Is that why he’d taken her to his bed? To test my affection? Or was it to stroke his ego like he’d said two minutesago?
He reached over and clasped my shoulders, pivoting me toward him. “Aren’t you even a little jealous? Don’t you care about me?” he whispered, his powerful voicefaltering.
“You broke my heart, Liam.” I was incredibly calm, and it wasn’t even an act. I didn’t feel vindictive. “I let you in, and you wrecked me. Is that what you want to hear?” I licked my lips that felt as dry as myeyes.
His hands slid down my arms, gripped my biceps as though to keep me from falling away from him. But I’d already fallen away fromhim.
“Are you andAugust—”
“There is no me andAugust.”
Liam’s eyes flashed with something—hope. Like a lit match, it spread and made the air inside the carcrackle.
“But there is also no me and you, Liam.” One-by-one, I pried his fingers off my arms. “You have to let me go,” I said softly. “You have to let mego.”
Red handprints remained where he’dsqueezed.
“I will obey you like I vowed, but don’t ask me to loveyou.”
He scrubbed a hand through his gelled hair. A hardened lock fell into his shiny eyes. “Ness. . . ”
“Please, Liam, let me go,” Imurmured.
I touched his cheek, smooth from a fresh shave, the only soft part on his body. The rest of him was all hard lines. He swallowed, and his jaw muscles juddered under my palm. He covered my hand with his and kept both anchored to his face as we sat on the side of the road, the inn just out of reach but already insight.
“Let’s get tonight over with,” I said, slipping my palm out from underneathhis.
He lowered his eyelids, then lifted them back up, drawing in a long breath through his nostrils. Or maybe he was drawing in a lungful of courage. The Creeks’ reputation was so dire that I worked hard on quieting my own nerves as we slowly made our way up the hill towardthem.
40
Liam parked up front,behind a compact row of cars that ranged in fanciness, from gleaming Cayennes to rusted Civics. The sight of rust reassured me I wasn’t out of my depths, that I’d be able to relate to some of theseshifters.
We walked toward the inn side by side, the earlier tension between us diffused. We were in no way relaxed, but that had nothing to do with our row and everything to do with the den of wolves we were about toenter.
“Why do you think she asked to meet me specifically?” Iasked.
“You’re Everest’s cousin. You worked as an escort. Maybe she thinks you spied on a Creek or two.” Liam’s neck was a rigid column on the unyielding mantle of hisshoulders.
I must’ve gone slack-jawed, because Liam ran a knuckle under my chin as though to shut mymouth.
“You didn’t,right?”
I removed my chin from his fingers. “Spy on Creeks?No.”
Car doors slammed shut, making me jump. Liam and I both turned to scan the lot. Lucas, Matt, August, and Cole were walking up from where they’d parked thepickup.
Was it eight already? Had Liam and I spent an hour in his car? The sky was streaked with oranges and pinks, which told me they wereearly.
“We didn’t feel right about you two going in without protection,” Matt said as he approached in a pair of black jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt, both fitting snugly over his broad, ropylimbs.
He’d made even less of an effort to dress up than Liam, which confirmed my earlier worries that I was way overdressed. The boys were like evergreens, and I was like that palm tree I apparently wanted in my dream house. I gripped the tulle, wishing I could transform it into a pair of jeans and a tanktop.
Lucas’s blue-eyed gaze skipped between Liam and me, as though trying to gauge from our postures where we ranked on the scale of love and hate. The shaggy-haired shifter must’ve noticed that only billowing smoke remained from our spat, because his features relaxed. Had he been expecting to have to pry my claws out of his Alpha’sskin?
August’s face was a blank mask, but through the link, I felt his body thrumming with something, something that made him cross his arms, straining the fabric of the dark-olive Henley that matched hiseyes.
“Shall we go see what the great Creek Alpha wants?” Lucas gestured to theinn.
