I’ve never seen that look on Emme.
But tonight, I really want to.
Without thinking, I tuck her close against me, just like I would that were or woman who wants me.
No.
That’s a goddamn lie.
I ease my hold. Emme is my friend. That sweet gal I’ve known for years. The timid one who’s fine walking behind her sisters so she never has to lead.
It’s not that Emme doesn’t have it in her to charge into battle, or that, like her sisters, she hates that supernatural spotlight that follows them everywhere she goes. It just has everything to do with who she is.
Emme is comfortable in her own skin. She doesn’t need attention, despite the males knocking each other in the skulls ready to give it to her.
Emme…she just needs to be her. It’s why I’ve always liked her. And maybe why I hope I’m reading her right.
Celia is the leader, the protector, the first of the sisters to go balls in with Taran running and swearing at her heels.
Shayna? Damn. For all her perkiness that cheerleader will stake your ass as quick as she flashes a smile. For someone who skips into danger, Shayna is damn scary.
Emme just wants them to be okay. She wants everyone to be okay. She’s the heart, the light, the one who embraces kindness as she would an abandoned kitten left to die on the street.
Shit. This can’t be happening between me and her.
She’s just a kid.
She was always just a kid.
I march ahead, keeping my attention on the lamppost that starts flickering out, and the one after that.
“You cold?” I mumble, wanting to know when I lost my ability to enunciate.
“Yes,” she answers.
“You’re hungry, too. Right?”
“Yes,” she answers slowly. I feel her looking up at me. I don’t bother to return the favor.
“I suppose you want to get clean and dry?”
“Um. Yes?”
I turn onto the next block, no longer afraid and maybe more than a lot relieved.
Okay. Yeah. She just wants to wash up and get into some clean clothes. That’s all it is, numb nuts. Save that horny crap for the ladies back at the Hole.
My hand drags along my hair. It’s still soaked like Emme’s. No wonder the poor kid wants to get inside and warm up. Hell, it’s still another ten-minute walk to my place then another twenty by car back to her house.
“I think Heidi might have some stuff at my place,” I say.
“Heidi?” she asks. “You’re thinking about Heidi? Now?”
“Yeah,” I say, wondering why Emme looks so surprised. “She used to leave a lot of clothes behind when she started dating Dan. I’ll hook you up.”
“Oh. Of course,” she says. “Thank you.”
Like a moron, I make the mistake of looking at her. The makeup she wore, if she wore any at all, was washed clean in the water. Her eyes, face, and full lips, every part of her carries a tinge of blue. She should be miserable, bordering on psychotic. But here she is, beaming.
Aw, hell. That smile she gives me, it’s like, I don’t know, like no one else exists. Except we’re just going to my place just to hang out, to get dry, and definitely not have sex.
No sex.
Not for this guy.
Not for me.
Not for Emme.
Sex. I had to go and say it.
Now, that’s all I can think of.
And I’m thinking about it with Emme.
There are dumbasses, and then there’s me. All I see is her, spread across my bed, her back arching just so when I—
“Are you all right with taking me home?”
I’m ready to tell her no. That it’s a bad idea. That she’s better off strolling into a frat house naked with a trayful of cookies and a beer keg strapped to her back. But then she crinkles her nose in that adorable way and, and, and, blushes, and I know that I’m done for.
“Oh, hell no.”
Her cheeks go from soft pink to I’m-on-fire crimson. “Did you just say no?”
Another blush, another confused yet adorable look, another sparkle across her eyes. Damn. What guy stands a chance with her? I’m only half-human after all.
“It’s just crowded there,” I yell for absolutely no reason. “You feel me? Not a lot of room with all the furniture.”
“What furniture?” she asks, looking at me like the imbecile I am.
“The couch and TV and the bed.”
I stop at “bed.”
Like, stop dead at “bed.”
Everything I’m telling her is a total lie. I have a decent-sized place. And with what I make between the pack and the bar, I don’t need a roommate.
Right now, all I need is Emme.
Emme being Emme, does her best to believe me. I mean, why would I, Bren, her friend, lie to her? Still, she’s been to my place plenty of times and can’t understand why I’m telling her what I am.
“Um. Are you worried Danny and Heidi might be there?” she asks.
I can’t keep up with the lies and feel worse that I’m lying to such an honest soul. “No,” I mutter. “He moved in with her a while back.”
She angles her chin to better see me. “Then why don’t you want me to come home with you?”
Because no way in hell will I not try to sleep with you.
“Bren?” she asks. “What’s wrong?”
“We almost died tonight,” I bite out.
Instead of easing away, she leans into me, slipping her arm around me and partially covering me with her blanket. “I know,” she says gently.
“And it’s late. You haven’t slept.”
She motions to the rising sun and how it’s working to break through the overcast sky. “Actually, it’s very early.”
It is. Cold and dark for a morning in July, but still early like she says.
The rain drizzles to a stop along the main road. The Hole is only another block away. It comes into view slowly, a lone soldier standing among the silence.
Man. The entire area is deserted, giving it a feel of twilight instead of breaking dawn. In almost every apartment building we pass, the lights are off and there’s no
