Page 24 of Can’t Help Growling in Love (Harmony Glen #9)

Chapter

Sixteen

JUNE

Asher avoids my gaze as we hustle into his truck. He loads up my bike without asking, considerate as always. He’s still wolf-shaped, which I know is rare for him out in the open. He hunches over the steering wheel and drives in silence until I put my hand on his knee and squeeze lightly.

He groans but relaxes by slow increments—his thigh muscles bunch then release, his shoulders drop lower, and he no longer holds the steering wheel in a death grip. I don’t press him for details. If he wants to talk about the strength of his reaction, he’ll start on his own.

By the time he parks in his driveway, I’m barely keeping my eyes open, and Asher is yawning widely. Maybe my presence calms him, or he’s just as tired from the long day we’ve had and helping me clean up my basement.

We stumble into the house and shower quickly, taking turns, too exhausted to even think about sex. I try to take the couch, but Asher simply tugs me toward the bed. That’s where I collapse, bury under the covers, and fall asleep minutes later, while he’s still brushing his teeth.

I wake up with my back pressed to Asher’s front.

He mumbles something but doesn’t wake. I slip away from him and use the upstairs bathroom to avoid disturbing him.

I write a note on the back of a receipt I find in the kitchen and leave it on the counter, then return to the bedroom to stare at my new boyfriend like a weirdo.

He looks so soft and beautiful in the low light. I want to crawl back into bed with him, forget about my job and my house and spend days learning everything that makes him tick, but that’s not in the cards for today.

After a long moment, I shake myself from the trance and step up to the bed. Touching the screen of his phone quickly, I check that he’s got an alarm set for work, then press a kiss to his cheek.

Then I creep out of his house and bike to work for my shift, sore from yesterday but less desperate than I anticipated. It feels good to have someone in my corner, and knowing I’ll have hot water to shower after my shift doesn’t hurt either.

At the hospital, I throw myself into work, determined to pull my weight even if my arms ache from scrubbing the carpet yesterday.

I help Dr. Mishra set a kid’s femur, change an infinite amount of beds, and listen to Peter’s excited report of his first date with a cute gargoyle guy he met at bowling.

When my shift ends, I take my phone from my locker and find Asher’s text waiting for me.

Hey. Found your note, thanks for letting me know. I’ll meet you at your house after my shift .

It’s short and to the point, but something about it niggles at me. I can’t do anything about it until I see him, though, so I bike home and spend two hours decluttering the basement, the windows open to air out the space.

Peter, who I told about the disaster, drops by with a portable heater that has a fan function. He helps me set it up and run an extension cord from the kitchen before taking off to see his new beau.

I still don’t dare turn on the electricity in the basement, not until someone more qualified tells me it’s safe. The last thing I want to do is burn the house on top of everything.

When Asher rings the doorbell, I rush upstairs, the headlamp I use for biking in the night still attached to my head. I throw the door open, grinning, but he squints against the beam of light and puts a hand in front of his face.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry.” I tear the elastic band from my head and click the button to shut off the light. “Hi. Thanks for stopping by.”

Asher steps into the hallway, his hands shoved in his pockets. “Hey.”

He frowns down at me. I stop to study him, noting the way he’s clenching his jaw.

“What’s wrong?” I ask immediately.

His cheeks flush, and he drops his gaze to the floor. “It’s nothing.”

I poke him in the center of his chest, then slip my arms around his waist. “I’m not sure I believe you. Will you tell me?”

Asher leans in and takes a deep inhale, huffing my scent. “I woke up and you were gone.”

I rear back to meet his gaze. “I left you a note!”

“Yeah, but it took me a while to find it,” he murmurs.

Realization dawns on me. “You thought I snuck out because I was leaving you?”

“I know, it’s stupid.” He puts his arms around me and leans his cheek on top of my head. “But I’d hoped we’d make breakfast together.”

My heart melts. “It’s not stupid. I thought you’d prefer to sleep in while you could. Didn’t want to wake you.”

“You can always wake me,” he says, his surly mood evaporating. “I wanted to drive you to work, too.”

“We’ll have to figure out these things as we go,” I tell him. “Different habits, different schedules sometimes. We won’t always be able to sync perfectly.”

He leans down for a soft kiss. “I know. We’ll get better at it every day.” He straightens and steps away from me, cracking his neck. “Now, tell me what needs to be done first.”

