What a fucking coincidence. He also owned the balls that were undoubtedly gonna be busted in the process of hefting the damn cabinet. He was half tempted to tell Kegan to find another willing chump, but then he remembered that Clarissa was supposed to be helping Constance mind the store today. “Give me a sec to throw on some clothes.”
Sweeping his attention once again to Logan’s groin, Kegan grunted. “Yeah, we don’t need you taking out low-hanging power lines with that fuckin’ thing.”
“Blow me.” Tuning out Kegan’s excessive cursing in reply to that invitation, Logan traipsed to his bedroom and got dressed in record time. Less than five minutes later, he and Kegan were cruising toward Savannah in the pickup.
A companionable silence passed before Kegan cleared his throat. “Do you think it’d be weird if I asked Constance to be my date for Griff and Jemma’s wedding this weekend?”
Gripping the steering wheel with one hand, Logan slid the bear shifter a sidelong glance. He’d wondered how long it’d take Kegan to grow some cojones when it came to his unrequited crush on Constance. “Nope. You should do it.”
“Yeah? You don’t think she’ll laugh in my face?”
“Oh, she’ll definitely laugh in your face. But you should do it anyway.”
“Dickhead.” A chuffing noise came from Kegan as he crooked his arm on the back of the passenger seat. His assessing look made Logan slightly nervous. The one thing he didn’t want was a grizzly bear eyeing him with invisible wolf chops hovering over his head like in those fucking cartoons.
“Have you ever tried hooking up with Clarissa?”
The question was so opposite what he’d been expecting that he nearly choked. “Uh, yeah.” It popped out before he could think twice about it.
“Any luck?”
His mind immediately tracked to last night, when she’d been squirming and gasping and coming beneath him. He instantly got hard again. “I don’t kiss and tell.”
Kegan snorted. “You don’t hafta. We all know the ice mistress wouldn’t let no one in her life, much less her bed.”
Logan slashed his gaze in Kegan’s direction again, an angry growl rolling from his throat. “Fuckin’ call her that again and I’ll rip your tonsils out through your nose.”
Kegan’s sandy blond eyebrows winged upward. “Whoa. Didn’t mean no disrespect.”
“It goddamn is disrespectful. And she deserves better than that.”
A hot wash of shame colored Kegan’s cheeks. Hanging his head, he stared at his lap. “You’re right. Clarissa’s good people.” He peeked at Logan before staring out the windshield. “I’m shutting up now.”
“Good.” But the damage was already done. Not only was he pissed at the slight against Clarissa, he couldn’t shake Kegan’s damning words out of his brain. Shit, he knew better than anyone that Clarissa had let someone into her bed. The bruise on his ass where the heel of her foot dug into him while he’d fucked her senseless damn well proved it. But that didn’t mean she was ready to let him into her heart.
She’d stopped him from mating with her. Not only that, she’d panicked over it. True, he’d jumped that gun way too fast. Too soon. But every instinct in him had howled to make the love and devotion that fired his blood a permanent testimony and bond.
Never in his entire life had he come remotely close to giving in to that natural inclination of his species. Hell, before last night he’d half convinced himself the lupine desire to mate for life was only a myth perpetrated by romantics and drunk wolves looking to get laid. But now he knew the awful truth. Worse, he was its newest victim.
He was fuckin’ screwed. And not in a good way.
“Shit, you just missed the exit.”
Logan jerked his focus to the rearview mirror. Sure enough, he’d overshot the cross street that led to the shopping district where the coven’s store was located. He hung a right at the next available intersection and zigzagged back to Broughton Street. Five minutes later, he pulled to a stop in front of Charmed Moon. While Kegan made a call on his cell, Logan climbed from the pickup and took his time rounding the vehicle and striding toward the shop’s entrance in an effort not to appear overly eager. Unfortunately, he ruined his vibe of macho coolness the instant he walked inside the front entrance and didn’t see Clarissa anywhere. “Where is she?”
Constance looked up from the box she was unpacking and frowned. “Where’s who?”
“Clarissa.”
Constance eyed him with a deep, penetrating stare that also left him a tad uncomfortable and sweating from his brow. For shit’s sake, did she and Kegan practice that look together? It was fuckin’ freaky. Finally a crafty grin slipped across her face. “She had to run an errand with Marabella, but she should be showing up any minute now.”
He feigned a casual shrug. “I was just surprised not to see her.”
“Ah, of course.” Constance’s eyes sparkled like she was the soul recipient of an amazing secret. “By the way, your aura is extra bright and glowy today.”
His forehead scrunched. “That’s, uh, good to know.”
Gifting him a beaming grin, she rose to her feet and brushed off the knees of her black leggings. “I’ve got to grab the dolly and straps from the stockroom. Be right back.” Whistling a cheery tune, she skipped toward the rear of the store.
The bells dinged behind Logan, announcing Kegan’s arrival. He turned and frowned at the bear shifter. “What the hell does it mean if my aura is bright and glowy?”
Kegan scratched his whisker-shadowed jaw. “Damned if I know. And I don’t think glowy is an actual word.”
Their conversation plowed to an abrupt halt when Constance reappeared with the dolly. She bent and attached one end of the straps, flashing some generous cleavage in the process. Kegan’s tongue damn near dragged on the floor, and Logan shook his head. Fuckin’ pathetic.
The loose floorboard near the back hallway creaked, and Logan looked up just as Clarissa walked into the room. A raucous chorus of hosannas exploded inside his heart. Shit yeah. He was definitely one screwed pooch.
“Sorry I’m late, Con—” The rest of Clarissa’s apology seemed to logjam in her mouth as her gaze finally locked with his. She bit her lip, her cheeks slowly going pink. “You…I didn’t know you were stopping by.”
“I’m here to help move some stuff.” And make a total love-struck ass of himself while he was at it. Hell, clearly Kegan wasn’t the only one who deserved a gold star in that department.
Clarissa continued staring at him for a long moment before she broke from whatever trance had held her hostage. “Oh. Well. Thank you for lending a hand. I should probably…uh…do things. Somewhere.” She winced and muttered something beneath her breath that could have passed for a cuss.
A snicker floated from Constance. Shooting her a hard glare, Clarissa pivoted and marched toward the stockroom, her head held high.
“The display unit I want moved is over here.” Constance trotted toward the far wall. “I’ve already cleared it off, so half the work is already done, right?”
Both he and Kegan grunted, earning a sheepish grin from Constance. Inching between them, she slung an arm around their waists and squeezed them in a tight group hug. “Have I told you lately how super awesome you guys are?”
Logan recognized a blatant case of ass kissing when he saw it, but Kegan only gave a sappy grin. Given how he’d nearly worn the same expression two minutes ago when Clarissa walked into the room looking like his every fantasy come to life, he decided not to give Kegan too much crap. Of course, that didn’t mean he couldn’t silently call him a schmuck. Which he did.
The old display unit actually proved to not be as much of a ball-buster as he’d feared. But the two-ton behemoth that Constance purchased was a whole other matter. In fact, he and Kegan dropped enough F bombs while positioning it that Clarissa came out from hiding to see what all the fuss was about. Having her mere steps away from him, the heat of her gaze like a constant caress across his charged skin, was pure torture. Particularly since he wanted nothing more than to sweep her into his arms and bury his nose in her fiery hair until he was properly drunk on her.