When He's Sinful (The Olympus Pride 3)

“So …” Camden set his mug back on the table. “Are you moving in here, or am I moving in with you?”

Aspen felt her body go rigid. And, going by the upward flick of his eyebrow, he hadn’t failed to notice.

“You said you wouldn’t ask me to leave you alone at night when you know I’d worry that you weren’t safe.”

Yeah, but that was before he’d taken her against a damn wall. The thought of temporarily sharing an apartment with him again hadn’t seemed like such a huge deal before that. But now that they’d slept together … well, now nothing. It had no bearing on anything, did it? He was her friend, he wanted to be sure she was safe, and she wasn’t going to act all weird simply because they’d done the dirty.

Plus, if she gave him excuses, he’d suspect that last night meant far more to her than it ever could have meant to him. That would not be good for a number of reasons.

He smoothly rose from his chair, dumped his mug in the sink, and then prowled toward her as fluid as any tiger. “Well, which of us is moving?” There was a dare in his voice. A dare for her to not be difficult about this; to simply let it happen.

Silently berating her pulse for spiking at his nearness, she said, “I’ll move in here until all this is over.” She’d prefer to stay in her own apartment. But if she let him move into her place, it’d be a nightmare to get him back out.

“All right. We’ll move your things into my spare room later. Including your bed and any other furniture you need.”

“Okay. Sounds good.”

What sounded “good” to Camden was taking her mouth again, but he kept that to himself. He inhaled deeply … and got a lungful of her delectable scent. The sensory memory of it spiced with arousal slammed into him. His dick twitched, and a mental image of her naked while he caged her against the wall flashed to the forefront of his mind.

He was good at deception—he’d had to be in order to blend in as a child and seem “normal.” So Aspen probably had no idea that he was presently wrestling with some very dark demons. Demons that tried driving him to seduce her and weaken her resolve to keep sex off the table.

With all the current shit going on in her life, the last thing she needed was one of the people she most trusted and relied on to beat at her defenses. She needed to feel safe, supported, alert. But when it came to Aspen, he could be a selfish bastard—hence why he’d prefer to keep her all to himself—so the dark heart of him saw no need to hold back.

His cat would be fully in support of Camden’s inner demons if the beast didn’t agree with him that it was important for her to be vigilant right now, not distracted by other things. But Camden knew that once the danger had passed and she was safe, his tiger would again be pushing him to seduce her.

Camden also knew he wouldn’t fight his beast on it. He wouldn’t lie to himself about that.

His cat had been edgy since she entered the kitchen acting a little too blasé for the animal’s liking, but he’d settled a little on hearing that she’d be living here as of later today. The beast liked that she’d be in his domain, he felt that it was where she belonged.

Camden found his gaze dropping to the marks on her neck again. They brought both him and his cat far too much pleasure, as did the fact that her efforts to conceal them hadn’t worked well.

Any other male who thought to touch her would notice the brands. They would feel encouraged to stay away from her. That suited Camden just fine. It was part of that whole being a selfish bastard when it came to her.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone it was you who bit me,” she said, her voice toneless, clearly misunderstanding why he’d been staring at the brands once more.

He frowned at her. “I could give less of a fuck that people know I marked you.”

Her lips parted in surprise. “If they realize it was you, they’ll know it was likely that we had sex.”

“And?”

“And people may misread the situation.”

“Again, I could give less of a fuck.”

Aspen could only stare at him. He obviously hadn’t thought this through, which wasn’t like him. He always considered every element of a situation.

“Do you not realize how uncomfortable around me your future bed-buddies will be when they hear we’ve slept together?” she asked. “It was bad enough for you when we hadn’t. They were often still pretty paranoid.”

Narrowing his eyes, he slanted his head. “Is that really what bothers you, or is it the idea that your future partners wouldn’t like hearing about it?”