Savannah clears her throat. “So, you and Jackson…”
At the smug note in Savannah’s voice, I turn to glare at her as I brush leaves and twigs out of my hair. “Shut it, you.”
“Does that mean you’re not going to be giving us the lowdown dirty?” Her voice is so innocent, I glare even harder.
“You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?”
Savannah doesn’t even try to look sorry as she hooks my arm. “Nope. Been counting down the seconds.”
I try to pull my arm free, but she holds on tight, and then Talis hooks my other arm. “So, spill. I didn’t think you guys knew each other, but from the way you were grinding-”
I shush her as I whip my head around to see if Jackson, Dayne, or Jeremy heard.
Behind us, as we trudge back through the forest and to the BBQ we should be having, my eyes lock with Jackson, who’s still naked, and his eyes heat.
Yep, he definitely heard.
I jerk my head back to the front, but I’m sure I can still feel his gaze on my back.
“It was just a… thing. That’s all. There’s nothing to it.”
“Regan, you took one look at the guy and bolted. He chased you down. We followed, thinking he was going to kill you, and instead we find you two seconds away from humping on the forest floor. There is more than nothing going on,” Talis says, succinctly for her.
“Humping?” Savannah snorts. “God, you make it sound like they…”
I tune Savannah out so I can focus on the conversation behind me, desperate to know if Jackson is saying anything about me.
Jeremy is chatting with Dayne about what they plan to do when he and Savannah come back from Paris, but Jackson isn’t saying anything at all. But I can feel his eyes on me, and it’s making it impossible to concentrate on anything except that Talis was right, if she and the others hadn’t turned up when they had, Jackson Stone would have made me come on the forest floor, and he wouldn’t have even needed to shove the hot length of his-
“She’s thinking about it,” Talis whispers loudly. “I can tell because her eyes have gone all glazed over.”
Her words snap me out of my lust-induced daydream, and I grind my teeth in frustration.
Fortunately, we step out of the forest and find ourselves back with the rest of the pack who, in our absence, have set up the BBQ and are standing around nursing beers as the coals heat up.
The conversation grinds to a halt as they turn to us, and I wonder why until I glance down, realizing too late that while I’m sure I got most of the twigs and leaves out of my hair, I didn’t do such a good job with the rest of me.
Probably because of Talis and Savannah hanging off my arms.
I turn to glare at my closest friends because I’m holding them responsible for the rest of the pack eyeing me with sly smiles.
It’s clear what they’re thinking, and they’d be right in thinking it. After all, why else would I be returning looking dishevelled and smelling like I’ve been rubbing up against Jackson if we hadn’t been getting up close and personal?
The only members of the Blackshaw pack who don’t seem to find my situation fucking hilarious are Jenna and Marshall, and that’s only because they’re too busy dealing with their own personal issues to be paying any attention to us.
“Talis?” I don’t take my eyes off Jenna, who’s looking pretty in a white lace dress as she stands a little apart from everyone else.
She’s wearing a false smile that keeps on slipping as she clutches a beer but doesn’t drink from it. As I watch, Marshall, the third most dominant shifter in our pack, glances over at her before quickly jerking his gaze away the moment she turns in his direction.
“I know,” Talis murmurs.
As Luna, she would since the wellbeing of the pack is one of her main duties, but she can’t force anyone to talk. Well, since it’s Talis, and she is seriously stubborn, I guess she could, but the situation between Jenna and Marshall isn’t something that can be fixed by anyone other than Jenna and Marshall.
Even though Talis hasn’t been a Blackshaw for even a year yet, she’s seen enough to know that she’s as liable to cause more damage between Jenna and Marshall’s broken relationship than fix it.
As it’s not common for a relationship between such dominant and submissive members of a pack to last as long as theirs has, it makes it hard for anyone to know how to help.
When Talis first joined the Blackshaw pack, I saw the way she studied Jenna and Marshall, and I know she wondered at how their relationship worked, not knowing that none of us know.
Over the years, it worked, right from when their close friendship at seventeen turned into something more. And it kept on working over the next six years, until it suddenly stopped, seemingly overnight.
Because Jenna is so meek, I don’t think I’m alone in thinking Marshall must’ve said something to upset her. But uncharacteristically, Jenna won’t say, and no one can get her to talk. Not even Dayne.
When an arm curves around my waist and hauls me away from Talis and Savannah, I open my mouth, ready to snarl at Jackson, because there’s only one shifter who would grab me like that.
I don’t get a chance.
Warm lips land on mine and I freeze. Stunned.
Jackson’s kiss is a brand, and it’s so intoxicating that there’s no hope of me doing anything but luxuriating in it. His arm tightens around me as I return his kiss with an urgency that has him growling in my mouth.
When he lifts his head to gaze down at me, his eyes are burning. “Don’t go far, darlin’,” he grates out, and then he releases me and stalks away.
I can still taste him on my lips and in my mouth, and I am honest to God aching for him in a way I never have for any guy before.
My eyes fix on the firm globes of his ass and Talis snorts. “Nothing, huh?”
I grab desperately for her arm. “Help me, Talis. I can’t let this happen. Not with an alpha.”
Savannah curls an arm around my waist while Talis wraps hers around my shoulders. Together, they steer me toward the parked cars, stopping long enough for Savannah to grab a couple of beers and a bottle of water.