Page 39 of Desire Him

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Val looks out her window as they drive through the pack’s village. Everyone is doing their own thing: going for a walk, heading to the shops, shoveling snow off their patios. A few wave as they slowly pass them, and Val waves back, feeling flustered. She hadn’t expected smiles and waves and completely normal behavior.

“Do they know what happened in the city?” she asks Wayne, glancing over at him. He shakes his head. “Oh, I figured that, in your mad dash to get out of the village, you might have told a few people.”

He frowns. “I was in the city already when I got the call about your abduction.”

“What were you doing there?”

“Draven, Becca, and I were finding evidence of wolfcalm.”

“Oh?” she says, curving an eyebrow. She’s purposely dragging on this conversation, simply so she doesn’t have to deal with her mixed feelings about what Wayne admitted to her back in the city. She isn’t ready for that yet, so she asks, “Did you find some?”

He nods. “That girl, Sammi? We caught her with it.”

She looks back out the window. “What’s Logan going to do to her?” She did help them, after all.

“I don’t know, but she has two things going for her. She helped us find you, and she’s Draven’s mate.”

Val whips her head back to see Wayne grimace. “Draven found his fated mate?”

He flicks his gaze to her as they pass by her cabin. “He did.”

“Wow,” is all she can think of to say. She scowls when he parks in front of his cabin. Why are they stopping at his place and not hers? She’s in desperate need of a shower and a change of clothes. The ones she’s wearing still reek of rogue and city smog.

“Your place?” she asks him when he shuts off the engine.

All he does is nod.

“Why?”

He grips the steering wheel with both hands and bows his head. “Because, Val, I need you in my space. I have this insane urge to protect you right now, and not let you out of my sight.” He looks at her sidelong. “Please, don’t fight me on this.”

She pushes a hand through her hair. “But why?”

His grip on the steering wheel tightens. “Because you scared the shit out of me. I can’t . . . I won’t.” He fully turns his head to face her and swallows thickly. “Move in with me?”

She blinks at his sudden question. For shifters, everything moves fast. Nothing is slow-paced, but Val isn’t so sure this is what they should be doing. They just told each other their feelings for one another, and to move in so soon? They aren’t even mated.

“Wayne . . .” she begins, trying to let him down gently. She’s still so mixed up about where they stand. This isn’t helping matters. His desperate expression isn’t helping either.

“I know what you’re thinking, Val.” He shifts in his seat so that his knees touch the center counsel.

She grips her hands tightly in her lap. “What am I thinking?”

“That this is new. That you’re unsure about me because I only just said that I loved you in the heat of the moment.”

She shrugs, a barely-there movement, and looks down at her hands. “It’s crossed my mind.”

He tips her face up so that she’s looking at him again. “I was serious about what I said. And I’m serious now.” He exhales slowly and glances at the cabin once. “Can we go inside and talk about this?”

“I need a shower, Wayne.” She’s beyond nervous to go inside with him. She doesn’t know where this conversation is leading, nor what is going to happen next, but the butterflies in her stomach leave her uneasy.

“I have a shower.”

She fingers her shirt’s hem. “I don’t have any clothes at your place.”

He shrugs. “You can wear mine. Come on.” He opens the door, and she inhales slowly as he makes his way to her side of the car, pulls the door open, and waits for her to make a decision. She stares at his hand held out for him. Either she goes with him, or she goes home. The thought of going home is just delaying the inevitable. Whatever conversation Wayne wants to have is important to him, and it will happen, no matter how nervous she is about it.