Rhett. Alpha of Tallowridge. That's the name and the job, and right now the job is standing in my own yard with my knuckles white because Cobb got a laugh out of her.
Garnet's at the pen gate with mud to her knees, and Cobb is leaning in like he's got something worth saying.
Cobb: You're gonna dry up out here. Take the canteen.
Garnet: You keep doing this and I'll start thinking you like me.
Cobb: That's the plan, sweetheart.
Something hot and stupid goes off behind my ribs.
Her sleeve is pushed up and her hair is stuck to her neck and she's smiling at him. At him.
Hedda: Look at that. Water boy's courting the stray right in front of you.
Hedda: You gonna let him, Alpha, or are you gonna piss on her leg first?
I don't answer her. I'm already walking.
The whole yard goes quiet in that way that means everybody is watching and nobody is breathing.
Rhett: Cobb. Barn. Now.
Cobb: I'm just giving her water, Alpha.
Rhett: You're giving her something. It ain't water. Barn.
Cobb goes with his hat low, and I get my hand around her arm.
Garnet: Rhett, you're hurting me.
Rhett: Then walk and I'll stop.
I take her behind the grain bags where the light doesn't reach and the yard can't see, but they can damn well guess.
She hits my chest with both fists and I don't even feel it.
Rhett: Try to run and I'll carry you out of here over my shoulder in front of every wolf in this pack.
Garnet: What the hell is wrong with you?
Rhett: Say it. Say you don't feel it.
Garnet: Feel what?
Rhett: The pull. Say it's nothing and mean it, and I'll walk out of this shed and leave you alone.
Her mouth opens. Nothing comes out.
That silence is the loudest fucking thing in the shed.
Garnet: I don't feel anything.
Her voice comes out steady as a fence post. It's her fingers that sell her out, twitching and closing on nothing at her thighs.
Rhett: Say it again.
I kiss her before the second word is out of her mouth, hard enough to knock the breath out of her.
She doesn't shove me off. She gets a fistful of my jacket and drags me in, and the noise she makes against my mouth travels all the way down my spine.
I get my hands under her shirt and my palms hit bare skin at her waist, and she's hot and shaking and my cock goes hard against her hip.
Her hips roll into mine like she doesn't know she's doing it. She knows.
Garnet: Rhett. Stop.
Rhett: You want me to stop?
Garnet: No.
It comes out before she can catch it, and she goes red all the way to her ears.
Rhett: There it is. You feel it.
Garnet: Fuck you.
Rhett: You're grinding on me behind a grain bin. You feel it.
I drag my mouth down her jaw and she tips her head back for me like it's a reflex.
Garnet: Fine. I feel it. Is that what you wanted?
Rhett: No.
Garnet: Then what?
I don't have a fucking answer. I've got her waist in my hands and her taste in my mouth and a rule I made with my own mouth.
She shoves me back and I let her.
Garnet: You don't get to make me say it and then stand there like I ruined something.
Garnet: You want the pull? It's yours. Now do something with it or leave me the hell alone.
She walks out with her shirt crooked and her mouth red, and Hedda laughs loud enough for the whole yard.
I stand behind the grain bags with my hands still hot from her skin, and I know damn well that was a confession.
The question is whether I say it out loud or make her pay for dragging it out of me.