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Stella snorted a laugh. She was in a cabin in the woods with a grown man who could turn into a full-grown bear, and she was scoffing at the possibility of soulmates. Christ, she was fucked in the head.
She straightened in her chair and blew out a breath. Okay. So, she needed to work on gaining Trick’s trust. One step at a time, she would get out of there with her life intact. She just needed to be smart.
The very deep, sexy as hell groan coming from the bathroom had her swinging around to look in the direction of that door. Was he…
A smile slowly grew on her face as a plan formed in her head… a very satisfying plan that just might be fun and, if she had any luck left, would be effective.
Trick
When Trick stepped out of the bathroom with the towel wrapped around his hips, he looked over at Stella and stilled. The look on her face was… different. The scowl was gone. The mistrust was being masked. And the slight smirk was the closest thing to flirting he’d ever seen from her. His woman was attempting to work him, and he needed to figure out if he was going to let her be successful.
He headed to the dresser and grabbed a pair of boxer briefs from the tote sitting on the floor in front of it. “You want to take a shower?”
Looking over at her, he watched as she glanced down at her clothes and then back over at him. “And do what? Put dirty clothes back on?”
Trick chuckled, dropped the towel to the floor, and pulled on his underwear. “I have clean clothes for you.”
“I’m not wearing your clothes,” she grumbled.
He raised a brow and smirked. “As much as I wouldn’t mind that, I wasn’t talking about my clothes.” After bending down, he snatched up a duffle from another tote. He carried it over and set it on her lap before he yanked the zipper open, revealing several pairs of leggings and tees, along with underwear. “The girls said they guessed on bra size and put two of them in there. If they don’t work, you’re going to have to go without or wear the one you have on.”
She reached into the bag with her free hand and pulled out leggings, a white tee, and a pair of panties. “Think you can keep your hands to yourself if I go braless? I’d rather not sleep in one, if I can avoid it.”
Trick rolled his eyes, but mentally, he asked himself the same question. He kept bouncing between anger and lust when it came to her, and his bear’s insistence that she wastheirswasn’t helping matters.
When her gorgeous light blue eyes lifted to look at him, he felt a weight in his chest and his bear pushing him. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, he reminded himself, once again, that she was responsible for what happened to Rex. Forcing himself to think about what his brother looked like when they brought him back to the compound cooled the lust. “Shower or no shower?”
Her smirk disappeared at the harsh sound of his question. “Shower,” she said and set the duffel on the table.
Trick retrieved the key from the pocket of his cut hanging by the front door and used it to set her free. Then he stood between her and the front door until the bathroom door closed behind her.
Running a hand over his scalp, he stared at the floor in front of him and tried to convince himself that he didn’t feel guilty for the tone he used. The effort was useless. He was so fucked.
Chapter Five
Stella
Layingonherbackon the lumpy-ass bed, Stella stared up at the ceiling and blew out a breath. She was handcuffed to the fucking headboard by her left hand. As soon as she stepped out of the bathroom, he asked her if she wanted anything to drink before bed. When she told him no, he motioned for the bed and waited for her to make her way there.
She had pulled back the covers and slid into bed, fully expecting him to join her. What she didn’t expect, and probably should have, was that he would immediately cuff her to the metal frame. Then he walked away. She didn’t know why, but he stepped out onto the front porch with his cut in his hand.
While she waited for him to return, she had eyed the handcuff key sitting on the dresser, but it was too far away for her to be able to snag it, so she resorted to staring at the plain white ceiling. At least there weren’t any creepy crawlies that she could see. She especially hated spiders. Stella shivered at the thought of having a spider come down from the ceiling above her while she was unable to get away. She knew the fear was irrational, but she didn’t care. They were scary. Pushing the thoughts away so she didn’t end up freaking herself out, she forced herself to concentrate on something else,anythingelse. Trick’s abs quickly came to her mind, and she couldn’t help the whimper that eked out.
Even though the man was infuriating, he was sexy as hell, and she wasn’t too proud to admit to herself that he could use his body against her. She had to be on top of that shit and keep her guard up.
She huffed out a sigh. Like she hadn’t already been trying to do that.
He returned to the cabin ten minutes later. After retrieving the handcuff key from the dresser, he put it in the pocket of his cut and hung it by the door where it had been. With a yawn, he approached the other side of the bed and slid in under the covers in nothing but those damn boxer briefs.
In her opinion, it really was unfair. If things had been different, she would have jumped at the chance to be in a bed with a mostly naked piece of man-candy like him. Hell, she might have even seriously considered more than some nighttime fun with him, but things weren’t different. While she fully intended to use everything she had to get herself free, including her body, she couldn’t let herself get lost in the pleasure or allow herself to imagine a future that wasn’t going to happen. She needed to keep her head on straight and her eye on the prize.
When she thought he was fully relaxed, laying on his back next to her, she rolled herself onto her left side and looked at his face.
“What?” he asked with his eyes closed and his arms resting at his sides. The blanket was only pulled up to his hips, leaving his amazingly molded chest and abdomen on display. Dark brown, smooth skin beckoned her attention.
“I thought you wanted to know what I knew about the academy.”
“We’ll go over that tomorrow.”
