He stared into her honey colored eyes, the same eyes he’d stared into after his throat had been ripped out and he’d been sure he’d been dead. She’d been all that was good in that moment, maybe in his life, outside of his brothers. It tore him up to believe it was all a lie.
“Troy -”
His gaze lifted to her. “Get in the truck, Cassie.”
“I’m getting in because we are going to talk,” she said. “Because I’ve wanted to talk for a long time and no matter who I left a message for you with, you ignored me. So, yeah. I’m getting in.” She turned away from him and started to climb in before saying, “And you owe me an iPad. It was in the purse I dropped somewhere between the garage and here.” She climbed into the truck.
Troy told himself he didn’t admire her feisty spirit, and not to watch her skirt climb up her long, sexy legs. But she had him on both points ten times over. He ground his teeth, remembering the red dress in Reno, the wolf’s hand on her leg. His anger, his conflict over knowing he didn’t want another man touching her, but being afraid to trust her.
“Is this some form of torture?” she asked, shaking her hand and his at the same time. “Because if it is, it’s working. My dangling arm is falling asleep.”
And why was it dangling? Because he’d attached himself to the very woman he’d known to avoid, that he knew was his weakness.
“Damn it to hell,” he mumbled under his breath and scooted into the truck beside Cassie, where he was forced to keep her close thanks to the short, reinforced chain between their cuffs. She was by his side, her thigh pressed to his, the touch like fire stoking already hot coals, scorching him inside out. His skin tingled and he grasped the steering wheel, surprised by the intensity of the animal inside him, the wolf he didn’t want to be.
“Troy,” he heard her say, realizing he’d shut his eyes, that sweat was gathering on his brow, that her hand was on his arm, that concern was in her voice.
He yanked the door shut with his left hand and then used his right hand, the one attached to hers, to pull the automatic lever on the steering wheel down to drive, his foot still on the brake.
“Are you okay?” she asked, and her soft fingers stroked his hair.
He reached up and grabbed her hand, glaring at her before releasing it as if burned, turning the classic rock station to blast and ending all conversation. He couldn’t talk to her. Not now because ‘no’, he was not fucking okay. He needed blood and he needed it now. It was too soon to be safe, too soon to not risk the kind of blood lust that turned vampires into monsters. But he could feel the uncontrollable wolf rising inside him, and if he didn’t get blood and get it quickly, he was going to shift. And the only blood nearby, until he got to their destination, was Cassie’s.
Chapter Four
She’d saved him from death, but it was clear to Cassie that she’d far from saved Troy’s life. His pain, his anger, his hatred of her as a wolf, were damn near palpable. But he was here now, and he was alive, and that is what mattered. That is what she planned to make count.
Cassie turned down the volume on the radio. “Troy, I -”
He growled, and jerked her attached wrist with him as he tried to turn the music back on.
Cassie covered the knob with her free hand. “Don’t even think about it,” she warned, her brows knitting together as she computed the growling sound he’d just made, and how very wolf-like it had been. But that was impossible, he was a vampire. She shook off the odd thought, insisting, “We have to talk.”
“We had a conversation back in the parking lot,” he ground out, his tone clipped. “That’s all the conversation we need to have until I say otherwise.”
“You mean those few words we spoke right after you slapped a handcuff on me and before you gave me a piggy back ride? That’s what you call a conversation?”
“When you need to know more, you’ll know more.”
“Well, consider the need to know now. I came with you willingly, Troy. I’m here because I want to be.”
“Willing or unwilling,” he said. “You were coming with me.”
“Since when did you become the big bad caveman?”
“I reserve my caveman side for wolves.”
“Well then,” she said. “I guess I’ll just have to dedicate my inner bitch to the vampires. Or rather – one vampire, because you’re starting to tick me off.”
“Next time I’ll bring you flowers with the handcuffs,” he said, cutting her with a crystal blue, unnatural stare that stole her breath.
“How is this possible?” she murmured. Now that she could really study him, she realized that he wasn’t disguising his black eyes with contacts, as she had assumed. “Your eyes-“
“Aren’t the only thing different about me. I told you that. Believe me, blue is a recent improvement. Before that, they glowed silver more times than they didn’t. They were a real attention grabber, I’m sure you’re sorry you missed.” He whipped the truck into the parking lot of a small apartment complex only a few blocks from the strip and pulled into a parking spot. He used their joined hands to shift the truck into park and turned to her. He shoved open the door. “Let’s go.” He snatched the key and stepped out of the truck, dragging her with him.
Cassie slid towards him, the cloth of her skirt riding up, yet again, in the process. She slid down to the ground, trying to keep it from going to her waist with only one hand to contribute to the effort. Thanks to the chain between her and Troy, her normal wolfish grace escaped her. She fell into Troy, her hands flattening on his chest, her body pressed to his harder one.
Powerful arms wrapped her waist, and her eyes locked with his, the familiar connection they’d always shared intensely present, but there was something else familiar there as well. “I’m done being punished for something she did. I’m not her.”