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Her lips parted in a smile. I pulled her off the sink and began to undress her, removing her top. She let me, though she stiffened slightly. What was she hiding?
She pulled her long auburn hair over one shoulder, where it hung over her bra. I slid her bra off, revealing the creamy skin that had been untouched by the sun, the roundness of her breasts, her perfect nipples. I wanted to cover those nipples with my mouth and see what it did to her, so I did, and she bit her lips and arched against me. I sucked and teased her, my hands gliding over the curves of her body.
Just like that, my mouth still on her breast, I walked her into the shower.
I washed her hair, and she leaned her head on my chest, letting me take care of her. It felt good to take care of someone. I protected the pack—but I didn’t exactly take care of anyone in this intimate way.
And in turn, she washed me, her soapy hands caressing my body, exploring every muscle. She washed my abs twice, and it made me smile. I liked that she liked what she saw when she looked at me.
Her skin was clear and healthy, the last of the bruises had faded entirely.
It wasn’t until we got out and she was toweling off that her wet hair shifted from her shoulder and I saw the mark.
My stomach dropped.
She’d already been marked by her true mate.
And she’d hidden it from me.
That was the thing that burned the most, accompanied by my sudden flare of jealousy. I ran my thumb over the mark. “Who’s is this? Nathan’s or Brennan’s?”
Her lips parted as she looked up at me in surprise, but she hesitated. Choosing her words. If it was Nathan’s mark, if he really had been her true mate, would she lie to me?
I hated that I couldn’t trust her.
I knew she’d been through hell, I knew she had reasons to lie, but it didn’t change the fact it fucking hurt to have her look into my face and measure what she should say.
“I guess it doesn’t matter,” I said. “You have your mate mark already.”
But it did.
“It’s Brennan’s,” she said as I wrapped my towel around my waist and paced toward the door. “He was my mate.”
“He is your mate,” I said as I reached the door.
And I’d betrayed him.
I’d fucked his true mate.
“He’s gone, Stone.”
I let out a laugh. “Is he, really? I wish he was still here, but his ghost… now his ghost is a bastard I can’t live with.”
I went out and I tried not to slam the door behind me.
CHAPTER38
Amelia
Shaw caughtme when I was heading out of the house to get Dylan from school. His nostrils flared, and the sense that he knew I’d had sex with Stone sunk in my stomach.
“Can I walk with you?” he asked.
“Of course,” I said lightly. I felt as if I had betrayed him somehow by having sex with Stone, even though we hadn’t made any promises to each other. I stiffened my spine as we walked down the front steps together into a beautiful, brisk fall day. The weather was starting to turn colder as I stayed here. It was a reminder that time was sweeping along. Time was always merciless.
As the two of us walked, he asked, “Are you all right?”
“Yeah.”
