When He's Sinful (The Olympus Pride 3)

“Come on, it’s dumb ‘o’ clock in the morning, I’m tired, and Havana won’t like it if you kill him.”

His snarl said, “Not giving a fuck.”

“Okay, well I’m not gonna like it if you kill him. Does that count?”

There was a long moment of silence, and a minute amount of tension slipped from his bunched muscles.

If he was anyone else, she’d have spoken to him in a soothing voice. But that would only annoy the beast—he was weird like that. “Tick, fucking, tock, Sabretooth. I’m too tired for this shit. Now let’s go.”

The tiger grunted. His head swung toward Tim, and the beast gave him another snarl. Only then did he turn and begin padding toward Aspen.

She let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

His low growl was all “what-the-fuck-ever.” Seriously. Just. Rude. He rubbed his body against her leg, pinning Luke with a hard gaze.

She shot the Beta a quick smile. “A bag of delight, isn’t he?”

The beast bared his teeth at her again, but it was a lazy movement that lacked any aggression.

She walked back into the complex with the tiger loping beside her. The awkward fucker refused to get in the elevator, so they took the stairs. Reaching their floor, he positioned himself in front of her as they strolled down the hallway. He halted outside her apartment and waited while she unlocked the door. Instead of then heading to his own apartment, he forged his way inside hers.

“You don’t live here, remember.”

He didn’t respond other than to start rubbing against her furniture.

She sighed. “Fine. Take the couch or sleep in the spare room. I’m going back to bed. See you in the morning.” She retreated to her bedroom, shed her shoes and jeans, and then collapsed onto the mattress … just as the tiger sauntered inside.

She groaned when he leapt onto the bed and settled at her side. “No, you take up too much space. And you snore.”

He let out a yawn and closed his eyes.

Stubborn motherfucker. “Just don’t shove me off the bed again.”

When Aspen woke to the beeping of her alarm, light was creeping around the edges of her blackout blind. She was alone. Scratch that. She was alone in bed. But she could hear someone bustling around the apartment, and she didn’t doubt that it was Camden.

Switching off her alarm, she let out a long breath. He came here most mornings, just as he often turned up in the evenings. Basically, he spent most of his time here, invading her space like it was his right. It was all part of him not liking that they didn’t live together anymore.

If she was honest, it didn’t work too well for her either. She missed having him around all the time. But it was better this way. Because the truth was that her feelings for Camden weren’t entirely platonic anymore. Yep, she’d gone and stupidly fallen for her best friend. As you do.

For him, their being roommates had been fun. For her, it had meant more. It had given her a little too much pleasure.

It was when they hit their teens that she developed a little crush on him. She’d thought it would pass, but it had only intensified as time went on. If it had been purely sexual, she could have tuned it out. But this complex, remote, wounded male had wrapped himself around her heart. She’d tried shoving down her feelings for him over and over, but they just kept bubbling back up.

She’d never acted on how much she wanted him. Never would. Not only because he was likely to reject her, but because sex between them would mean nothing to him anyway.

Sex was never complicated for Camden. He didn’t think of it as intimacy. It was merely a physical release. Like exercising.

If they were to sleep together, he’d easily carry on as if it never happened. Aspen wouldn’t be able to do that, because it would mean something to her. Not that she believed she’d ever find herself in that position. He’d never given her any indication that he regarded her as anything other than a friend.

Sometimes, she could swear that there was a simmering undercurrent of … something between them. Something not whatsoever platonic. But that was wishful thinking on her part. In all the years they’d hung out, shot the shit, and engaged in harmless light flirtation, they’d never crossed any lines.

Honestly, she didn’t think he was all that attracted to women. He claimed to be bi, but his partners were typically male. He’d only ever had a couple of one-night stands with women, and that was back when they were teens.

Still, his boyfriends often didn’t like how close he was to Aspen. They’d liked it a lot less when she’d lived with him, so there’d been times when they’d given her grief. That had immediately led to Camden scraping them off.