I made a noncommittal noise.

“Gorgeous,” he warned.

“Go to sleep, Savage. I’ll deal with the Hunter problem in the morning. The last thing the pack needs is the two of you at odds.”

He growled. “Wewill talk to Huntertogether. He’ll understand. Eventually.”

I didn’t respond.

I was too tired to argue with him, and I knew he was wrong. Hunter wouldn’t understand. He would be furious.

“Goodnight.” Clay’s voice was frustrated, but he finally dropped a kiss to my shoulder and rolled to his back.

My shoulder tingled, and I bit my cheek.

I wasnotallowed to be attracted to him anymore. That was done. He’d have to find a new tattoo artist, because I wasn’t going to be able to touch him again.

Not without catching feelings. And that couldneverhappen.

The sun was blazinghigh in the sky when we finally got up the next day. Clay’s movements woke me, and I heard him swear under his breath as heavy footsteps carried him out of the room. He stumbled a little near the door.

I blinked sleep out of my eyes as memories from the night before rolled back in.

My body warmed.

Wow.

The sex was…

Nope. I wasn’t allowed to think about how hot it had been. Not even a little. I was going to force myself to forget it somehow.

I slipped out of bed and padded toward the bathroom, ready to shower off all evidence of what happened. Hopefully, hot water would burn the memories out of my mind.

When the water fell over my skin, I scrubbed quickly. The sooner we were clean, the sooner we could leave. And the sooner we left, the sooner I could try to move on from this whole mess.

There was no door separating the bathroom from the bedroom, so I wasn’t surprised at all when Clay strode in. He was still naked, so I turned my back to him.

“We’re not together, Clay. Privacy matters.”

“Hunter knows something’s up and keeps asking questions. I need to tell him in person, so we have to get going.”

“I’m almost done. It’s going to go even worse if we smell like each other.”

“Good point. I’ll take a quick shower in the other bathroom.”

He padded out, and I rinsed Clay’s conditioner out of my hair before drying off.

My spare clothes were still in his car, so I slipped out of the bedroom in nothing but the towel. He had so much land that neighbors obviously weren’t a concern.

When I stepped back through the front door, Clay was standing just inside, his hair wet and his towel slung low over his waist.

His thick, chiseled body towered over mine, strong and powerful.

The desire to close the distance between us and put my hands on his chest was unreal. It took everything I had not to give in.

“You good?” he asked.

“Just grabbing clothes.” I lifted the bundle as evidence, ignoring the warmth between my thighs