But not blindly. After the time she’d spent with Miguel and Kat, Sera knew that. “He could never lie to Miguel, because Miguel could always hear his real thoughts. I don’t know if that made it harder or easier. Maybe harder.”
Julio met her gaze. “Sometimes I think Miguel only agreed because he figured he’d need to be stronger to survive everything that was going to go down.”
“Like his big brother?” Sera touched Julio’s cheek, tracing a line down to his lips. “You’re not strong because you’re a wolf. I think he knows that.”
“No.” His gaze turned bleak. “But physically, I can survive things that would kill a human in a heartbeat.”
Torture. She ghosted her thumb over his lower lip again, then pressed her forehead to his.
“Tell me?”
Julio barely moved, except for the fine tremor that shook him. “Knives. Heated wire. Pretty much the only part of the theatrical torture guidebook they didn’t break out was the car battery.”
The ground was cooling beneath them, stealing warmth, but this moment was so fragile.
They were lost together in a world where no one else existed, and she took her time stroking her fingers over his cheek. “Kat told me you stayed strong for her.”
“Well, it’s a lie.” He snorted. “The only reason I didn’t crack and blubber all over everyone is because I didn’t want to give the bastards the satisfaction.”
“Uh-huh.” Another circle, stroking from his cheek to his neck and back. “You still kept her in one piece. They picked the perfect way to crush her, and you fucked it all up. If you’d let her see what you were going through, it would have broken her before Andrew and the others found you.”
He relaxed into her touch. “I grew up with an empath. I know how it goes.”
“You did what you could to protect her. And that’s the unfair part. That’s the balance.” She cupped his cheek and nuzzled his nose. “You alphas get all the power, and all the responsibility.
You have to protect everyone else and you never get to be the one hurting.”
“There’s never any time for it.”
“There’s right now.”
He chuckled. “Naked, in the woods, with spiders biting your ass?”
“You’re the only thing that’s bitten my ass this week.” Not that the thought didn’t make her squirm her way back on top of him—just in case. “I know what the first thing on my not-smothered list is.”
He slipped both arms around her waist and pulled her closer. “What’s that?”
She caught his gaze and held it. “Now might not be the time, but if you don’t think you can share things with me, then I’m not a partner. When you keep all the responsibility, you keep all the power too.”
Julio arched one eyebrow. “You think I’m playing Mr. Tough Guy? That I’m not vulnerable?”
“I don’t know.” She smoothed the furrow from between his brows and tried to pick her words carefully. “I know you like me. But you keep coming into my life at the low points. When I’m beat up or bruised or broken inside, and you pick me back up, and sometimes…” She swallowed hard and made herself ask. “Do I give you anything back?”
He caught her hand and brought it to his lips. “Being with you… It’s loud and quiet all at the same time. Does that make sense?”
“As much sense as being sheltered and free.” A sharp breeze cut across through the trees, and she shivered. “Okay, I want a bath. Or a hot shower. If you’re nice, I’ll share with you.”
He got to his feet with her in his arms. “If? How heartless.”
She laughed and closed her teeth on his jaw. “Poor Julio. Maybe I’m trying to go easy on you. I do have the sex drive of a twenty-two-year-old, you know, and you’re an old man.”
“I’ll show you old.” He swatted her hip, and she laughed again and kicked her legs, trying to squirm out of his grip.
Laughter. She’d laughed more in the past week with Julio than she had in recent memory.
Josh hadn’t laughed unless he’d thought she wanted him to. Like everything else about their relationship, his laughter had been a bribe, a calculated action meant to keep her too content to go running home.
Everything about Julio was honesty. Painful, sometimes. He wouldn’t fib or sand the sharp edges off the truth, even when they bruised her. But he let her laugh. He let her feel. He made her hope.
He was everything she’d known he would be the first time he’d touched her. He was the kind of strong a girl could drown in, but he wouldn’t let her. If she tried, he’d drag her up and tell her to start swimming again.
Hell, maybe if she let him, he’d teach her how to fly.
Chapter Eleven
“I don’t want this last one,” Julio murmured in Sera’s ear. “You still hungry?”
“Maybe.” But her lips found his throat instead, and she kissed her way down to his shoulder with complete disregard for the remains of their late breakfast.
The pancakes were cold anyway, so he pressed a hand to the back of her head and guided her mouth to his with a pleased growl.
With most of the pack gone for their own day-to-day business, Sera seemed to have no problem squirming into his lap. Not that she’d skimped on the possessive touches while they’d been around the other wolves, but now she bumped the picnic table back to give them more room and tangled her arms around his neck.
“Well, I guess Carmen didn’t warn you,” a male voice drawled from the direction of the house, a low voice edged in dangerous blankness.
Oh shit. Her father’s voice. Julio held Sera tight as she tried to spring back out of his lap, then released his hold on her slowly. They had nothing to be guilty about, damn it, and they didn’t need to jump apart like a couple of teenagers. “Franklin. Welcome to Florida.”
Sera’s father stood a few steps past the sliding glass door, his arms crossed over his chest.
Sera flushed pink, but she still untangled herself from Julio and climbed to her feet. “Hey, Dad.”
“Sera.” Franklin’s face softened as he held out his arms, and Sera hurried to hug him. He eyed Julio over his daughter’s shoulder. “Are you going to let me talk to your gentleman?”
“Depends. Are you going to give him hell?”
“Depends. Should I?” He released Sera, but he was smiling, like it was a common joke.
“Carmen would love to see you, if you’ll indulge me with a few moments as an overprotective father.”
Sera turned and looked at Julio, both eyebrows raised in silent question. He shrugged in equally silent answer, then gestured to the opposite bench at the picnic table.
Franklin walked past Sera and slid onto the bench. When she hovered near the door, he shooed her. “Scoot.”
With a sigh and a mouthed, “I’m sorry,” Sera capitulated. She tugged open the sliding glass door and gave her father one last look. “Be nice, or I’ll call your girlfriend.”
The door slid shut behind her, and Franklin smiled a little. “Lily keeps the peace by pointing out when I’ve crossed the line between doting father and well-meaning but unreasonable asshole.”
Something, Julio suspected, only Lily could get away with. “Want some coffee?”
Franklin waved the offer away and met Julio’s gaze squarely. “You saved my life. I’m never going to forget that. But you are half again her age, and she’s my baby girl.”
“I’m nine years older than Sera. That’s hardly the biggest age gap I’ve seen lately, though I’ll concede your last point. She’ll always be your baby girl.”
“Yeah, she will.” Franklin spread one hand on the table and stared down at it, as if he was struggling to choose his words. “She seems happy. The last time Josh contacted her, she was rattled for weeks.”