Page 29 of Cruel Mate

When his face came down to nuzzle the side of her neck, kissing and nibbling at her throat, she quivered.

“Layla! Are you done in there?” Zander yelled suddenly from the next room, banging on the bathroom door.

“Shit!” Layla exclaimed as she slipped backwards, leaning against nothing but empty air.

Her back hit the tiled wall of the shower painfully and she gasped as the air was knocked out of her.

“Layla, what’s going on in there? Are you alright?” Zander called again and the sound of the rattling doorknob told her she’d at least apparently had the good sense to lock the door.

“I’m fine! Don’t come in!” she yelled back at him, feeling utterly embarrassed at the fact she had been daydreaming about him again.

He had gotten under her skin far more than she realized.

“Hurry up!” he yelled. “It’s clear, but it might not stay that way.”

“I’ll be out in a second.”

Hurrying to wash off the soap, she gave her hair a quick rinse and grabbed a towel from the cabinet nearby.

Leaving the shower running, she looked at herself in the mirror, wiping away the condensation so that she could look herself in the eye and say, “Get a grip!”

Then, after giving her teeth a quick brush with the spare toothbrush she left in the cabin, noticing Zander had opened a new one from under the sink, she finally turned off the shower and headed back into the other room.

“Get dressed,” Zander ordered practically the second she appeared. “We don’t have much time. Those guys could be out there still.”

Or maybe they found my bag and what they were looking for, she thought, not daring to say the words out loud.

She crossed the room and grabbed some of her old clothes from the trunk.

“Wouldn’t we be quicker in wolf form?” she suggested as she yanked on an oversized t-shirt and some shorts. She had failed to leave any shoes the last time she stayed, so her bare feet would have to do.

“Yes, but after your injury, I wouldn’t like you using so much energy on a shift. Besides, you’ll be easier to carry in human form,” Zander responded. Layla gulped. He wasn’t even looking at her. In fact, he hadn’t looked at her since she came out of the bathroom. How was he supposed to carry her if he couldn’t look at her?

What was that all about, anyway? Was he just being a gentleman again or was it something else?

“Who said anything about carrying?” Layla blurted, her cheeks hot.

What she could see of his face grew about as red as hers felt.

“I just meant if it comes to it,” he snapped, apparently not liking the sense of embarrassment. “Let’s get going.”

Layla was all too happy to obey that order. She followed Zander from the cabin, her nose turned to the air to scent for their enemy. If they were attacked again, she didn’t want to be caught unaware. She had been shown up in front of him one too many times already.

Luckily for her, it appeared Zander was right. The coast was clear, and for much of the way back to town, they were both silent, their bare feet barely making a sound as they walked. The tension between them was palpable. It left Layla restless and irritated, especially when at every fallen tree Zander offered his hand to help her over or brushed back thick undergrowth for her to walk through, ever the gentleman.

They were just within the borders of Nightstar when Layla realized she couldn’t handle it anymore. The change in him, practically overnight, was too great, and she was fed up with waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Enough,” she snapped, stopping dead in her tracks. She closed her eyes, tightened her hands into fists at her sides and demanded, “What the hell is going on?”

Zander stopped a little further on, and she felt him looking at her. Yet she couldn’t open her eyes to meet his gaze, fearing what she might see.

“What do you mean?” he asked in a tone so confused it only riled her more.

She opened her eyes to glower at him, then, and wished she hadn’t the moment she saw the concern in his gaze.

“Layla, are you alright?” he asked, closing the distance between them.

Layla snatched her hand out of the way when he made as if to touch her. She couldn’t bear it. Was this another of her daydreams?

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