forward a few steps, closing the gap between them. Low in his throat, he repeated. “You’re. Better. Now.” He gave off a cocky smile. “Besides, I saw you naked last night when you Changed back.”
“I told you not to look! In my head! I told your animal not to look!”
“Well, I looked,” he said remorselessly. The oaf! “And quit looking at me like that. You know me better than anyone. You already knew I would ignore that dumbass suggestion. Your tits look even better now that you’re a werewolf.” His grin got obnoxious. “You’re welcome.”
“Oh, you’re taking credit for my nice tits now? Because you bit me?” She huffed a breath and bumped his shoulder hard as she stomped past him. “You’re an asshole!”
“I never claimed to be anything else, though, and you just said you appreciated honesty! What are you doing?”
Summer peeled her shirt over her head and turned, walked backward for a few steps so she could throw it at his face. It smacked him right in his shocked expression, and she couldn’t help but snicker as the shirt fell to the ground without him even flinching or trying to catch it. “Boobies,” he whispered in a drunken voice.
“God, you men are all the same.” Summer turned and made her way to the river, unbuttoning her jean shorts as she went.
“Wait, what does that mean? Have other men seen you? Naked?”
“Hundreds,” she said sarcastically.
“I’m serious!”
“What, it bothers you that I’ve probably been with men while you were MIA? Jealous lout. You shouldn’t have left me to my own devices then. I have needs.”
A snarl ripped through him. “Did they touch you?” He was close behind her now, and that should’ve raised her hackles, but it didn’t. “How many boyfriends?”
“I’m not playing your macho, possessive games, Wes. As many as I wanted.” God, she was such a liar. What man was gonna put up with her the way she was now?
His footsteps stopped behind her as she shimmied her shorts and panties down her legs.
“Do you have a boyfriend now?” he asked. It sounded like his teeth were gritted together.
“Yes, at least a dozen.”
“There’s lies all in your voice. Summer!” He jogged in front of her and gripped her shoulders gently. “What happened?”
“Stupid boy. Nothing happened! Look at me.” She gestured to her face. Oh she knew what she looked like. One silver eye, one brown. “You think these eyes drew men in? You think the snarl in my throat, or my temper, or my confusion, brought all the boys to the yard? It didn’t. You cursed me to be alone, jackass. My needs didn’t exactly get met. Why do you think I got desperate enough to go to therapy?”
He shook his head, his eyes wide in confusion. “Why?”
“Because I wanted to be good enough for a man again someday.”
He released her arms and shook his head. “You are good enough. Always were, always will be.”
“No, Wes, I wasn’t.” Summer softened her voice because she knew him. Knew how bad he was at processing feelings or thinking about futures. “Going into a relationship broken will only hurt the other person. If you go after a person too early, you’ll make them pay for what others did to you. You’ll make them pay for your own insecurities, your own hatred of yourself. They will feel everything—all the uncertainty you feel. I knew how bad off I was. How damaged. If, someday, I got lucky enough to find a man again, I want to take care of him. Not hurt him with what you did to me. I don’t want him to pay for your mistakes. And also, I don’t want to compare him to you, because no one can match up.
“I used to be the girl who found a bright side in everything. That’s valuable to a man. To a relationship. I understood that no one is perfect, and I was patient. I found the good in everything, but I don’t know how to do that anymore. I don’t know how to find bright sides. A good man deserves a woman who can find the good, and a good woman deserves a man who knows how to find bright sides even when she’s monstrous, too. Do you understand?”
“You wanted to heal before you found a mate. Maybe find the parts of you that you liked again. Learn to see the good again.”
“Exactly,” she whispered. “Right now, I’m no good as I am.”
“Yes,” he said.
Summer frowned. “Yes, what?”
“Yes, I still have