Chapter 25

I paused, turning toward the door.

I looked down at my body. I was wearing a satin set of pajamas, short shorts on the bottom and camisole top. In blood red. I wondered if I should change, or at least throw a cardigan over the top. I looked toward the door, where I’d hung an oversized sweatshirt on a hook by the door.

I didn’t put it on.

I walked slowly toward the door, smoothing my now-loose hair behind my ears. I opened the door, my heart beating so loudly I could have sworn it was audible.

It was Hunter.

His face was flushed, almost panicked. What was he doing here? I was surprised too that he was away from Maya on a night like this, given her mood earlier. She’d seemed to need him.

And it seemed to me that the draw of her need was too much for him to resist.

There must be something going on.

I didn’t speak, but stepped aside slightly so he could enter the room.

He walked in quickly, striding the length of the room in three large steps and turning to face me.

I slowly closed the door behind us.

Had something awful happened after I’d left the event? Something big with the pack? Another attack, maybe?

“You made quite the scene tonight,” he spat.

What on earth was he talking about? Tripping and being caught by Adrian could hardly be considered a “scene,” nor could innocently leaving the party at the same time.

“What are you—?” I started, but he interrupted me immediately.

“I guess seeing Adrian reunited old feelings, did it? Everyone noticed what you two were like together.”

I felt my mouth fall open, unable to hide my disbelief. I’d been upset, I knew that, but I was sober and sane. There was absolutely no way anyone thought my interactions with Adrian had been inappropriate.

Except for Hunter.

“I know you two have a history, but I thought you had more dignity than to act like that at such an important pack event.”

I blinked, struggling to believe that he was being so unreasonable. My very slight history with Adrian had always been a slightly source of tension between Hunter and I. But like I’d observed earlier, tonight was a huge departure from what the tone of that tension usually was.

I’d never seen him speak to Adrian the way he did tonight.

And he’d never been so animated or angry about my past with Adrian as he was being right now.

Or so completely unreasonable.

I stepped toward him, gesturing angrily with both arms.

I was furious. At him for accusing me of being anything other than a consummate professional. At the insinuation that my actions had affected the overall impression of the event. I was so angry that he’d followed me to my room.

And at the fact that he was right.

He was wrong about everything that had anything to do with the event and other people’s opinions, but he was right at my feelings for Adrian reserving the moment I saw him.

But why exactly did he think he was allowed to comment on it after how he’d been behaving with Maya?

I couldn’t help but erupt at him when that thought occurred to me.

“How on earth are you accusing me of being inappropriate or making a scene. What about what you were like when Maya swore her oath? Or her hand on your arm all night? Or for that matter, what you’ve been like since she arrived?”

“She’s my fated—”

“Don’t start with me about the fated mate excuse. I don’t care if there’s some bullshit werewolf magic that’s making you act like this or not. You’ve been acting like it. And everyone is aware of it, has been gossiping about—”

He stepped closer to me.

His eyes had that glow behind them. He couldn’t be serious.

But I’d seen his anger give way to lust before.

I felt a tug in my lower abdomen, a warmth between my legs.

It was infuriating and dizzying. I was so angry with him, and I’d originally started to feel aroused at Adrian.

But as much as I wanted to kill Hunter at the moment, I also wanted him.

“It looked inappropriate to me,” he said, more quietly than he’d spoken since knocking on the door. “The way he was looking at you. The way you were looking at him. Like you wanted to—”

His hand shot between my legs. I gasped. He made intense eye contact with me as his palm brushed the inside of my thigh, finding its way inside the inseam of my shorts and against me.

“See?” Hunter whispered. “You’re wet for him.” His eyes were desperate, flickering between anger and desire.

I had a feeling their expression was mirrored in my own.

I wasn’t going to turn him away. After the exhaustion of the day and my fraught interactions with Adrian. And after watching Hunter with Maya and aching for him to be mine again, and with all the stress and the surges of hormones in my body. I needed this.

But if I was going to have him, it was going to be on my terms.

I put my hands on his shoulders. He started to wrap his hands around my waist and step closer, but I pressed down, hard.

He blinked as he realized I was instructing him to kneel in front of me.

But he knelt down and looked up.

I reached across to the desk and pulled the rolling chair a few feet closer, propping my left leg on it and moving the satin at my crotch aside.

I looked down at him, raising my eyebrows.

His eyes blazed again.

He nipped gently at the skin just above my knee, then trailed his way up my inner thigh to rest between my legs. He licked hesitantly, and I moved his mouth where I wanted it.

He slowed the pace, and I instructed him to go faster.

When his tongue veered from the place that was driving me to the edge of orgasm, I grabbed a clump of his hair and redirected him where I needed it.

I’d never been like this before: in bed or in any of our interactions.

There was something about being this assertive with him. I came, knees weakening and body relaxing. I ground against the stubble on his chin as I finished.

But when he moved to stand up, I pushed him down again.

By the time I finally let him thrust into me, sprawled sideways on the office chair, I’d come three times, and he was gritting his teeth to keep from finishing too quickly.

I held back each time he was close, postponing his pleasure and enjoying the feeling of control over him.

He didn’t move for a few minutes after we finished, finally opening his eyes and blinking at me.

“Why was Adrian here tonight? And did you snap back to where you were years ago?”

“I don’t know. And I wasn’t affected by it. We were never anywhere either, as you well know.”

“Well, I do remember you being humiliated by him in the end the last time you pursued him,” he spat bitterly.

“Get out,” I said quietly, anger brimming to the surface again.