“You smell even better than I remember,” Jaylon whispered, sweeping Becca into a one-armed hug on the train’s platform.

“It’s been two days since we last saw each other, Jaylon. Not two years.” She kissed him with a smile, her insides singing that he was here and still hard at the sight of her.

“Uhm, I’ve got us booked at a hotel in Burlington.” Becca stepped back from him to catch his reaction.

“A hotel? Why?” He frowned.

Becca winced inside. This was it. “I need to talk to you, and to be honest I have a sneaking suspicion you have something you need to say to me as well.”

“That obvious?”

She shrugged. “Well, we did say we would give it a week or so before springing each other on our respective clans.”

“There is something we need to discuss, in fact, my father was supposed to come with me today, but he’s ill and I didn’t want him to make the trip.”

“I’m sorry, Jaylon. Is it serious?”

“Multiple Sclerosis. Shifters don’t usually get sick like that, but for some reason we’ve had a rash of auto immune maladies. Our doctors seem to think it has to do with living where we do. Long Island is as over-populated and full of toxins as the city.” He inhaled. “Certainly not like here.

Becca tightened her arm in his. “This is nothing. Wait until we get to the Leap.”

He chuckled. “You make it sound like you’re living off the grid or something.”

She nodded. “Almost.”

Jaylon followed Becca into the parking lot. “It looks like a used car lot for pickup trucks.”

She gave him a soft laugh. “Country mouse, remember?”

“Which monster vehicle is yours, then?”

She pointed to a red Ford F-150 Lariat. Impressed, Jaylon nodded, tossing his overnight bag into the back cab, raising an eyebrow at the muddy tires and splatters along the truck’s sides.

“Off-roading much?” he asked with a brow raised.

She looked at him and laughed. “I told you. It’s a two-hour drive through rough terrain just to get here. You’ll get used to it.” The words “I hope” were her silent prayer.

Jaylon climbed into the high cab and watched Becca do the same on the driver’s side.

“What?” she asked, a little self-conscious at his stare.

He chuckled as she strapped in and moved the seat all the way up. “You look like a little girl sitting in her daddy’s truck.”

She fixed her shirt, adjusting the seatbelt between her breasts. “Yeah, well, little girls don’t have my boobs and big butt getting in the way.”

He leaned over, pulling her close for a hungry kiss. “They can get in my way any time.”

She closed her eyes. Please God, don’t let him hate me.

Becca started the truck and pulled out of the station to head the thirty minutes to town. They drove in relative silence until she turned into the parking lot of a quaint Bed and Breakfast in the town’s historic district. Pulling around to the back lot, she turned into a space and cut the engine.

“I’ve already checked us in, so we can head straight upstairs. No waiting.” She gave him a close-lipped smile.

Getting out of the car, Jaylon looked at the Victorian structure. “Beautiful. Like something from a movie.” He pulled his bag from the backseat and closed the door, looking at Becca as she waited for him on the brick path, room key in hand.

“You ever get the feeling this is more like an illicit affair than the beginning of a legitimate relationship?” he said, falling into step beside her.

She laughed. “Why? Because we’ve known each other for a week and this is our second hotel in as much time?”

“Yup.”

Becca handed him his key and then swiped hers through the outside door. “We’re on the top floor.”

At their room, Becca snapped on the light, gesturing for Jaylon to put his bag on the suitcase rack next to the closet.

Sliding his duffel into place, he turned with his hands in his pockets. “What’s this all about, Bec? We could’ve talked about whatever we need to hash out on the two-hour ride to your place.”

He looked around the pretty room with all its period touches. “Don’t get me wrong. This place is nice, but totally unnecessary. Unless, of course, you couldn’t wait to get me in the sack.”

As much as she wanted to let Jaylon think she booked the room to jump his bones, that wasn’t the case. If anything, that would be a fringe benefit, and only then if things went the way she hoped.

She met his teasing smile. “That thought did cross my mind, but no. I really need to talk to you and thought this was a better option than back at my Leap. It lends a level of privacy we wouldn’t have in Pineland, plus it’s close to the train in case you decide not to come back with me.”

Jaylon took his hands from his pockets and slipped them onto Becca’s shoulders. “Why on Earth would I want to do that?”

She sunk onto the end of the queen bed and motioned for him to do the same. “Because of this.”

Holding up a hand for him not to interrupt, she swept her long hair up into a knot at the top of her head and then slipped her fingers to the nape of her neck, leaving them there.

It didn’t take Jay long to realize what she was trying to tell him. “It’s true, then,” he murmured almost to himself.

Becca’s eyes widened and her hand dropped from her neck. “You knew?”

He shook his head. “No, not until I got back to Montauk.

Dumbfounded, she blinked, but before she could ask how, her eyes went even wider. “Oh my God. Now it makes sense.”

He looked at her, questioning. “What does?”

Wrapping his hand in hers, her eyes searched his. “There’s someone working against us, Jaylon, and I need to set the record straight. I have to tell you the whole story. Not bits and pieces like I did before, and not the slanted facts I’m sure you were fed. I should have told you everything back at the Plaza, but I honestly didn’t think it mattered.”

“Becca, stop hedging and just tell me.”