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That is not good.

A tense heartbeat later, he shook his head, then dropped it into his hands. A shudder ran through his body, and when he lifted his face toward mine again, he was back to fully human.

Not that that erased the memory of what had just happened.

“Why would you wake me up like that?”

“Well, I thought about waking you with a blow job or something, but figured you might object to that. Besides, I whispered.”

He didn’t react to my joke. Was he still groggy? All I knew for sure was that he didn’t appear amused by it, or even that annoyed.

“Would you meet me downstairs?”

“But I’ve got stuff to say,” I whined, then held up the yellow book. “It’s all in here.”

He slid out of the bed, on the other side, giving me a perfect view of his ass.

And this one could hold its own against Ruben’s. Maybe it was because I saw Galen’s in all its naked glory or something, but damn.

He glanced over his shoulder, a dangerous glint to his eyes, a warning and a dare.

It all seemed so unlike him. “Downstairs.”

“Right,” I said, his tone getting me moving.

After what had happened with Ruben, I sure didn’t need to get rejected yet again. Once in a twenty-four hour period was quite enough humiliation for me.

I didn’t turn to walk out, though. Nope. Even if I were conceding ground here, I wasn’t going to waste the retreat.

So I walked backward toward the door, not willing to tear my eyes away from his broad, toned back, the way his waist tucked in toward his hips, the perfect curve of his ass.

Fuck me.

And I meant that in a pretty literal way. I didn’t think I’d mind it one bit if he decided to go that way.

Of course, he wanted me to be his mate, so he’d probably start bothering me about that, wanting a commitment.

Just let me have that dick.

I caught myself just when I reached the stairs before I went toppling down them, when he bent forward slightly to pull on a pair of jeans.

Please leave them undone.

I sent that final plea into the universe before giving in and turning around to wait downstairs.

The clock above the kitchen table read four in the morning. I was exhausted, of course, since after getting home rather late from Ruben’s and my little trip, I had immediately gone to work reading the book.

Ruben had complained, telling me that he should keep it, but it seemed his heart was less in the battle than usual as he gave up rather quickly.

That was fine with me. All I really wanted was the chance to go through it. I figured I was a better option, since Knot had told me about it. Besides, I was the one working on this, helping Galen with it.

Ruben couldn’t get too directly involved without risking it becoming an official Justice problem and no one wanted that.

The Justices solved a lot of problems, sure, but they usually did it in a way no one liked. It was like when Mom came in and grounded everyone.

Sure, the fighting stopped, but we were all paying the price for it.

I’d rather not get scolded by Mother Dearest, so it was better the kids dealt with it ourselves.