The words were calm, but I could sense the underlying tension in him. Could he tell what I was feeling by my scent? Because if he could, that was bad, bad,bad. Even now, half-panicked and with my face red from embarrassment, I was fighting an insane urge to run into Knox’s arms and climb him like a tree.
I wanted to rub my body all over his expensive suit until anyone with a nose would be able to tell that he belonged to me. I wanted to bite bloody marks into the skin of his throat, visibly claiming him as mine.
This time, my phone rang instead of buzzing; the notification of an incoming voice call rather than a text.
I took a step backward, and then another.
Knox eyed me nervously. “I’ll, um... I’ll just let Bud know to bring the car around.”
He drew out his phone and thumb-typed rapidly. The cell phone rang before he could put it away. Frowning, he lifted it to his ear.
“Gage,” he said. “No, she’s here. We’re fine. Just a... well, a misunderstanding, I guess you’d call it. Here, you can talk to her directly.”
He stepped forward and thrust the phone at me, looking more out of his depth than I’d ever seen him before. I took it gingerly, because refusing would only cause more of a scene.
“Hello?” I said in a tiny voice.
“Kitten!”Gage sounded almost frantic. “What happened? Why wouldn’t you answer your phone? Heath and I were worried that something happened to you!”
Something did, I thought, a bit hysterically.
“No, it’s—” Words tangled up in my throat again. “It was stupid. I’m being stupid. I just want to go home.” My voice broke on the final words.
There was a brief pause.
“Okay, hand me back to Knox, sweetheart. We’ll be waiting when you get here. I love you.”
I would not burst into tears on a busy sidewalk. I wouldnot. I held the phone out to Knox. “He wants to talk to you again.”
“Okay.” Knox took it. “Here’s the car. Why don’t you get in, and I’ll be with you in a minute.”
The black limo rolled to a silent stop next to us. Bud got out, striding around to our side and opening the door for me. Defeated, I got in and scooted to the farthest corner of the leather-upholstered seat, curling against the window in a miserable slouch. My pussy ached and throbbed accusingly, uncaring of how badly I’d humiliated myself.
Had Knox relayed a blow-by-blow account of my meltdown to Gage? If so, he’d been quick about it. His phone was oncemore hidden in a pocket when he sank into the back seat, the door closing behind him.
“We’ll be back at the house in about thirty-five minutes,” he said, as though nothing at all was wrong.
It was the longest thirty-five minutes of my life—and with my history, that was really saying something. My pheromones swirled together with Knox’s in the enclosed space, a cocktail of conflicting emotions that included, but wasn’t limited to, guilt, worry, frustration, and unfiltered lust.
The entire time, my instincts screamed that the way to fix this situation was to fling myself across the seat and wrap my arms and legs around Knox like an emotionally stunted barnacle. I was getting increasingly freaked out by how difficult it was to ignore that impulse in favor of my higher brain functions.
Knox didn’t speak a word. Neither did I. Instead, we sat on opposite sides of the car, not looking at each other and trying not to breathe in each other’s scents. Or maybe that was just me. I wasn’t about to look at him to find out.
When the car pulled up to the gigantic fucking mansion that I’d unthinkingly called home—after only staying there for a little more than aday—I bolted from the car, not waiting for Bud to open the door for me. Heath was waiting outside the main door, his presence in my mind twitchy and on-edge.
I rushed past him, not meeting his eyes, either.
“Jez—”
My name chased after me as I ran into the house and charged downstairs, taking the steps two at a time. My nest was a dark sanctuary at the end of the hall. I rushed inside and closed the door, leaning my weight against it and shaking.
Gage and Heath were worried shadows hovering on the edges of my awareness. As my adrenaline gradually wore off, I realized how badly I wanted them to be here with me. But if theywere here, I’d have to talk about why I was battling the urge to thrust my hand into my jeans and frig myself to orgasm while imagining Knox slamming into me from behind.
With a frustrated groan, I crossed to the piles of pillows and blankets on the sofa, where Gage, Heath, Tony, and I had piled together to sleep. I faceplanted onto the soft, upholstered surface, breathing in.
It didn’t smell like Knox.
Another groan tore free from my throat, this one sounding more like a growl. I lay face-down, trying to remember what sanity felt like. Here I was—a broken and discarded gutter rat living in a fairytale castle with two amazing mates—and I was hiding away in the dark, plotting how to steal dirty laundry from the guy I’d tried to kill so I could use it to line my nest.
