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Once I’d picked up what I needed, I drove straight to the library. I had no idea where Briar’s apartment was, and even if I did, I doubted she was there. I’d been checking her social media pages, and so far, she’d put out two videos about Honor. I bet she’d be working on more.

I stepped through the door of the library, listening to the sound of low voices. My eyes went straight to the table we’d sat at together less than two weeks before. Something in my chest settled when I saw her sitting there. Her burgundy hair hung in her face as she hunched over a book, an iced coffee at her elbow and a pen between her lips.

“Was it werewolves or zombies this time?”

She glanced up, and her eyes lit up. “Jonah, what are you doing here?”

“I have something to show you.” I held my hand out, willing her to reach out and take it.

She didn’t hesitate. She rose from her chair, looking unfairly good in a dark sweater and those tight black jeans I’d peeled off her legs. She took my bigger hand in her smaller one, the heat of her palm seeping into mine.

There was a rightness to it. A way she fit that went beyond the physical.

“So what do you have to show me?”

“You’re going to love this.” I pulled her after me, out the front door, to where I’d managed to snag a spot right out front. I dropped the tailgate and moved the blanket I had wrapped around the new stone.

She stepped forward, her eyes glued to the grave marker as her mouth dropped open.

It was the shape most headstones were, flat sides with a curved top. I was pretty sure Mercer had asked for the cheapest one. No extra fancy designs, just the names and dates. At least Honor and her baby would have their names back.

She reached out, running her hands over it.

“It’s beautiful. Where did you get this?” She turned toward me, and I wrapped both arms around her, maybe to keep her warm, maybe just to touch her.

“I convinced Mercer it would be the right thing to do… and a tax write-off.”

She laughed, and when she moved into my chest, I pulled her closer. She laid her cheek over my heart, and I was sure she’d hear when it skipped a beat.

“You know, in weird-cemetery-girl world, giving me a headstone is the equivalent of asking me to go steady.”

I laughed. “I know. I looked it up in the weird-cemetery-girl-to-English dictionary.”

She bit her lip. “So you’re asking me out?”

“I think I’m past asking. I wrote it in stone.”

She laughed and brought her hands to my hips. “In that case, you’re taking me to dinner tonight, and then we’re going back to your place.”

Chapter Seventeen

Briar

We didn’t wait until dinner time. We didn’t go to dinner either.

I grabbed my stuff from the library and followed him to his cabin in my car, my heart jumping in my chest the whole way.

He’d gotten a new gravestone for the cemetery. If I’d been waiting for a sign that he understood me before I fully let myself fall, that was it.

After getting settled in, we ultimately made dinner. The fire crackled in the background as we sat shoulder to shoulder, eating spaghetti in Jonah’s bed.

Once we were finished, I settled next to him, my head on his chest, a movie playing on the TV that neither of us was watching. A sense of contentment settled over me as I slid my hand over his chest before letting it wander.

“It was a long week without you,” he murmured, turning towards me and pressing his lips to mine.

I nodded but didn’t want to break the kiss to tell him I felt the same. One piece at a time, we stripped each other until there was nothing between us. Our legs tangled, our lips wandered, but we were in no rush. Not this time. The mystery we’d investigated was solved, and now it was just us.

His cock was hard and leaking against my stomach. When he couldn’t take it anymore, he rolled to his side and moved me so my back was to his front.