Her hands are clutching my shoulders. Her heartbeat has doubled and she ducks her head, shy. “You don’t have to carry me! Gosh, Lucan, I’m—”
“Perfect,” I tell her, staring at her. “C’mon. Arms around my neck.”
Eyes wide, heart thudding in a startled song, she timidly clasps her hands behind my nape. As she does, I watch her face, unencumbered by the challenge of meeting her eyes because she’s so steadfastly avoiding my gaze.
She’s easy to carry and doesn’t slow me down in the least. In fact, I’m able to cover more ground because I’m not matching her walking pace, but moving us at my own. She stays quiet, her body tensed like she’s afraid if she moves, I’ll lose strength and drop her.
I won’t. “Hey,” I murmur. And when her eyes tap mine and glance away again, I frown. “Why so uncomfortable?”
“I’m too heavy,” she claims, sounding ashamed.
I heft her, an action that takes no effort and makes the point plain that she’s not, in fact, too heavy. “Not for me.” My mouth curves up in a crooked smile. “You’re lighter than any adult wolf I’ve ever carried. And even if you did weigh more, sweetheart, you have to know I could carry you for miles. If I can distribute the weight properly, I could carry a horse.”
This surprises her. She not only steadies her gaze on mine, she seems to really see me—she absorbs the fact that I’m not struggling to hold her at all.
I glance around, and not seeing anyone nearby, and not hearing anyone close either, I lay it out for her. “I’m crazy about you,” I admit.
Her eyes turn into lasers, the intensity of her focus becomes so strong.
I’m forced to drop my gaze to the inside of her elbow where it rests against my sternum. “I know this probably seems sudden.”
Voice cracking the tiniest bit, she shares, “We’ve been living together twenty-four seven for like two months. Maybe this isn’t really all that sudden.”
Heartened, I look directly at her face—only to find she’s now gazing around us.
Feeling my excitement building even more as I clutch her in my arms, I know I’m probably smiling like an idiot, but I can’t care. I’m too happy. Holding her feels too right. I inhale Susan’s scent, absorb her warmth against my chest, and train my gaze ahead of us, to the house tucked unobtrusively behind the church.
“What is this?” Susan whispers as it comes into view, sounding awed.
I’m warmed at her obvious appreciation. “This is the parsonage.”
It’s a small stone house flanked by twisting apple trees, with a slightly overgrown garden patch off to its left. The exterior is of a warmer color stone than the church, as are the paver stones that lead up to the doorway. Three steps see us to the porch, and with a twist of the handle, we’re inside the unlocked dwelling.
“Who lives here?” Susan asks, and my body is humming so loudly at her nearness I almost can’t track her question. She hasn’t unclasped her hands from where she’s got them anchored around my neck; she’s not giving me any signal that she wants me to let her go.
“Technically, no one,” I tell her, content to hold her as she looks around the home. The three-bedroom, two-bath home, perfectly sized for a small werewolf family. “But it’s mine.”
Her gaze swings back to me.
I hold her eye contact. “And it could be ours. If you ever want to explore—if you…” I curl my lip and roll my eyes at myself, frustrated with the way I’m struggling to express what I want her to know. “This place is here. It can be our… whatever we need it to be. A quiet spot just to talk, if you’d want that.”
“Lucan?” she whispers, and her voice and her scent and her nearness are, as always, soothing to me… at least until she utters her next words: “I want way more than that. I’d like to kiss you now.”
CHAPTER 44
SUSAN
His face, which is caught in a very bushy-but-not-yet-creature phase, immediately turns hungry. It’s thrilling. So is the fact that he carried me here—he’s still keeping me cradled to his chest in the tenderest hold—and he’s not even out of breath. It’s impressive. He is impressive.
I run my tongue over my bottom lip, slowly, suggestively, and I’m further delighted when his gaze snags on my mouth. “What I mean is, I’d like to take advantage of this incredible alone-time to kiss the heck out of you,” I tell