Page 45 of Puck My Life

I can’t finish the game. How can he even say that in front of her!

“We can play again another day. Indy’s here.”

Mal juts his jaw and glares at me. Right, so everyone’s mad at everything, and Indy is just staring at us with a look that is making me very nervous.

“Well, on that note. I’ve got to go. You guys did really well with the cooking.”

“They cooked?” Indy says sharply.

“I’m sure they’ll cook for you as well,” I say. “It was just a lesson.”

I slip up the porch steps, making myself smaller, almost hiding. I get into the kitchen, grab my bag and pause.

My shoes are in Mal’s room. Why is this happening to me?

I hear the door open behind me, dart down the hallway and into his room, snatching up my shoes. I get to the doorway when I’m suddenly confronted by Raynor, who pushes me back into the room and closes it with a sharp click.

“Stay here tonight.”

“No!”

Is he insane? No freaking way. I’m barely hanging on here.

“Deacon’s taking her out. Stay here with me.”

Deacon’s…taking her out? If he’d taken a knife to my chest and carved me open, it would hurt less.

I shake my head, but he’s not looking at my face; instead, he’s focused on a spot on my neck. I tense, my stomach leaping and diving. He leans in closer.

“What are you doing?”

“I only wish I knew,” he whispers, and then his lips are on that spot, the burning heat of his tongue pressing and stroking. He drags his teeth over it and sucks, and my knees get weak. I stumble back, but he follows, opening his mouth more.

I grab fistfuls of his shirt. “Raynor!”

He pulls away, only to pull my top up and close that hot, cavernous mouth of his on my breast, ignoring the lace and lathing over my nipples until I think I’ve died. Pure need burns through me, setting my body on fire. I catch my scent, and I don’t give a damn. I’ve got my fingers in his hair, holding him to me, and all my fantasies are coming true.

Except, my fantasies didn’t include sneaking around while his girlfriend was in the other room. I take a breath, the scorching chill of reality stealing my arousal, leaving just the heated honeycomb candy in the air.

“Stop, please.”

He lifts his head, his eyes dark.

“Are you going to be able to give me everything I want? A pack, a family, a future?”

Raynor opens his mouth, but I shake my head before he can answer me because his expression of confusion is all the explanation I need.

“I’m going back to my hotel room now. You should get some air. I will see you tomorrow.”

I leave before he can say anything else, before I can see that confusion change to regret, before I can hear him tell me it was a mistake.

Yeah, it’s running.

But it’s the only way I can survive.

Vae

PAST