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“Granted.” Havana lifted one finger. “But that doesn’t necessarily translate to biting, does it? For Deke to brand you—”
“It didn’t mean anything.” Jeez.
“Yeah? Then why hide it? Why, if it’s no big deal, did you keep it to yourself?”
“Because I knew you’d do exactly what you’re doing: make it into a big deal, even though you know perfectly well that it’s not always possessiveness that drives a person to mark someone.”
“No,” Havana scoffed, “you hid it from us because you knew we’d make you face that it is not whatsoever insignificant. You’d prefer to pretend that’s not the case, because then you could keep on sleeping with him rather than get the urge to break things off due to your discomfort with territorialism.”
Bailey inwardly groaned in exasperation. “He’s not possessive of me. He’d have bitten me somewhere highly visible if that were truly the situation, and I wouldn’t be sporting only one mark.”
Aspen turned to their Alpha female. “Actually, she does make a good point. Dudes as dominant as Deke don’t play around when they lay a claim.”
“And let’s not forget that he wants to keep our arrangement on the downlow,” Bailey added, spooning more cereal. “He wouldn’t want that if he really felt compelled to ensure the world knew I was off the market.”
Aspen dipped her chin. “Deke’s not a guy who advertises what’s going on with his personal life, but he also doesn’t take pains to hide it. This he hasn’t been open about. Which doesn’t gel with the idea that he essentially laid a claim on Bailey when he bit her.”
Havana swatted at the air, apparently intending to disregard all that—likely on the basis that it didn’t suit her argument. “Who specified that this would be a short-term arrangement?”
Bailey finished chewing her cereal before replying, “We both did.”
The devil narrowed her eyes. “And that’s all it is?”
“That’s all it is.”
With a sigh, Havana cut her gaze to Aspen. “Well, I suppose it’s a start.”
The bearcat nodded. “Yup.”
Bailey frowned. “It’s not a start to anything. It’s temporary.”
Havana gave a slight shrug. “If you say so. But I think more will come of this.”
“Are you forgetting about Dayna? He’s all entangled with her.” And there went Bailey’s stomach cramping again.
“He is.” Havana grinned, adding, “But I don’t think he will be for much longer. I believe there’s a very high chance he’s reconsidering keeping his promise to her.”
Bailey felt her frown deepen. “Why?”
“Well, something you said last week got me thinking.” The devil planted her palms on the island. “You pointed out that, despite the touch-hunger giving Deke an excuse to make a move on you, he actually kept his distance from you instead. So I asked myself … why would he do that? Why did he also do it the last time he was lumbered with touch-hunger? And then it hit me.”
“What?”
“He didn’t seek out an arrangement with you because he needs it to be something he can walk away from. He didn’t want to find himself tempted to scrap his vow.”
Aspen pointed at Havana. “That makes sense.”
“But now here you two are sharing a bed,” Havana went on. “That tells me that his vow isn’t so important to him now. I’m not saying I think he has plans to break it for you specifically—I don’t know what he feels for you—just that she doesn’t have the same hold on him that she once did.”
Given that, as far as Bailey was concerned, Deke was sticking to his word for the wrong reason, it wouldn’t surprise her if he one day backed out. She wouldn’t even be surprised if he was genuinely considering it now, though he’d given her no indication of it. But if he did shake Dayna off, Bailey doubted it would have anything to do with her. Or that it would change the fact that their arrangement had an expiry date.
“You know, it’s kind of sad that it took for him to be riddled with touch-hunger before you two stopped circling each other and just got down to business,” Havana continued. “But I’m glad he’s stopped fighting the touch-hunger. Why did he finally stop?”
“He’s helpless against my raw animal magnetism.”
Havana rolled her eyes. “You know, I probably should have guessed that you two were shaking the sheets. I noticed he was doing better, so I suspected he was fucking someone. But I didn’t assume it was you, because I figured you would have told us if you were bonking him. Which you didn’t.”
“Are we still on that?” Boring.
“I should have suspected it was you, though, since he’s not being subtle about eye-fucking you these days.”
“I picked up on that as well,” Aspen interjected. “So did several males in our pride.” Her brows slowly slid together as her expression turned thoughtful. “And now I’m asking myself if it was his way of warning them off. After all, none would dare come on to Bailey if they thought Deke would freak about it.”
