Page 15 of Love Bites (Timber Creek #2)

CHAPTER 15

MAX

Summer grabbed my hand, dragging me down the hall and shoving me through the door of what I assumed was her bedroom.

“Not even going to ask? Consent is a thing, you know. Even for men.”

She shot me a glare, then leaned her back on the door, closing it. With a sigh, she wrenched off her denim jacket and threw it towards a chair in the corner, but it fell just short. Everything was pink and white and gold, clothes littered the floor, but the hot pink bra hanging from the curtain rod drew my attention.

Instantly, I was aware of how small this space was. No matter if our relationship was fake, my attraction to her wasn’t. I did my best to avoid looking at that pink bra in my peripheral vision again, imagining how it would look on her smooth skin.

I drew my hand over my mouth, trying to think of anything else. Maybe I should have found someone in podunk Kansas to fuck, after all — it had been way too long, but the thought of anyone since I’d tasted Summer was unappealing. As if sensing the direction of my thoughts, Summer dragged a hand across my chest, a sultry grin painting her lips right as she climbed up on the bed.

“Summer —”

She cut me off with a finger over her lips and a twinkle in her eyes, tossing her head back as she let out a deep moan. “ Max!”

Fuck. Me.

I glanced at the door where Aspen’s room was only a few feet away from ours, biting the insides of my cheeks to keep my fangs from descending.

Fuck, our room?

Turning towards the window, I subtly adjusted my pants then looked back, unable to resist. Summer rose to her knees, spread wide on the bed, as if she were riding me. The skirt of her sundress pooled around her, and it was so easy to imagine sliding my hands up her thighs, revealing more of her skin. This was an image I could have painted in my head easily enough, but seeing it in real life had me almost undone.

With that same grin she’d worn looking through the window as her brothers interrogated me on the pack house steps, she rose up, then dropped down, the springs of her bed squeaking with each movement.

I mouthed, “What are you doing?”

She returned, also silent, “Payback.” And jabbed a thumb at the door.

I made a cutting motion at my neck, the universal sign for Stop .

“Just like that, Max,” she groaned, eyes on me as she said it, showing no intention of stopping. “Fuck, that feels so good.”

I breathed deep, trying to control my body’s reaction, but hearing her talk like this? I had no choice but to give in. Besides, even if this was a show for her sister, Summer was surely aware of the affect it was having on me. And I’d be damned if I let her get away with it without a little torture of my own.

“Such a dirty girl, aren’t you?” I growled as I approached the bed, tracing a hand over her jaw. Those hazel eyes locked on mine, blown wide in surprise, and I couldn’t hold back my smirk. “Ride me hard, just how you like it, sunshine.”

She bit her bottom lip, and I traced my thumb over it while she continued to rise and fall on the bed. “Touch yourself,” I ordered, and her eyes shuddered, then reopened, lined with gold. Her hands didn’t move from where she had them on the bed, but it took no stretch of the imagination to believe that had this been real, she would follow my orders like such a good girl. Color flushed her chest, telling me she was just as affected by this as I was.

A low moan slid from Summer’s mouth, as decadent as any dessert in her store, and I traced my thumb across her lips again, letting my hand fall to lightly grip her throat, tipping her head up to mine as I leaned forward.

“Are you going to come for me?” I said loud enough for Aspen to hear, but in a low enough tone I knew this moment would be imprinted on her mind forever, just like it would mine.

She nodded, her eyes locked on mine, then seemed to remember we were putting on an audio performance. “Yes, Max.”

I squeezed my fingers gently, hovering my face just over hers. “Then come, sunshine.”

Her eyes dropped closed, and she moaned, long and low, the sound so real I nearly came in my pants like a damn teenager.

I’d never been so hard in my life.

I walked away from the bed towards the chair in the corner, covered in clothes. I cleared a spot to sit, leaning forward to hide my body’s reaction to her as Summer opened her eyes, staring right at me with a lust-filled haze.

“How ya doing there, buddy?”

