Page 62 of Cruel Mate

“Do you feel that?” she asked in a whisper. “We’re being watched.”

Yet a sense of familiarity had already begun to take a hold of her as Darwin’s face grew pale.

“What?” he asked, gulping as if he wasn’t so sure he liked the idea of being out here alone with a pregnant woman after all.

Remembering a situation so similar so many months ago, Layla lifted her head and called, “Come out, we know you’re there!”

And just like that, Zander peeled away from the shadows of a nearby tree, smirking as he revealed himself. “Damn, I was hoping you might try to run again.”

Layla placed her hands on her hips as Darwin bowed his head to the beta.

“What are you doing all the way out here?” Layla demanded. “Sandy had better not be hiding behind that tree!”

Darwin’s head whipped up then, his mouth wide open with horror.

“Darwin, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like a few minutes alone with my mate,” Zander growled, leveling his eyes with Layla’s. To Darwin, the look in his eye likely looked threatening, but to Layla it was a playful challenge, one she was all too happy to accept.

“I…um…” Darwin hopped from one leg to the other as if he wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Don’t worry, Darwin,” Layla said, “I’ll be fine. Zander is my mate, after all.”

Darwin shook his head as if he still wasn’t quite sure what was going on. To others, their teasing and tormenting might still look as it had been when first they had met, back when they’d hated each other’s guts—but now, as time had gone on, Layla and Zander had come to see it for what it truly was. It was simply their way, and now that they had gotten over themselves and the trauma they had both been through, they could simply laugh about it together and find humor in making others uncomfortable.

“Okay, sure, I’ll see you back in town, okay?” Darwin said, looking pointedly at Layla. It was clear he wanted her to find him and let him know she was really okay.

Layla just nodded, acknowledging her cousin’s request without taking her eyes off Zander’s. Desire boiled in her stomach, growing stronger and stronger as her cousin walked away.

She didn’t dare to move until she heard his footsteps receding towards town.

Then, she closed the distance between her and Zander and asked, “So, tell me, Zander, was Sandy out here with you looking to finish what you started that night?”

“One, I didn’t start it, she did,” Zander growled low in his throat. “And two, why would I ever even consider that when I was out here waiting for you?”

Layla shrugged her shoulders and played with a button on his shirt. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe you were hoping to find out what you’d missed out on before I got back from my last messenger mission.”

Zander growled low again and hooked his fingers under her chin. “A little oral from the town floozy is hardly worth missing your return for.”

Layla shivered at that. “So that’s what she’d been offering that night,” she grumbled. “How generous of her.”

Zander chuckled at that. “Jealous?”

Layla gripped the front of his shirt then and leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss him hard before she said, “Why would I be jealous, when I’m the one who gets to do this?”

Quick as a flash, she popped open the buckle of his belt.

“Layla,” he said warningly, “What are you doing?”

Layla smirked up at him as she dropped down onto her knees at his feet.

“I wouldn’t want you to feel as if you had missed out because of me,” she said, unzipping his jeans. “Besides, you have saved my life a couple of times. I do kinda owe you.”

Zander glowered down at her, a look of indecision and curiosity on his face.

“I can think of a thousand ways you could repay me for that,” Zander said, leaning down to grip her arms and pull her back up. “It doesn’t have to be this.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” Layla said, practically purring like a feline. “But maybe I want it to be.”

And with that, she pulled his cock from his jeans, biting her lip with hunger when she found that he was already rock-hard.

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