He softened his earnestness. “I’d like it if you’d stay, Cassidy.”
She slipped from the bed, crouching to pick up her clothes from the floor. “I need to get going.”
She looked at him and in her eyes he didn’t see rejection, he saw fear.
What happened between them spooked her, but he wasn’t sure why, and she was shutting down faster than the tavern at closing time.
He got dressed while she did, the silence settling over them like a wet blanket. He wasn’t sure what to say other thanplease stay, because he’d already said she could and she’d said no.
When he followed her outside the house, she said, “I’ll see you around, Trick.”
“I’ll walk you to your car.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to,” he said. “Besides, I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight if I didn’t know you got to your car safely.”
She looked up at him on the front porch, illuminated by the light spilling from the front window, and said, “Okay. Thanks.”
They walked in silence, and he put his hands in his pockets, because all he wanted to do was touch her, hold her hand, andshe had all the warninghands-offsigns going off like police car lights.
When they reached her car, he said, “Can I see you tomorrow?”
“I’m working.”
She opened her door and put her hand on the top, her fingers curling over the edge.
“I didn’t ask if you were busy, beautiful, I asked if I could see you.” She didn’t answer him, she just stared at him like she couldn’t figure him out. “I’m glad you came here tonight,” he continued. “It feels like you were supposed to.”
Her brows lifted. “That seems a little crazy.”
“How so? Don’t you believe in fate?”
She let out the softest sigh. “That’s a dangerous thing to believe in.”
“Only if you’re afraid of it.”
“Goodnight, Trick.”
“Goodnight, Cassidy.”
She sat down and pulled the door shut, then turned on the engine, and pulled forward out of the parking spot.
He stood rooted in place, watching until he couldn’t see her car’s lights anymore.
His wolf surged against him, anxious to shift and follow her to make sure she got home safely. But she’d been sending all the signals that she was embarrassed by what had happened between them and needed space, and he wasn’t the kind of guy to be pushy with a female, mate or not.
Her leaving felt wrong on a hundred different levels.
As he stared into the darkness, his gaze following the bridge over the river, he knew that because she was human, she didn’t have the same instincts that he did. She might think what happened between them was too fast or borne of some kind ofimpulse, not the bringing-together of two mates destined to find each other that night.
As he turned to go into the tavern, the only thing worrying him was that she might not trust the feelings she was having. That she wouldn’t believe that she was his and he was hers.
But there wasn’t anything he could do about that tonight.
When he walked into the tavern, the music and the noise of the patrons was suddenly too loud and his wolf gnashed his teeth at the intrusion to the post-sex bliss he’d been enjoying until Cass fled like her butt was on fire.
He scanned the main room, then moved to the bar and leaned against it.
