Page 28 of Squatch Out!

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

OLIVIA

W e check out of my room and load up my little hatchback with all my gear—well, not all of it. I couldn’t fit Sean and the trunk in the car, so we emptied it out and I’ll have to leave it behind. I’m not sure what to do with all the camping gear I won’t be able to take back with me now.

“Consider it ransom, to make sure you come back,” Sean jokes, slamming the hatch shut. Only we both know he’s not really kidding.

That’s a problem for later, I decide, choosing instead to focus on what’s ahead.

Brian and Tony have decided they’ve had enough of this trip, and they are heading back to Seattle tonight.

“I am so sorry for all of this,” I say, giving Tony a hard hug beside the SUV.

“Don’t,” he tells me with a firm shake of his head. “None of this is your fault.”

“That’s right,” Brian speaks up as he comes around from the back.

I turn away from Tony to give him a hug. “It’s not your fault, either; you couldn’t have known that Darren was going to go off like that.”

He makes a sound in the back of his throat. “Yeah, well, I’m seeing a lot of ignored red flags after everything went down.”

Tony looks past me to where Sean is standing by my little car. “You sure you’re alright with him?” Once again, he’s acting like the older brother I always wanted, and I can’t help enjoying his protectiveness a little bit.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” I answer honestly. “In fact,” looking over at him, I can’t help the smile that warms my face and heart when he waves at me, “I’m kind of wondering if he might be the best thing that came out of this week.”

Brian, the eternal bachelor, walks off shaking his head, but Tony nods at me. “That’s how I felt when I met my girl. Like, she was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

I wrap him in another crushing hug, “I mean it, we need to clear a week so I can finally meet Carmen!”

He promises to set aside some time as soon as he gets back home, and things settle down again. I make my way back over to Sean and lean against his solid warmth, and we both wave goodbye as they pull out of the parking lot.

“Ready to go?” Sean asks me as he reaches for the driver's side door.

“Yeah.” Suddenly I can’t wait to leave this place and get back into the mountains where everything seems so much simpler. Tomorrow will come whether I want it to or not, but until then, I plan on enjoying the time I have with Sean.

He holds the door open for me, and I slide behind the wheel.

I pull up beside Owen’s truck and stretch my arms over my head. It’s a beautiful drive, but so long and mostly over rough roads that have my back twinging. Owen appears in the doorway of his house and gives us a wave. A moment later, Jenny appears beside him with a wide smile.

“So, is Jenny the girl Owen’s been stringing along ?” I ask, quoting what Clive said yesterday. I was more than a little surprised when he showed up at the lodge with the pretty dark-haired woman covered in tattoos.

“Yup. Jenny runs the general store in town, and Owen’s been flirting with her since she arrived several years ago.”

“Huh.” I can’t hold back my grin as I wonder what their story is.

Pushing his door open, Sean unfolds his large frame from the compact car.

Even with the seat pushed all the way back, his knees have been resting against the glovebox for the whole trip.

As I follow him up the steps, my stomach growls loudly, and my mouth waters at the smell of grilling meat wafting from somewhere nearby.

Jenny grabs my arm to pull me through the narrow kitchen door, while Sean leaves me to follow his brother out the back door to tend to the grill. I barely take one step inside when my feet come to a full stop.

“Whoa!” There is food everywhere. Strewn across every available surface are containers of potato salad, beans, and bags of chips. There are burger fixings, condiments and anything else you might want at a BBQ.

“You showed up just in time.” Jenny laughs as she passes me a beer from the fridge. “Owen’s probably pulling the steaks right now, and the burgers and dogs have been ready for a bit.”

“How many people are you expecting?” I ask, looking over all the food, because this is way too much for just four people.

She gives me a oh, honey head tilt. “You haven’t seen how much these guys can eat, have you?” Then she drops her voice. “It takes a tremendous amount of energy to do what they can do.”

It makes sense. Supernatural monsters would obviously have supernatural appetites. What really surprises me is that Jenny knows Owen and Sean’s secret. And then I do a mental facepalm, because of course she’d know—which makes me want to know even more about their story.

I open my mouth to ask her, but just then Owen pushes his way through the door with Sean right behind him. Both of them are carrying platters absolutely laden with steaks, patties, brats, and dogs. Jenny scrambles to find a spot for the food and then hands out plates.

