Chapter 104

Ava

When Chris finally set me back on my feet, I was too dumbfounded to speak. Here, in front of the flashing cameras and chanting paparazzi, he had… kissed me? Publicly? To be spread all over the media?

I felt like a puppet in his arms at that moment. Even when he finally ushered me inside and away from the cameras, I couldn’t seem to let go of my anger.

“Are you okay?” he asked as we approached the front desk to check in. “I know it—”

“We’ll talk later,” I all but hissed, snapping my gaze over to him. “Once we’re alone.”

Chris seemed to get the hint and nodded, striding up to the front desk. A few minutes later, he was returning to me with two separate sets of room cards in his hand. He handed one to me.

“We’re booked right next door to each other,” he said with a wink.

I was still silent as we made our way over to the elevator. In fact, I remained silent throughout the entire elevator ride, and still didn’t utter a word as we made our way to our rooms. I only dared to speak once we had walked into Chris’s room to check out the space and the door had firmly shut behind us.

“What the hell was that?” I asked, dropping my bag on the carpeted floor with a dull thump. “Kissing me in front of all those cameras?”

Chris slowly turned to face me. There was that infuriatingly handsome smile on his features—but right now, unlike usual, I found myself being more angry about it than enthralled by it.

“It’ll be fine,” he said gently as he placed his bag on the chair beneath the window. “You know that human media doesn’t really make it to the werewolf continent.”

I bristled at his casual response and stormed up to him, placing my hands on my hips. Tilting my chin up at him, I bit out, “I think things are a little different when it involves a pack Alpha and a potential scandal.”

Chris was silent for a moment, his jaw clenching and unclenching beneath his skin as he seemed to grapple with what to say next. Finally, he let out a deep breath. “If it comes to that, I’ll handle it. Nothing bad will happen.”

“You say that like you know for certain,” I scolded. “You’re too brazen, Chris. It’s going to come back to bite you in the ass one of these days.”

“Look.” Chris gently took my hands in his and led me over to the bed, sitting on the edge. I hesitated for a moment before letting him draw me closer so that I was standing between his knees.

“I’m looking,” I growled.

Chris chuckled at my ire and reached into his pocket, fishing something out. A moment later, he pressed a small gift box into my hand. “Here. I snuck away while you were trying on that dress in the shop earlier and bought you this. I was going to wait until tonight to give it to you, but…”

Frowning, I took the box and turned it over in my hand. “Quit trying to butter me up with gifts. You know I don’t like it.”

“Just open it, will you?”

With a sigh, I finally complied, although I shot him a withering glare down the bridge of my nose. I carefully unwrapped the small box and popped it open, my breath catching in my throat—it was just a simple cord necklace with a silver charm in the shape of a hand holding a rose, but I loved it already.

“I know it’s just a silly little trinket,” he said with a wave of his hand. “But if it’ll make you any less angry at me…”

I shook my head and set the box down, reaching out to run my hand through his hair. “Thank you,” I said softly. “I do appreciate it, but…”

My voice trailed off, my words catching in my throat. Part of me wanted to tell him now—to rip off the bandaid, to finally reveal what Degas had warned me about. To reveal that I thought that maybe, just maybe, it would be the best to say goodbye on good terms now and look back on these past weeks together with fondness as a sweet fling.

But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. All I could do was look away, clenching my jaw.

Suddenly, I felt his cool hands on my neck as the cord of the necklace settled against my skin. My hand fluttered up to touch the pendant as he quietly fastened it behind me.

“You’re impossible,” I whispered.

Chris huffed and finished clasping the necklace. His fingers then trailed down the nape of my neck, causing me to shiver, and then went further—down my spine, toward the small of my back. And then they were wandering around my waist as his lips trailed the gentlest kisses along my shoulder.

“Forgive me, Ava,” he murmured softly in between each kiss. “I just get so excited about showing you off after all these years. I wasn’t thinking. I can never think clearly around you.”

I swallowed as I felt one of his hands circle around me, his fingers traveling over my belly through my dress. They came to rest on my thigh, and I felt them slowly gather up the fabric of my dress until he could slip his hand beneath it, tentatively snaking his fingertips toward the line of my panties.

A soft breath escaped me. I arched back into him, feeling him nip at the soft skin of my neck, as my eyes fluttered closed. Something warm and hard pressed into my back, and I couldn’t seem to contain the soft moan that slipped out of me as he began rubbing slow circles over the top of my panties, no matter how hard I bit into my lower lip.

For a moment, just a moment, I allowed myself to fantasize—laying down on the bed together, moving together beneath the sheets. I wanted that, really, even though it was that time of month. More than anything, really.

No. Not more than anything.

More than anything, I wanted our land—our people—to be safe.

“Do what’s right,” Degas had said. This wasn’t right.

Gently, I pulled his hand away and turned in his arms. I pressed my fingers into his chest, letting them linger there for a moment to feel the heat of his skin and the thrum of his heartbeat before I stepped away.

“I’m on my period,” I said, grateful for the excuse.

Chris paused for a moment, his lips parted a bit, and then nodded. “Of course. I don’t want you to be in any pain or discomfort.”

I swallowed and took another step back, gathering my bag and gesturing to the door. “I’m gonna head to my room for a bath.” Chris moved to follow me, but I stopped him. “Alone.”

For a moment, Chris blinked at me in mild surprise. But then he nodded again and sat down on the edge of the bed. “I understand,” he said, then paused, that smirk of his slowly returning. “Just be ready by two o’clock. I made a lunch reservation for us.”

With that, I turned on my heel and left. My hotel room was exactly the same as his, only opposite—with the heads of our large king-sized beds situated on opposite sides of the same wall. We’d be sleeping like that tonight, I supposed. So close, yet so far away.

As I sank into the hot, fragrant bath a little while later, I reached up to touch the small silver pendant around my neck.

How the hell could I survive once I broke up with him?