Rule Breaker(146)

            The scent of her distrust only grew and, even more disturbing, also a sense of fear as he’d continued attempting to dry her. Why would taking care of his luscious little mate cause her such distress?

            Narrowing his eyes, Rule did as she asked, reached out and pulled another towel off the shelf on the outside wall to finish drying his own body.

            Seconds later she found the strength in her legs, rose to her feet and quickly wrapped the towel around the slender curves he would have enjoyed watching a bit longer.

            Tossing his own towel to the corner of the shower, he moved from the cubicle and headed to the bedroom. The scent of the continued distrust and that edge of fear had been joined by the hint of pain.

            Dammit. She was tempting those crazy fucking animal genetics into surging free again. And that was something he’d prefer to ensure never happened again. Well, unless he was buried deep inside her again.

            Pulling on a pair of jeans, he zipped them quickly, aware that his cock was still hard enough to ensure it wouldn’t be long before he was indeed buried inside her again.

            Until then, he’d wait patiently.

            It wasn’t long before she moved into the room, glancing at him nervously before moving to the dresser. There—his brow lifted as she found the drawer that held his shirts on the first try.

            Lifting a dark gray T-shirt free from the top of the pile, she unfolded it, drew it over her head, then pushed her arms into the sleeves and let it fall over her body before dropping the towel.

            Those animal genetics—

            He normally cursed them; in this second, he was doing more than cursing them. The animal snapped inside him. A hint of a scent. The awareness of something not just right as his normally dependable senses failed him.

            He’d come into this room weeks before, aware of the slightest scent that he should have recognized, only to have it elude him.

            It wasn’t eluding him now.

            “Where did you get the scent blocker the night you searched my room, mate?” he asked her softly. “And who provided it?”





CHAPTER 21



How had she given herself away?

            Her gaze was locked with his, normal now, all evidence of the animal he shared his genetics with no longer present. But there was no way she could hide her response and she knew it. She was caught. She could feel it. She could see it in the flare of anger that lit his eyes and tightened his body.

            “What are you talking about, Rule?” That didn’t mean she had to go down easy.

            He’d already destroyed the plans she’d made for her life so many years ago. Nine years she’d spent vowing to avenge her brother’s murder and to make up for being the cause of it.

            He chuckled.

            It wasn’t a comfortable sound, she observed, watching him nervously. And she really wished he’d snap the band of his jeans and put on a damned shirt. Socks. Maybe some shoes too. That would definitely make her feel more comfortable. Though not in any less trouble, she was betting.

            “You know.” Leaning against the dresser she’d just pulled a shirt from, he watched her curiously as he crossed his arms over his broad, naked chest. “Several weeks ago my room was gone through. A scent blocker was used, but what the intruder was unaware of is that the perspiration they left throughout the room wasn’t safe from detection when the room belongs to the intruder’s unmated mate.”

            Unmated mate? It was all she could do not to roll her eyes, but she was pretty fucking tired. His bathroom sex had pretty much sapped what little energy she’d gained while she slept earlier.

            “You’re reaching, Rule,” she breathed out roughly, certain there was really no getting out of this, at least without really lying to him, and that, she found suddenly distasteful.