“Whatever you felt for me was just instinct. We’re alike, and you were drawn to me for that reason.”
I shook my head. “No. You’re wrong.” I was about to remove the filter and say what I’d kept bottled up inside me for a lifetime—something I’d always wanted to admit but never had the courage. “I’ve loved you since I was five years old. Longer than I can even remember. You were always in my life, and I looked up to you. It had nothing to do with this whole alpha wolf thing. It was you, Austin. It was the way you laughed at my jokes and stood up for me. You winked at me whenever I was feeling down, and I loved that you pulled over on a busy road and took that injured dog to the vet when anyone else would have driven by. I’ve always seen the goodness in you. I’ve always loved you, and it made me crazy you didn’t feel the same.”
He inched his face in closer and settled his body over mine to keep me still.
“You’re right, Lexi. I haven’t loved you since I was five. I’m not going to sit here and lie to you about it.”
My stomach knotted and I felt a stabbing pain in my chest.
“You were a stubborn and odd little girl who liked to catch butterflies and release them in your house. You seem to have forgotten you used to call me Elastic Man when I hit a growth spurt at age nine.” His breath was on my face and I froze as he continued. “You also had a knack for dating every guy who didn’t pass my test, and if it were my decision, you wouldn’t have gone out with any of them. No, Lexi, I’m not going to tell you I’ve loved you since I was five, because it’s not true. I can’t lie to you.”
My heart sank, and he let go of my wrists and stroked his fingers through my hair.
“In fact, I remember the exact moment I fell in love with you. It was June seventeenth, the summer before your senior year in high school. We went camping with a bunch of friends and I sat next to you by the lake while you hummed a Fleetwood Mac song, watching the moonlight shine on the water and wearing a silly pair of pajamas. We didn’t talk, but that’s the first time I really saw you as the woman you would someday become. You probably don’t even remember it, but I do. I always will.”
Somehow, all the air in the room managed to disappear and I could scarcely breathe.
Austin bit his lip and turned his head away, his pale blue eyes glittering beneath inky lashes. It was the look of regret—one that inevitably came with something you wished you hadn’t revealed.
An avalanche of emotion took over, and tears welled in my eyes, rolling quietly across my ears and into my hair.
He slanted his eyes toward me and saw me crying. “Shit,” he breathed. “I’m sorry, Lexi.” His fingers wiped my tears and I shook my head. He just didn’t understand.
“I’ve waited my entire life for you to say that to me, Austin.”
His lips twitched and his voice softened to the growly, bedroom one I liked. “Then why are you crying?”
“Because I don’t know if you still do. Did I blow it?”
All humor in his face evaporated. Austin tilted his head down and brushed his lips against mine. I’d never been kissed in the slow and reverent way that Austin delivered. Each kiss barely pressed against my lips. Sometimes they stuck together a little, and small wet sounds filled the quiet room. But beneath such a simple gesture, sparks ignited between us, and all my doubts melted away. I could taste him, smell him, and feel his warmth on my mouth and body.
I used to watch shows about unsolved mysteries and spontaneous human combustion. I had an idea what the cause could have been because I felt like a box of explosives.
His rough hands cupped my cheeks, and his lips moved their way around my face, kissing the curve of my jaw, my eyelids, and the tip of my nose, before returning to my mouth.
The tension multiplied between us when I caught his bottom lip between my teeth and gave it a tug. He slid his body up just a fraction and I felt the weight of him everywhere. I bent my knee and he fit against me like a piece of a puzzle locking into place.
Being in heat had nothing on a kiss delivered by Austin Cole. It was intricate and reckless all at once.
“Don’t be so gentle,” I encouraged.
A spark flickered in his eyes and his mouth came down on mine, tongue pushing in as his hips did a swivel. I moaned and ran my hand along his jaw, scraping my fingers just a little bit so I could hear the scratchy hiss of his stubble. He lifted his head and awareness burned in those crystalline depths. I loved his eyes—the way the black rims made it seem like they framed an ocean in his gaze.
Austin stared into the depth of me as he pulled the ends of my shirt over my head. When he dragged his gaze down to my chest, he froze.
“What’s wrong?”