Wild at Heart (Wild, #2)

by K.A. Tucker

I hid his razor two days ago to stop him from shaving. The act screamed of poetic justice to me, after he hid my cosmetics bags in his attic for all those weeks during the summer.

I love you.

And I’m not going to change my mind about needing to be with him.

I’m moving to Alaska for Jonah. The blunt, abrasive yeti who made my life hell, who I hated only months ago, who I’ve been through so much with since. Now, I’m leaving everything I know behind to be with him.

Thirty minutes later, long after the suitcases have stopped sliding down the shoot for my flight and the last of the passengers have wheeled their belongings away, I add “missing luggage” to my list of “things that went horribly wrong when I moved to Alaska.” I’ll be able to laugh about this … one day.

“What does Alaska have against me having clothes?”

A part of me wants to reprimand him—what if he had crashed?—but a bigger part is overwhelmed with emotion that he made the risky trip for me. “I love you,” I blurt before I can give it too much thought.

“I can’t remember what it feels like not being in love with you, Calla.”

“I can’t remember what it’s like to wake up and not have you be the first thing I think about. Every morning, I roll over in bed to check for a message from you. Every night, I go to bed annoyed because you’re not beside me. Because you’re so far away. I need you in my life like I need to fly. Like I need this Alaskan air. More than I need this air.”

“You were made for me. I am madly in love with you, Calla Fletcher.” His mouth catches mine in a deceptively soft kiss that threatens to buckle my knees. It draws a moan from deep within me, the agonizing month-long wait to feel Jonah’s lips against mine finally over.

“God, I missed your bad attitude.”

“There’s my little princess,”

“If I’m not inside you in the next three minutes, I’m gonna die.”

But tonight, this is for you and me. It’s our moment.” He rests his chin on my head. “The first night of the rest of our lives.”

“And I can’t tell if this is another one of his jokes, or if he seriously thought it was something I’d like.”

“Find your place here. Something that’s going to give you—Calla Fletcher—purpose. Something that feels like you.” She nods slowly, as if agreeing with her own answer. “Find that, and then give it your all.”

“Something you’ll actually wear?”

“He was hell-bent on getting you something you’d wanna wear. I never saw him like that before, so determined. But he knew how you are, with your clothes and stuff. Anyway, the plane was his idea.” Jonah finally meets my eyes again and I note their glossy sheen, the gruffness in his voice. “I added the diamonds ’cause I know you like sparkly things.”

“This the missus?” “Not officially yet but, yeah.” My heart sings at Jonah’s response, at all the promises and intentions buried within—though we haven’t discussed marriage seriously yet—and delivered without hesitation or fear, in typical blunt Jonah style.

It’s easy to trust a person unequivocally when you don’t have to worry about what they’re not telling you.

A thought strikes me. “But for now … two words”—I hold up my fingers for emphasis, leaning across the table toward him, to mouth in a mock seductive way—“The Yeti.” Jonah grimaces and I catch the whisper of “Ah, fuck” under his breath. My lips curl into a vindictive smile.

“And you are not going to take off all day, every day, and leave me here, all alone, to fend for myself.”

“I make my own schedule. And you can fly with me. It’ll be like old times.” “And no overnight trips. I’m not spending my nights all alone.” “Believe me, I don’t wanna be anywhere but lying in bed next to you every night.”

:( I know how the story goes..

Zeke lets out a loud bleat and turns those disturbing horizontal pupils my way. A shiver runs down my spine. “We don’t need a goat.” “Bandit might like a friend.” “Raccoons don’t have friends.” Jonah sets his jaw. “Who says he can’t be friends with a goat? And goats don’t like to be alone.”

but there’s a system to the chaos—boxes

“Fine. Then, just me,” I grumble, reaching back to rub the painful knots in my neck, wincing with the ache. “End my suffering.” I’m desperate to have an empty, clean house to start with.

“It’s a fucking piece of wood that someone slapped lacquer on and screwed four legs to.” He props himself up on his elbows, his brawny arms framing my face. “I’ll make you one for free.”

“Fine. But I will always find my way back to you,”

lol

“No, and do me a favor, if I ever jog here so I can drink, it means Alaska has finally gotten to me. Please put me out of my misery. Rope a steak to my neck and tie me to a tree for the bears.”

I grin. “Some animal heads for your walls.”

“How did you not see a moose?” “It came out of nowhere!” I burst. His hands go up in a sign of surrender. “Whoa … Okay. I’m just tryin’ to understand how it happened,” he says. “I don’t know how it happened! She told me to parallel park behind that truck. There was a driveway and this big hedge, and a tree …,” I sputter, trying to rationalize how a full-grown bull moose managed to make its way down the driveway and into the path of my reversing truck, without me spotting it first. “I was nervous, and I was looking for cars on the road, not moose?” “Fair enough,” Jonah says, but I sense he doesn’t buy that. “The tester didn’t see it, either.” A thought strikes me. “Unless maybe she did? Is this how they test drivers in Alaska? Do they put moose around town and get them to ambush you as part of the road test?”

Material tightens around my wrists and, before I understand what’s happening, my hands have been bound to the headboard using my nightshirt.

“Self-awareness is the first step to change.”

“That big, dumb ox,”

It’s strange how your relationship can feel impenetrable one day and vulnerable the next—with a misunderstanding, a few words, and a mountain of repressed worries that finally swell to the surface.

“Wow. A gun.” Diana’s eyes widen in that “are you fucking kidding me?” way. “You have a gun. And it’s just right here, on the table in the bar, beside my martini.”

“And then I met you, and you were like a wrecking ball comin’ into my life, Calla.” He laughs. “A fucking beautiful, hot-pink wrecking ball. And everything changed for me. All these things I didn’t want before, suddenly all I could think about was havin’ them all with you.” His eyes land on my mouth. “And I haven’t stopped thinking about them since.”

He pulls back long enough to peer down at me, the agony in his eyes piercing my heart. “I can’t ever lose you, Calla.”

“Marry me.”

“Marry me, Calla.”