Hunter stood up and closed the distance between us. “You only think that from the neck up.”
“Well, that’s the part that makes the decisions.” I didn’t want to insult Hunter, but my stomach was really rebelling now, telling me in the most visceral way possible that he was not the one.
“Or maybe not,” said Hunter, reaching down to cup my crotch.
“Stop it, Hunter, I said no!” Acting on instinct, I shoved him so hard that he bounced off the dresser, upsetting an oil lamp.
“Oh, crap,” I said, but managed to catch the lamp and set it right before anything caught on fire. From atop her perch, Ladyhawke flapped and gave an angry squawk. I wondered if, in a pinch, she might actually come to my defense.
“Jesus, woman, what is wrong with you?” Hunter raked one hand through his floppy brown hair, a gesture I had once adored.
I crossed my hands over my chest, trying to breathe through the cramping in my stomach. “You had a fight with Magda, didn’t you? That’s why you were wandering around out here. What did you think, I’d take you back?”
“I figured you sort of owed me, since in a sense it was partially your fault.” The trace of a British accent was back in Hunter’s voice. At one time, I thought it was a remnant of the time he’d spent in England as a teenager. These days, I felt pretty sure it was an affectation, since it seemed to come and go.
“All right, that’s it,” I said. “Time for you,” I poked him in the chest, “to go.” I pointed at the door.
“You didn’t ask me to explain,” Hunter murmured, curling his fingers around my hand and pulling me against his chest.
“There is no explanation! Hunter, your problems with your girlfriend have nothing to do with me. You left me, remember?” Using both hands, I started to push him toward the door.
Hunter braced his legs. “Not true, strictly speaking.”
“Fine, I left you after I learned that you’d been screwing Magda and the cute barmaid from Moondoggie’s.”
Hunter shook his head, looking bemused. “You know, I don’t understand your attitude about that. Magda doesn’t care about my little dalliances.”
“Congratulations. You’re soul mates. Wouldn’t want to keep you apart.” I reached for the door handle.
“She’s jealous of you, though.” He said it seductively, as if he were offering me a compliment.
“Not my problem, Hunter. Although I’d appreciate it if you let her know it’s not me standing in the way of a divorce.”
Hunter’s eyes, which had begun to lighten and subtly alter shape, suddenly went dark and human. “Don’t you have any regrets, Abra? We’ve been through so much together. And when you were pregnant …”
“When we thought I was pregnant, you refused to touch me because you were busy screwing Magda on the sly.”
Hunter put his hand on my shoulder. “Only because I didn’t want to hurt you, or the baby, Abs. Don’t you ever think, if only our transition had occurred a little closer together … or, hell, maybe even if they’d been further apart …” his voice trailed off.
“What I think is that if you hadn’t become a werewolf, I might never have noticed what a pig you really are.” I opened the door, and snow swirled in. It was almost a blizzard, but Hunter could handle that. “Now, I want you to leave.”
“Like this?” He indicated the flimsy protection of Red’s open flannel shirt, the trickle of blood from the wound on his arm, the snow piling up in the gap of the open door. Crap. He must have reopened the cut when he bounced off the wall. Then I realized how I was being played.
“Nice try. Just step outside and take off your pants—you’ll heal when you shift. And you’re not going to freeze when you’ve got your fur coat on.”
Hunter’s eyes remained fixed on mine: a challenge. “Suppose I say I don’t want to?”
We stood there for a moment, at an impasse. Snow blew into my eyes, but I didn’t want to close the door. Hunter had his stubborn face on, and I didn’t know how to convince him to leave. If we had been in wolf form, then the differences in our size and strength would not have been as great.
And with that thought, the balance of power shifted. I don’t know what Hunter had seen in my face, but he suddenly reached out and grabbed my hair in a thick bunch at the back