I blushed and replied, “It stands for Perfect Jasmine. It’s what people used to call me in school.”
“Seems fitting. I’d love to see what else you’re good at.” He smiled mischievously.
“I have a feeling you don’t mean academically.” I swallowed.
“No, I couldn’t care less about your academic achievements.” He began kissing me again. Lust overtook my entire body as I gave in to my desires, greedily kissing him back.
We eventually fell into a cuddle, his arms wrapped tightly around me. I couldn’t help but feel both nervous and relaxed simultaneously. I’d never been in such an intimate position with anyone before, in a man’s bed. The sensations he brought out within my body overwhelmed me—like a very pleasurable form of anxiety. I inhaled his scent, never wanting to forget a single detail of this moment and how both blissful and restless I felt lying next to Blake.
He eventually ordered delivery from the pack pizza and sub shop, and we moved downstairs to the couch to watch a movie together while we shared a pizza. After we were done eating, he wrapped his arm around me, and I snuggled into him, realizing I fit perfectly against him. When it was time to go, I was gloomy, longing to stay with him. He dropped me off down the street so my parents wouldn’t see his car, kissing me again before we finally said good night.
Chapter 12
Jasmine
EmmaandKyleweremarried on a Saturday morning in mid-August. They had a small ceremony in the pack temple and invited their family and friends for an early-afternoon celebration in the backyard of Kyle’s parents’ house. Lucy made the wedding cake and desserts, and I helped Madison and Emma’s sisters decorate for the event. They had a tent with picnic tables set up and caterers to serve barbecue for the event. There were about fifty people crowded in the backyard.
I grabbed a lemonade and went to stand by Lucy who was hovering near the dessert table, likely keeping watch over her masterpiece. Madison came over to mingle with us, followed by the bride herself. We fell into easy conversation and laughter, and Kyle kept sneaking by and rubbing himself against Emma.
“Close quarters out here!” He’d laugh as he’d pretend to be trying to sneak by her to grab a cookie from the dessert table.
“Kyle, you need to stop coming over here and stealing all the cookies!” Lucy glared at him.
“Hey, they were made for me!”
“Leave them for the other guests! And stop grabbing for Emma’s cookie in front of me!”
“Best cookie I ever tasted.” He winked at Emma.
“Get out of here! And stay away!” Lucy pushed him out of the vicinity of the dessert table. She turned to Emma. “Goddess, I don’t need think about my brother eating your cookie!”
“Mmm, he is really good at eating my cookie.” Emma had a silly smile on her face.
“Oh my Goddess! That’s so gross! I don’t need to know that!”
“It’s not like you’re not giving your own cookie away!” she shot back at Lucy.
Lucy smiled and whispered loud enough so we could all hear, “To be honest, I’m not sure how Luke doesn’t have diabetes yet with how much he ate my cookie last time I visited him.”
I wanted to vomit. I’d been doing my best to avoid speaking with Lucy about her sexcapades with Luke, always finding other subjects to bring up. To this day, there was still something within me that panged with sorrow every time I thought about Luke being with Lucy. Unfortunately, this was one of Lucy’s favorite subjects, and once she found herself an audience, she couldn’t help giving detailed explanations of all the positions they’d been in and graphic descriptions of Luke’s naked body.
I excused myself to go to the bathroom while she told Emma and Madison the gory details. I tried to stay in the bathroom for as long as possible, but unfortunately this wasn’t easy in a house full of so many people. After only a few minutes, Lucy’s younger brother Mark was banging on the door to be let in.
When I returned to the party, I was relieved to see the subject had changed. They were now playing matchmaker with Madison.
“Kyle and Lucy’s cousin, Tom, is really cute!” Emma said to Madison, nodding her head in his direction.
“Ooh, he is cute!” Madison agreed. “But I can’t. My whole family would skewer me. My cousin Tracy was caught just holding hands with some guy that wasn’t her mate recently and it became a whole thing. Like everyone’s been talking about it for weeks.”
Madison, like me, was planning to save herself for her mate. But she did once say that if she didn’t find her mate by twenty-five, she’d lose her virginity then. I never put much thought into how long I’d be willing to wait. I only hoped the Moon Goddess wouldn’t make me wait until I was almost forty like she did to the current alpha. But then my thoughts drifted back to Blake, and I silently questioned, once again, whether I really wanted to wait anymore.
A few hours later, Emma and Kyle jumped into Kyle’s SUV, which had been decorated during the party with window paint, streamers, and tin cans attached to the bumper. We watched as they drove away for their honeymoon.
I helped Lucy’s family clean up after the guests left, and I called my parents to see if they could pick me up to bring me home. At around six that evening, the doorbell rang, and Ivy went to answer it. My dad was standing at the door. I gathered everything to leave as Ivy spoke with him. “Nice to see you, Drew.”
“Evening, Ivy.”
“You and Miriam raised a great girl. Such a pity she doesn’t have any siblings.”