Chapter 13

“Ugh I just can’t understand how people eat pineapple on pizza! Everybody knows cheese and fruit don’t mix!” Lyla announced looking at Matt and Carson in disgust.

“And that’s why we’re best friends.” I said, then ginned when she reached across the table to give me a high five.

“You’re the only people I know who don’t like pineapple on pizza, you two have issues.” Matt said pointing his half eaten slice and us.

“Matt keep your food on your plate.” Lyla reprimanded, only to have him roll his eyes and bite of another chunk.

Carson sat beside me looking on with an amused expression. So far the ‘date’ was going well, he seemed to like my friends. Lyla was practically gushing over him and Matt seemed to like him ok enough.

At that moment the soft music that had been playing switched to a popular hip hop beat and Lyla let out a squeal that had me checking my ear drums to see if they were still intact.

“OMG! Laken you have to go show us some of your moves!” she shouted over the music.

“Moves?” Carson asked, eying her like she was a mad woman.

She looked at him, her mouth hanging open; “Don’t tell me you’ve never seen him dance?!” omg, he’s like the next Michael Jackson, go show him Laken.”

I blushed when they all looked at me expectantly. Yeah fun fact about yours truly, I can dance, I mean really dance, don’t know how or why I was blessed with such a talent but dancing always came easy to me, especially break-dancing, but I’d never done it in front of anyone but Lyla and Matt before and I was definitely not about to start in this crowded room.

Not that I could even if I wanted to anyway, what with my back and all. It was still very sore and even the smallest of movements caused a bit of discomfort.

“You can dance?” Carson asked, a look of awe coming over his face. I didn’t know if I should be insulted that he was so shocked or if I should be flattered that he was even interested.

I shrugged it off.

“Laken I can’t believe you never told him! You should see him Carson, it’s breathtaking, he’s been trying to teach me some moves but I’m a klutz.” she said smiling at Carson, her eyes bright with excitement. She was always excited.

“He doesn’t tell me anything, I have to drag every piece of information out of him.” Carson told her with a grin.

“You do not! I tell you stuff!” I exclaimed.

“Not enough.” He said looking at me, with wide innocent eyes.

“Awwww you guys are soo cute! I always knew you would end up together!” Lyla said clasping her hand in obvious delight.

“What’d you mean you always knew we’d end up together? You were the one who told me to move on and tried to set me up with Derek.” I said with a smirk.

Carson looked up at her with questioning eyes; “pssh don’t listen to him Carson, I might not have said it, but I felt it in here.” she said, putting her hand over her heart. I chuckled

“So tell me everything!” she enthused grabbing Carson’s hand in hers causing him to have to stretch slightly over the table. He looked at her confused then looked to me for help. I just laughed and shook my head.

“She wants you to tell her how you feel about Laken, and all that emotional and all that emotional crap.” Matt spoke up. I almost forgot he was here, he’d been too busy with his pizza to talk before but now that it was done he was all ears.

Carson looked at her again, “Ah, what exactly do you want to know?” he asked uncertain.

“Why’d you wait so long to tell him how you felt? Have you always had a crush on him? You taking him to prom right? Is he your mate? Do you love him? What do you think about marriage because I have the perfect theme picked out for the wedding!”

The questions just flew right out of her and as usual she didn’t allow him to even answer the first one before she moved on to the next, but when she said the word love and marriage I immediately put a stop to it. I wasn’t even sure if we were officially together, I couldn’t let her go scaring him off.

“Lyla chill!” I said but she didn’t hear me and would have continued if Matt hadn’t put a hand over her mouth.

“You don’t have to answer that.” I told Carson quickly, lest he felt obligated.

“Come on girlie, le’st go for a walk.” I heard Matt say to Lyla, then he was getting up out of the booth and dragging her with him.

“But I haf to know….” The rest of her words were cut off as matt pulled her gently through the crowd.

“Sorry about that, she can be a little…”

“Intense?” he supplied.

“I was gonna say crazy.” I chuckled and he joined in.

“It’s ok, I like her, seems like she’s got your back.” He smiled warmly. Then quick as a flash he leaned in to give me a small peck on my lips. I blushed then looked around to see if anyone had noticed. I don’t think anyone had.

Not that it would really matter since we weren’t at home anyway. We had driven to another town, sorta like a road trip. The drive over had been fun, Lyla and Matt had travelled with us. Matt had sat up front with Carson and I’d sat in the back with Lyla where she talked nonstop about clothes she’d bought, her sister’s lack of fashion sense.

