He watched her from beneath that curtain of damp black hair but made no other move. He might not have been able to. Coming face to face with him drove in just how long he’d spent outside. Mud streaked him from head to toe. Beneath his usual scent, he reeked of sweat and musk—though Loren found herself breathing in the primal scent, anyway. It meant he was really here. She wasn’t dreaming.
“Go back to sleep,” he told her, moving to get up. “I’ll sleep on the couch—”
“No.” She beat him to it, lurching upright first. “If anyone needs the sleep, you do. I’ll go downstairs.”
She tugged the sheets from her legs and scrambled to the edge of the bed. The second her feet hit the floor, he was already dragging her back by the wrist. In one smooth motion, he maneuvered her onto her side, with her back facing him.
“If I left,” he began, applying just enough pressure to keep her pinned, “would you stay?”
Loren didn’t have to think it over. “This isyourbed—”
“Thought so,” he said, cutting her off. He held her down for so long her arm started to go numb. Then…with another sigh, he released her.
“Fine.” The mattress groaned beneath his weight, and Loren turned, expecting to find him slipping through the door. Instead, he faced her with his head resting on the pillow. One eye was fully open while the other drifted shut.
“I don’t have the energy to compel you,” he said. Compel? It was a strange word. Did he mean order her? That made sense—he looked barely capable of carrying on a conversation without passing out.
“Though,” he added, “I doubt that you would listen anyway.”
Something in his tone made a part of her flare in agreement—Damn right.
He raised an eyebrow, appearing to read her mind. “Well, then, it seems we’re at an impasse.”
He lifted his arm and made a“do as you wish”motionwith his hand. Then he closed his other eye—but Loren wasn’t fooled. His posture was way too tense.
When she laid down with her back to him, she half-expected him to crash through the mattress like a lead weight. For a few seconds, he went silent, presumably asleep.
“You could have slept here last night,” he said finally, dropping the charade. “You didn’t have to stay downstairs.”
She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I wanted to wait up. In case…”
“In case what?”
“In case those men came back.”
He exhaled heavily. A heartbeat later, his voice dripped directly into her ear—he’d shuffled even closer. “You know that I would never let anyone hurt you. Don’t you?”
The heat in his tone threw her off. Made her shudder, even as one question burned through her mind.Why?
The way he protected her seemed more than just out of duty.Morethan him being a concerned citizen aiming to get his good deed in for the day.
You don’t track a stranger for five hours for the hell of it, she thought. Not only that… But, no one would kill for someone else on a whim.
He went silent for so long Loren figured he might have fallen asleep for real. But, no—his heartbeat pulsed so loudly she could hear it.
Thump…thump…thump.
“I’ll make you a deal,” he said, proving her right. “Give me three days. Three days with no questions. Three days where youlistento me—” He sighed again, so deeply that the warmth was like a blowtorch against her shoulder. “And then I’ll tell you everything.”
“There’s more.” It wasn’t really a question.
There were a million subjects she wanted to ask about. Lycans. Questioned paternity. Having her entire world turned upside down, on its head. When stated plainly, it almost seemed doubtful he could adequately answer them all.
“There’s more,” he admitted. “But if you trust me, and give me those three days… There won’t be anything else that I haven’t told you. I promise you that much.”
His grim tone didn’t make it sound like such a prize—I’ll tell you—but it’s bad, and you won’t like it.Still, it was better than nothing.
“Three days.” She mulled it over, wondering what else she had to lose. “Okay. But you can’t order me to leave—especially not there.”