“Nope.” I crawled onto the bed, beneath the top sheet, and he curled up next to me. Around me. One arm draped over my side. “I like naked.”
“So I recall.” He chuckled. “I like you naked too.”
“Is it weird that we’re in your brother’s bed? Do you think he’d mind?”
“I know for a fact that he would not. He’s always been generous with his things.”
I huffed. “Probably because you always had the money to buy more things.” Then a new thought occurred to me. “Do you think that’s changed, now that he’s been infected? Some shifters are highly territorial.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Titus brushed my hair up over the pillow and away from his face. “But if anyone is likely to recognize me as an Alpha, it’s my baby brother. I was the only authority figure in his life long before either of us were shifters.”
“What’s Justus like?” I asked, snuggling against him. “I mean, before he was infected?”
“He’s a normal nineteen-year-old. Young and stupid, in a lot of ways. But he’s a good guy. Generous, like I said. Funny. He likes video games and movies, but he also watches the news, if you can believe that.”
“I actuallycanbelieve that. I hate the news, but Abby was a political science major. In school, she was always talking about the distribution of power and how some laws were written to hold people back, rather than protect their freedoms. What I study in the past, she studies in the present. Without the benefit of historical hindsight.”
“I have to admit, that’s come in handy out here. We’re building all that from scratch, and we could use both current and historical expertise.” Titus exhaled against my neck, and chills shot up my spine. “I always thought Justus would have been interested in what I’m doing, and now I guess I’ll get to tell him about it. Assuming we ever find him. And the council doesn’t have him executed.”
I rolled over to face him. “Your brother’s going to be fine, Titus. He didn’t mean to infect anyone. Leland already told us that. The council is a pain in the ass, and they’re way too stuffy for their own good, but Faythe and Abby’s dad will never let them execute Justus for something he did by accident. Something he didn’t even know he was doing. They’re old and mean, but they’re not psychotic.”
Titus frowned. “Robyn, the council has been executing strays for doing exactly what Justus did, under those same, ignorant circumstances, for generations. If I want to save him, I’m going to have to come up with something a lot better than ‘he didn’t know what he was doing’.”
“Maybe not.” I shrugged, and the pillow moved with the motion. “Maybe it’s as easy as giving them something they want more than Justus. Like whoever infected him.”
SEVENTEEN
Titus
My brother’s bedroom had no curtains, so when the sun rose, I did too. Careful not to wake Robyn, I rolled over and stood to dig my phone from my jeans pocket.
The clock on the lock screen read seven minutes after eight am. I’d gotten less than four hours of sleep, but my body refused to submit to any more with my brother still missing. Even with Robyn’s naked warmth calling to me from the bed.
The only thing resembling breakfast in Justus’s kitchen was half a box of frozen toaster waffles and a four-pack of energy drinks. The boy lived on carbs and caffeine.
Grumbling, I put on a clean shirt from my suitcase and walked down to the cafe on the corner for breakfast burritos and four large paper cups of coffee that I didn’t have to brew myself. Blum and Robyn were still asleep when I returned, so I dumped a packet of sugar into one of the coffees and called Spencer Cole.
His phone went to voicemail on the third ring, and I hung up without leaving a message. He was probably working. So I tried Drew next. His phone went to voicemail on the first ring.
“Hey, Drew, it’s me. I have a hospital question for Spence, but I can’t get through to him. Can you have him give me a call if he checks in with you?”
By the time I’d finished my first coffee, I could hear Robyn moving around, so I took a still-steaming paper cup into Justus’s room for her.
The bed was empty, but the bathroom door was open. Robyn stood in front of the mirror, brushing her teeth. Wearing my too-big-for-her shirt and nothing else, that I could see.
Memories from the night before washed over me. Her soft flesh in my hands. The taste of her on my lips. The sight of her riding me, eyes closed, hands in her own hair…
Robyn turned, her toothbrush dripping in one hand. “Guess who didn’t have any nightmares last—?” She laughed with a pointed glance at the bulge in my pants. “You are an early riser, huh?”
“And you are the most confident, least inhibited woman I’ve ever met.”
She spat toothpaste into the sink, then frowned at me in the mirror. “I can’t tell whether that’s a compliment or a criticism.”
I pulled her close and pressed myself against her bare leg. “Now can you tell?”
“Mmm…” she murmured, her minty breath warm against my ear. “Men’s bodies are sometimes easier to interpret than their words.”
“I’d say the reverse is true. Women are usually more comfortable showing you what they want than telling you. But you’re the exception.”