I shot her a look, and she let out a breathy chuckle, defusing some of the heavy sexual tension in the room.

Any worry or thoughts I’d had about being unable to get in touch with Malachi yet again went straight from my mind as the pink bra fell from the curtain rod above me, landing in my lap. I picked it up, running my fingers over the lace, then dropped it on the pile of discarded clothes at my feet. All I could think about was getting Summer to make those noises, for real next time.

Ten seconds later, there was banging on the door. “Would you keep it down?”

Summer grinned and leapt off her bed with a smirk, but didn’t respond to her sister, who returned to her own room.

Turning on a speaker, Summer started a playlist and turned it up loud enough it would muffle our words.

“What the hell was that?” my voice came out in a rasp.

“I told you. Payback.” Summer shrugged, like she didn’t just give me enough material to jack off to for the rest of my life, and she didn’t even take off her clothes. “Aspen thinks she wants to judge who I’m dating, so she can suffer through it.”

I latched onto her words, trying to read between the lines to focus on her meaning and forget about my painful hard on.

“Your family was a bit protective. For a minute there I wondered if Terran was going to swing that axe at me after I kissed you.” I forced a smirk.

“Protective?” Summer let out a deep sigh. “That’s one word for it. They all still see me as their baby sister. Like I can’t do anything for myself without fucking it up.”

I frowned and pointed to the floor. “You run a whole store by yourself.”

“Yeah, well. I’m not sure that counts in their eyes.”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

Summer waved a hand. “Oh, who knows with their logic. The moral of the story here is, they think you’re a mistake for me, so I’ll show them just how not a mistake this is.”

That didn’t sound great for some reason. “This?”

“Yep. Buckle up, buddy, we’re fake dating for real now. You’ll be in love with me in no time, and the readers can all squeal in delight that they knew it all along, right up until I break your heart in the third act. Don’t try to fight it, it’s a canon event.”

Somehow, my forehead wrinkled even further, trying to figure that one out before I gave up and shook my head. “No. Summer, if anything, tonight just proved how right I was that you need to stay here and this” — I gestured between us — “needs to be done. I’ll find another wolf, you’ll stay here, hopefully West never finds out about Boston, and I get to stay alive.”

Summer gasped. “You’d break up with me already ? Then West would really kill you, since you broke my heart and all.”

I gave her a flat stare, and after a minute, Summer’s expression changed. She bit her lip, seeming almost unsure of herself for a change.

“Real talk?” She met my eyes, scooching to the edge of her bed and folding herself up cross-legged. “I need to do this. I need to.”

“No, really, I’ll find —”

“For me .”

I followed her gaze as it drifted to a corkboard on the wall. Magazine clippings and slips of paper filled it, all tied together like a serial killer murder board. Only in the corner, instead of long-range photos of someone, were the words Bucket List .

“What’s that?”

She laughed bitterly. “That? Just a whole bunch of stuff no one thinks I’m capable of, either because they think I’d never remember to, or follow through, or make the time, or I’d chicken out, or dozens of other excuses they conjure up as to why I’m still here in town and not marking off those dreams one by one.”

What the fuck? For some reason, her words twisted my gut. I stood, my dick finally calmed down, and went up to the board.

Fly on a plane.

Ride a camel elephant.

Zipline.

Visit the Eiffel Tower.

Eat gelato in Rome.

Road trip.

Get married.

Dozens more scattered the board, but nothing crazy or earth-shattering. Why would her family think she couldn’t do these things? I turned back to Summer, and she must have seen the question on my face.

“I tend to have a lot of ideas — too many ideas, maybe — but am not the best at executing them,” she admitted, sliding off the mattress and dropping down onto the floor. She pulled two huge rolling containers out from underneath the bed, both filled with assorted craft supplies. “Aspen says my number one hobby is acquiring new hobbies.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

Summer lifted her head, a slow smile breaking over her face. “Exactly.”

Were we speaking in riddles now? “Your relationship with your sister is confusing.”

