As a rule, Taylor was putty in his hands when he turned up the charm, but she really wasn’t falling for his seduction. Things were going south, and fast.
“Please, Prowler, let me go. I need to think straight, and I can’t do that like this.”
What had she seen or found out about him that had her needing to think straight to kick him to the curb?
A million thoughts flew at him at once, but he shifted his body weight enough for her to move.
Did she know about the less-than-legal businesses he was involved in? The girls, the books, the gambling? How they collected when someone welched? How they dealt with threats to the club or their secrets?
Could she feel the blood on his hands when he touched her? Looking down at the hands in question, he almost expected to see crimson.
Then, an even more terrifying thought chilled him to the bone.
Did she know about Wolf?
Wolf bristled at the thought.
The only reason their kind held their secret as long as they had was because the only people who knew were either dead or family. That was the first thing Kansas ever taught him abouthaving a fur side. Dead or family, and family was bound together by blood, and not the kind flowing through their own veins.
First and foremost was protecting that information. The general population didn’t know they existed. A shudder wobbled down his spine. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that if their secret got out, they’d be locked away and experimented on by the government, much like Domino pack had done to their own but on a much larger scale, if not just out and out eliminated due to fear, that is.
Prowler stood, grabbing his jeans. Pulling them on, he didn’t bother to button them.
He didn’t like the turn things had taken.
He felt vulnerable, a sensation he hadn’t experienced in a really long time.
Anger at the situation flooded him. He was finally ready to settle down, give a relationship a go, and the universe instead just brandished the giant dildo of not a fucking chance, sans lube.
Prowler stared at her as she chewed her lip. He couldn’t kill her, wouldn’t. Fuck the rules. He could force her to be family, but he couldn’t trust that. The only solution was to lock her away until she developed Stockholm syndrome or some shit.
But fuck him sideways, he couldn’t do that either.
While he was lost in thought, Taylor started speaking. Instead of hearing her words, he just watched her mouth move.
When he finally tuned back in, she was trying to brush past him.
“Your silence speaks loud and clear, Prowler.”
“Wait.” He caught her in his arms, but she stayed stiff.
“Why wait? So we can drag this out? You broke our agreement, and then you tried to renegotiate it. Why? To hurt me? Mission accomplished.”
He’d never heard her sound so defeated, and it damn near broke him. Wait, what did she say?
Relief and confusion warred within him. Relief his furry secret was still safe, and confusion because what the hell had she just said that he confirmed with silence?
“What are you talking about? I didn’t break shit, Taylor. I haven’t touched another woman. Not just since we’ve been fucking but even before. Since the first time I saw you, really saw you, and you fucking yelled at me about my trash cans.” He hadn’t meant to confess that, but he also hadn’t meant to let his anger control him, but there they were. His temper rising.
“Wow. It took you a long time to come up with that diversion.” She took a deep breath. “It’s better this way, really. I’m not relationship material on the best of days, and neither are you. But let’s face it, a steady hook-up is a relationship no matter how you slice it. That’s not what either of us wanted or needed.”
Prowler didn’t miss the slight upward inflection she ended with. Turning her statement into more of a question. He also didn’t miss the past tense. Could that mean she wants and needs it now?
She had doubts, and he could exploit that.
“Babe. We’re going to be dizzy with all the circling back we’ll have to do, but first, I want you to repeat whatever it was you said that you think I did.”
“Your ex.”
