“Oh, doesn’t matter.” She shoves herself upright. “Are you naked?”

“Yeah. I… I was about to go swim when my security system alerted me to some movement outside and I went to investigate.”

It sounds plausible enough. This house looks like it has a security system. In reality, an Alpha beast like me doesn’t need one, but I can’t tell her everything at once.

The most important thing is that she knows she’s safe here.

Her gaze drifts over my shoulders and chest and down to my abs.

Damn.Is she trying to see my cock? It twitches, already at half-mast.

“You could’ve done all kinds of things to me while I was unconscious,” she murmurs.

“I would never do that!” It comes out louder than I intended, and alarm crosses her beautiful face.

“You want me to touch you, you’d have to prove it to me,” I say quickly.

She bites her lip. And suddenly, I’m powerless to do anything other than stare. At the flush of redness it brings. At the pearly whiteness of her teeth. My ears register the fast sound of her breathing.

“How?”

“How what?” I repeat, scarcely able to believe my ears.

“How could I prove it to you?”

She’s looking at me intently, like she really wants to know. Desire pours through me like hot lava. How could my mate show me that she’s ready for me to take her?

I swallow hard, willing my cock not to get any more swollen than it already is. “You’d have to kiss me,” I grit out.

“Uh huh.” Her eyes drift to my lips, and she stares at them for a long, long time. Then the tip of her tongue darts out and chases across her own, lovely lips. They glisten. So ripe, so ready to be kissed.

I’m dead. Totally helpless under the power of her beauty. I lean in.

“What else?” she whispers, her lips pouting so provocatively.

My dick is fit to explode. “You’d have to strip,” I say automatically, since all I can think about is how this luscious body of hers is gonna look naked.

“Strip?” she breathes. And glory of glories, she shuffles closer, her hand rising to the top button of her shirt—“Agh!” she cries out.

“What is it?” My eyes dart everywhere.

“Oh, my knee.”

Shit, it’s bleeding again. It’s worse than I realized.

Damn. How could I have let her suffer this long?

Stupid, stupid, I scold myself as I leap up. “I’ll go get my first aid kit,” I announce, exiting the room.

My cock is still hard, I discover as I stride along the corridor to the bathroom. It’s jutting out like a flagpole.

She must’ve gotten a good view of it when I stood up.

Well, too late to worry about that now.

4

Scout