*Grayson*
“It’s Keera,” Ryan mouthed.
We’d been having a discussion when her knock had sounded on the door. Whatever had brought her had to be important. She’d been avoiding me since our kiss at the lake. “Let her in,” I said quietly. Ryan stepped aside, pulling the door with him so she could walk in. Her eyes met mine, steady and unflinching as she took further steps into the room. She was wearing black jeans and black boots together with a white turtleneck.
“We need to talk,” She said firmly, folding her arms. Ryan wiggled his eyebrow from behind her and she must have felt it because she turned and shot him a dry look. He raised his hands apologetically, giving her a small salute before exiting the room. I watched her draw in a all breath before meeting my eyes and walking even closer. I gestured for her to take a seat but she shook her head, refusing. “It’s been days now since you said you were going to get back to me about the cameras and I haven’t heard a single word from you about it.”
She obviously wasn’t here to talk about the kiss.
“What exactly is it I want you to say?” She repeated calmly, arching a perfect eyebrow. “How about give an answer?” I already knew what my answer was going to be. I’d had a personal talk with all the members of the council and aside from a few grumbles about how invasive it was, neither of them had objected to the idea. Catching the killer was more important than whatever anyone had to feel about the situation.
“Fine,” I replied. “We can get the cameras and set them around the park.” She nodded once, not exactly surprised by my reply. She must’ve known I would eventually see reason with her. I didn’t like how that made me feel. We didn’t know enough about each other to already be guessing how the other person would react. “When do you plan on leaving?”
She went silent for a few seconds, a thoughtful look taking over her expression. “I think tomorrow would be fine.” She answered, blinking. “I could let Trevor know about it and have him get the cameras ready for me.” I barely contained my irritation when she said his name. I’d seen the way he acted around her and I was almost certain he had feelings for her. How she felt about him was the actual question.
And why did I even care?
She was free to be with whoever she wanted to. It didn’t matter what the mate bond was making me, making us feel. We could work. But I’d be damned if I let her get into a relationship with Trevor when I haven’t rejected her yet as my mate. “Tomorrow then,” I agreed, forming a loose fist with my hand. She nodded, taking a step back. “I’ll come with you.” That gave her pause.
Her eyebrows creased. “There’s no need for that,” She argued. “I’m sure you have other things to do with your time. I can go with one of your warriors or something.” So Trevor could get his hands on her while she was away? That wasn’t going to happen. I was being a dick and I knew it. It did stop me from feeling. . . irritated. Was that what this was? I was irritated that she could end up with Trevor?
“Actually, I don’t have any pending things to attend to,” I said casually. She looked a bit disappointed.”We can leave tomorrow, that’s fine with me.” I held back an amused smirk when her jaws clenched. She offered me a fake smile that didn’t reach her eyes, spun on her heels and left the room. I picked up my phone and put a number across to Ryan.
“Come back up. We need to talk.”
***
I waited by the door as Keera stepped outside the house after giving Lexi a hug. I didn’t get why her team was being so sentimental. We were going to be gone for at most three days but they were acting like she was going on a pilgrimage. Leaving messages for her to give to their families and stuff. I walked beside her as we approached Ginny and Ria. Ginny gave both Keera and I a hug and Ria only hugged me, shooting Keera a small smile before we began our journey.
I’d already contacted one of their kind who helped out with these and asked him to get a car out for us at the usual location. Keera adjusted her duffel bag on her shoulder, shooting me a sidewyglance before intentionally increasing her pace so we couldn’t walk side by side. I huffed out a disbelieving breath, shaking my head and simply trailing after her. I wasn’t ready to call her out on her attitude just yet.
We’d walked for more than an hour before we eventually got past the pack borders and began heading for the specific location where the car we’d use to drive into town would be. Twigs made snapping sounds under our boots as we walked. I pushed branches out of the way, keeping an eye on Keera and making sure she was fine. There could be rogues out here.
“You’re going the wrong way,” I said flatly when she headed in the wrong direction. She turned, raising an eyebrow and cocking her hips. I jerked my head in the direction we were supposed to be walking, waiting for her to walk past me so I could follow behind her. It didn’t take long for us to spot the black sedan packed behind a thick tree. Keera mumurred her thanks under breath, moving to the other side of the car.
I walked to the driver’s side, squatting to pick up the keys I’d known would be under the car, just behind the car’s tyre. I unlocked the car and pushed my bag to the passenger seat before getting inside and opening Keera’s door. She did the same thing, the door shutting with a soft click after she’d gotten in. I turned the ignition, the car roaring to life as I swerved unto the carved path of the roads where cars could drive smoothly.
