“I used to be the girl who found a bright side in everything. That’s valuable to a man. To a relationship. I understood that no one is perfect, and I was patient. I found the good in everything, but I don’t know how to do that anymore. I don’t know how to find bright sides. A good man deserves a woman who can find the good, and a good woman deserves a man who knows how to find bright sides even when she’s monstrous, too. Do you understand?”
“You wanted to heal before you found a mate. Maybe find the parts of you that you liked again. Learn to see the good again.”
“Exactly,” she whispered. “Right now, I’m no good as I am.”
“Yes,” he said.
Summer frowned. “Yes, what?”
“Yes, I still have feelings for you. Damage and all. Don’t make no difference to me. You’re just fine as you are.”
Summer’s face crumpled, and she looked down fast so he wouldn’t see the moisture that was building in her eyes.
He hooked a finger under her chin and lifted her face up again. “Summer, I think neither one of us is the person we were. And I know it hurt getting here, but I also think it’s a good thing. You weren’t tough enough for me. You wouldn’t have come out of that relationship with me intact. I would’ve broken you into something different, even if I hadn’t bitten you. I needed damage, and I was shut down on you from day one. I heard you. I know you felt it. We couldn’t have made it the way we were. You weren’t tough enough for me, and I wasn’t soft enough for you.”
“And now?” she whispered raggedly.
He smiled. “While I was away, you found your own path. You got strong. You got tough. Independent as hell. You don’t need a hero. No one can fuck with you now, and I think you know I wouldn’t let anyone get that far. You got a guard dog in me, but you don’t need it.”
Why did the pride in his eyes make her want to cry even more? “And it seems like while I was away, you filled that empty space in your chest and grew a heart.”
He nodded once. “You damaged me too, you know.”
“How? I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“No, you didn’t. That’s what hurt so bad. I hurt someone who was a good person, and it cut me, and then it kept cutting me until I didn’t want to be me anymore. So, I made little changes over time so I could despise myself less. I’m still making changes, and God knows I have a ways to go. You started that. I could’ve gone my whole life being just as I was, but you stood in the middle of my path and made me walk around you, and it changed the entire background behind you. I had to adapt. And you had to adjust to your situation, and you’re still adjusting. You had to go a little wild, and I had to go a little tame. And as much as I hate what I did to you. As much as I hate what happened…”
“Maybe it had to happen,” she finished for him. She believed everything happened for a reason, yet she’d never been able to figure out the reason for Wolf. For the heartbreak. For the empty ache in her chest. She’d been slowly losing her heart while he was teaching his to beat.
And everything was clicking into place.
She understood so much more now. So much that it was loosening up her anger and allowing Wolf to go quiet, allowing her to be able to think straight. With him, she wasn’t in survival mode. She felt safe enough to cope with what had happened.
“I forgive you,” she said as a warm tear streamed down her left cheek. The Wolf eye was leaking.
He cupped her face and wicked her tear away with a gentle stroke of his thumb. “Yes, I still like you very much, Summer. I like you even more like this.”
She lifted to her tiptoes and kissed him before she could change her mind. Just a fast one. Just a peck on the lips that left him frozen as she lowered her heels back to earth. His hand cupped the air where her cheek had been, and his eyes were such a light, vibrant blue and round as dinner plates.
“Sometimes, I like you, too,” she said jerkily and then turned to walk into the waves. And possibly drown herself because, good Lord, she’d just kissed the boy she’d tried to make herself hate.
But just as her toes hit the lapping waves, he tugged her hand and spun her back, and his lips were there, waiting for hers. He pulled her in close and hugged her like she hadn’t ever been hugged before. And his mouth was so soft and inviting against hers. It wasn’t some passionate kiss because she was naked and he was being typical Wes. It was a kiss that coveted her. It was slow, simmering, and gentle, tugging and plucking at her lips and inviting her to melt against his strong chest. And she did. She gave in and went vulnerable and wrapped her arms around his neck. And when she lifted her knees and held onto his waist with her thighs, he didn’t grind against her or ask for more. He kept her in place with one hand on her lower back and one hand entangled in her hair. And then he rocked her, gently swaying side-to-side. He kissed on and on, allowing her to re-learn every curve of his lips, his taste, his scent, the scratch of his short beard against her chin.
Want more, Wolf said, and Summer could feel the smile curve up in Wes’s kiss. He pecked her a few times, slowing down the kiss, easing back until he rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes, just swaying with her, holding her tight against him.
“For now, this is enough. Well, not for me. I want to lay you in the mud and make you come about a dozen times, but I’m not fucking this up.” He eased back and grinned at her. “I’ve been watching Bryson and Hunter with their ladies, and I’ve taken mental notes.
“Oh, yeah? And what have you learned from them?”
“Give compliments. Feed you. Take things slow. Teach you that you can trust me. And also don’t call you an ‘incessantly boring dork-donkey,’ as I tried on Maris once. She turned into a wolf and pissed all over a laundry basket full of my clean clothes.” His eyes flashed with annoyance. “Apparently, women get more offended at name-calling than men.”
Summer burst out with a laugh that echoed through the woods. “I think I would get along with Maris.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt it. Sadey, too. I might be alpha, but those two rule the ranch, and they know it. It’s really fucking annoying.”
“Wanna race?”
Wes frowned. “Race where?”
Summer clamped her teeth on his neck gently, and he let off a growl that sounded so happy. It was nearly a purr. When she released his skin, she murmured, “I’ll race you across the river. Winner doesn’t buy dinner.”
“It’s breakfast time.”
“Yeah, but that didn’t rhyme.” Summer waggled her eyebrows at her wittiness. She was poet AF right now. “I would like pancakes at the next town we drive through. You said you learned you need to feed girls. That part was very true. Food is the way to my and Wolf’s heart.”
“Who says you’re going to win, Cocky?”
Summer released his hips and jumped down to the ground, spun, and sprinted into the waves. “No name-calling! Girls don’t like it!” she teased just before she dove into the murky water.
And every time she broke the waves to take a breath, he was there, right beside her. And when he broke the surface at the same time as her, she could see it so clear. The smile she used to breathe for because it had been so rare.