Page 10 of Lycans & Lattes

“And if you don’t know what you want, I can’t help you find it.” I rushed past a clearly gobsmacked Wyatt and flung the back door open.

Like the man he’d always been, he followed my lead and stepped, stupefied, out the door before I shut it with a loud thud.

I snicked the lock shut and leaned against the solid barrier, tears falling down my cheeks.

Why did I do that?

I’d just ruined a four-year friendship in two sentences. But I couldn’t regret it. Being more than friends and less than lovers had been tormeting me for years.

I took a deep breath to steady my quaking shoulders.

It was better this way.

It had to be.

I pushed away from the door, my adrenaline and grief finally catching up to the late hour. But as soon as I took a step, there was a gentle knock, knock.

Fuck, did his lycan hearing pick up on my sniffling?

“What?” I snapped, trying to hide the sadness in my voice.

“Willow, open up,” he said in a gentle voice. “Please.”

“I have nothing more to say to you,” I called, holding my ground—as crumbled as it was.

“Then I’ll talk,” he countered. “But only if you open the door.”

I shouldn’t. I knew that if I opened that door, it would end up with me in tears in front of him. And I couldn’t let him see me falling apart.

“Willow?”

Staying silent wasn’t going to work, not in this town. And I couldn’t run from him. He was stronger, faster, and had my daily pastry order.

I wiped the tears from my eyes and righted my spine. “Fine,” I grumbled, pulling the door open. “You have one minute.”

Wyatt moved with lupine speed, darting through the doorway and grabbing my cheeks in both hands and pulling my lips to his.

I froze, my hands splayed out cartoonishly wide as my brain caught up.

He was kissing me! Holy shitballs. Wyatt Sullivan, the hot werewolf baker of my dreams, was kissing me!

And I was frozen like a dead fish.

My senses finally caught up to me and I returned his kiss, my hands delving into his hair and pulling him closer.

He let out a satisfied rumble against my mouth as his tongue flickered against my bottom lip, and I opened for him.

God, why did he feel so good?

He plundered my mouth, and I moaned into his. My whole body felt like a live wire. Every sense was suddenly heightened, as if magic had taken over my body. It was headier than the buzz of any drink or potion.

Wyatt was kissing me, and it was everything.

Together, we stumbled backward. The door closed behind him just as he hoisted me up, and I wrapped my legs around his taut waist. Both of us were so acquainted with the layout of the shop that I wasn’t surprised when my ass hit the pickup counter.

The frenzy in me grew tenfold. Four years of pent-up desire had been unleashed in a single moment, and I clawed down his back as he nipped my lip and trailed feverish kisses down my neck, a rumble in the back of his throat.

I cursed my T-shirt for not magically melting away, but pulled at the hem of his. Something in that action snapped him out of whatever we were about to rush into.