Page 81 of Blood and Trouble

My eyelids weighed a thousand pounds and my head hurt, so I shut my laptop and rubbed my temples. “I’m done for the day.”

“Good.” He set his book on the end table and stood, holding a hand out to me. “C’mon.”

I stared at him with my mouth open. “Where are we going?”

“I’m hungry,” he said. “And we’ve been stuck in this tiny cabin all day. We could use a walk.”

I didn’t have a good reason to argue, so I put my hand in his and let him pull me upright. The moment our palms touched, that buzz of magic shot down my arm and settled in my heart. I shivered and tried to hide it, but Poe must have seen because he rubbed his hands over my upper arms and furrowed his brows.

“You cold?”

“No, it’s just—” You. Touching you. Being near you. “Never mind.”

I looked at the ground and stepped around him to put on my shoes. If he knew I’d lied to him, he didn’t say anything. He opened the door for me and put his hand on my lower back to guide me out. Again, that shock of connection hummed inside me, and my wolf wanted to burrow herself in his arms and never let go.

Which made this whole mess even more complicated. Leave it to me to take something that wasn’t my business and insert myself firmly in the middle. Lycan and Poe had a history. It should have been theirs to figure out. But after three glasses of whiskey, I purposely lost the game so I’d be sitting naked in between them. Had I no tact? No shame? Who the hell was I now and what happened to the reserved, controlled version of me that had flown to Paris over a month ago?

“You’re quiet tonight,” he said as he fell in step next to me.

“Just…ruminating,” I admitted.

“Oh?” He raised his eyebrows and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Care to share with the rest of the class?”

“About last night,” I said.

“Ah.” He pulled his lips into a sad little grin and hung his head. “Right.”

“Do you and Lycan usually…” I didn’t know how to ask what I wanted to know. It seemed intrusive, especially since Lycan wasn’t here to add his own input. But maybe I wouldn’t get much time alone with Poe. Maybe this was my only chance to get his side of things. “Is it usually like that between you two?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “How do you mean?”

“He seemed rough with you. Rougher than he is with me.” I didn’t know if I liked that or not. Certainly, Lycan’s dominance turned me on, but he always took care of me, checking in, making sure I felt safe. He didn’t do that with Poe. Or at least he hadn’t last night.

Poe huffed a short laugh under his breath and tilted his head back to look at the night sky. “He can be an asshole sometimes.”

“But you like it?”

“Yeah, I like it,” he admitted. “I can never give in to him. After everything, I can’t let him win without a fight.”

“After everything,” I murmured. By that, he meant asking Lycan to mate him and being turned down and breaking up, only to arrive in Copenhagen to see Lycan had drunkenly married me and didn’t seem pressed to annul it. “I’m sorry. Again. For the whole…marriage thing.”

“Stop,” Poe said with a sigh. “My baggage isn’t yours to carry.”

Maybe it wasn’t. But like a people pleaser who always took care of the people in my life, I couldn’t leave it alone.

“Lycan and me,” he continued. “It’s a fucked-up mess. He doesn’t want me like he wants you, and I’ve just got⁠—”

“That’s not true,” I said.

He narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips.

“He talked about you a lot,” I said. “And he missed you. He loved you, I think. He still loves you. Not that he’d ever admit it.”

Poe didn’t say anything, just sighed and put his hand on my back to help me through a thin part of the trail. I softened into the touch, ignoring how much I liked Poe’s hands on me.

“Are you okay with what happened last night?” Poe glanced away, seemingly afraid of my answer no matter what it was.

“Okay?” I exaggerated rolling my eyes and laughed. “Two gorgeous men doting on me before each other? No, I’m horrified. How will I ever recover?”