Page 6

6

WES

Thunder boomed, shaking the walls of the house just a split second after the flash of lightning.

It’d been brewing for about ten minutes now. This time, the electricity went out.

Fuck.

I headed to the kitchen wearing nothing but a pair of pajama pants to find a candle in case Remy woke up to use the bathroom. I had one in a glass jar somewhere. Candles weren’t my thing, but Remy had begged me to buy it from the dollar store last week.

There. I found the candle and lit it. It was scent-free, so at least I didn’t have to deal with a synthetic smell driving my wolf nuts.

I set it on the kitchen table as a nightlight of sorts. Fortunately, Remy usually slept like the dead once I got her to sleep. If the storm had been going when I was trying to put her to bed, she would’ve been too scared, but she hadn’t yet stirred.

I found myself glancing through the back sliding glass door toward the house next door. Wondered if Joy was okay.

That was stupid. My neighbor was a grown woman. She wouldn’t be afraid of a summer storm.

Still, the wind whistled through the air vents and whipped tree branches against the house. I could hear the loud thump of one hitting the side of her house. The protective part of me wondered if she needed anything. She was human and, therefore, vulnerable to danger.

But what kind of danger was I worried about? It wasn’t like the wind was going to blow her house down. The chances of lightning striking her roof were pretty slim with taller trees around.

I was the big bad wolf. I knew all about this.

She was fine.

If she was scared, that wasn’t my problem. I wasn’t about to go rushing next door to hold her and tell her she was safe. That job could be reserved for some other guy.

Except the thought of holding her landed in a visceral way. It landed as pleasure. Like my wolf wanted the little human next door scared and shaking in my arms. Turning to me for comfort.

Which was fucking crazy.

Still, the idea of some other guy offering that comfort set my teeth on edge. No fucking way. But that was just because I didn’t like the idea of having strange men near my house. Not when I had a little girl here.

I wasn’t jealous at the thought of some random would-be comforter to my neighbor. I was just being a protective dad.

Yeah, that was it. I ran a hand down my face and sighed.

Rain beat against the windows and roof. Lightning flashed again at the same time the thunder boomed.

My wolf let out an instinctive growl, ready to protect and defend my family against the storm. I cut through the house and peeked in on Remy. I didn’t need a candle with my wolf eyesight to see her tucked beneath her lavender comforter, her hand thrown up over her head.

The wind gusted, making my windows rattle. All of a sudden, I heard a loud crack and the sound of shattered glass.

A female screamed.

Joy.

Fuck. What had happened?

One last look at Remy ensured she was out cold, and I bolted across the house and threw open the sliding door. It was pitch black outside, but my wolf eyes adjusted to the dark as I sprinted next door. The heavy rain pelted my face.

I was headed to her house once again soaking wet.

“Holy fuck!”

An entire tree–one that had been in her backyard–had blown over and landed on Joy’s roof. The roof and part of the adjacent wall had caved in, smashing the glass to her window. A huge tree limb was half in, half out of her house.

Fuck!

“Joy?” I shouted at the same time thunder cracked again.

She wouldn’t hear me. She was human. She could be hurt.

I didn’t run around to knock on her door. Didn’t wait for permission or an invitation.

Fuck that.

I just leaped straight through her broken window, scaling the tree limb to get there. When I kicked the broken glass in to get through, Joy’s scream sounded just below me and to the right.

“Oh fuck!” I plunged through the broken window, landing in a pile of debris on a bed. “Joy?”

She was under the rubble, pushing her way out.

Fate, no.

“Joy!” I lunged for her, hurling the broken sheets of drywall that had come down from her ceiling out of the way to get to her. The tree limb wasn’t moving as easily, but it didn’t pin her, thank fuck.

She scrambled off the bed, landing in the tiny space between it and the wall. “Oh, my God! What happened?”

Rain came in along with the wind, which whipped her curtains around.

Fate. Had she been… on the bed when the ceiling caved in on her?

I jumped off it and yanked it toward me and onto its side, so I could get to her. I forgot not to show her my superhuman strength. Forgot everything but getting to my fragile neighbor before she was badly hurt. Maybe she already was, and I didn’t know it yet.

She could be cut. Bleeding. Worse.

“Joy, come here.” I snatched her up, carrying her out of the bedroom and away from the collapsing roof.

Her arms came around my shoulders, and my wolf calmed down. I got a clean hit of her honey scent, and lightning struck again–this time inside my body. It was like all my cells woke up at the same time. I became electrified. A switch turned on.

Fuck, she smelled good.

She smelled… right.

I never thought anyone–human or wolf–smelled wrong, but this was right.

I suddenly found it impossible to swallow.

Equally impossible was putting Joy down. She wasn’t safe here, in this broken house. We were both soaking wet and covered in plaster and debris. Worse, she might be concussed or cut and bleeding.

I needed to get her to my place to look her over. No way were we staying here.

