Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 35159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
She kept the engine running and then pressed her head close to the horn, but not touching it.
“It’s fine,” she said again.
The truth was, she wasn’t exactly feeling fine.
She didn’t know what she was feeling, but it certainly wasn’t fine, nor was it okay. Her first sexual experience had ended in disaster, with a wolf of all people. A much older wolf, and he’d treated her like she’d done something despicable. Now she had to go and freaking shop for him and his pack. What was she going to do?
Turning off the ignition, she climbed out of her truck and began to pace, moving back and forth. She was angry at herself, and at him.
She spun back, went to her door, and then screamed. This was something she used to do as a kid, only it would happen in the backyard. Her mom would allow her to have her screaming fit, and when it was over, she’d normally have to go back inside and apologize.
Her mother would always tell her not to worry, that she didn’t need to apologize. This only happened when they first moved to No Wolves Road. Years later, she and her mom were talking, and Wendy believed she only screamed when life got too scary, or she was doing stuff she didn’t quite understand.
Eloise didn’t know why she did it, only that she had done it, and now she didn’t even feel good about it. In fact, she felt a hell of a lot worse.
She made her way back into the truck and drove all the way to the supermarket.
This wasn’t her. She wasn’t going to allow one shitty night to affect her life. Rose had asked her to do this, and that was exactly what she was going to do.
****
Beau kept expecting Rose to come to him to let him know Eloise had quit taking care of their food. Monday came, and he asked Rose about the food, to which she said Eloise would come in the morning. All she had to do was make sure the fridge and freezer were ready to take it.
He was tempted to be far away when she arrived. Instead, he sent the whole pack far away from the ranch, telling them not to come back until lunch. No one argued with him. He knew they believed he’d been particularly grouchy since the last full moon. If only they knew he had a good reason.
He stood in the front of the house and at exactly eight o’clock, Eloise’s truck appeared in the driveway.
She didn’t stop or hesitate. She parked her truck, climbed out, and began to move grocery bags, along with the sacks he knew contained the food she’d cooked for the week. He waited until all the food was in the kitchen before he made his way inside.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Beau asked.
Eloise spun around with a gasp. “I don’t have to talk to you.”
“No, you must want to, seeing as you came back to the ranch.”
“Trust me, my being here has nothing to do with you and everything to do with my deal with Rose. She asked, I offered, this is what I do.”
Why did she have to say shit like this? All it did was make him like her even more, which now pissed him off.
He closed the distance between them. “Why didn’t you tell me you were a fucking virgin!” He was past losing his temper.
“How?” she asked, yelling right back at him. “How and when do I tell you? It’s not something you just drop into a conversation. Oh, hi there, I’m Eloise, and even though we barely know each other, on the off chance we may end up having sex, you might want to know I’m a freaking virgin. It isn’t exactly a conversation starter.”
Okay, he couldn’t argue with that.
“You could have told me many times.”
“No, I couldn’t, and besides, with how you reacted, there was no way I was going to tell you anything.” She wrinkled her nose.
“I could have made it … better.”
This time, Eloise threw back her head and laughed, but it was a fake laugh, and she wasn’t fooling him. He’d hurt her, and not just physically.
“You know, they always say that a woman will remember her first time, and trust me, Beau, I’m not going to forget this in a hurry. It was the single worst experience of my life, but don’t worry, you have cured me from being curious about any of it.”
And with that, she spun around and went back to sorting through the food, but he wasn’t going to have that.
Beau knew he should just walk away. That would be the sensible thing to do. When it came to Eloise, he didn’t know what she did to him, but sensible was not what she did.
He bent down and threw her over his shoulder.