It took me about thirty minutes to be tired of Keera’s cold shoulder. “Why are you short with me?” I asked, slanting my gaze in her direction. When she didn’t reply at first, I turned to make sure she’d heard me. She was staring straight ahead, her lips pressed down together. I raised my fingers on the steering wheel, giving up on trying to talk to her.
It was clearly of no use.
“I’m not.” She suddenly replied.
I laughed humorlessly, shaking my head. “Yeah, and I can fly.” I deadpanned. We continued in silence for a while before she expelled a long breath. I thought she wanted to say something but she remained quiet. I sighed. “If this is about the kiss, I didn’t mean to do that. I wasn’t thinking and-” I paused when she scoffed, drawing her lips even tighter. She stared out the window.
“You’ve made it abundantly clear it wasn’t a good experience for you so there’s no need to talk about it.” Her voice was clipped, her gaze still fixed on some random thing outside the window. Where had she gotten that conclusion from? Not a good experience? I’d barely held back myself from touching her, not wanting to let stir my wolf up. When she’d put her hands on me, it had taken every strength in me as Alpha to stop her.
“That is far from the truth.” I argued.
It was her turn to release a humorless laugh. “Yeah, right.” I studied her for a second, realizing one didn’t explain things when it came to Keera. They showed it to her. I parked the car, pulling the keys out of the ignition and pushing the door shut as I stepped out. I circled the car in three seconds, pulling Keera’s door wide open and holding her chin so she could look at me. She didn’t look startled, in fact she’d crossed her arms defiantly over her chest, looking like she was determined to not listen to whatever bullshit I had to say.
“You think that wasn’t a good experience for me?” I repeated in disbelief, holding her gaze firmly. “If I hadn’t stopped my wolf from stirring, if I’d so much as let you continue to touch me, Keera,” I rasped on a harsh whisper, “I’d have fucked you right there in that lake. All you had done was return the kiss,” I reminded her, noting the surprise in her eyes. “But it was more than enough to make me want to drag you out of the lake and have my way with you on the ground.” My gaze dropped to her lips. So don’t you sit there and think it wasn’t a good experience for me because it was the best damn experience I’d ever had.”
She darted her tongue to wet her lips.
It was all I needed to bring my lips down on hers. It didn’t take a second for our kiss to escalate. Like before, she tasted like a blend of all the juices she loved drinking, apples being the most obvious. Unlike before her tongue is bolder. We stood like that for what felt like hours, touching our tongues, trying to pull away from each other but going back for one more and then one more again until we were helpless to the taste of each other.
She slowly fell back on the seat, bringing a hand to my head, causing me to lean further into her. Her legs curved around me and I stood closer in between them, rocking myself against her, the tiny sounds she made causing me to harden. I reached under her shirt, pushing her bra up to cup her breast. It was full and round and soft. I rolled my thumb around her pebbles nipple, cushioning her head with my other hand and delving my tongue deeper into her mouth.
It was insane how turned on I always was around her from the slightest things. Her hips began rolling as we ground against each other there like two horny teenagers. Her moans began getting louder, the hand she’d dug into my hair moved under her shirt to caress mine as I squeezed her other boob.
The sudden shriek of the car horn when her head fell back startled us, making us pull away from each other. I straightened, gently pulling up until she was sitting straight. She flushed under my fixated gaze, smoothing her hair and reaching under her shirt to fix her bra. I didn’t bother trying to arrange my hair. I didn’t give a fuck who found out what we’d been up to.
But Keera might.
It was the thought that reluctantly had me fixing my clothes. She met my eyes when she was done, both of us acknowledging what had happened between us. And knowing it was definitely going to happen again. “Let’s start seeing each other,” I blurted without thinking. She drew back in shock but I didn’t make a move to take my words back. Because I’d meant them. “There’s too much shit in the way to even try to make an actual relationship work between us,” I said looking into her eyes. “But that doesn’t mean we should let the attraction between us go to waste.”
I put a finger on her lip when she tried to say something. “Think about it first.” I said quietly. “We could have a no-strings attached relationship for as long as it would take to solve the case.” I leaned forward and kissed her, biting down on her lower lip. “I’d know your body. . .” Her gulp was audible, her wary gaze meeting my firm one. “And you’d know mine.”
I pinned her with my gaze for a second before gently adjusting her legs and closing the door. I circled the car and got back in. She was still looking at me like I’d grown a second head. The mix of heat and confusion in her eyes made her look more vulnerable than I’d ever seen her. I couldn’t stop myself from kissing her again for the last time before starting the car.
I hadn’t felt this good in a long time.