lifted her knees and held onto his waist with her thighs, he didn’t grind against her or ask for more. He kept her in place with one hand on her lower back and one hand entangled in her hair. And then he rocked her, gently swaying side-to-side. He kissed on and on, allowing her to re-learn every curve of his lips, his taste, his scent, the scratch of his short beard against her chin.
Want more, Wolf said, and Summer could feel the smile curve up in Wes’s kiss. He pecked her a few times, slowing down the kiss, easing back until he rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes, just swaying with her, holding her tight against him.
“For now, this is enough. Well, not for me. I want to lay you in the mud and make you come about a dozen times, but I’m not fucking this up.” He eased back and grinned at her. “I’ve been watching Bryson and Hunter with their ladies, and I’ve taken mental notes.
“Oh, yeah? And what have you learned from them?”
“Give compliments. Feed you. Take things slow. Teach you that you can trust me. And also don’t call you an ‘incessantly boring dork-donkey,’ as I tried on Maris once. She turned into a wolf and pissed all over a laundry basket full of my clean clothes.” His eyes flashed with annoyance. “Apparently, women get more offended at name-calling than men.”
Summer burst out with a laugh that echoed through the woods. “I think I would get along with Maris.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt it. Sadey, too. I might be alpha, but those two rule the ranch, and they know it. It’s really fucking annoying.”
“Wanna race?”
Wes frowned. “Race where?”
Summer clamped her teeth on his neck gently, and he let off a growl that sounded so happy. It was nearly a purr. When she released his skin, she murmured, “I’ll race you across the river. Winner doesn’t buy dinner.”
“It’s breakfast time.”
“Yeah, but that didn’t rhyme.” Summer waggled her eyebrows at her wittiness. She was poet AF right now. “I would like pancakes at the next town we drive through. You said you learned you need to feed girls. That part was very true. Food is the way to my and Wolf’s heart.”
“Who says you’re going to win, Cocky?”
Summer released his hips and jumped down to the ground, spun, and sprinted into the waves. “No name-calling! Girls don’t like it!” she teased just before she dove into the murky water.
And every time she broke the waves to take a breath, he was there, right beside her. And when he broke the surface at the same time as her, she could see it so clear. The smile she used to breathe for because it had been so rare.
Not anymore.
Now he gave her smiles much easier.
And even though they had gone through hell to get here, she was glad the process had given Wes a heart.
Bright side.
Chapter Eight
“Okay, next one,” Summer said from the passenger’s seat as she crunched on a pork rind. “The subject is library.”
“Library,” he repeated softly, narrowing his eyes at the road. They were talking about memories now, good ones only per Summer’s request, but they had only been to the library a handful of times. She’d been studying for her college classes to get an Associate’s degree, and he had carved out time from being a ranch hand on Whiskey Run Ranch to spend time with her every chance he got. Library. He filed through memories of them cutting up, getting in trouble for being too loud, running away from the librarian toward the study rooms in the back of the building, and…oooooh. “I know what memory you’re talking about. I finger-fucked you by the fantasy romance section in the back of the public library.” He grinned at her triumphantly for as long as he dared to take his eyes off the road. Why was she frowning?
“Of course, that would be the memory you choose, ya perv,” she scoffed. “You gave me a promise ring at the front table on May Twenty-fourth and said you wanted me to stick with you for always.”
“Oh. Oh, yeah.” He frowned at the road. “What did you do with the ring?”
“I flushed it down the toilet after you left. I still have the video of me doing it if you want to see. I taped it especially for you, in case you ever came back.”
Wes snorted. Of course, she’d flushed it. “I spent four months of wages on