“How’s your back?” Carson asked bringing me back to the present. He was looking at me with concern.

“I’m fine Carson, I hardly feel a thing.” I reassured him with a bright smile. He nodded.

“I pretty much know the answer already, but just out of curiosity; do they know that we’re werewolves?” Carson asked. I looked at him carefully, trying to judge how he’d take the news that I’d broken another pack rule.

“Yeah but they won’t tell anyone I swear.” I said quickly

“No surprise there.” He answered and I heaved a sigh of relief at how accepting he was of it.

“You know I’m kind of excited to go back to school now.” I said randomly.

“How come?”

“Because now I can put off martial arts for awhile longer what with my back and all.” I grinned, pleased with myself.

He shook his head; ”You’ll use that injury to get away with murder won’t you?” he was smiling now.

“Gotta use what you got.” I replied

“Are we talking about sex?!”

We both looked up to see Lyla grinning down on us, enraptured.

I rolled my eyes.

“Something is really wrong with you girlie.” Matt said sliding into the booth beside her.

She fanned him off; “It’s ok to talk sex with us, maybe we’ll learn something.” She said then lowered her voice and continued “You know, tips for when Matt and I decide to go at it.”

I burst out laughing and so did Carson. Matt just looked at her, eyes wide and disbelieving,

“You’re asking gay people for sex tips?! I really don’t think it works the same way as between a man and a woman Lyla.” he said, calling the words as if she was a child and he was trying to get her to understand.

“Oh hush up Mattie, I know that, I’m talking about foreplay here.” She said, looking between me and Carson expectantly.

“I’m sure we’ll figure it out when we get to that point hon.” Matt continued.

Did I mentioned how much I just loved them as a couple, they were crazy and cute and just perfect for each other!

“Maybe I should be asking about your wedding.” I teased.

“Oh don’t worry she’s got that all planned out…with no input from me by the way. You’d think she was planning on marrying herself.” Matt said with a grin

“You get to pick the wine.” she turned to him and said with a saucy smile.

“Gee thank.s” he replied then leaned in to kiss her. I looked at Carson but he hadn’t been following our conversation, he was looking at something across the room, his eyes narrowed and his body tense. My hackles immediately went up. I followed his gaze and my eyes widened at what I saw. It was the light-blond haired guy that I’d spoken to at the movies!

He was standing with his back to the wall on the far side of the room, once again wearing a full black suit with his hands buried in his pants pocket. My god but he was sexy as hell, the sinful kind of sexy you read about in romance novels! Not that I’d ever say that out loud. I loved Carson but that didn’t mean I didn’t have eyes.

Speaking of eyes, his were plastered on me, staring at me like he could see right through me. I swallowed but I couldn’t look away, something about him was just so familiar, it was on the edge of my mind but I just couldn’t place who he reminded me of.

Beside me Carson cursed softly under his breath;

“Fucking asshole, can’t he stick his bloody eyes on someone else’s date?’

My eyes widened.

He was jealous! Oh Holy Heaven he was jealous!

I can’t tell you how happy I was at the realization. My Carson didn’t want another guy looking at me! Could this night get any better? Oh yeah he’d called me his date!

I felt like jumping for joy, but of course I had to consider my back, always with the back.

“Whose that hottie?” I heard Lyla say. I looked over at her, realizing she was also looking at the mystery guy.

“Matt sighed in annoyance and I felt Carson, tense a bit more beside me.

“And damn Laken, look at the way he’s eyeing you! Like he wants to rip off your clothes and take you right there on the table!” she exclaimed.

“That’s it, we’re leaving.” Carson growled, getting up from the table and standing aside so I could slide out of the bother after him. Lyla winked at me and I smothered a smile. As we walked pass the check-in counter I couldn’t help but stare, I knew him from somewhere I was certain of it, but wouldn’t I have remembered someone like that?

I felt Carson reach for my hand as we passed him and I leaned into his side, enjoying the feel of his touch. We were holding hands like a real couple! Second best night of my life! The first was when we’d had sex for the first time.

When we got into the parking lot, Carson seemed to relax a little which just confirmed his jealously which had me grinning like a fool.

“Sit up front with me.” he said as we approached the car and I nodded.

……………….

It didn’t take long for Lyla to fall asleep, her head on Matt’s shoulder and a moment later so was he. Couldn’t blame them, we’d been out all day, first to the city, where we’d walked around and laughed and talked. Lyla had bought some clothes and Carson had gone into a store at one point and came out with a small bag but I didn’t know what he’d bought and I hadn’t asked.

