The Return (Titan 1)

“They’re on the house, honey,” the lady said behind the counter. “Take as many as you want.” She winked. “I would if I was you.”

Oh my God.

As if it was a tiny pit viper, I dropped the condom back in the basket, folded my arms, and refused to touch anything else in this place.

Seth turned back to the lady and he got a room key. Oddly, I didn’t see him pull out any identification or money before he came to where I waited. “Did you get enough condoms, honey?”

“Shut up,” I hissed, storming out the door he so gallantly opened for me. “Did you pay her?” I asked once we were both outside.

He laughed. “No. That’s the cool thing about compulsions. Get a lot of free stuff. Like that sweet Porsche.”

I tripped over my feet. “That’s so…so wrong.”

“You’re just jealous you can’t do it yet.”

Okay. Maybe I was a little jealous. I followed him past several doors, and we ended up at the very last one that was next to a field and a thick grove of trees. I bet he’d made sure he’d gotten this room for some ninja reason. When the door opened, I was relieved to see this wasn’t a honeymoon suite.

Carrying the same theme from the lobby, it was all kinds of country up in the room. Baskets. Wooden ladders covered in vine and berries. A pumpkin-spice scent greeted us.

There was one bed.

Not even a big one.

Or even a couch.

I whirled around. “There’s only one bed.”

“Yeah,” he replied, turning to the door. “There was only one last night and we made it work. Well, you turned me into a full-length body pillow, but it worked.”

Oh geez. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before I reopened them. “This isn’t acceptable. We need two beds.”

“It’ll be fine. Stay in here. I’m going to get our bags.”

Then he was gone, and I stomped my foot. Once. And then twice, like a five-year-old, but I didn’t care how stupid it was. I couldn’t sleep in the same bed with him again, because apparently I was a cuddler, and I was so not going to do that a second time.

My gaze drifted over the cozy room. There was a narrow door to a bathroom that looked nothing like the one from Seth’s hotel room. And there was another with a small window beside a dresser. I walked over to it, peeled back the burgundy curtain, and spied a small deck with privacy walls.

Hearing the front door open, I twisted back around. Seth came in, dropping his stuffed bag on the floor and the three bags Erin had packed for me on the bed. I waited for him to make some kind of snarky comment, but he didn’t. All he did was turn to his bag and root around until he pulled out a pair of nylon pants. Then he disappeared into the bathroom.

I resisted the urge to bang my head against the wall and figured finding something to wear would be more productive. I opened the first bag and found a bunch of clothes. Then I moved onto the second bag that was packed full of tank tops, undies, and bras. The third bag was full of more clothes and some shoes, but nothing I could sleep in.

My heart turned over heavily. I went back to the first bag and double-checked it as my stomach started to sink.

“You’re looking a little panicked.”

I jumped at the sound of Seth’s voice. He was standing behind me, and I hadn’t even heard the door open or him come out of the bathroom. “God, how do you move so quietly?”

His lips tipped up at one corner as he tossed the clothes he’d been wearing onto the carpeted floor. “It’s an acquired skill.”

I wanted that acquired skill since I felt like I was trotting around like a three-legged mule. My gaze dipped below the neck. He was shirtless. Again. The nylon pants he wore seemed to be held to his narrow hips by some kind of act of God. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was born with awesome genes, or if he had to work for his abs like the rest of mankind.

“I like your hair down,” I blurted out, and then mentally smacked myself. I like your hair down? Who said that to a guy? But it was true. Not a lot of guys could pull off longer hair, but he did. It added a wildness to him.

Seth looked at me, head tilted to the side. He didn’t say anything, but seriously, what did one say to that? Feeling like an idiot, I turned back to the bags. My search for nightclothes was hopeless.

“I’m going to kill Erin,” I said.

He stepped closer, reaching out and running a finger over the strap of one bag. “I can get behind that, but I gotta ask why you want to kill her when you said you’d forgiven her.”

My gaze tracked his hand. “She didn’t pack anything for me to sleep in.”

“You can sleep naked,” he suggested. “I’m not going to complain. And I’ll sleep naked if it makes you feel better.”

Shoulders slumping, I sent him a dry look. “Thanks for being so accommodating and supportive.”

He chuckled as he moved to his bag. Reaching down, he pulled out a shirt. “You can sleep in this.” He tossed it to me, and I caught it before it smacked me in the face. “Or naked. Option’s yours.”

Holding up the shirt, I had to admit that it worked better than anything I had with me. I muttered a “thank you” as I dug around until I found the tiny make-up bag that had all the essential items in it. I headed into the bathroom, concentrating on getting ready for bed, tugging my hair up in a ponytail, washing my face, and brushing my teeth. I didn’t let my mind wander to anything else.

When I left the bathroom, Seth had already moved the bags to the floor and one side of the somewhat narrow bed had the covers turned over. I hesitated at the foot of the bed, nibbling nervously on my lower lip.

Seth straightened, seeming to forget what he was doing as he stared. The shirt was super-long on me, ending a few inches above my knees, virtually shapeless, but his eyes suddenly glowed a tawny color, and I felt like the shirt was skintight.

“Thanks for, um, the shirt,” I said again. My fingers twisted around the hem as I glanced around the room before settling back on him. He was still staring. “There should be stuff at my house I can get, so I won’t need to keep borrowing your clothes.”

His throat worked on a slow swallow, but he didn’t say anything as he nodded curtly. He dropped the pillow and started to turn toward the bed but stopped, eyeing me again in that wholly intense way of his. “I don’t really see females wearing my clothes often.”

For some reason that made me happy, which was stupid, because I didn’t care if an entire dorm floor wore his clothes. “Well, I don’t usually, um, wear male clothing, so…”