haven’t been putting my best steel toe forward. But I’m trying.”
For you.
There was a moment when he thought she’d accept his invitation, but then her frown turned regretful. “I can’t tonight. I promised Ava we’d have our first official dinner together, and she wants to make something special. You’re welcome to stay.”
He had a feeling strategic retreat was the only way forward, no matter how much he wanted to stick to her side or how desperate he was to touch her. He was playing a longer game now, one with confusing rules and a possible extra player.
That didn’t mean he couldn’t give her something to think about.
“I’ll leave you to it tonight. Davide will need some hand holding after his encounters with the beyond, and you need time to reconsider me.”
Cam dragged her back into his arms and brushed his lips lightly over hers. Asking. “One kiss,” he said, praying she’d give him that much. “Please, Bailey.”
Her “Yes” was an exhalation anyone else would have missed, but he heard it and took immediate advantage, ducking his knees and bringing her up on her toes so he could reach her mouth.
The first taste sent a shot of pure adrenaline and lust through his veins. Fuck, she tasted like sunlight and life and Davide. He wanted to claim and consume more than he wanted his next breath, but he let her come to him, his mouth open and his tongue teasing hers. Inviting her in.
The wolf who’d been straining at his leash was patient now, wanting to gentle her. To give her this small submission to make up for what he’d be taking in return when she accepted what a true mating entailed.
Her arms were around his neck, her full breasts rubbing against his chest, making him moan. She was his and all he wanted in the world was this. Just this. Touch Bailey. Kiss Bailey.
Bailey. Bailey. Bailey.
Only the memory of what he’d seen on his lover’s face, and the way she’d backed away from him, doubting, allowed him to finally let her go.
“Tomorrow,” he promised against her mouth, turning to leave before he could change his mind.
Davide was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs, half a sandwich in his hand.
“Ready for that talk now?” Cam asked, putting a firm hand on the small of his back and guiding him toward the door before he could answer.
“See ya, Davide!” Mr. Olyphant shouted from the kitchen doorway. “I’ll be ready with that EMF detector when you get back. Ava’s showing me how to order it online.”
Davide waved back at him and Cam walked faster. “You aren’t—”
“No, of course not. He’s bored, that’s all.”
Cam steered them toward the car he’d borrowed from Bunny. “And what was today about?”
“Not what I expected. At all.”
“It’s not possible.”
“You think I don’t know that? How did the call go this morning?”
“It didn’t cover this.”
“I didn’t think it would. Which is why we need to call in one of those favors they owe you in Colorado.” Davide glanced back at the inn, his expression of yearning impossible to hide. “As soon as possible.”
Cam had been thinking the same thing. The Colorado alphas had been through multiple land disputes over the years that he’d resolved for them with a few monetary transactions, lawyers who knew their loopholes, and large amounts of paperwork. The packs might not like his methods, but he got the job done.
Right now, those decisions were looking like a damn good investment. The shifters in Colorado were the official record keepers of his kind, accumulating centuries of information about everything from births and deaths to pack laws and wars. If there were answers to be had regarding this inexplicable connection between Cam, Davide and Bailey, they were in Colorado.
“Hell. I didn’t want to get on a plane again for a while.”
He didn’t want to leave Bailey even for a day. But they needed answers and time was not on their side. How the hell could two different shifters be mated to the same human?
Chapter Seven
Don’t you love her madly?
Want to be her daddy?
“Five more minutes, Jim Morrison,” Bailey groaned into her pillow.
When the Doors lead singer wouldn’t stop crooning, she reached out blindly for the phone blaring from her bedside table.
“Hello?” she mumbled.
“Did I wake you?”
That voice. Bailey pressed her hips into the mattress reflexively, still half asleep and half aroused from the dreams she’d been having all night about Cam and Davide. “Whattimeisit?”
Cam laughed and she bit her lip to hold in her