Nightwolf

“There,” he says, awe in his voice.

I expect him to be looking at what I am, the pounding waves that send metallic gold into the air, fill my ears, the sun that is now melting into the horizon.

But he’s not.

I turn my head slightly and up and he’s staring down at me.

He’s looking at me like I’m the sunset.

After every single amazing sunset Wolf has probably seen in his long life, he’s looking at me like I’m a brand-new experience.

My heart skips until there’s a thunderstorm in my chest.

Yeah, there’s something happening between us. I don’t think we can stop it, even if we wanted to.

God, I hope he doesn’t try to stop it.

“Going to take a picture?” Wolf asks me.

I shake my head. “I don’t need to.”

I squeeze his hand.

He squeezes mine back.

Then he looks to the sunset and we both watch as it dips below the horizon, waiting for that green flash that comes and goes by the time I’ve blinked.

“You know what we should do now?” Wolf asks me.

Oh god. I could think of a million things, and I don’t have the guts to say any of them.

Yet.

“Get drunk?” I ask. Cuz that would help.

He flashes me a grin that makes his dimples deepen and my legs feel weak. “You read my mind.”

Then he finally lets go of my hand as we head back up the stairs to the house.

By the time I’m at the top, I’m breathless, my thighs burning, lungs aching, while Wolf seems even more energized. We grab our bags from the car and bring them into the house. It’s even more stunning inside, like a mix of a mountain lodge and old-timey elegance. Lots of antiques and velvet paintings and sculptures that look expensive and rare, but with exposed beam ceilings, heavy wood furniture, and sheepskin rugs throughout, plus a massive stone fireplace right in the middle of the living room, the kind you would see in a ski lodge.

“What room are you taking?” Wolf asks me, sounding innocent enough.

Oh. Oh. I see. Well, of course we would each get our own room, just because we held hands on the beach and he stared at me instead of the sunset doesn’t mean we’re going to start sharing a bed—and then some—together. This house is huge and doesn’t lend itself to the much-coveted only one bed situation. Unfortunately.

“Oh, uh,” I say, looking down the lengthy hall and then up the stairs. “I don’t really know. Doesn’t matter, I’m sure the bedrooms are all the same.”

“You at least need one with the view of the ocean,” he says and gestures for me to follow him up the stairs. He brings me to the first bedroom on the west side. It’s not huge but it has its own en suite, and the view over the ocean is phenomenal, even with the darkening sky turning purple and gray. Waking up to that tomorrow is going to be heaven. It would be even more so if Wolf shared the room with me.

Alas, the room he picks is two doors down, as if he’s purposefully putting distance between us.

I start putting things away, use the bathroom, and take a moment to stare at myself in the mirror and breathe. It feels like I haven’t been breathing since we left the city.

I don’t look my finest. Solon was kind of right when he said I look like shit. My eyes are puffy, creating dark circles under them that even the strongest concealer isn’t masking, and my eyes themselves look kind of wild, the violet in them brighter than normal. My hair is tangled from having the window down in the car, and I should probably take a shower because I’ve got that stale road-trip smell all over me.

And I’m nervous. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been nervous around Wolf, but I am, here and now. All these years of just burying my feelings, some of which I haven’t even come to terms with yet, of living with a crush that’s been building and growing—it feels like it’s all coming to a head. Like there’s a storm brewing between us that’s about to take us both out. A storm of destruction, maybe, but something neither of us can avoid.

And the conditions for the storm are more than right.

“It’s just Wolf,” I whisper to myself in the mirror, trying to find the courage I normally don’t lack. “Stop being so dramatic.”

I take in another deep breath and then raise my chin to my reflection. Then I step out of the bathroom and poke my head out of my room.

“Wolf?” I call out down the hall, about to tell him I’m going to take a shower.

“Come down here,” he says, his voice coming from the first floor.

Curious, I shut my door and head down the grand staircase. The fire in the fireplace is already large and crackling, no doubt caused by a snap of Wolf’s fingers, and I walk around it to the kitchen.