52
Savannah
One week later…
My eyes fluttered open.
Rosy hues painted the lightening sky outside of the floor-to-ceiling windows of Jaxson’s bedroom. A few stars clung to the darkness, their brilliance slowly fading as golden fingers of sunlight reached toward the heavens over Lake Michigan.
My head rose and fell on Jaxson’s chest, and the steady beat of his heart matched mine. I smiled as I peeked up at him, memorizing the curve of his lips and the way his lashes quivered when he was dreaming. Warmth and happiness filled me.
But I also had to pee.
Careful not to wake him, I gently lifted his arm off me and slid out of bed. Jaxson stirred but fell back into a deep sleep.
He’s dead to the world, Wolfie said with a hint of amusement. You really wore him out.
I’d certainly done my part.
But that wasn’t all of it. We’d been working twelve plus hours a day to put Dockside back together. I’d learned to install drywall and spray paint walls and run caulking. It felt like everyone in the city was pitching in.
I didn’t usually see Jaxson from sunrise to sunset. He had his hands full with logistics and the council and tending to the infected werewolves, who needed help controlling their wolves while they awaited Aila’s antidote. Some, however, had decided to join the pack, which is good, because we needed every hand we could get.
Then there was bartending every night. Eclipse was donating all proceeds to the rebuild, and the place had never been so packed.
I shut the bathroom door and sat down, groaning as aches spread from my ass to my spine.
If being on my feet wasn’t enough, Jaxson had kept me on my back and knees all night. Even dead tired, we hadn’t been able to keep our hands off each other. Heat spread across my cheeks as I recounted all the places in the penthouse that we’d made love. The shower, the couch, pressed against his living room window…
Don’t forget the kitchen counter, Wolfie added.
The cold stone had been a delight for my overheated skin, but it was also hard. Five stars for the sex, but two for location.
After tending to business and brushing my teeth, I slipped into the bedroom and scooped up Jaxson’s flannel shirt and my phone. I guess I really had worn him out last night because he didn’t move an inch.
At least, we were finally going to get a break and get out of town. With the rebuild in full swing and most of our loose ends tied up, we were headed to Colorado for a week on a new adventure: tracking down my family—the werewolf side.
Mom’s side.
According to her letter, my grandfather lived in a small town called Silverton in the Rockies. Besides our trip to Forks several weeks ago, I’d never been out West, and I was looking forward to driving cross-country and seeing the sights.
Wolfie was practically buzzing with excitement.
Starving, I beelined for the kitchen, and as if on cue, my stomach rumbled. I started the tea kettle and fetched the coffee from the freezer as I made a mental list of the things we needed to do before we headed to Colorado.
I dumped several heaping scoops of coffee into a French press and filled it with steaming water.
My phone vibrated. You up?
Casey? At this hour? Consider me shocked.
I responded, The real question is, why are you up?
Seconds later, he called me, and I smirked as I tapped the screen. “Late night, huh?”
“You don’t know the half of it. Mom says you and lover boy are heading out of town? You need to stop by here before you go driving into the sunset.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but a shiver of heat worked down my spine, and Jaxson’s sexy woodsy scent wrapped around me.
“Lover boy, huh?” he whispered in my ear as he slipped his hands under the flannel shirt I was wearing. His fingers traced over my hips before settling over my tummy.
I pressed my back into him and looked up. “Hi,” I mouthed.