Without saying a word–not unusual for me–I stomped out her back door in my bare feet and carried Joy in through mine. I picked up the lit candle from the kitchen table on the way to my bathroom. I only paused to peek in on Remy, who was still sleeping and was missing all of this. Then, I lowered Joy gently to her feet and set the candle on the vanity to start picking chunks of wood and plaster from her hair. I kept one hand on her elbow because her legs seemed unsteady.

“A… a tree fell on my roof.” Joy was clearly in shock, still trying to assimilate what had just happened.

I wasn’t one for extraneous words, but I forced one out because the situation called for a response. She deserved my response. “Yeah.”

“My roof is… My house…” She appeared dazed.

“Are you hurt?” I raked a gaze over her. Her blonde hair was soaked and sticking to her face, covered in the white powder of plaster from the ceiling. Her arms and legs were covered in more debris that hadn’t washed off in the rain. Her pajamas were tiny sleep shorts and a snug camisole. Neither hid her lush shape. The fact that they were both wet through meant I could see her nipples. Every bump. I knew their size. Their color.

My mouth watered for a taste. Lower, the material clung to her folds.

Holy hell was she perfection. My wolf wanted to fuck her right here and now, but I had enough brain function left–since all my blood had dropped to my dick–to know this wasn’t the time.

She examined her body along with me. Her hand came up to rub a spot on her forehead where a lump was forming and winced.

“Looks like a bruise there.” Gently, I pushed her wet hair out of her face to examine it. “Where else does it hurt?” I softened my voice like I would if I were talking to Remy after she took a spill. I turned her chin from side to side to examine for other bruises and ran my fingertips around the back of her head. “Do you know your name? Your birthday?” I tried to remember the things the rodeo doctors would ask us after we had a fall.

She let out a semi-hysterical laugh. “Yes. Joy Wallace. March thirteenth.”

“Okay.” I continued to scan her. She didn’t appear to have any broken bones or open cuts that I could see although it was really hard to notice when my eyes kept returning to her nipples.

“I’m Wes,” I remembered to offer, since I hadn’t introduced myself to her the day before. “Weston Sparks.”

“I know. I’m friends with Marina at Wolf Ranch. I was actually over there last night and saw you guys. Oh, is Remy okay?”

“Yes. Sleeping right through it all.”

She turned her head in the direction of her house as if still trying to assimilate what happened. “You came in through my window?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I heard the crash. Were you in bed when it happened?”

“I was trying to sleep, but the thunder woke me up. And then suddenly, the ceiling fell on my face.”

“Of all the places the tree could fall–” My voice grew rough with a ferocious need to run back and protect her all over again. Thinking of what could’ve happened if she’d been crushed beneath the weight of the roof made my wolf crazy. It was a fucking miracle she was mostly unscathed.

“It’s…it’s raining in my house right now.”

“I know. There’s nothing we can do tonight. I pushed the bed out of the way, so there’s nothing under the hole.”

She nodded. “Thank you.” Her voice was soft and sincere.

Fate. Something about the way she said those two words made my throat constrict. Like it meant something to her. Hell, I was wrong about not needing to be the one to comfort her because right now, I sure as fuck did.

“I should have seen it coming,” I said, wanting to punch my own face in. Fuck, I’d stood in my kitchen and purposely decided not to check on her. “I heard a branch hitting your house, but I never thought–”

“How could anyone see it coming?” Her voice held that hysterical laughter again.

I had most of the rubble picked off her now. A fresh urge–a darker urge–began to war with my need to take care of her now that I’d accomplished that.

I cleared my throat. “Do you want to shower the rest of the mess off?” I tried not to picture myself peeling her out of her cute, very wet pajamas. Stepping into the shower with her and handing her the soap. No, using it myself on her. Checking over every inch of her to make sure she wasn’t hurt. No, licking.

“Yes.” Her voice sounded rusty, too. “Um, that sounds good.”

Right. Move, Wes. Don’t just stand there staring at your beautiful neighbor.

I threw open the cabinet and pulled out a folded towel. At least I’d gotten most things put in place by now and had a grown-up towel to offer her. Although I wouldn’t mind seeing her in just a skimpy towel. And if she wanted to flash me her pussy?

I cleared my throat. “Here you go. I’ll make some hot cocoa.”

Cocoa? Why did I offer that? She wasn’t four years old.

“Or tea? Hell, whiskey?”

She rewarded me with a wobbly smile. “Cocoa sounds heavenly.”

Okay, I wasn’t too off base. I leaned past her to turn on the hot water in the shower then forced myself to leave.

As I stood outside the bathroom door listening to make sure she was okay–that she wasn’t going to pass out and hit her head–I tried not to imagine what she’d look like naked.

I didn’t let myself wonder if her skin tasted as sweet as it smelled.

There was no room in my life for a female.

Besides, everyone knew the human rule– you don’t date your neighbor.

But I wasn’t human, my wolf was telling me.