Chapter Six River

I was a bit surprised when Vincent called me back that night and let me know he was about a half hour away from closing up the shop. I thought I'd scared him off by being a little too forward, but it seemed my moment of bravery had paid off. I'd felt his entire body shiver when I slipped the paper into his back pocket. However, I wasn't sure at that moment if it was a good or a bad shiver. And I was relieved to hear it was a good one.

He asked me what kind of pizza I liked and said he'd meet me at the beach after he was done at the shop. The park closed at dusk, but it was open to wolves for shifting at night. He assured me it would be alright to be out there and that my van wouldn't be towed.

I found it surprising how excited I was at the thought of spending more time with him. Of course, I'd been nearly overwhelmed by his sweet scent at the shop. Even with all the incredible food smells in the place, his scent drowned everything out. All I could focus on was his presence, the heat of his body, and how much I wanted to kiss him. In fact, I nearly did. It took all my self-control to resist the gravity of his lips.

And that was sort of weird for me. Guys were hot, don't get me wrong, but I could usually control myself around them. I couldn't remember a time when one of them had such a pull over me. Even the super hot threesome I had earlier in the summer held less sway over me at the moment than Vincent did when I was just talking to him.

There was something about that boy that I just couldn't put my finger on…

Oh well. It was just a fling, anyway. At least I knew I was going to enjoy it if I managed to get him in the sack.

So, with my backpack packed with the essentials, mainly lube and a couple bottles of water, I headed out of the hotel. I waved to Sam on my way out, but didn't give him a chance to question me. I was actively trying to avoid giving the man any more information about me after he'd hinted about my father's credit card. Besides, it was a hotel. I could come and go as I pleased.

The drive out to the beach was nice. It had been dark for nearly an hour and traffic was all but nonexistent. That was one nice thing about small towns, you never had to worry about rush hour. I found the park closed when I arrived, but a quick check of the gate showed it was unlocked. I pushed it aside, drove the van through, and nearly closed it behind me. I had a feeling Vincent wasn't far behind me. Either way, I shot him a quick text letting him know it was open.

It was kind of eerie driving into a park all by myself in the middle of the night. Of course, thanks to my Alpha heritage and my werewolf healing abilities, I really had almost nothing to worry about. Even if a bear were to come flying out of the woods with a jetpack and samurai swords, I'd probably still win. Thankfully that didn't happen. In the parking lot I pulled the van to a stop and switched it off.

Silence pressed in all around me as I got out of the vehicle. Well, not silence, but Midwestern silence. Basically the night was filled with the sounds of every insect and frog within a mile screaming at the tops of their lungs. To me it was silence, but to anyone else, it might be a bit intense. Either way, I clambered up onto the hood of the van and leaned back against the cool windshield. Lacing my hands behind my head, I tilted my eyes skyward, taking in the vast display of stars above.

A single shooting star flew by and I made a quick wish.

"I wish… I was brave enough to go for what I wanted in li fe," I whispered. Then I sighed.

Fat chance some celestial piece of rock was gonna make that happen.

No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than a pair of headlights swung into the parking lot from the far side. They swept over me and my van before heading my way. The dark SUV pulled up beside me and turned itself off. I didn't recognize it or course, but my heart skipped a beat as I hoped it was Vincent and not some undercover cop.

Thankfully, dark curly hair stuffed under a hat and a pair of green eyes glinting in the moonlight greeted me.

"You came," he said, seemingly surprised.

"You were the one that called me, remember?"

He chuckled, biting his lower lip. "Yeah."

Damn, he was cute when he did that. We stopped for a moment, just staring at one another. Then my stomach growled loud enough for the entire parking lot to hear.

"Hungry?" he asked, laughing.

"A bit." I patted my stomach as I slid off the hood of the van. "Do you want to eat here or on the beach?"

"Obviously on the beach."

"That was my thought too," I smiled, grabbing my bag. "Seems a lot more romantic to have dinner under a moonlit sky."

I could see Vincent blush even in the dark. "It's just pizza," he replied. "Nothing special."

"Eating anything with a cute boy seems special to me."

He bit his lower lip again and a jolt of electricity went straight to my cock. This guy was killing me. Seriously. Usually I didn't feel that nervous when I was on the prowl. But something about this guy gave me the shakes. For some reason I had this sudden fear of screwing this thing up. What was this thing that I was worried about? There was nothing between us and we knew almost nothing about one another. I pushed the unintelligible thoughts away, but the sensation remained.

