“Of course I am,” she answered. “I’m a guest here, and I can’t keep you from your bed.”
“Trouble, what the fuck is this about?”
She glared at him. “You! I can’t believe you! Seriously? You don’t know why I won’t go to your bed?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“Last night was … something. And this morning, you were gone. You didn’t say anything. You left. And now you’re mad I won’t go to bed with you? Why? So you can touch me all over and disappear again? Why doyouget to make the rules?”
He shook his head. Women. He really didn’t get it. “Lilliane, trouble, love, darling, you need to tell me what I did wrong.”
“You made me come. Best orgasm of my life. Then you left like it didn’t matter. Who does that?”
“I’m trying to stay focused,” he argued. It was lame even to his ears.
She crossed her arms. “And how is that going for you? Are you nice and focused out there? Or in bed, so hard you have to shower a billion times a day. I’m right here, Atlas. If you’re gonna be distracted, you know what to do.”
“Lilliane,” he growled. “Once I start … I might mate you by accident. God knows I’ve imagined it enough.”
“You wouldn’t,” she said. “Because you care about me. You want it to be my choice.”
He shook his head. “I don’t have that much control, Lilliane.”
“Then I’m gonna sleep on the couch.”
He sighed and threw his hands up. “Fine. Suit yourself, but don’t think I’m gonna let you cuddle with me when you get a nightmare.” He was an asshole. A major asshole. He never should’ve said it, but he walked away.
He was so distracted he didn’t fall asleep. And when Lilliane cried in her sleep, he held her through it. When she woke up in his arms, she just closed her eyes again and held him tighter.
By morning, he was gone.
Again.
SIXTEEN
LILLIANE
Lilliane cracked an eye open, hoping that the wolf man was still in bed next to her.
He wasn’t.
She blew out a breath and sat up in bed. He better be in the house, somewhere. No way he had left again. He wouldn’t. In her PJs, she walked around the house, but it was no use.
“That motherfucker,” she cried.
It was the second time she took a lap around the house, but her second search hadn’t been any better. Atlas was gone. For the second morning in a row, he did something amazing for her and then vanished in the morning.
What was wrong with shifters, anyway? Maybe it wasn’t that Atlas was a shifter. Maybe it was him.
Shit. Maybe it washer.
Who she was. How she came into his life. All of it. Maybe that’s why he had a knack for morning vanishing acts. Why did he think it was this big moral thing to keep his hands to himself, anyway?
Her head spun with all of these questions. She was actually at a loss, but she knew two people with shifter experience. She could call her sisters. It would be admitting thatsomethingwas happening between her and Atlas, and she didn’t know if she was ready for that, but these were her sisters.
They would help …afterthey were done teasing her.
Lilliane grabbed the house phone and dialed Valentine’s cabin. Her sister answered on the first ring.
