Gone with the Wolf - By Kristin Miller Page 0,47

of his jaw, his lips. Then Emelia laid her head against his chest and shook her head.

Confusion prickled the hairs on the back of Drake’s neck. “No, then?”

“I don’t know,” she said, wiggling around so that she straddled his lap. “No one has ever talked to me the way you do. No one has ever made me feel this way, but—”

“But?”

“You can’t expect me to make a decision this quickly. I mean, I love what’s happening between us. I’ve never felt anything like this before.” Her fingers danced across his chest in tiny swirls, chilling him with each gentle stroke. “I can barely keep my hands off you and I’d be stupid if I said I didn’t dream of some knight in shining armor sweeping me off my feet the way you have. But after what I’ve gone through—first with my ex, then with all…this—I don’t feel like it’d be a good move to jump into another relationship until I have my feet on solid ground. Not to mention the fact that I’m not sure if I want to scratch children off my list of possibilities yet. Bottom line, it’s too soon, and you’re asking too much. I don’t really know you, and you don’t really know me.”

“No?”

“No.” She kissed him softly, promising the world, but giving away nothing. “I feel like I need some time.”

As Drake felt the cold grip of reality wrench his heart, he clenched his jaw until he thought the bone would break. Emelia’s decision made sense. It was reasonable to take some time, given the circumstances. It was undeniably the logical thing to do. Despite how her words appealed to Drake’s analytical side, the sting burned anyway, scorching through his chest.

Not knowing what else to do, Drake took Emelia’s hand and softly kissed the delicate arch of her knuckles. “Take all the time you need.”

Chapter Fourteen

At first, when Emelia turned down Drake’s offer to be his Luminary, she thought she’d made a mistake. He was gorgeous, their chemistry was off the charts, he was stable and commanding, the take-charge kind of man she’d always dreamed of marrying. He made her heart race and her skin flush with a single glance. He would be able to take care of her like no other man could, especially now that she was changing into a werewolf.

The concept that she would shift into a werewolf at the full moon struck Emelia as ridiculous even now, though she couldn’t deny the freakish changes happening to her body; one second she was sweating and pissed off, the next second she was cold as ice and laughing hysterically. It was mania at its best.

But Emelia simply couldn’t answer Drake the way he’d wanted her to. He may not have been the devious man she’d believed him to be a month ago, but there was still so much she didn’t know. She’d jumped into a relationship before, and it’d gotten her nothing but a broken heart, an unused wedding dress, and a bunch of gifts she didn’t want and still had to return.

To top it off, Drake wasn’t only asking her to be with him forever, he was asking her to drop her dreams of having children. Emelia hadn’t even thought that far yet. She’d been so focused on building a thriving business with her bar, she hadn’t had time to think through what would happen after that. Sure, children might’ve been in the picture someday, but not anytime soon. Did that mean she wanted to forgo that option completely?

No matter how badly Emelia wanted to say yes to Drake’s offer, no matter how much her heart pulled to his, she couldn’t accept.

Drake had dropped Emelia off at the Knight Owl bright and early Wednesday morning so she could catch up on paperwork and check on the weekend sales. Although she’d insisted that she would be all right by herself, Drake left three packmates with her—she would never get used to that word—while he left to handle business of his own.

Emelia pulled chairs down from the tabletops and shimmied them into place, adding tiny pumpkin-spice tea lights to the center of the tables to add a festive feel. There was a rainstorm coming, and Thanksgiving was around the corner. Customers would want to frequent a place where they could order an Autumn Tumbler, kick their feet up on one of the tables, and watch their favorite football team play on one of the flat screens mounted by the stage. Other customers would want