I open my mouth to protest, then realize we’ve already had this debate yesterday. He’s offering to help, and all I have to do is take it. There will come a day when he’ll need my help—with his garden, his job, or something else—and I’ll be there for him, too.

That’s what a real partnership looks like.

“There’s a pile of two-by-fours in the basement,” I tell him. “I thought we could carry it outside and let it dry out on the porch. Maybe we can still use it for a project if it’s not too damaged.”

Asher kisses my cheek. “On it.”

A couple of hours later, I groan, straightening from a crouch. “That’s the last of it. I can’t believe I got through all of the boxes. I should have done this months ago.”

Asher grabs the black trash bag, ties it, and hauls it up the stairs. He shifted to his wolf form earlier because he’s stronger like that, and I watch the swish of his tail as he disappears from view.

He’s been amazing all through the day. He helped without needing to be told what to do, and we got so much done in such a short time. But we’ll have to leave soon if we want to get some sleep, so I unplug Peter’s heater and coil the extension cord so we won’t trip over it tomorrow.

I stomp upstairs and round the corner—and smack into Asher, who’s putting on his jacket to take the trash bags out to my truck. I’ll take them to the dump tomorrow or maybe in a few days, since we’ll probably have more trash to haul away from the house.

“Ow, shit, sorry!” I bounce off his side and into the hall wardrobe.

He straightens quickly and catches my shoulders. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just tired.” I cock my head to the side, considering the various aches and pains in my body. “Not as exhausted as yesterday, but definitely feeling more gross after handling those old curtains.”

We’d found a decades-old mouse nest in one box, so I’d had to put on a mask and gloves to shove the whole thing into a trash bag. I washed, but the sweat and grime from the entire endeavor clings to my skin.

He sniffs. “Still the best thing I’ve ever smelled.”

I smack his chest. “No smelling me while I’m disgusting.”

His smile widens, and he doesn’t promise me anything. He only picks up three bags of trash in each hand, his muscles popping, and carries them outside like this is a completely normal thing to do.

My mind wanders as I imagine him picking me up like that.

The truth is, I’ve been thinking about the way he reacted to the scents from my bedroom last night. Today, he’d avoided the space, but I caught him stealing furtive glances at me whenever he thought I wasn’t paying attention.

I imagine what the situation would be like in reverse. Would I react as strongly if I could scent him that way? I picture Asher lying back in his bed, one knee raised, his abs taut as he strokes his hard cock and decide that yes, absolutely, I would go feral for him, too.

Now I’ll be living in his house, seeing him so much more often. People usually date for a while—months or even years—before moving in together. We’re definitely skipping some steps, but I don’t mind. Not with him.

I lock up the house and scurry over to his truck, climbing in before he can open the door for me. I hope he won’t sense where my mind has gone, not while I’m this dirty, but he snaps to attention the moment we’re both strapped into our seats.

“June…” My name is a groan that falls from his lips. “You need to stop thinking about whatever you’re thinking.”

He starts the car and backs out of my yard, then turns toward his house.

My cheeks heat, and I quickly press the window button to let the fresh air swirl through the cabin. “Sorry.”

Asher sends me a sideways glance. “Out of curiosity, what were you thinking about?”

I grin, twisting in my seat to face him. “Are you sure you want to know? Maybe we’re both too tired, like last night.”

“We are.” He faces forward again, but there’s a hint of a smile in his voice when he adds, “But we agreed to share, right?”

I face forward again and trace slow circles on his thigh with my thumb. “Well, I imagined what you look like when you’re, ah, taking care of yourself.”

He lets out a low curse and takes the next corner faster, then slows down again as if his body got the best of him for a moment.

“Will you show me someday?” I push harder with my thumb and get a soft groan in response. “I mean, there’s no pressure, obviously, but?—”

“Yeah,” he rasps. He covers my hand with his hand and squeezes my fingers. “I’d like that. I want you to see how fucking crazy you make me.”

Well .

It’s a good thing the window is cracked open.

I still press my knees together in an effort to hide the scent of my pussy getting wet, but Asher’s quiet chuckle tells me he notices anyway.

I’m about to protest about how unfair it is that his senses are so much better than mine, but a glance at his lap shows me definitive proof of his arousal.

The thick length of his cock strains under the soft fabric of his sweatpants.