The belt fell from my neck, and he slid out of me. I fell to the ground, and he collapsed beside me, panting, exhausted.
He was all Lucas now, broken nose, short hair, eyes brown-red. He reached over to me and pulled me against him, roughly. I smiled at him. “And to think you thought tonight you wouldn’t have to wrestle.”
He laughed, and kissed me again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
He kept kissing me, and we weren’t even fucking anymore. I didn’t know what to do. As I lay beside him, his body was hot like a furnace, and the smell of sweat and sex filled the room. I pulled away from him, and he smiled at me. “Come on. If we sleep here, we’ll wind up sore.” Lucas stood and offered me his hand.
“More sore,” I corrected him.
Concern flashed in his eyes. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
I stood up on my own without taking his hand. “Not in any way I minded at the time.” I picked my clothes up off the floor and pulled them on. “I’ll be in my room, thanks.”
He tilted his head and looked at me. “Edie, what just happened?”
I couldn’t explain it to him—I just needed some space, fast. I didn’t want to hope ever again. It wasn’t even about him, it was about how my life would probably be better if I never let anyone in. I grabbed Minnie’s cat carrier—she was asleep inside it, long since used to my conquests—walked quickly down the hall, and shut myself inside the room he’d given me. There were NASCAR posters on the walls. And the sheets on the bed were blue, with yellow stars and rocket ships. It felt like I was in the room of a child. I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes.
Lucas knocked on the door. “Edie, are you okay?”
“Can you just guard me from out there, please?” I asked through the door.
I didn’t get an answer. After a few minutes of silence, there was one whine, then another. I waited and they didn’t stop.
“Please, Lucas, stop.” There was the sound of scratching at the bottom of the door. “You’ll ruin the carpet.” The scratching continued. I gave up and opened the door.
The wolf came into the room and bounded up onto the bed, the mattress springs groaning with his weight. He lay there, still, his head in his paws. He yawned a soundless question, stared at me, then closed his eyes. I waited, trying to figure out what I should do.
I turned off the light and crawled into bed beside him. He stayed a wolf. Furry, warm, with hot moist breath. His tongue licked my neck, once. I wrapped my arms around his neck, buried my face in his fur, and cried.
* * *
When I woke up, sun was coming in through the plaid curtains, and there was a strange cat lying beside me, colored peach and gray. It opened one lazy eye. “Marguerite?” I guessed. The eye closed.
The rest of the room wasn’t my room, and all of a sudden I remembered everything that’d happened the night before—before the sex, and my subsequent shutdown.
I elbowed myself up to sitting. “Lucas?” He would want to talk this morning, and I would have to be nice about it.
Marguerite woke up and licked a paw. I looked down, and Minnie was still sitting in her cat carrier, ruling her small roost. I got out of bed. I really needed a toothbrush, and not having showered after sex made me feel gross. I opened my bedroom door, wrapped a blanket around me like a robe, and made my way to the living room. “Lucas?”
Jorgen was sitting on Lucas’s couch, his bald head reminding me of a snake’s. “The princess finally awakens.”
“Hello, Jorgen.”
“Helen wants to speak with you. She’s in the main house.” My belt was still on the living room floor. I waited until Jorgen left before I bent down to retrieve it.
* * *
I made most of an outfit, between what I’d brought and what I’d been wearing when I came in. My jeans from the prior night were cleaned, waiting for me, folded on the couch. I wondered if Lucas had done that, or if other pack members took care of the laundry. I pulled on my boots and went outside. At least the cold air felt clean.
I tromped up to the back door of the main house, and Jorgen opened it. While Lucas’s guest home had felt like the epitome of prefabricated America, the inside of the main house was much nicer. The floors and the furniture were dark wood, and Jorgen led me into a dining room that was ornate. It was decorated in marble and more wood, with brass fixtures hanging from the ceiling to hold iron pots and pans. Helen looked up at my entrance from where she was pouring a cup of tea.
“Edie—thanks for coming. I hope you slept well?” Helen said, giving me a sly smile and handing over a delicate china cup. It looked too fragile to be used, much less by werewolves. I took it and sat down.