Page 26

“Girls!” the little old woman beside them admonished. “You’re missing the best part!”

On the screen, people were being ruthlessly murdered.

Fee bit down on a nervous giggle. The best part? This old lady was not your typical old lady, apparently.

“Sorry,” Theo whispered again as the women turned back around. He widened his eyes at Fee, and she had to put a hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t laugh even harder and disturb the girls again.

He put a finger over his lips, miming for her to be quiet even as his own mouth was twisted in suppressed laughter.

She turned back to the movie and tried to ignore Theo. Even when his arm pressed against hers on the armrest. Even when he draped that arm around her shoulders, his mouth coming close to her ear to whisper, “I’m pretty sure this is what humans do at the movies.”

She smirked and whispered back, “Oh, yeah?”

“I’m just trying to be authentic.”

His lips brushed her cheek as he spoke.

Chaste.

Innocent.

She and Theo were officially friends now. They’d been in and out of each other’s life for the past two years. More in than out. Especially now that Theo and his pack had moved closer to Maple Hollow and the oak grove Fee liked best.

He visited her up in her tree house.

They talked.

They laughed.

They rarely touched each other. And if she sometimes wondered why they didn’t do more than that, she pushed those thoughts away. She liked having Theo as a friend.

And anything else between a werewolf and a nymph was out of the question anyway.

Although, she had heard there were nymphs that liked to … mingle … with the local werewolf population. But she didn’t want that with Theo.

Right?

Because what would happen after that? They’d get out their physical feelings, but what would happen to their friendship? The one she’d come to rely on?

Theo brushed his lips across the delicate skin behind her ear.

Fee shivered.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

“Watching the movie.”

She huffed. “No, you’re not.”

Another barely-there kiss on her neck.

Fee’s eyes fluttered closed.

She didn’t know what was happening, but she didn’t hate it.

“You smell so good, Fee. Like flowers.”

She sucked in a tiny breath when his lips found her pulse. He made a happy little humming noise against her skin and then he just … pulled away. Went back to watching the damn movie like nothing had happened.