Untamed: an Alpha's Love (Paranormal Werewolf Shifter Romance) (12 page)

Garret makes a joke as we round a corner and I start to laugh, almost a guffaw, actually. My hands fly up to my mouth to stifle the hideous noise. He looks at me sideways, half-laughing but with his eyes wrinkled curiously.

“What’re you covering your mouth for?” he asks.

“Oh, I don’t know…” I reply immediately. The flush in my cheek rises.

“C’mon.” He elbows me. “What gives? Why so shy?”

“No reason,” I say again. “Nothin’.”

Garret squares up ahead of me, stopping me in my tracks. His hands come to rest on my shoulders. He pins me gently against the shelf as his eyes roam across mine.

“What are you afraid of, Jodie?” The words drop quietly from between his lips.

I look down at my shoes and say nothing. I can feel his gaze still on me, powerful and penetrating.

He repeats his question. “What are you afraid of? There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

I want to tell him how wrong he is, how many things there are that scare me. There is Bellamy and tuition and the murky miasma of Garret’s own intentions.
What do you want from me?
roars my mind.

Green eyes flick left, right, left. My left shoe is untied, I notice.

“Look, Jodie…” he says. “I know I’ve already told you a lot about how I think about things, about love and people, so if you’ve had enough, just tell me.”

He continues, “But if you ask me, we don’t have enough time in our lives to live scared. We can’t hedge all our bets; we can’t play everything safe. Sometimes you have to just jump, you know?”

His fingers tap on my shoulder gently, pulling at the fabric of my cardigan. My thoughts have fallen silent. I raise my eyes to look into his, quivering, scared, wondering.

“It’s not that easy,” I say quietly.

Garret smiles, though a kind of concerned sadness tugs at the corners of his mouth.

“You just have to let it be that easy,” he says. “Just close your eyes and sing, you know? Who cares what it sounds like? Who cares what other people think? If you wait on them to give you permission, you’re never going to make it.”

A tear snakes down my cheek. Garret smiles sadly again. He wipes the drop away with one broad thumb.

“You can sing, Jodie, I know it. I can see it in you,” he says. “You don’t want to admit it and you’re scared to try it. But you can. Just let it out. Close your eyes and let it out.”

I let my head fall against Garret’s shoulder. He wraps me close. His smell is different now than I remember it being. There is less of an edge, more of a warmth. Less of a musk, more of a heady scent that rises and settles around me.

He rocks me back and forth and murmurs “Let it out, let it out, let it out.” His chest vibrates with every word. Eventually, the flow of my tears slacks and ceases.

I lean back against the bookshelf and wipe my red-rimmed eyes.

Above us, the clock hands writhe excitedly and the light streaming through the curtains gradually diminishes.

“Oh, shit, is it that time already?” he asks, glancing around the room for a clock. “I guess I better get going. Shit to do. You know how it is.” Part of me wants to say that he sounds reluctant to be leaving. He slowly starts to gather his weight under him.

A sudden urge rises in me.

“Hey, Garret, can I ask you something?” I say.

He laughs at my enthusiasm and the immediately ensuing embarrassment. I consider changing my mind, but his confidence is infectious. I push onwards.

“Those girls who came up earlier…”

“What about them?”

“Why didn’t you go with them? They were pretty obvious about wanting to hang out with you. And they were gorgeous.”

He scoffs.

I have never heard such a beautiful, comprehensive sound before. There is so much in that sneer, that dismissal, that makes my insides hum with satisfaction. It contains so many things I want to hear from him. It is fuller and deeper and richer than any words he could have said. My heartbeat surges happily.

“I was having a good time talking to you.” He grins, stands, and shoulders his backpack.

He leans forward and brushes his lips against mine.

“You’re way more interesting than them, anyhow.”

“Sh!” says the man behind the desk. “For God’s sake, this is a library!”

Garret walks out. The door swings shut behind him. I stay rooted where I stand, smiling like a fool.

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Rock Me
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