AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“A shitty job when said mayor’s daughter looks him dead in the face, obviously in distress and being manhandled by a neanderthal, and he hauls ass instead of helping her.”
Mikel shook his head. “His name is Matt or Mark, Don Burrow’s older brother, can’t be the same guy.”
Violet mulled his assertion over. She wascertainthat was Jared. He wasn’t someone she’d paid a lot of attention to, but sheknewhim, and the guy in the parking lot was either him or his identical twin. Mikel broke her silence.
“You been crying because you want to go home?” He rubbed his fingers over her skin again, and somehow that stalled the way she wanted to snap at him for the question.
“I left my sister. Sheisa kid. She needs me,” was all Violet could say. If she dared give voice to the guilt over another stupid night out hunting for another face she wouldn’t remember in the morning just to try to feelsomething,and the fact it had led to her leaving Lila alone, she’d break.
She must have looked desolate, as Mikel’s voice was soft when he spoke again. “Red’s comin’ tomorrow. She was an outsider. Why don’t you go out with her on the truck?”
Violet recognized the olive branch and nodded. The moment was too thick, too uncomfortable, and she scrabbled for a change of subject.
“You’ve been sleeping on the couch?” She gestured to the pillow, and he nodded. “You’re like, huge. Why not take back your bed, and I’ll crash out here since I can actually fit.”
“I do fine,” he said in lieu of an answer and finally released her leg. Violet understood that was her cue to leave, yet she lingered, studying the shadow the fire cast on his jaw.
“Why’d you catch the arrow?”
It wasn’t what she’d meant to ask, but she had to know. He was still for a time, and she was starting to wonder if he’d heard her when his expression broke.
“You didn’t deserve to die.” Something hung unsaid in the words.
“So, you just casually signed up to, what, marry me? That’s what this is supposed to be, right? And now you’re buying my clothes and feeding me because some altruistic impulse said I just didn’t deserve to die?” She was digging for something she didn’t know the shape of yet, but she felt it close.
His green eyes bored into her. “Go to bed,” he finally said.
“Tell me something real,” she shot back.
He paused before answering. “You don’t want to be alone?” The question shocked her because she didn’t.
Mikel had cut down to the reason she was stalling before she’d understood it herself. Before she could respond, he was up and sitting beside her, his big shoulder bumping her bare one while he leaned to pull something out of his pocket.
“Jack’s been showing me how to watch videos on this thing.” Violet stared down at the cell phone in his hand like she’d found the holy grail.
“It won’t call out of town,” he said in warning before dropping it in her lap. “I started one last night, and they were building a boat. Bring it back, and we’ll watch.”
“Show me the eye thing again,” she requested in trade, careful not to jump when he did, and his pupils flashed gold. “But that’s it? Your ancestors were werewolves but all that’s left is color-changing eyes?”
He grunted the affirmative. She almost asked him about mating, but her bravery failed her. Instead, she navigated to YouTube on the phone she noted did not have a passcode and settled into the couch cushions to watch a sped-up build of an entire boat from the ground up. It was nice not to be alone.
Chapter Five
VIOLET WOKE UPwith her head on the crushed pillow and a blanket around her that hadn’t been there last night when she must have dozed off on Mikel’s sofa. The man in question was nowhere in sight, though the fire in the hearth was high and bright and the stove door cracked open while the flames devoured a new stack of wood, so she knew he’d been up.
She stretched, folded the blanket, and set the pillow on top before ambling back down the hall, resolving to talk to him about the sleeping situation. Her back could tell she hadn’t slept in a bed last night, and she was about a quarter of his size—no doubt it was way more uncomfortable for him. Still half asleep, she bumped the door to the bedroom open and skidded to a halt at the sight that greeted her.
Mikel. Of course, he used the bathroom; she’d just never really thought about it. There was so much skin. He was all lean muscle. Violet watched rivulets of water follow the contours of his arms, his chest, the hard lines of his abs, and the V that dipped lower, cutting off abruptly above the white towel around his waist. Abruptly, she remembered what it felt like to be pressed up against him that night in the woods, the roughness of his hands on her hips and on her breasts, the growl of his voice in her ear.
“Morning.” His lips were turned up in that stupid half smirk, amusement dancing in his eyes.
He made no move to leave the bathroom doorway or to cover his freshly showered self. He just let her look, and Violet did, too long, until she was imagining in vivid detail what it would be like to cross the room and kiss him again, to touch him and feel the hot smear of his cock on her thigh and higher.
Mikel licked his lips, and the spell broke. Violet remembered abruptly that everyone in the Bluff had an overactive nose and wondered if he could smell how much she enjoyed the sight of him. The humor still on his face suggested the affirmative.
“Morning,” she finally replied, determined to ignore the tension that was thick in the room. “Guess I fell asleep last night.”
He only nodded and finally pushed off the doorframe. He stopped beside her when she thought he’d pass.