She sighed. “It’s complicated.” Shoving the containers back under the bed, Summer sat back on the mattress. “You know our mom died?”

I nodded, vaguely aware of their history through West.

“I was a teenager, and Aspen sort of took it on herself to fill that role for me. So, yes, she’s my sister, but I also think she feels responsible for me in a way that goes beyond a typical sister relationship. After our mom died, Dad kind of fell apart for a while, so she and West really stepped up for the whole family.”

I nodded, having gathered as much over the years from West, but hearing her perspective was different. Not that different from how I felt about working for my father, choosing to hide and protect me for as long as he had.

“I love them so much for that, and we couldn’t have gotten through that time without them, but she’s also just…” Summer frowned, her shoulders dropping as she stared at her hands in her lap. “I don’t know. We’re so different. She’s always had a direction, known exactly what she wanted, who she wanted to be, and how to get there. Me?” She gestured at the chaos that was her room — a pile of vinyl records in a crate, a bookcase overflowing with books and knick-knacks, clothes spilling from her closet. “I’ve always been a mess. I’ve never known what I want — or rather, I want to do everything. How do you make time for everything?”

She stared at me, bewildered, and I realized she expected an answer. “You can’t.”

Nodding emphatically, she threw her hands up. “I can’t! So how am I supposed to choose? What to do, who to be, where to go, what to try?” She flopped onto her back, sprawled over her plush duvet. “Maybe I am stuck here, but I don’t want to be.”

I looked back over her bucket list items and plucked one off the board. Why I felt the need to help her, I couldn’t really explain. Maybe because she helped me out with the den, no questions asked. Or because when her hazel eyes met mine, I suddenly felt like this version of herself, somewhat lost and unsure, was a side she didn’t show many people. I wasn’t worthy of these vulnerabilities from her, but for some reason, I wanted to be.

I held up the slip of paper. “This one. We can do this, easy.”

Summer rolled her head over to see, squinting at the picture in my hand. “Which one is that?”

“Grand Canyon.”

She smiled, but it seemed sad. “You’re being nice to me. It’s not like you.”

I scowled, probably proving her point, but the fact it made her smile turn genuine meant it was worth it. “I’m very nice.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I saved you from bloodthirsty vampires just a few days ago.”

“And then you turned into the bloodthirsty one. Not sure that counts.”

I wanted to banter back, but she had to go and bring that up. Suddenly I was thinking about her blood on my tongue again, that stupid pink bra glaring up from the floor, and words escaped me. My eyes darted to her neck, where my puncture marks had been even though they’d healed now, then to the shoulder where I knew my shadowmark was, and I blinked hard to keep my head.

Summer cleared her throat. “Back to the point. I need to help you with this. For me. I need to prove to myself, if no one else, that I can make my own choices. That I can do something for myself . It might not be a bucket list item, technically, but it’ll still let me see some of the world beyond the edges of this town. To feel useful and necessary.”

Slowly, I nodded. It would still be insanely dangerous, and West would probably kill me for allowing this. But when her earnest hazel eyes met mine? Fuck, I was pretty sure I’d do anything she asked.

My focus drifted back to the cork board, and I decided we might even have time for a few pit stops in our travels.

“You want to see some of that wide world tonight, sunshine?”

Summer scrunched her nose and tilted her head. “What?”

I fluttered the paper in my hand again. “Grand Canyon; I meant it. You and me. Tonight. Who’s going to stop us?”

Sitting up slowly, a confused smile rose on her face. “You’re serious? Why?”

Why? Great question. I could have told her because that’s not your real smile or because I have this inexplicable urge to help you , but I wasn’t sure she’d believe either of those. Or maybe I wasn’t ready to say them.

Instead, I played it off, like I usually did, and shot her a smirk. “Consider it my payment for the bite. Are we going or what?”

Summer hesitated only a moment before launching off the floor with a smile — a real one, this time, and my heart fluttered. “All right — show me the world, Aladdin.”

I clasped her hand in mine and vanished us into the night.