Chapter 19: Through the Gate

He kept his word for three nights.

He parked at the end of the lane after dark and stood at my gate with his hands on the top rail until the porch light went out.

He asked nothing. He brought wood for the stove and left it on the step.

On the fourth night it rained.

I watched from the kitchen window as he stood out there in it, soaked through, with his head down.

Bess, at the table with her tea, did not look up.

"That man will catch his death," she said. "Not that I'd say a word."

I put on my grandmother's cardigan and went out onto the porch.

He lifted his head when the door opened.

"Maeve."

"Come in," I said. "That's my rule, and I'm lifting it."

He didn't move.

"Gideon. Come through the gate."

He opened it with a careful hand. He came up the path and stopped on the bottom step with water running off his chin.

"I don't ask anything," he said. "You know that. I'll go back to the truck."

"I know you won't ask. That's why I'm asking."

I took his wet hand and led him inside.

Bess had gone. Her tea sat cooling on the table beside a note that said, Back in the morning.

My grandmother's bedroom was small and warm. The lamp was on and the quilt was turned back.

I shut the door.

He stood by the bed in his soaked shirt, not knowing where to put his hands.

"Take that off," I said.

He did.

Rain-cold skin, broad shoulders, the old scar low on his ribs. I had known every inch of him once, and I had stopped looking.

Now I looked.

I put my palms on his chest, and his heart slammed under them.

"You're shaking," I said.

"So are you."

"Yes."

I kissed him.

It was slow this time. It was not the kiss at the gate.

He held absolutely still and let me lead, and it undid me more than anything he could have done.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Alpha Signed Away His Pregnant Luna from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.