“I’ll resume the story once we’re on the move,” Keyah said, heading for her car.“Let me drive,” Aaron said, blocking her way, reaching for her keys. Keyah held them out of his reach and elbowed him out of the way as she sat in the driver’s seat.“In your dreams.”Keyah saw Aaron suppress a smile. “I’m not used to riding shotgun.”Keyah rolled her eyes, although she was sure there was a subtext here. She was sure he meant he wasn’t used to bending to others’ will since he was an alpha. “You better get used to it. There’s no way I’m going to let you touch my baby.”Aaron grinned, and although he didn’t say the infernal words, she heard them loud and clear.‘Wanna bet?’.Keyah’s lips twitched.“We’ll see,” Aaron said instead. “So, what happened next? With your mom and dad?”They were on the road again.Keyah looked at Aaron. His eyes were eager, and the longing in them was unmistakable. He was a romantic, no matter how much he pretended not to be. The longing made Keyah curious. Hadn’t
Keyah stole a glance at Aaron. He had gone unusually silent after the revelation she made about not having shifted for nearly a decade. Despite not living with a pack, she knew it was unusual.“We are taking a slight detour,” she said to break the silence.“Where are we going?”“Palmio Waters. There’s something I need to pick up.”“Okay.” Aaron fiddled with the music system. Apparently, that was the end of the conversation. Keyah let out a frustrated breath. She had been dropping hints about this mysterious thing she needed to pick up, but he refused to take the bait. Either he was still stunned by her revelation, or he was on to her. He knew she wanted him to ask, and so he was refusing to ask just to push her buttons.So much for piquing his curiosity.Palmio Waters was midway between Rockedge, the town where Aaron had exiled himself, and Las Vegas. It was a shifter town, one her dad had apparently frequented.Keyah took the exit toward Palmio Waterss. Like most shifter towns, there
Spending a night under the stars was easier said than done. They had scoured the entire town, trying to find a relatively safe place to park the car and spend the night. Finally, they had decided to park on the outskirts, on the far side of the checkpoint.Next, they set about buying some essentials. Or at least, they tried to. The people in Palmio Waters were certainly living in a different century. They hadn’t heard of a butane stove or packaged food. Since the night would get chilly, they bought some firewood and matches from a store that only sold firewood.When Keyah and Aaron had asked where they could buy some food, they had been directed to the local butcher’s. Then they remembered the drive-through fast food joint that served as the checkpoint, but quickly found out that the fast-food joint served no food. It was just a front. Humans who ventured to the checkpoint instantly forgot why they had ended up there in the first place, and the shifters simply drove through; so there
Keyah fanned her face, watching Aaron’s retreating back. Her heated cheeks had nothing to do with the fire blazing in front of her. While his little strip tease had set her on fire, seeing him in his wolf form had nearly made her swoon. He was breathtakingly gorgeous. She had never felt less in control of her wolf.How was she ever going to resist him?Sighing, she chewed on her protein bar. While she had never spent a night alone in a shifter town on a full moon night before, she had stayed close to one, and despite locking herself in her room, the need to shift had been greater than ever that night. In the end, only one thing had worked to keep her mind off things.Keyah suppressed a shudder as she threw the wrapper of the protein bar away into a trash bag and laid down on the soft sand, looking at the sky. The first stars were beginning to appear. Nights in the desert were spectacular as there was no artificial source of light for miles. Even in the town, all lights had been turned
Aaron woke up with Keyah’s naked body wrapped around him. The sun was high up in the sky, and it was the heat that woke him up.Last night had been wild beyond measure. Taking Keyah’s advice and shifting earlier in the evening had probably saved him from making a complete fool of himself. Despite that, his wolf had been dangerously close to the surface, especially given the kind of activities they had indulged in. Short of actually fucking, they had pretty much done everything else.He had soon caught on that the only way Keyah could resist shifting was if her brain was drowned in post-orgasm haze. He loved every minute of it.Keyah was pure fire when turned on. He remembered how she’d looked with her lips wrapped around his cock. The image made him hard. His erection was poking Keyah’s thigh, and that woke her up.She shifted position, rubbing her thigh against his erection probably without meaning to. Her eyes blinked open, widening when they met his gaze. Keyah sat up with a gasp,
Keyah sank into the luxurious king-sized bed, sighing.They had arrived in Vegas an hour ago, and promptly booked themselves into a hotel on the Strip. As soon as they had checked in, Keyah had hit the bathroom and indulged herself with a long bath, helping herself to the high-end toiletries. She was sore all over after their energetic making out sessions. Shaking her head, she tried to push the X-rated images of herself and Aaron out of her mind.Aaron was right. Vegas was bloody expensive. Thankfully, money was one thing she didn’t have to worry about. Not only had she walked away from her career as a bounty hunter with a nice little nest egg, she had also inherited a small fortune from her mama’s side of the family. And although Aaron had made noises about the ridiculously expensive hotel, she knew it had only been to induce her to share a room with him.No fucking way, she thought, hugging her luxurious robe close to her. Despite her reluctance to talk about last night with Aaron,
Keyah came out of the bathroom, wearing a pair of white shorts, a black tank top, and a thin white, full-sleeved cotton shirt. She’d left the shirt unbuttoned, tying it in a knot above her belly button.Aaron swallowed. Hard.It was pure torture to be around Keyah and not be able to do anything. His wolf wanted out; his wolf wanted Keyah in her wolf form. Aaron pressed a hand against his chest involuntarily. If they ever spent a night together in their wolf forms…Just thinking about it was making him painfully hard.He tried to look away as Keyah studied her reflection in the mirror and applied a coat of pink lip gloss to her pouty lips. It made her lips look so wet, so inviting. The image of her lips wrapped around his cock formed unbidden in his mind’s eye, like it had several times since waking. He wanted it again. He wanted to be buried inside her, to taste her. But it surprised him to realize that what he enjoyed the most last night had been watching her come apart in his arms,
Keyah retrieved a tissue from her bag and discreetly dabbed at her tears. While she had suspected Aaron’d had a difficult childhood, she hadn’t imagined he had been physically abused as a child. She couldn’t imagine a parent doing that to their child. What kind of a monster did he have for a dad? No wonder he didn’t want to talk about his childhood.But when Aaron had told her the story, the kind of feelings it evoked inside her surprised her. She had felt the raw emotional pain as if it were her own, and she had felt angry, so, so angry. It was almost as if Aaron’s feelings were her own feelings.She didn’t know why she felt so deeply. Despite trying her hardest to resist it, she was forming a bond with Aaron. Not just a physical bond, but something much stronger.When he returned with their food, there was no trace of pain on his face. The mask was back on. But now that she had seen what lay underneath the cocky grin and the facade of arrogance, she would always see through the thin