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“She never offered to come here for a quick visit?”
“No. She probably worried that I’d ask her to stay, and she wasn’t ready to leave her nephew for good.”
“Is she gonna be ready anytime soon?”
He had no clue, but it didn’t really matter anymore. Not when he’d made the official decision to not spend more of his time waiting for Dayna to return. But he wasn’t willing to share with Bailey what he hadn’t yet shared with Dayna. As such, Deke didn’t answer her question. Instead, he noted, “You don’t usually ask me personal questions.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “I’m bored.”
He felt his eyes almost bug out of his head. Inside him, his cat did a double-take. “Bored?” In his bed and bored?
“Well, your cock isn’t in me anymore, so …”
He did a slow blink. “The only thing about me that you find entertaining is my cock?”
“Why do you say that like it’s a bad thing?”
A low growl pouring out of him, Deke pushed her onto her back and covered her body with his once more. Settling his hips between her spread thighs, he gave her a playful glare. “Were you this much of a pain in the ass for the guys in your past?”
“Yes,” she replied without missing a beat.
“Really? Because you seem to enjoy riling me more than you do others.”
“If you don’t believe me, ask Shay.”
Deke bit her right on the chin. His cat was unmoved by her little yelp, annoyed with her for taking Shay to her bed in the first place. The feline, still determined to withdraw from everyone around him, hadn’t warmed to the idea of having Bailey around. But he didn’t hiss and snarl so much anymore. He mostly just retreated to the corner and sulked.
Deke scraped her jawline with his teeth. “Speaking of Shay, I have a theory.”
“Is it scientific? Because I don’t like science.”
Probably because it involved logic. “Not scientific.”
“Then proceed.”
He trailed kisses down the side of her neck, wondering if she had consciously realized that she’d ceased being uncomfortable when his teeth were near her vulnerable throat. “You get bored with guys very quickly. Shay was no exception—I could tell. But you kept dating him anyway.” He circled her pulse with the tip of his tongue. “You did it to piss me off, didn’t you?”
She sniffed, all haughty. “Partly. I don’t like that you sit in judgement over me like you’re oh so superior.”
Frowning, he met her gaze. “I don’t think I’m superior to you. I just think you’ve been sent here to do the devil’s work, and it bothers me that you’re not fighting your fate.”
She let out an amused snicker. “Dude, you so think you’re better than me.”
“If you really believe that, why the hell are you in my bed right now?”
“Well, with your cock comes you—I have no way to change that.”
He felt his frown deepen. “You’re saying you tolerate me in order to have access to my dick?”
“Basically, yeah.”
Dipping his face to hers, he shook his head. “You don’t dislike me as much as you’d like me to believe you do.” It was something he’d come to realize over the past few nights.
After sex, her guard tended to lower a little. She spoke of things she usually wouldn’t. She forgot to plaster on her resting bitch face, and she didn’t work so hard to conceal her surface feelings. He liked it.
Bailey pursed her lips. “We can go with that, if it matters so much to you. Won’t make it true, though.”
He took her mouth with a growl. Ate at it. Dominated every last crevice of it.
Rock hard once more, he entered her with one, smooth, purposeful thrust. “You drive me nuts. Make me honestly visualize cutting off your air supply with my own two hands. But I don’t look down on you.” Then he pounded into her until they both came.
The next morning, Bailey paused in humming along to the music playing over the convenience store’s loudspeaker and glanced at Havana. “Sorry, what did you say?”
The devil’s lips flattened. “I said—and you heard me just fine, you faker—I feel like you’re keeping something from me.”
Bailey had in fact heard her. But the Alpha didn’t like to repeat herself, so naturally Bailey enjoyed making her do exactly that.
“Not a deep, dark, twisted secret,” Havana went on, checking the price tag of the plastic skeleton she held. “But something’s going on.”
Returning a plush pumpkin to a shelf, Aspen nodded. “What aren’t you telling us?” she asked, keeping her voice low so that their conversation wouldn’t carry to other shifters—some were browsing the aisles; others were stocking the shelves. Like the rest of the premises on the street, the convenience store was owned by the pride.
Going for blasé, Bailey replied, “Nothing.” Pushing her shopping cart forward a few steps, she took a long look at the bags of horror-themed confectionery. Bailey threw two bags into her cart—not for trick or treaters; for herself. They’d come to pick up some groceries, but they’d made a detour down the Halloween decorations aisle out of curiosity.
