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When I glanced at her through my rearview mirror, I found her face bright red. “You’re an ass.”

“I’m aware.” I dragged my hair away from my face. It was a damn mess, but it smelled so strongly of her pleasure that I wasn’t about to drag a brush through it. I wanted as much of her scent on me as possible. “Keeping it quiet while we bonded seemed like the best call at the time.”

“The best call for you. Not for me.”

“You didn’t want a mate,” I repeated. “I showed you at least a few of the benefits.”

When I looked at her again, her face was even redder.

She was pissed, unsurprisingly.

“You showed me the benefits for your own damn sake.”

“Of course I did. I’ve been waiting to meet you for centuries. I wasn’t going to just let you go because you didn’t see how a mate could benefit you.”

She fell silent at that.

I’d seen her duffel bag in the back seat of her car, so I didn’t bother taking her to her house. Considering the way she’d tried to get away from me, she was moving into my place. It was bigger, and tucked away in the corner of the neighborhood, where we had more space and privacy.

“You should’ve asked me whether I was your mate instead of digging out that damn blood bag,” I said, my jaw clenching. “You could’ve called me, or walked back over. I would’ve told you the truth if you asked me.”

“I didn’t want the truth. I wanted casual sex.” Her gaze was trained outside.

I forced my breathing to remain even, despite the anger building within me. “Casual sex is nothing like what I gave you. If you hooked up with a stranger, he wouldn’t focus on your pleasure. He wouldn’t enjoy spending hours with his mouth on you. He would use you, then walk away.”

“And you don’t think you used me at all?” she shot back.

“Of course not. I focused on you without asking for anything in return. What you gave me, you gave because you wanted to.”

“Stop. Just stop, okay? I’m done.”

I clenched my jaw, but stayed silent through the rest of the drive.

When I pulled into the garage and closed it behind us, she didn’t make a move to get out.

She looked straight ahead as she said, “Since you’ve abducted me, what are your ground rules?”

“There aren’t any rules.”

She scoffed.

“You can do anything you want, Si. You’re free. You’ll just have me tailing you, the same way you did before you realized what we are to each other. And you’ll come home to this house we share, rather than to your own place. You’re safer here.”

“I’m not sharing a bed with you.”

“I didn’t expect you to. There’s a spare bedroom. It’s yours.”

She relaxed slightly. “Fine. Where is it?”

“Across the hall from mine. I’ll grab your bag.”

She slipped out of the car while I pulled her duffel off the back seat. I caught her in the hallway, and followed her into the room. It wasn’t massive, but it wasn’t tiny, and I already had a bed set up with sheets and blankets.

“Dammit,” Sienna grumbled as soon as she stepped into the room.

“What?” I asked, though my eyes landed on the reason for her curse the moment I passed through the door.

Sprinkles was on the spare bed.