I turned to see her shadowed form in the front room, looking all around until she spotted me through the back window.
A few seconds later, she stormed out the sliding door with a freezer bag clutched in one hand.
“I made these as a thank-you gift.”
She practically hurled the freezer bag into my chest.
The impact made me take a half step back. Not from the force—but because if I didn’t step back, I’d reach for her.
She’d touched me. It didn’t matter if there was plastic and fabric between her hand and my chest. The pressure made my bear surge, wanting its rightful turn. Only the fact that she'd brought me a present distracted it from its bone-deep hunger to sink its maw into her neck.
Cookies.
I clutched the bag against my chest. She’d made me cookies. She’d baked for me before coming to confront me.
Something in my chest pulled tight, and despite the fury radiating off her in waves, my bear perked up at the smell of real sugar cookies that could actually be eaten.
“You slept outside my house two nights ago?” Her question brought my head up from her gift. “And you made Boone do the same thing last night?”
My house, she’d said.
I gritted my jaw. That tiny hovel was meant for widows in their sunset years, not for our mate. But she’d claimed it as hers, and now she was defending it like territory.
“I didn’t make Boone do anything.” I fell back on my RCMP training to keep my voice level. Pretended like her proximitywasn’t making my bear go crazy inside of me. “He wanted to follow the safety program.”
"The program?" Her eyes narrowed. "You meanyourprogram? And why was Boone acting like he didn't have a choice but to go along with it?"
Because on one hand, Boone was doing an excellent job of falling back into the third maul position, despite being the one who’d found Bell originally. On the other,Way to throw me under the bus, Third.
“Because I’m the first maul,” I informed her in the same voice I used to write out tickets. “It’s my job as the first maul to ensure your safety,”
Then I finished ripping off the Band-Aid Boone had already partially unpeeled. “And that’s why, starting tonight, one of us will be staying overnight. Inside the house with you.”
She stared at me for a stunned second, those pretty brown eyes flashing even angrier than they had the morning before last when she’d actually thought we were kicking her out.
“What?” She stepped closer, jabbing a finger in the air between us. “You told me I could have my privacy, and now you’re, what? Closing in?”
Bad idea. Her stepping closer—not my insisting that one of us stay with her overnight.
Her sugar cookie scent wrapped around me, spiking with that faint arousal she apparently had no idea she was giving off, according to Boone,.
My gums tingled with the threat of an incoming maw, and my cock throbbed so hard it ached. She was right there, close enough to…
I stepped back. Wrestled my bear down. Then said, “Bell, we’re trying to protect you?—”
“You’re trying tocontrolme.” She cut me off, her eyes blazing with accusation. “Just like my ex!”
That comparison punched me in the gut.
“I’mnothinglike him.” Rage flashed through me—not at her, but at the bastard who’d made her think care and control were the same thing.
She had every right to be scared. That bastard had trained her to see threats everywhere.
But the words came out harder than I intended. “If I wanted to control you, Bell, you wouldn’t be in the widow’s cottage, keeping us on standby while you play out your dying-alone fantasy.”
Her face went carefully blank. “Is that what you think I’m doing? Pretending to want to be alone?”
“I know you’re scared of us.” The words escaped before I could stop them. “Even more scared now, after this morning. Because Boone showed you how good it could be—and that terrifies you.”
