Magical Midlife Love (Leveling Up #4) - K.F. Breene Page 0,27

heart thunder in my chest. I tightened my arms around his neck, rewarded with a deep, masculine growl, his kiss deepening, his hands splaying across my back. The world turned sideways, and all other thoughts fled as I fell into the feel of him, hard against my body. His taste overwhelmed me, spicy yet sweet, and I melted against him, utterly lost.

I’d forgotten how good this felt. How unbelievably he kissed, claiming all of my focus and stealing my breath.

Too soon he pulled back, gently biting my bottom lip, hot and passionate one moment, sultry and sanguine the next. I ached to find out if he was as good within the sheets as he was with his lips.

“Sorry,” he murmured. “For all of that. For this, for everything. I didn’t know how to tell you about the link. At first I didn’t intend to use it. But you’d been kidnapped under my watch, and I was terrified of it happening again. I’m trying to give you as much privacy as I can. I don’t know how to muffle it automatically, so whenever it feels like you need your space, I push the link away. I ignore it. Please believe that. This isn’t about me spying on you.”

“But why didn’t you mention it? I would’ve understood.”

He shook his head. “Embarrassment, at first. I’d made such a big deal about Ivy House, and here I was, sticking my hand in the cookie jar. But after that…” He took a deep breath. “Someone suggested to me that it would be dangerous for you to know. That you might figure out a way to cut yourself off from us if you found yourself in a sticky situation. Which…you would. We both know it. You’d worry more about us than whatever was happening to you.”

I grimaced. That “someone” was likely Niamh, given she’d said the same thing. They weren’t totally wrong, although I’d evolved in my thinking.

He traced his thumb along my bottom lip. “I will accept your wrath. I deserve it.” He kissed me again, so incredibly open in his physical intimacy at the moment, which he would have usually shut down by now.

“What should I expect from what just happened?” I pulled my hands down his chest, realizing I didn’t want to pull back. I didn’t want to step away. Keeping my distance from him for the last month and a half had been excruciating. Just work and no play made this former Jane a very dull girl. I was going crazy with only the Ivy House staff to hang out with. That way lay insanity. I’d end up asking to be retired like Edgar always did.

Shadows passed over Austin’s eyes, but before he could answer, I said, “I want you back. I want our friendship back. I’ve missed you. I want you hanging around again. And I want to help you with your territory…if you’ll let me.”

His gaze was deep. “What can you expect from what just happened? Nothing. Once they challenged me, their lives were in my hands. Every last one of them. I could’ve killed them without remorse.”

I frowned at him. “No, I meant, will you freak out that you got lost to your dark side?”

The shadows returned again, and he looked at me for a long moment, as if debating. “Yep,” he finally said. “And you are the only soul who will hear that truth. I trust you won’t pass it on.”

“Okay, well…how do I help with that?”

His smile was soft. “You already did. You pulled me out of it. I can’t remember a single person, besides my little niece, who has ever been able to do that. You are a remarkable woman. But I’ll need to think on what happened and why. I have to make sure it doesn’t happen again, or I’ll need to step down as alpha. These people deserve more than someone who loses control.”

I nodded slowly, basking in his heat, seeing the cool logic return to his eyes. He took a step back.

“As for our friendship… I’ve missed you too.” He shrugged, a smile flitting across his lips. “Maybe we’re just friends who kiss from time to time. It happens.”

I released a breath I hadn’t known I was holding. “Yeah. It’s worked for us so far.”

“Thank you, for pulling me back,” he said seriously. “For knowing when…and how.”

“You’ve had my back enough; the least I could do was return the favor.” I turned and headed to the bar. I needed a drink after all