TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 348

Three hundred and forty eight

e Jeep’s backseat creaked under us as Wesley drove deeper, and I felt an orgasm building deep inside me, making my thighs lock around his hips.

Waves crashed through me, pulling a broken cry from my throat as I clung to him, nails dragging down the sweat- slick muscles of his back. He groaned against my neck, then ground harder. I brought my lips to his, and he kissed me. He didn’t stop, and he stayed buried inside me while the last tremors left us both shaking.

He rested on top of me, and I kept my arms around him.

“I never realized your eyes are always open when we have sex,” he said, startling me out of my thoughts.

“What?”

He took his weight off me, giving me more room.

“You’ve been looking at me.”

“Can I not look at you?”

“You can.” He smiled, his thumb brushing lazily over my nipple. “It was just a bit strange, as though you are seeing me for the first time.”

My heart skipped.

I must have overdone it because ever since I left the lodge about thirty minutes ago and walked to where he had parked two buildings away, I thought I had been acting normal. My body had responded naturally because I wanted him.

But I was looking at him differently now, looking at how someone healthy and completely himself could be almost nothing like the fragmented Wesley Grandma Cassidy had talked about earlier. This Wesley pounded inside me like a stallion.

I asked him about his day even as we sat up and cleaned up. I lost track when he was telling me about something that happened at the mines. I knew I did when he touched my arm.

“You’re doing it again.”

I blinked out of my thoughts.

“Is something bothering you?”

“No.”

He kissed my knuckles.

“Did Anita threaten you? Is there something I need to step in for?”

I shook my head. “I’ve not heard from her since the gala, except hearing from Harrison that she’s not in town.”

“Well, maybe tonight. Maybe I should have asked if you wanted to see me before coming and imposing myself.”

“Of course that’s not true. I’m happy to see you. Always happy to see you.”

I said those words as if I were trying to convince myself that whatever I had heard hadn’t changed Wesley. It had only made every ordinary thing about him harder to look at without wondering what existed underneath it. Someone this healthy was fighting with himself every day.

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“I called you last night,” he said.

1. I put my phone down and fell asleep.”

He pulled me closer to himself.

“I figured you were asleep.” He peppered kisses around my neck.

“Have you spoken to your mom?”

He sighed. “You don’t need to worry about her. She’s upset, but she’ll come around.”

He had misinterpreted my question.

“They know how adamant I can be about wanting something and not changing my mind. So they’ll have no choice but to accept you.”

His words further reinforced his mother and Grandma Cassidy’s worry about how he would find out about the bond and not want to pursue it for fear of hurting me.

“And what about Barbara?” I said. “Have you seen or spoken to her?”

“Not since the lunch with my parents,” he responded. “She’s been trying to talk to me, but I just don’t see what there is to say.”

“What if she spreads it and says that you were together?”

“She wouldn’t dare,” he said. “She knows that my silence is a mild way of just wanting her to back off, and she knows better than to do more than that.”

“She must have thought you would… The fake relationship would have converted into a real arrangement.”

“Well, too bad she did not calculate well,” he said, making me laugh. “Now, can we stop talking about her and enjoy this night as it is? And while we’re at it, you and Maverick are spending the weekend with me.”

This time, I couldn’t even argue because I didn’t have any reason not to without arousing his suspicion. And despite not telling him anything, he was already beginning to decipher my silence and the way I was looking at him.

I leaned forward to peck his cheek, and he smiled.

“You make me happy, Isabella,” he said, looking into my eyes. “I wish I could give you everything you need and everything you deserve.”

Those words hit hard now that I understood their implications.

“I feel like a stupid little kid again, just mesmerized by a girl.”

I smiled at his words and leaned toward him, and he wrapped his arms around me.

“You just crept into my life without any permission. That should be considered illegal. So I sleep with the

thoughts of you and wake up with you in my head, wishing you were by my side.”

Looking at him, the tenderness in my heart melted and sank at the same time.

“I think I’m falling in love with you, Isabella.”

That admission squeezed everything in me even more.

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“Love is an expensive word, you know,” I said.

He nodded.

“And that’s why it shocked me too. I never thought it would be visiting me anytime soon. I’ve had this growing fear of loving someone and losing them, especially to something as cruel as death.”

“You don’t have to say anything or even feel the way I feel toward you. It’s not an obligation, and I’m not going to keep grilling you. So give me a chance in your life, considering that I do not even deserve you.”

“Wesley, please stop,” I said, my voice choking.

“It’s true,” he said with a sad smile. “I might be successful, have all the money and resources, but inside I’m just empty.”

It was clear that he was trying to tell me exactly who he was and, at the same time, holding himself back, perhaps thinking that speaking in abstract would not make me decode anything. And now I felt sorry for him because imagine hiding a secret from the one you love and not knowing that the person already knows about it.

He kissed my hand and then traced circles around my palm.

“You’ve had a hard life, Isabella, and me wanting you to tell me you love me back would be unfair. But I just want to make your life easier, give you everything you’ve lacked. Make you wake up with a smile every morning on your face.”

“Can you just let me spoil you?”

“Wesley,” I whispered, my tears falling. “What makes you think I don’t love you?”

His smile was sad.

“Well, it will be such a waste if you do. Loving someone whose life is as empty as a shell.”

“Don’t say that,” I said, pulling him closer to me. “You’re not a shell, and you make me happy and spoiled. I’m so privileged that you love me, and I want you to know that even if you were not the future Alpha and had nothing to yourself, I would still love you.”

“Why are you looking at me like you don’t believe me?” I said.

“I do,” he said. “It’s just hard to imagine me the way you described. I would have probably been a castaway.”

We stayed in each other’s arms, and I didn’t wish to be anywhere else.

“You know, I’ve been thinking about something,” he said, playing with the strands of my hair. “When we go public and the pack finds out you have a son, it could be brutal. So I was wondering if you’d let me adopt Maverick.

“1

I pulled away from him, my mouth falling open and my heart beating faster. It was cases like this I didn’t even wish to be in. Wesley adopting Maverick would be the very best thing for my son, not just for the security, but because Wesley was going to be a good father to him.

But I couldn’t say yes, not until everything came to light, starting with the fact that Wesley and I were fated mates.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“No.”

“Sure I did. I’m always imposing things on people.” He looked away. “Maybe if I hadn’t been so imposing,

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Beatrice would still be alive.”

Our eyes met.

“Wesley, sometimes I get quiet because the things you tell me are too good to be true. It doesn’t mean I’m doubting you. I just feel like I’m dreaming. Don’t think you’re forcing yourself on me.”

He nodded, and I could see the insecurities he was carrying.

“Of course I would want you to be Maverick’s dad,” I said. “We don’t even deserve the kindness you and your family have shown us. I just need time to process this and be sure before we proceed.”

“I understand. I guess I blurred the lines and mixed you with Beatrice.”

I hesitated before asking, “How did she die?”

He sighed.

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