“I’ll replace them.”
My tongue didn’t want to make words, and I blinked at him. “No, work. In the morning. Gotta be there. Took too many days off with….”
Camden went around and got into the other side of the bed. After some slight rearranging, I had my head on his bare chest. The curls on his pecs were springy and I ran my fingers through them. “Shh. I have to be at work early. We’ll get you fixed up.”
My vision went blurry, and the back of my throat felt stuffed. “I think I liked this.”
Camden cuddled me closer. “Good.”
Time slid by, and I blinked. Maybe I’d been asleep. I couldn’t tell. “It’s brutal, and I hurt all over. What’s wrong with me?”
His chest rose and fell sharply. “What part did you like about it?” He slid his fingers through my hair.
“You wanted me. I… you wouldn’t have gone off to chase someone else. Only me. Right?” I whispered.
Camden brushed his lips to mine and lingered over the soft touch. “You’re right.”
Adrift in the emotions of being small and weak, I sniffled some more. “Why do I feel so—” I pressed my face against his chest and shook my head.
He grunted. “You’re new to being prey. It’s fun but stressful. Let all those responses out. They’re natural. This is about being yourself. Loving yourself. Letting someone else love the rawest, most basic piece of you.”
Hysterical laughter bubbled out of me. “You don’t seem to mind causing the stress.”
He chuckled. “Well, yeah.”
My mind whirled with too much to think about, and I dropped onto his chest again. He rested his chin on the top of my head.
Where was this all going? Camden didn’t say anything. The rise and fall of his chest evened out. I peeked up to check, and he’d drifted to sleep with the lamp still on, bathing the room in a soft, safe golden glow.
My mind wouldn’t stop chugging along.
Everything that had happened today whirled around at a dizzying speed, so that I found myself getting angry and then excited and then overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness, all in a matter of minutes. I didn’t feel like myself. Definitely didn’t feel okay. My stomach was queasy, and I wondered if it was the beer, which I almost never drank. I snuck out from between his arms and the blankets and stood there looking at Camden. He grumbled and dragged a pillow against his chest.
Not able to endure the thought of trying to sleep, I went to the nearby dresser and opened drawers until I found a pair of shorts I could wear, if I drew the drawstring in the whole way, and a simple black T-shirt. I went back to the sex room, which he thankfully hadn’t locked back up, and slipped on my shoes, taking my phone, keys, and wallet out of my useless pants. Then I turned off the red light and finished my getaway, right out through the bedroom, down the stairs, and out the front door. My heart tried to beat out of my chest.
I’d told him I’d stay, but I really couldn’t.
When I stepped out of an Uber at my car, I was still wide-awake. My body was buzzing with adrenaline as I nearly fell through my front door. Sometime around 5:00 a.m. I showered and dressed for work, in spite of the fact I hadn’t slept a wink. The last time I’d felt this fucking weird, Ross was headed to prison. Later I stood in the window of Vane’s office at city hall and watched the sun rise over New Gothenburg—pretty as a postcard. In fact, maybe I should commission some for the city, to hand out at events.
No, not even dreaming up more work for myself would make me feel normal. I was broken. New. Different. I wasn’t sure if my transformation from Mark, the personal assistant to the mayor, to Mark, Camden’s prey, was good or bad. It would have been nice to wake up with him this morning, but all that we’d done had been so wild. Was that type of passion even sustainable? It was one thing when a boring guy, who wasn’t much better in bed than jerking off alone, left me, but what would happen when I lost… something so fucking incredible?
Resting my forehead against the glass, I sighed. It wasn’t fair to Camden to pull the plug on this because I was worried it couldn’t go right. If he tracked me down again, I’d go with him. Even though this relationship we’d started was odd and a little scary, I’d never felt like I was so much the focus of anyone’s attention.
It was intoxicating, and I wanted more.
But first I had to get through today. I let out a soul-deep sigh and went to my desk. The chair squeaked as I flopped into it and opened my laptop. I sucked in a breath as my body twinged at the jolt. One thing was for sure, work would always be here, if nothing else.
9
Camden
Frustration washot in my chest, like a volcano waiting to erupt. He’dpromisedme he’d stay there in my bed, but he’d still snuck out in the middle of the night and left me to sleep on my own. While I was perfectly used to having a bed to myself, I’d thought last night would be different, that we’d finally come to an understanding. He wasn’t just prey who ran; he was a disobedient mate who needed a bare hand on his ass.
“What bug crawled up your butt?” Wyatt nudged my arm, and I shoved myself to straighten from where I was bent over the blueprints, my hands balled into fists and muscles tightened in anger.
“Nothing,” I said bluntly, stretching and staring out at the beams of the construction site. Rolling my shoulders, I took a deep breath. No matter the problem, I’d always kept my personal issues at home and never brought them to the jobsite. We worked in a dangerous environment, and if I wasn’t on my A-game, someone could be killed.
Wyatt leaned his elbow on the drafting table and raised his eyebrows. He’d rolled up the sleeves of his shirt until they were gathered around his elbows, his forearms straining. “Bullshit. Tell me what the problem is, Boss? I’ve never seen you like this.”
