Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 75248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
A very muscular someone.
“You’re going to be late if you don’t get up now!” Travis called through my door.
“I’ll be late. I’ll drive myself,” I yelled at Travis, hoping he didn’t use his key like he normally did when he thought I was sleeping in.
I had a problem waking up in the morning.
He knew it. I knew it.
However, he must’ve interpreted the wakefulness in my voice because he didn’t try to come inside like he would’ve done had I not sounded awake.
“Oh, God,” I breathed, pushing back until I could see the chest that’d been my human pillow for who knew how long.
Wolf’s eyes were awake and aware, focused solidly on me.
“What are you doing?” I asked frantically, my eyes going down the length of our bodies.
Luckily, we both were still fully clothed, meaning we’d not done anything he could regret later.
That thought flew out the window moments later when he suddenly reversed our positions and I was underneath of him.
“What are you doing?” I asked him, watching him with wide eyes.
“Leaving,” he murmured.
A smile broke out on my face.
“It sure does look like you’re leaving,” I murmured sarcastically, eyeing his face from only a few inches away from my own.
“Gotta work myself up to it.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because it’s eight forty-two and I can hear men talking downstairs, which likely means Travis and Dante are here already. Therefore, I’ll have to walk through all of them to get to my truck, a truck they helped me restore so there is no doubt they know exactly who owns it,” he informed me.
My mouth dropped open.
“Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?” I asked him in outrage.
He shook his head.
“No,” he murmured. “What I’m embarrassed about is conking out after only two beers.”
“So that means…what?” I asked. “That you would’ve gotten out of here earlier, but you were too drunk to do so?”
He grinned.
“You’re taking everything I say out of context.”
I bared my teeth at him, causing a grin to spread over his face.
“I’m going to go to work. What I don’t want to do is go out there and see Dante and Travis look at me like they looked at me yesterday morning when they realized I knew you better than they knew you.”
My held breath left me in a whoosh when I realized that he wasn’t actually embarrassed to be seen with me.
“Gotta go, babe. Make sure you stay with Travis or Dante. Don’t leave to get them lunch. Don’t run to the grocery store for a cookie. Don’t …” I held my hand up to stop him.
“We went over this last night,” I reminded him.
Wolf grinned and pushed off of the bed, and I lost his warmth.
The feeling it left me with wasn’t one I particularly liked, and to cover it up, I got up as well and quickly changed out of the shirt I’d worn all day yesterday.
The pants would stay. Those weren’t anything but nice and stretched out now, so there was no reason to change them. It was rare that these pants ever felt anything but tight.
I heard the bathroom sink switch on and I yanked the first t-shirt down from the hanger, not even noticing which one it was until it was too late to change.
The bathroom door opened just as the shirt passed over my ribs, and I didn’t pretend for a second to miss the sharp inhalation of breath that passed over Wolf’s lips at seeing my bare back.
“When did you get that tattoo?” he asked hoarsely.
His voice sounded rough, and I couldn’t quite tell why he sounded like that.
“The week before I left Kilgore,” I whispered, turning to face him.
The moment I turned, though, he turned me back around and lifted my shirt.
“Exact fucking replication in reverse,” he murmured, running his rough hands over the tattoo that stretched the length of one half of my back.
“What is?” I questioned him, turning even though his hand was still busy running along my back.
Without answering me, he lifted his shirt, and I gasped.
“That’s so cool!” I whispered.
He grinned at me over his shoulder.
“You don’t see the significance here?” he asked me, dropping his shirt back into place and leaving me feeling bereft at not getting to see that beautiful back of his anymore.
Then what he said struck home, and my mouth opened and closed like a guppy.
“You have a raven on your back! And I have a wolf!” I crowed. “Why do you have a raven?” I looked at him in confusion.
“The week before you left, I got this. Because of your strength,” he said. “You reminded me of things I couldn’t change. Things I needed to move on from.”
He must’ve seen my face at the mention of him moving on from me, because he was quick to explain.
“Not moving on from you, but everything in general. My wife mostly, but even more my way of life. I wasn’t living. In fact, I was so far from living that it was almost comical. It took seeing you, so vulnerable and broken that tipped those scales for me, and made me realize that I needed to get my life together. That’s what this symbolizes.” He patted his shoulder where the tattoo rested.