Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
My boy’s growling got a little better, but not much.
“I’m a friend, pup,” Henri tried to assure him too, staying very, very still as I basically felt him up. “I’m not going to hurt you or your mom.”
The knot in my throat at him calling me Duncan’s mom….
Henri kept talking. “Watch,” he told him before reaching very slowly out toward me—my boy’s little growl revving up once more, but Henri ignored it—and setting his hand on top of my head. Taking his time, Henri swept it down the side of my skull, over my ear, and did it again.
Henri Blackrock was petting me.
“It’s all right,” I started talking again, scooting a little closer to Henri’s frame and putting my palm back on that thick, corded forearm. “He’s not hurting me. See? That feels really nice actually.”
Duncan still wasn’t convinced, and I met Henri’s light-colored gaze and raised my eyebrows at him, not sure what else I could do to show Duncan we were safe with him. He’d never been this defensive… other than those two times.
But Henri seemed to know what to do from the way he gestured me closer.
I scooted over until my knee touched his thigh. Henri’s arms opened, and in the span of a breath, he set one around me. He pulled me over to him. Then, in a fluid movement with the palm of his other hand, he drew my face to that notch between his shoulder and neck.
I got it. He was showing Duncan that he trusted me enough to get into such a close and vulnerable position with me. A parent might do it with a child, or possibly family members or close friends. I was honored, but I was even more surprised.
It almost made up for his BS with the trial-period situation earlier.
“Friends,” Henri claimed.
“Friends,” I agreed in the cheeriest voice I could muster. All the while, one of my arms was pinned between our bodies while he hugged me.
I would’ve climbed into his lap if he let me.
Cut it out, Nina.
Was I that hard up that a hug from a near-stranger, who just happened to be good-looking and my favorite body type, could turn me into a perv? My hormones needed to stop this crap immediately.
I needed to remember that everyone here more than likely had exceptional senses. I’d gotten lazy living around normal people for so long. It had been nice, having secrets, not being so vulnerable and honest all the time.
Plus, Sienna had already caught my attraction to him earlier.
If I acted weird now, that was going to send the wrong message to everyone. Plus, I would die of shame if my body did something it shouldn’t be doing around not just someone I barely knew but my best friend’s family member. Someone who might be a neighbor if things worked out in my favor.
I hope he hasn’t opened his senses. Wolves didn’t walk around smelling everything all day, every day, after all. I knew for a fact that Matti only opened his up when he was at home, or in situations where he was uncertain about other people and wanted to feel them out.
Fortunately, it appeared Henri’s nose wasn’t working overtime, and after a moment, he sat back, gaze staying on Duncan as his palm went to my face.
He wasn’t done proving a point, and apparently he wanted to demonstrate that I was just as comfortable around him too.
Henri tipped my chin back—and I let him, like a doll—and the man wasted no time pressing his forehead to my neck. His movements were slow. The angle changed so his nose drew a line up the side to just beneath my ear. Finally smelling me from the soft puffs of breath that touched my collarbone afterward from his nose… some from his mouth….
If his senses hadn’t been open before, they were now.
I couldn’t shiver. I absolutely couldn’t. This was a werewolf thing, through and through. It was what I’d invited him to do hours ago when he’d turned me down. Sort of. I wasn’t sure anyone had ever had their arm around me while they’d done it before. Nor had anyone ever done it so slowly.
“He’s just getting to know me again, Dunky,” I explained, fighting for my life to keep my voice even as Henri’s face switched sides. His breaths were there again. His cheek. His nose. All of it like a brand. I had to keep it together. I had to keep it together, and I did that the only way I knew how. I started blabbering. “We haven’t seen each other in a long time. Back then, I didn’t smell the same way I do now,” I explained just as he finally withdrew, his face only inches away from mine when he did.
Henri’s lids were low. His lips slightly parted. He had a strong jaw. A little cleft in his chin. Deep-set eyes framed by those heavy eyebrows that hugged his striking facial bones.