“Yours, if it’s okay.”
“As you wish.”
She tossed him a crooked smile. “You’re pretty awesome.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“No, I guess that’s right. I know your boss trusts you. Your sisters adore you. You spend time with your nieces and nephews—unless you have a child you haven’t mentioned?”
He backed out onto Main Street, and when they were heading to his house, he cocked an eyebrow at her. “How do you know about the kids?”
“The back seat has cereal on the floor and a sippy cup rolling round.”
“Shit, is the cup green?”
Emma reached behind her seat and pulled out a green cup.
“Oh, shit. Now I’m going to have to sneak that into Eloise’s house because she asked if it was in my truck and I said no. And Luna has been looking for her special cup since last weekend.”
She cocked a smirk at him.
“Okay, so you got me there.” He gripped the steering wheel.
“I also know you don’t like being a witch. Most people would dream of having power. That your magic signature is like mine, we’re both—”
“Don’t tell me about my magic. I don’t want to know.” He’d raised his voice so high, he threw an anxious glance at her. But she hadn’t wilted. She was staring at him like she’d found a Cadbury egg in October, or a four-leaf clover in December in a field covered by snow.
Taking her to his cabin was a mistake. He never took girls to his cabin, not shifters, not humans, and certainly not witches. But he didn’t turn around. His hand never left ten and two on the steering wheel. Flint wanted her, but he also wanted her gone. And he didn’t understand why. She couldn’t be his fated mate. He’d have picked up on that by now. Wouldn’t he?
“All right then, and while you’re a loner, people around town still like you. They say hi, they know your name.”
He grunted at her.
“And you don’t take people to your house.”
He scrunched his forehead. “How could you possibly know that?”
“Relax, I can’t read minds. But your thoughts were all over your face. You want me, I want you, and when you asked me where I wanted to go . . . It was the cadence of how you said it, like you wanted me to pick my place.”
“But you didn’t.”
“How exactly are you going to feel seeing a stack of empty boxes lying around the front door?”
“Good point.”
“Kind of a buzz kill.” She let out a breath and put her hand on his knee.
He’d always thought living on the outskirts of town wasn’t bad. That things weren’t too far. But right now, he might as well have lived in California or Maine for as long as it was taking to get to his cabin. Emma’s hand slid up his knee, and her thumb rubbed slow circles around the outside of his leg.
He forced himself not to close his eyes. Instead, he took a deep breath in, and her autumn apple scent made him clench his teeth to focus on the road. He pulled down the dirt road to his cabin. The ruts were deep, and the mud had softened a little in the last day. With his speed, clumps of dirt clung to the side of his truck by the time they stopped.
Penny jumped up and down next to the fence. “Get down, Penny.” The thought of his dog, Vivi’s dog, splattering Emma . . . “Get down.” Flint rounded the front of the truck and lifted Emma down. He carried her to the flagstone path out of his mud pit of a driveway. Calling his cousin to come drop a load of gravel on his parking pad had been on his list of things to do for a long time, and now it soared to the top of the list. “This is Penny.”
“I know, I met her yesterday on my way home from work.”
“You met Penny on a leash. She’s a different beast in her own yard.” Flint flipped open the latch.
“Hi, Penny.”
The dog sat at Emma’s feet like she was the queen of the pack. He looked between his overzealous loving dog and back to Emma. He might never have brought a girl home, but he had introduced Penny to females around town and, other than his sisters, normally the dog wasn’t having it.
“Who’s a good girl? You are, that’s who.” Emma scratched Penny’s ears, and Flint became more than a little jealous of the dog. He picked Emma up, sweeping her off her feet.
She wound her arm around his neck and put the other one on his chest.
11
Emma gripped the front of Flint’s T-shirt in her fist before flattening her hand on top of his heart. It beat faster than hers. She nuzzled her head into the crook of his neck and took in his delicious citrus-like aroma.
He’d flexed his steel sinew thigh in the truck, and she’d nearly come herself. And his arms . . . arm candy meant something completely different to her.
She pulled her legs in when he brought her through the door. The rustic cabin and orange scent surrounded her. She pressed her lips to his neck and kissed down the side to the T-shirt opening. He kicked something inside the door with his toe and repositioned her. Her legs were around his waist, and he backed her up against the wall.
She clutched him, and with her bottom secure against the wall, he lifted the hem of her shirt and caressed her sides to the undersides of her breasts.
“Put me down.” Her voice hitched as she said it.
When her feet hit the floor, she pulled at his T-shirt. He helped and flung it over his head. She took her shirt off, and he pulled his pants off while she watched, and then he watched as she pulled off her pants. Like a dance, until they stood a foot apart completely naked.
