Page 5

M y alarm blares to life, but I'm not able to get up to shut it off. I'm trapped. There is a large muscular arm wrapped around my body, holding me in place. I try to wriggle out from under his arm, which only causes him to tighten his hold on me. While I'd love to stay in his embrace all day, we have an agenda to tackle today, the most important item being learning the hard stuff about Roman's sister, father, and mother.

We haven't really talked about his mother. I know that she died when he was young and that his dad is a royal tool—pun not intended, but appropriate—and not the actual royals' tool, the King's advisor. He spoke of his father's darkness early in our relationship, but I didn't know that meant, like, kidnapper-and-murderer type of darkness. I just thought he meant his dad was an ass, but I should have known that as a werewolf, it would mean so much more.

I’m worried about him. My big man looks tough and strong, and obviously is, but he also uses his hard exterior to hide how much he cares because the things he loves have been taken from him.

Please let his sister be good. I beg any entities listening, and my wolf huffs her approval.

Resuming my wiggling, I manage to turn all the way around to face him. If you didn't know any better, you'd think he was still sleeping, but knowing him, he's been up for ages and is just letting me stare at his stupid handsome face. I gently tap on his forehead, “I'm pretty sure you're awake in there. It's time to get up and face this head-on,” I coo as I run my fingers through his nearly shaggy, sandy hair.

He grumbles and cracks one eye open. “I'll never be able to get up and do anything if you keep touching me like that.”

“Like what? I was just messing with your hair.” I pull back in confusion.

“Haven't you learned that any touch from you ignites a fire under my skin that usually only your sweet little pussy can extinguish,” he rasps.

There's no way I'm not fire engine red right now. I swat at his chest in admonishment. “Roman! You can't say things like that!”

He lifts an eyebrow to match his crooked grin. “And why not? It's the truth, and I haven't heard any complaints from you…”

“Well, of course you haven't because…ugh, you know…I just don't want to TALK about it.” I giggle and hide under the blankets.

He begins to search for me, and I know I'm in for it when there's a knock at the door. “Five minutes, and I'm coming in to get you, Boss!” Benny's booming voice carries into our room, causing Roman to growl.

I manage to scurry the rest of the way under the covers to the edge of the bed, escaping in a mess of silver hair and missing a fuzzy pink sock. When my feet hit the floor, I spring back up and clap my hands. “All right, let's do this. We might learn some not-fun things today, but we're together, and everything will be okay. Let's tackle this quickly so that we can move on. Plus, you have practice later, so you'll be able to work off any anger that results from what we learn,” I finish my mini pep talk with my hands on my hips and my chin held high.

Roman releases a breathy chuckle and slowly rises from the bed. I can see every muscle in his back ripple like water in a lake, and I can't tear my eyes away. “I thought we were getting dressed, Princess.”

I scoff and move to the dresser to grab my clothes, doing my absolute best to pretend like he doesn't exist. I slowly peel his shirt from my body and make a show of sliding a bra on before climbing into my favorite black leggings. I finish the look with a Predators hoodie and head into the bathroom for my small morning ritual; it’s not long before Roman joins me. We're both brushing our teeth as I swing my hips, thinking I'd just, like, hip bump him, but because of our height difference, I just hit it rock-hard thighs.

How can a man even look handsome smiling with a mouth full of toothpaste? This is ridiculous.

I think back to how apprehensive I was to move in with him, and here we are, brushing our teeth together, getting dressed, dealing with murderers…Okay, the last one sucks, but this whole normal life part is kind of nice. Scratch that, it's really nice. I was so worried about having the normal college girl experience that I forgot to just live the life sitting right in front of me.

“I love you,” I blurt with my mouth still full of toothpaste.

“I love you too, Leera. Always. Let's go do this then. Also, there's something waiting for you downstairs.”

Okay, because that's not suspicious or anything. Nonetheless, I race him out of the room and downstairs to see what’s waiting for me.