The walk out to the beach was pretty quiet. Vincent carried his warming bag with the pizza tucked inside and I was right behind him with my backpack. I had a good view of his tight little butt in those jeans and of course that didn't help the growing problem in my pants at all. I was only thankful for the darkness that might allow me to cover it up at least a little before the time was right.

I wanted to talk, to break the ice in any way that would get us going. But for some strange reason, I couldn't find the words. I was so intimidated by this guy all of a sudden. Getting a faceful of his beautiful scent the entire walk didn't help. It made it hard to think at all with anything but my dick.

We reached the beach, took a seat, and Vincent pulled out the pizza. Smiling at one another, we both took a piece and began to eat.

Silence .

I felt like I was chewing impossibly loud. Then, when I took a water bottle out and took a drink, I wasn't sure I'd ever gulped so damn loud in my entire life. Even with the waves washing gently against the shore not too far away, I still felt like I was the most obnoxious person on the planet.

"So…" I said at last, forcing myself to break the silence. "How was your day?"

Vincent smiled, glancing over at me. "Small talk? Really?"

"What's wrong with that?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. I just thought you'd be so smooth and dishing out compliments left and right like you were yesterday."

"Believe it or not, I'm feeling a bit nervous." I wasn't sure why I chose to admit that. It just sort of happened. "That doesn't usually happen to me."

"I'm always nervous," Vincent replied. "Always waiting for the person across the table to get up to go to the bathroom and never come back."

"Well," I chuckled, looking around. "There's no bathrooms out here, so I guess you're stuck with me."

He blushed again. "My day was good. Busy. But the shop is always like that."

"A successful business owner," I nodded. "Good for you. Not many people can pull that off, Carino ."

"I still have no idea what that means," Vincent laughed nervously. "Are you calling me an asshole or something?"

"It means cute in Italian," I smiled. "Because you are."

"I'm not–"

"No," I interrupted. "You are. And you're really bad at taking compliments."

He blushed and turned away. "I know… sorry about that. This sort of thing… doesn't happen very often."

"What sort of thing?"

Vincent lifted his gaze to mine. "I don't get asked out on dates very often."

That word made my heart nearly stop. "Woah," I said, holding a hand up. "This isn't a date."

He furrowed his brows. "It's not?"

I shook my head and I wasn't sure if he looked irritated or just confused.

"Then what is it?"

"Can I be really honest with you?"

"If it includes an explanation, yes."

I took a deep breath. "You remember I said I'm leaving in a month, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well… regardless of how much we get along or potentially like one another… that's not going to change." I tried desperately to search for the right words to get my point across. "There's no room for a boyfriend in my life once I go home. And there won't be any contact or long distance things happening. I'll probably never come back to this town again."

Vincent just sat there, his slice of pizza limp in his hand as he stared at me.

"I know that sounds harsh… but it's the way it has to be."

Suddenly I became very aware the Vincent's expression was no longer confusion, but actual irritation.

"So… you just flirted me up like this for the past couple of da ys to get my hopes up or something?"

"No! I meant every word of it!"

"But I'm undateable."

"That's not–"

"No, it's okay," Vincent said, dropping his slice back in the box. "I get it. I'm not good enough for you." He chuckled to himself. "Honestly, I don't know why I expected anything else. I'm never good enough for anybody. If I was, I wouldn't be here in this town to begin with."

"I didn't mean it like that."

He got to his feet. "Honestly, it's fine. I'm just glad you told me up front so I didn't get involved in something I don't want." He grabbed the warming bag for the pizza, leaving the box behind. "Enjoy the pizza."

I got to my feet as he started to walk away, grabbing him by the arm. "Listen, Carino , I didn't mean to hurt your feelings–"

"What feelings?" he snapped, pulling his arm away from me. "You said that can't happen for you, anyway." He paused, a low growl building in his chest. "And keep your fucking pet names to yourself." Turning away from me once more I heard him mutter, "Asshole."

There was nothing I could do to stop him. I was at a loss for words. As he disappeared into the woods, the breeze kicked up, taking the last of his sweet scent along with it.

It was supposed to be a beautiful night…