Page 85 of Clean Finish

When Holt and Taylor finally left for the day, I got straight in my car and drove home to my quiet, empty house. The pizza box and game console were still on the coffee table, because I’d been too tired to clean up after Larkin had left at around midnight.

I took a shower and made some dinner, eating morosely in front of the TV. Larkin hadn’t replied to my text, but I still kept checking my phone every few minutes. After loading the dishwasher, throwing out the pizza box and our empty soda cans, then tucking the game console away under the TV, I stood there vibrating with restless, unpleasant energy.

I couldn’t just sit in my house all evening. I’d lose my mind.

I considered calling Ludo and seeing if he wanted to go for a beer. Or maybe even driving to the next town over to visit my parents or see one of my sisters. In the end, I left to go for a run in the woods to try and burn off some of this nervous energy.

I was in just my loose shorts, so I didn’t have to stop and get undressed before shifting into my true form once I was safely hidden among the trees. In a rush, my senses sharpened. It had rained at some point during the day, so the scent of rotting leaves, wet earth and clean water still dripping slowly from the trees above filled my nostrils. My right ear twitched when something small and quick scampered into a bush nearby. My toe claws curled into soft, damp soil as I stretched my spine and shook out my fur.

This was a good idea. I didn’t spend as much time in my true form as other werewolves, because I felt less coordinated and more ungainly like this. I didn’t shift much at the office because it was too overwhelming to have to stand there and breathe in Larkin’s sweet caramel scent with such enhanced olfactory senses. And like this, I always grew a little less… rational. More driven by instinct. So it was a bad idea to be around him.

After taking a few deep breaths to try and clear my mind, I started running. I wasn’t being particularly graceful or light-footed, but it wasn’t like I was hunting, and no one ever came out here. Animals skittered out of my way as I crashed through the trees and leaped over fallen logs, the muffled thuds of my big paws against the earth loud and heavy in the quiet.

It took a while for me to flag. Slowing to a jog, I started heading back. I’d made sure to run in a big loop so I didn’t have to traipse too far in the hazy purple gloom of dusk, so it wasn’t long before I was approaching the house.

When I heard the distinct sound of a car coming up my driveway, I stopped dead. My heartrate picked back up, thudding hard and fast as I listened to the engine being cut off and a car door opening.

Familiar light footsteps crunched over gravel, then grew hollow as they reached the front porch steps. When a hint of sweet caramel apple reached me through the trees, I was running again before I’d even fully registered it.

I burst out from the trees at the edge of the drive to see Larkin shifting anxiously from foot to foot on my front porch. He jumped violently and clutched at his chest as he turned toward the sound.

“Holy fucking… fuck.” He gulped down a few breaths. “That scared the shit out of me.”

Slowing to a clipped walk, I shifted back into my human form as I approached him. I was breathing hard and covered in sweat that made my skin prickle in the cooling air, leaves and twigs clinging to my shorts and my bare feet covered in mud, more splattered over my calves.

“Hi,” I rasped nervously, ignoring the sharp stones jabbing into my soles as I came to a stop at the bottom of the porch steps. “Sorry for startling you. I just, uh, went for a run.”

Larkin nodded quickly, licking his lips as his eyes darted down my frame. He looked so beautiful, his bright pink hair pulled back into a messy bun and his big blue eyes almost luminous in the dying light. He was clutching a paper grocery bag to his chest and wearing the same sweater as last night over a pair of grey sweats. I just wanted to burrow my hands under it and run them over his warm, smooth skin beneath.

But maybe I’d never get another chance to. Maybe he was here to tell me he didn’t want any more lessons. That he’d gone home and decided he didn’t want any of the wrestlers thinking we were dating, so he was quickly going to rectify the situation before Kit told anyone.

I felt sick. I couldn’t bring myself to speak, bracing myself for the worst. He didn’t say anything at first either, so we stood there in awkward silence as the solar-powered fairy lights strung along the front porch railing flickered to life.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted desperately, the paper bag crinkling against his chest as his fingers tightened on it. “I’m so sorry, Seb. For saying that to Kit. I… I feel like I’ve fucked up and now you’re mad at me.”

My chest cracked. I walked quickly up onto the porch to join him. “I’m not mad at you, Lark. At all. You didn’t fuck up. You didn’t do anything wrong. Please stop apologising. I’m the one who’s sorry,” I added hoarsely. “I was an asshole earlier.”

He shook his head. “You weren’t.”

I gazed at him in despair, and couldn’t mask the devastation in my voice when I croaked, “I upset you.”

Knowing I’d made him feel that way was like getting kicked repeatedly in the stomach.

“I was just… flustered from Kit telling me they’d heard us.” His cheeks stained a delicate pink in his human form. “And I… I dunno. I hadn’t eaten lunch yet.”

“Did you eat when you got home?” I asked with a concerned frown. He huffed, his lips tilting into a tiny fragile smile.

“Yeah.” Fidgeting anxiously, he gazed up at me with those big blue eyes and wet his lips. “I was… I was wondering if you wanted to hang out for a while.”

I tensed a little. “For a lesson?”

I didn’t think I was in the right frame of mind for that tonight. Being that close to him, being so intimate with him, and having to pretend it didn’t mean anything more than one ‘friend’ helping out another.

“No. Not, um, a lesson.” Larkin shook his head quickly, then gave me another weakly hopeful smile as he raised the grocery bag clutched against his chest. “I bought stuff to make bread on my way here. Yeast and flour. And, um, honey, to… My dad says it’s the best thing to use to activate the yeast. And a loaf pan in case you don’t have one.”

My throat closed up. I managed to nod, needing to take a few seconds before I could answer. “That sounds nice. Thank you.”

His brows pinched as he took a step closer, until I could feel the pressure of his presence against my bare front. He gazed up at me with a slightly pleading look that made me want to drag him into the woods and hide him away from everyone else. Just keep him for myself. The delicate, beautiful fae being guarded fiercely by the possessive werewolf.