Page 23 of Can’t Help Growling in Love (Harmony Glen #9)
Chapter
Fifteen
ASHER
June’s basement is a disaster. When she told me it had flooded, I’d imagined a puddle in the middle of the floor, some wet carpet, maybe, and a few odds and ends to move. What we encounter downstairs is a real problem, one we won’t be able to tackle on our own.
“I’ll need to call someone to deal with this,” June huffs as she wrings out yet another towel full of water into a bucket. “I think the water seeped into the flooring. That can’t be good.”
I pick up the now-full bucket to take it upstairs. “Agreed. If you’d like, I can ask around for a contact. A couple of contractors worked on my house, and they were decent, but Marcos will know who’s currently the best.”
June straightens and bites her lip. “I don’t know if I can afford the best.”
I’d offer her my help with that, but I know she wouldn’t take it. Already, she’s mentioned several times that she didn’t want to ruin my sleep by roping me into this cleaning operation.
“The best for your budget,” I correct myself. “Maybe they offer payment plans?”
“That would work,” June agrees, then crouches again to mop up more water in the corner. “I hope I can figure it out. I might have to sell the house, but that would mean having to move.”
I barely hold myself back from proclaiming that she can come live with me.
Permanently. But humans are weird about things like that.
When a wolf meets their mate, it’s expected that the newly mated couple will stay together forever, but humans tend to take several steps between meeting and sharing a roof.
June probably expects dating—dinners and movie dates, maybe?—and fucking, too, before she commits fully to me.
I shoot off a text to Marcos to give myself time to think. But no matter how I turn things around, one conclusion is clear: June can’t stay in a house with no heating tonight. Or tomorrow, since whichever contractor she chooses will likely have to fit her into their busy schedule.
I want to give June her space, but it’s getting late. I’ll either have to leave her here and go sleep in my empty house alone, or coax her to join me.
There’s no way I’m leaving without her, so there’s only one thing I can do.
I return to the basement and find June dragging a soggy box of what looks like various shapes and sizes of screwdrivers from the corner toward the stairs. Jumping in, I pick up the box, supporting the damp flaps from below so the tools don’t fall out, and set it aside where June directs me.
Then I catch her by the wrist because she’s already whirling away, a determined expression on her face.
“Hey.”
She stops and gives me a tired smile, but she runs her hand up my arm and squeezes my biceps, her distracted gaze suggesting she’s likely not aware of how she’s touching me. My heart thumps—it’s encouraging that she’s feeling the need to be in contact, too.
But that’s not what I’m here for.
“Listen, I’d like you to pack an overnight bag and come stay with me,” I blurt out. I’m too tired for subtlety, and if we’re going to argue about this, I’d rather do it now so we can get it over with and find a solution.
As expected, June lifts her chin, a stubborn glint in her eyes. “I can’t, I need to stay here and take care of this.”
“You’ve done all you can for today,” I tell her bluntly. “You said yourself that you’ll need to hire a contractor for this. We can come back tomorrow and see what we can do ourselves, but you won’t be able to do that if you’re too tired to see straight.”
“I can’t ask you to—” she starts, glowering at me.
But I lean down to nuzzle her cheek. “You don’t have to ask. I’m offering. Please.”
She chews on the inside of her cheek for a long moment, then finally lets out a resigned sigh. “Okay, yeah. Thank you.” She checks the pipe that had leaked, then turns back to me, considering. “Will it be weird if I’m staying with you and we’re sleeping together?”
I raise my eyebrows. “Why would that be weird?”
“You know, will it make you think I’m only using you for your couch?” She makes an impatient motion with her hand. “If we’d already…you know, taken that last step, it would be different, right?”
“Gods, June, will it make you think I’m only luring you into my home so you’d fuck me?” I stare at her, incredulous. “Where is this coming from?”
Her chin wobbles, and her voice grows small and unsure. “I don’t know. My life is such a disaster right now. I’d understand if you didn’t want to do this.”
I move before I consciously decide to do that.
I tug June close, curl myself around her, and hold her, rubbing my cheek on her temple.
I don’t know how to comfort her better than this, but as I keep squeezing her, her scent softens by slow increments, going from agitated and sharp back to her sweet tones.
“This isn’t casual for me,” I murmur into her hair. “I won’t dump you because something happened that’s outside of your control, and you have to deal with it for a few days.”
I want to tell her she’s my mate, but that would put pressure on her that she doesn’t need right now, so I swallow down the words.
She brings her hands up to my back and clutches my t-shirt, her fingers digging in. “Yeah, I know. Sorry, my brain just went to the worst possible scenario.”
I snort, then pull back. “Oh, I know what that’s like, trust me. Now, do you need help packing? Grab whatever you need for work, too. I’ll drive you.”
June’s eyes are suspiciously shiny, but she hustles up the stairs. I linger downstairs for a moment to give her some privacy, then stomp after her when the distance between us stretches too far for my liking.
My wolf only settles once I stop at the doorway to June’s bedroom and watch as she opens a drawer of her dresser, takes out two pairs of balled-up socks, and tosses them in the duffle bag on her bed.
I draw in a deep inhale and catch the faint scent of her arousal, lingering from a few days ago, perhaps.
This is June’s bedroom . Where she might have…
The mental image of June pleasuring herself hits me so suddenly, I sprout fur and a tail before I can stop myself. I groan, my cock already half hard, and stare down at my furry hands, clenched into fists.
I glance up again and find June staring at me, eyebrows high.
“Uh, what just happened?” She takes a step closer, raises her hand, and digs her fingers into the ruff of fur on my neck.
I lean into her touch, growling softly. “Fuck, I’m sorry.” I close my eyes, trying to shiver back into my human form, but with her hands on me, there’s no way I’m giving up the heightened senses. “I, um, remembered this is your bedroom.”
A startled laugh has me looking down at her again.
“You sprouted fur because…” She follows her own line of reasoning, and her lips form an almost comical “O.”
“I can smell it,” I admit. “Not much, but it’s there.”
Color rises up her neck, and her cheeks burn a bright red. “Oh my God. Asher! You can’t— But of course you can.” She leans forward, and her forehead meets my breastbone with a thunk . “This is embarrassing.”
I shake my head even though she can’t see me. “It’s fucking hot . I want to know how you do it.”
That has her shifting back, eyes wide. “Right now?”
I shake my head. “No, we’re both too tired tonight. But sometime soon?”
June bites her lip, then sidles over to her bedside table and opens a drawer. She takes something cylindrical from it and shoves it quickly into her bag.
“I’ll, ah, need the right equipment for that.”
All my blood heads south at the realization that she just packed her toy. If she so much as brushes against me, I might come in my pants, and that’s not how I want this to go. Tonight is for helping her, making sure she’s warm and safe and fed.
I point a thumb toward the hallway. “I’ll go do something else that doesn’t involve staring at you like a creep.”
“Can you check the fridge? I don’t want anything to go off,” she calls after me.
I hustle into the kitchen and splash cold water on my face. It doesn’t help me shift back into my human form, but it washes the scent of June’s bedroom from my nose, so I can breathe without my instincts screaming at me to bite my mate.
I would never take back my offer for her to stay with me, but I didn’t realize how difficult it might be to have her in my house. In my bed, even, if she’ll agree to sleep there with me.
The full moon is coming, my first after meeting my mate. I thought I had things under control, but now I’m worried I was wrong.