He finally removed his hand, chuckling under his breath. “I got your message.”
“Which one?”
“That you wanted me to win.”
I slipped my arms around him. “You did that for me?”
“Mmm… What if I did?”
“Then I’d say you’re still not getting off the hook for lying to me. However, you’re getting warmer.”
As he lowered his head, still chuckling, my entire body began to sway. So what if he was a big, bad wolf? I always did love dogs.
CHAPTER 24
Steven
The great escape.
We’d done it.
The two of us. My fake fiancée and the Beast.
I could see the headlines now. While the reporter had seemed professional and with my best interest at heart, at first, just throwing out both the incident with the police then being confronted with the news of my engagement to garner my reaction for his fifteen minutes of fame had almost driven me into shifting.
Almost.
Lucky for him I’d had a little thrill when hearing about my engagement. Including a photograph I hadn’t known had been taken at her father’s big celebration. Whoever had exposed our ruse had done so with bad intent in mind.
Karma would kick his or her ass.
My anger for her father lingered in the background and the only reason I hadn’t thrown the man under the bus was because of Christine. I couldn’t see how ripping him to shreds either literally or figuratively would help our relationship thrive.
After the ringing in my ears from the audience cheers had stopped and I’d managed to shut my mouth after my lower lip hitting the ice, my first thoughts had been about Christine.
Getting to her.
Comforting her.
Protecting her.
Kissing her.
Fucking her.
Okay, the last thought had been bad timing, but the hunger was real.
Raw.
And all about the fact that we were mates. I couldn’t ignore evolution or my primal instincts any longer. To do so would cause me to wither up and die. Or at least not perform at my peak.
“You’re trending,” Christine half whispered. She had her phone in her hand, scrolling the internet.
“Oh, yeah? Do I want to know?”
“The headlines are wild. Tampa Bay’s best kept werewolf secret. The hottest hockey star on the planet. The wolf is off the market. Just who is the Beast’s soon-to-be wife? Those are the nice ones.I won’t read you the ugly comments. I fear you’ll…” She turned her head toward me. “Allow your anger to surface.”
“I’m not a goddamn werewolf,” I insisted like a temper tantrum-throwing child while twisting my hand around the steering wheel.
