Brink Of Passion (Alpine Woods Shifters) by Sondrae Bennett Page A

on end.
    “Seriously, get a room,” Brendan teased.
    “You can use the utility closet in the back. Plenty of room in there.” Whether she’d intended to pull the attention off Laurie or not, all heads turned to Julie while Brendan turned his head into her shoulder and bit back a chuckle.
    “And how exactly do you know this?” Jason asked.
    “Don’t pretend like you don’t,” Samantha interjected.
    Jason shushed her.
    “Bet you never knew your store was such a den of iniquity, huh Laurie?”
    Ignoring Ethan as Max settled beside her, Laurie turned to her oldest brother in shock. Julie and Brendan she’d known about. They weren’t exactly quiet when they went at it, and she was usually working the front counter when they’d pop into the closet. Even the customers, others from the town who knew about shifter passion, chuckled about it. But Jason and Samantha, too? She would never have believed it. As oldest in the family, and Premier of the pack, he always gave her a hard time for acting—how did he put it?—impulsively. There was no way her brother had gone at it with Samantha in her bookstore broom closet. Right?
    A touch of pink infused his cheeks. Telltale sign that her brother was not as austere as he wanted everyone to believe.
    “I’m not sure I want to hear this,” her father whispered to her mother, but Laurie chose to ignore it. So rarely did she have something over Jason, especially something this juicy. No way was she letting it go without a dose of teasing.
    “You dog, you,” Laurie teased.
    “Wolf, actually,” Ethan joined in.
    “In sheep’s clothing,” Laurie shot back. Of all the things she would miss, losing the easy camaraderie between her siblings would hurt the worst. They weren’t merely brothers and sisters born of the same parents. They were her best friends.
    As if sensing the bittersweet turn of her thoughts, Max reached out and twined his fingers with hers. She squeezed his hand in thanks. Already she looked to him for comfort and warmth. The thought sent a tendril of worry through her, but she pushed it away. If she was serious about giving this relationship her all, she needed to stop worrying about the future. The two of them had a long ways to go before she would feel settled in their relationship, but so far, he had done everything he could to be a pillar of strength for her.
    “So how ’bout it?” he whispered in her ear.
    “How about what?”
    “I’d hate to be the only one in the family who hadn’t experienced the magic sex closet.”
    “Um,” Gwen interjected, clearly having heard their conversation. “Ethan and I have never had sex in the bookstore closet.”
    “Gwen!”
    “Well, we haven’t. The parking lot, yes. The closet, no.” She shrugged in response to Ethan’s incredulous look. “Just to be accurate.”
    Laurie ignored the last part of Gwen’s confession and focused on Max. “We are not having sex in the next room while my family quietly eats their dinner and pretends they don’t know what we’re doing.”
    “I doubt we’d be quiet,” Danny said.
    When she glared at Danny, he merely shrugged.
    “See?” Max said.
    “So not going to happen.”
    “Whatever you say, sweetheart,” Max replied.
    “Eww, no. Don’t call me that. I’m not sweet.”
    “That’s for sure.”
    Laurie grabbed one of the decorative pillows scattered around the floor where they’d been displaced, and swung it at Ethan’s face. He grunted at the impact, then cackled wildly. Fool. Listening to him now, anyone passing by would think he was a hyena instead of a wolf.
    “A toast.” She wasn’t sure whether her dad really wanted to make a speech, or whether he acted out of the desperation for a new topic. Probably a little of both. Sex talk around the parents. Awkward! “To Laurie as she embarks on a new adventure. May you be happy and healthy. Never forget that we will all always be here whenever you need us. And Lord help those leopards.”
    Glasses