True to her word, the guys take care of a good portion of the food, loading up their plates like it might be their last meal.

“Told ya.” Jenny giggles at my wide-eyed look.

We take our food out to the back where several wooden Adirondack chairs are setup around an unlit firepit. Settling beside Sean, I sip my beer and then moan when I bite into the perfectly grilled burger. He looks over at me, raising an eyebrow at the obscene noise I just made.

“Can you cook as well as your brother?” I ask him teasingly.

He leans over. “I’ll guess you’ll have to stick around to find out.”

I know he means it in jest, but I catch myself growing quiet. Because I want to stay. The more time I spend with him, with his family, the harder knowing I have to leave tomorrow is becoming. But I can’t stay. I have a job. An apartment. A life on the other side of the country.

You can do your job anywhere. You would have a home here. A family.

I keep thinking about Sean’s parents. His mom was an outsider, like me, and she was able to accept the unbelievable truth of his father’s family. Now I can see why. If his father was half as charming as he is with me, it’s no wonder she fell in love.

I watch Sean as he talks animatedly with his brother, wondering… Does he want me like that?

He turns toward me mid-laugh, catching me staring. The way his face smooths out into an easy smile makes my breath catch. Then he reaches down between us to capture my hand, bringing it up to press his soft, warm lips to my knuckles.

At that moment, I’m tempted to call up my boss and tell her I’m extending my vacation.

Maybe indefinitely. Except that, even if I did, I’d still have to go back and deal with my apartment and whatever else I’d need to do before making a major cross country move.

No, it’s best to just go back. But I promise myself I’ll revisit what it will take to return the moment I get back home.

After everyone’s eaten, Sean tries to help clean up, but I’ve been watching the looks Jenny and Owen have been giving each other. When Sean drags his feet, I whisper into his ear how much I’d like to get him alone . That lights a fire under his ass, and he all but drags me back to my car.

This time he dumps me in the passenger seat and drives us the short distance down the mountain to his smaller place.

As soon as we stop, he hurries around the car to help me out.

At first, I can’t help giggling at his chivalry.

When he grabs hold of my hand, I expect him to pull me toward the house, but instead we head into the trees.

The sun has begun to set, casting the forest in long shadows.

Sean seems to know where he’s going as he leads me to a spot deep in the forest, where no one might accidentally find us.

I open my mouth to ask why we’re here, when he suddenly spins me around and presses my back up against a wide spruce.

“What are you doing?” I ask quietly.

He brings my hands up and kisses my knuckles before he pulls my arms over my head and presses them against the rough bark. “Do you remember what you told me this morning?”

“A lot happened this morning,” I say cautiously.

He growls deep in his throat and his eyes crinkle at the corners when he smiles down at me. “Let me help you remember.”

I can just make out the quirk of his lips in the fading light as he lets go of my pinned wrists and reaches for the bottom of his shirt. Without looking away, he pulls it up and over his head, exposing smooth golden skin covering rippling muscles. “Do you remember yet?”

My arms fall to my sides as I bite down on my bottom lip and shake my head. “Not yet.”

He toes off his shoes and then goes for the front of his jeans. “How about now?” He slowly lowers the zip to expose a dark line of hair leading into the band of his boxers.

My confession from this morning comes rushing back. When I admitted to him that I wanted him to fuck me as a squatch. Did I really tell him that?

Yes. Yes, I did.

My breath starts coming faster. Is that what this is? Is this really going to happen?

“I think it’s starting to come back to me,” I tease, watching him push the denim, along with his boxers, down his long legs. His cock bobs between us when he kicks his pants aside and straightens to his full, gloriously nude height. My mouth goes dry, and my heart flutters madly in my chest.

“This is your last chance to say no,” he warns me. “Are you sure you want me like… that?”

Do I? Hell yeah, I do!

I nod, then suck in a sharp breath because one moment he’s human, and the next he’s not . In his place is a towering creature covered in reddish-brown fur with an inhuman face and huge hands tipped with sharp claws.

There is no resemblance between this creature and the man who stood before me a moment earlier. Until I look into his eyes. Even in the darkness, I would recognize the melted chocolate brown orbs that watch me carefully. He doesn’t move, watching me for any sign I’m going to back down.