Then we’d gone to the movies to watch a horror movie, which wasn’t really scary but Lyla had been clinging to matt like the grim reaper was about to jump out of the screen and eat her alive. After that we’d gone to the pizza place, so all in all it was a pretty productive day so I could understand why they’d dropped off so early.

I, however was wide awake, Carson had called me his date and he’s been jealous, nothing could kill my excitement.

I watched as he reached out to turn on the radio and I leaned back into the seat, letting the soothing music flow over me on our long drive home.

……….

By the time we got back to his quarters it was 3:a.m and I was beat! I just wanted to jump between Carson’s soft silky threads and sleep for a few years. I had thrown off my clothes, and stood in only my boxers, which is how I usually went to bed whenever I slept over at his place.

At the moment we were standing in the middle of his room while he applied the salve to my cuts, our nightly ritual. When he finished and I moved to go lay in bed he stopped me, extricating the bag from earlier out of his pocket. He then turned me around so that my back was once again to him and I felt him slip something around my neck then he stepped back.

When I felt the heavy weight around my neck I looked up at him, eyes wide, then I went over to the mirror and gasped when I saw it. It was absolutely beautiful and the detail and quality made it pretty obvious it had cost a fortune. I reached up to touch the pendant; it was a mini clear jar, with what looked like a wine cork screw top held by a twisted leather cord.

Inside the jar was a tiny diamond heart, only the heart wasn’t the classic curved shape that you saw on Valentine’s Day cards, it was fashioned into a real human heart! The detail was magnificent! I just stood there staring at it in awe. Nobody had ever given me something like this before.

“It means…you have my heart.” He whispered. My gaze met his in the mirror for a brief second before I spun around and wrapped my arms around him tightly, tears springing to my eyes.

He was saying he loved me.

…………………….

The next morning we stood in his kitchen, surrounded by mixing bowls, dirty plates, egg shells and flour. Lots and lots of flour. We were baking a cake, well at least we were trying to bake a cake. Earlier this morning as we lay watching TV we’d seen a pastry ad come over and I had casually mentioned that it would be cool to bake a cake one day and he’s suggested we do it. So now here we were, cook books out, and the kitchen a mess.

“It said mix until creamy not stab the living daylights out of the thing.” Carson said to me trying to take the bowl from my hand. I side stepped him and rolled my eyes.

“It doesn’t matter how you mix it, as long as it gets creamy.” I shook my head at him

“The book said-” he .began but I cut him off

“Screw the book, I’ve watched my mom do this a million times, I know what I’m doing.” I said, turning away from him and continuing with the mixing.

“So what? You’re just as clueless as I am and I say we follow the book before you ruin it.”

“And I say you sit there and look pretty while I do my thing.” I sassed.

He shook his head then turned to his own batter; he was baking brownies from scratch. I walked over to where he stood to inspect his ‘handy’ work.

“Is it supposed to be that watery?” I asked in confusion.

“uhm..I don’t know.” he answered, poking at the batter with his spoon.

“I did everything the book said so I’m just gonna stick it into the oven.” he took up the tin and opened the oven door.

“I thought you’d preheated it, it’s not even on!” he said in frustrated, I raised an eyebrow.

“Noo you were supposed to preheat it while I cracked the eggs remember?”

Shaking his head he turned on the oven, adjusted the control and stuck the tin inside.

“Well it can’t make much of a difference whether or not it’s preheated right?” he asked me.

I shrugged; “How should I know?” and turned back to my own mixture which had finally gone gotten creamy.

………………..

In the end we ended up burning them to a crisp so we threw everything out and went to a nearby pastry shop to get a box of jelly doughnuts, then we sat on his carpet in front of his wide screen chomping away at the sugary treats.

“Now this is what you call a movie.” he said between mouthfuls.

I chuckled; “yeah if there’s no blood and gore the movie is pointless.” I said sarcastically.

“Exactly.” he replied, distractedly, eyes glued to the screen.

I just leaned against him fingering my necklace. I still couldn’t get over his “confession” he hadn’t said the three magic words but I knew exactly what he’d meant. Wow the Alpha in love with me?

I had to be dreaming.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

THERE YOU GO LOVIES..LEMME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK :)

ShOuT oUtS: To All My Readers! For being so supportive and dedicated and funny as hell..can't tell you how much i've laughed and smiled from reading your awesome comments. Keep sweet!

-DoUbLe.A

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