Harry’s smile was warm. “I’m just glad he’s okay. He was pretty scared.”
“None of this makes any sense. First the kids, and now Carl.”
“You think they’re related?”
“I think it’s pretty strange that there’ve been two instances so close together, and so similar, don’t you?”
He shook his head, his lips thinning. “Yep, and I keep trying to make the connection between the kids and Carl, and I can’t. The only thing I can think of is Guido.”
No. That didn’t add up. Guido didn’t even know about Harry’s niece and nephew. “But what does he have to do with Mimi and Fletch?”
“That’s where I lose the connection, too.”
“Hey, lovebirds!” Nina called out. “Step that shit up. We need to stay together, and we need to get back before Harry’s man parts freeze the fuck off.”
Harry looked down at Mara, the crinkle of his eyes showing his amusement. “She has no filter.”
Mara giggled. “Nope. For as long as I’ve known her, she’s always just said it.”
He shrugged his shoulders and chuckled, the deep vibration of it tickling her hand. “It’s rather refreshing, if obnoxious and crude.”
“But you have to admit it’s better that she’s on your team. Imagine her on the opposing side.”
Harry mocked a shudder. “I’ll take the zero on that. So, question?”
“Make it fast, or she will get angry. Angry Nina is scary Nina.”
“Are you upset that she knows what we were doing . . . you know, before? I don’t want to embarrass you.”
She was a million things in the aftermath of their lovemaking, but upset that Nina knew what they’d been up to was the least of it. She almost avoided his eyes, then internally voted for complete honesty. How could she be ashamed of such an amazing experience? Mara shook her head. “No.”
He let his head drop, lowering his lips and resting them just tantalizing inches from hers. “You’re kinda smart and hot.”
Now she was embarrassed. Mara let her eyes fall to his chest, their cold noses pressed together. “I’m mostly not,” she denied.
Bracketing her face, Harry lifted her chin, forcing her to rise on tiptoe, and claimed her lips in forceful possession, sending that same rush of heat straight to the place between her legs he had but an hour ago. He swept his tongue over hers before releasing her. “For the record,” he whispered, “I emphatically disagree, Mara Flaherty, and I don’t get how you can’t see it. But I want you to know I do. I see it. I see all of it.”
His words, said with such forceful conviction, made her shiver, but her response was guarded. “Duly noted,” she murmured, taking his lead on the path back to her cottage, fighting the impulse to read too much into Harry’s words.