“Our mates will simply have to deal with it.” He took the hand his cat had nipped. “Assuming I actually take a mate, that is.”
She frowned. “Why wouldn’t you?”
He gave her an odd look. “You really think I have it in me to form a mating bond with someone?”
“Yes. Wait, you don’t?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think I feel things strongly enough to spark a metaphysical bond to form.”
“You don’t know that. Besides, what you feel for your mate will be stronger than what you feel for anyone else—that’s how it works. You think you’re not good at bonding with people but, let’s be honest, you don’t ever try to connect with others. If you did, maybe it would happen.”
“Maybe,” he agreed, but it didn’t seem as though he particularly cared either way. “You can’t lecture me about not letting people close. You’re no better at that. But you let me close,” he added a little smugly, breezing his thumb over the faint mark on the heel of her hand.
Glaring at said mark, she felt her lips thin. “That was the thanks I got for petting your cat for over an hour: A hard bite.”
Camden’s brow creased. “That wasn’t hard. This is a hard bite.” He sank his teeth into the same spot his cat marked.
“Ow!” She tried snatching back her hand but he held tight. “Bad kitty.” She used her free hand to lightly slap his head.
His eyes dancing, he laved the bite with his tongue. “Such a big baby.”
She huffed. “Well, this big baby needs to use the bathroom, so you’ll have to get up.”
Sighing, he stood. And she found herself looking right at his cock. She told herself to look away but, hell, it was right there. And it had just twitched.
“Babe, my face is up here.”
“Yes, it is. But it’s not near as much fun to look at.” Rising, she shook her head. “I do not know how you’re single.” She turned toward the bathroom.
He swatted her ass and snatched his jeans from the floor. “Stop objectifying me, you know I’m shy.”
She snorted. “Shy. Right. And leave my butt alone—you slap it too often.”
“But it’s just so very slapable.”
“So is your face.”
“You said it was rugged.”
“I lied.” Her stomach went all fluttery when one corner of his mouth tipped up ever so slightly.
He fastened his fly. “Still mad I bit you, huh?”
“Uh, ya think?”
“Careful. You know it makes me hot when you bare your teeth like that.”
She threw up her hands. “I’m going to the bathroom. I suggest you be gone by the time I come back.”
But when she returned, it was to find him sitting on her sofa scowling at Return of the Living Dead. And since she hadn’t yet given up on making him a zombie movie fan, she sat beside him and watched it with him.
Holding her bag of groceries against her chest the next day, Aspen pressed the up button for the elevator of her complex. She had a few hours before she’d need to begin getting ready for her night out at the Tavern. She planned to use the time to run a few errands, since Havana was presently at home with Tate and didn’t need guarding.
The elevator doors slid open. None other than Aimee stepped out. Ugh.
The female would usually sniff at Aspen and skirt around her. Today, though, Aimee blocked her path and quivered her upper lip. Um, what? And then Aspen remembered … Grant was Aimee’s cousin.
Her bearcat wanted to claw that sneer right off the feline’s face. Aimee had not only once tried to jump Havana, she’d made a move on Camden. In. Front. Of. Aspen. Yep, the cat had danced her fingers up his arm, invited him to follow her home from the Tavern, and promised to spend the night fucking his brains out.
Watching people come onto the man she loved always hit Aspen where it hurt. How could it not? It was hard enough when guys did it. Seeing women hit on him, seeing them flirt with and touch him, always made Aspen see red.
He’d never actually accepted a sexual invitation in front of her, which helped. She suspected her bearcat would have clawed his face if he had—the animal wasn’t entirely rational when it came to him.
He’d coldly rebuffed Aimee, but she hadn’t given up. No, on another night she’d followed him to the bar and offered to give him a blowjob. Bailey had overheard her and a little too loudly asked, “Did you really just offer to suck Camden’s dick in the stock room?” Many had swerved in their seats and stared, causing Aimee to flush and storm out of the Tavern.
One would think that she’d quit that crap. Instead, she’d hit on him twice more since then. So Aspen couldn’t help that the smile she flashed her was somewhat cold. “Aimee.”