“I need to take a shower,” he said, his voice thick and hoarse, sending vibrations up and down my body.
“You need to give me answers first,” I forced myself to say. He walked around the bed slowly, and I felt so small sitting in the armchair while he towered over me. But I raised my head and held his eyes still, no matter what my body felt like.
“Teddybear,” he growled.
“Don’tcall me that,” I said through gritted teeth. He had no right. Not after everything. “This is my case, Dominic. It’s my job and it’s important to me. You’ve forced me to lie to the ODP for the second time now, and I have the right to know why I’m doing it, at least.”
With a sigh, he sat on his bed, and I breathed a bit easier. Screw how much he intimidated me and turned me on—I was still going to say to him exactly what I came here to say.
“It’s complicated,” he said, lowering his head for a minute.
“Then explain it to me.”
Rubbing his face with his hands, he shook his head but still didn’t say anything. That was okay—I had time. I’d wait till nightfall if that was what it took, but I wasn’t leaving without answers.
“Dominic,” I said, and his head immediately rose, his eyes on mine. And once again, he looked so confused, like he’d forgotten I was even there. He searched every inch of my face slowly, and every new second, he seemed more in awe. I’d lie if I said I didn’t like it when he looked at me—I did. But this wasn’t what I was here for…was it? I didn’t care how he looked at me, how I reacted to him, how many times I dreamed about him.
I didn’t care…
“You saw me.” The words slipped from my mouth even before I realized it. “You saw me at the office that day. I was right there. You didn’t talk to me. You didn’t even look at me.”
My God, what was I doing?Thiswas not why I came here, damn it! My job, my case—that’s what I needed to focus on.
He narrowed his brows, and the look of sorry in his eyes had my gut twisting. I didn’t need his freaking sorry.
“I know you’re mad,” he whispered.Whispered—almost like he was afraid to use his voice. And it just pissed me off even more.
“I am not mad.” Maybe I had been, but I wasn’t anymore. Not about that. “And I don’t need your sorry. I just want a damn answer.”
“An answer isn’t going to change anything,” he said, and he was starting to get angry, too.
I raised my chin. “I don’t want to change anything. I just want to know why.”
“Because it hurts,” he spit, almost involuntarily. “It fucking hurts, Teddy. And I can take the pain. I can takeanypain, but pain makes keeping control very hard.”
I shook my head because he still wasn’t making sense to me. “What hurts? Your wolf?”
He flinched—enough of an answer for me. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to be close to you?”
My mouth was suddenly dry.
“You want answers—I can’t give them to you because I don’t have them myself yet.”
He stood up. I wanted to say something,beghim to just tell me what he was thinking, but I couldn’t make a single sound.
“I need a shower. Wait for me downstairs. We’ll talk more.” And he walked out of the room without another look my way, leaving me all alone and more confused than ever.
ChapterSix
The backyard was small,barely enough space for a table, some wooden chairs, and about five feet of freshly mowed grass before the buildings on either side isolated the entire space. I sat in one of the chairs between Derek and Emilie, who was apparently on a break from her teacher, whoever he was. She was so focused on combing and braiding the hair on her Anna doll, it was like she existed in a bubble of her own, and the more time passed, and the more Derek’s knees tapped against the underside of the table, the more nervous I got. It had barely been ten minutes, but it felt like hours to me.
I shouldn’t be here.
“Hey, little monster.”
Dominic’s voice made my heart skip a beat no matter how hard I’d tried to force myself intonotreacting at all when he came out here. My body did whatever the hell it wanted, and it didn’t care if it was fair or not.
“Dominic!” Emilie cried, dropping her doll on the table before she ran into his open arms with a huge smile that transformed her face completely. Dominic caught her in the air and spun her around twice before he hugged her, smiling, too. A real smile, one I’dneverseen on him before, and it made him look like a completely different man.