Page 32 of Monster Mate

Her head fell forward onto his shoulder and her fingernails clawed at his back until she came screaming his name, her body tightening and pulsing around him.

That’s when he roared his own release, buried as deep inside her as he could get, with his heart pounding against hers.

She wasn’t sure how long they stayed that way, clinging to each other, breathing heavy, the air around them charged with anger and frustration and…love. It was love. He was only angry with her because he loved her. She knew that.

“I’m sorry,” she eventually whispered. “I can’t accept the bond until this is settled. I can’t let him have anything to do with my decision.”

He let out a deep sigh. “I know.”

“So, are we done angry fucking?”

His only answer came in the form of tossing her back onto the bed and binding her hands to the headboard with his tail.

Well…OK. More angry fucking it was, then.

CHAPTER 20

It wasn’t until Roxie was too dehydrated to run away again and Riordan was too exhausted to teleport that they flopped back on the mattress, drenched in sweat and breathing heavy, that she decided it was time to address their argument.

But that didn’t mean she had the strength to lift any of her limbs. So, with her face firmly planted in Riordan’s chest, she mumbled, “I’m sorry.”

“For what, exactly?” he asked, shifting his hand from her hair to her ass and giving it a firm squeeze. “For trying to run away from me? Or for refusing to explain to me what’s going on? Or for insisting you can handle everything on your own even though you don’t have to?”

He chuckled when she bit his peck. “All of it, OK? All of it.”

“And you’re not going to do it—any of it—again, right?”

“Right. But you don’t have to be smug about it.”

Another ass squeeze. “I do, actually.”

She groaned. “Fine. Where should I start? What do you want to know first?”

“I want to know everything. But why don’t you start with the man who threw a brick through our window? I’m going to need some details before I kill him.”

Roxie mustered what was left of her strength—which wasn’t much—and rolled off Riordan’s chest. She let her forearm flop over her face. “See, this is why I didn’t want to say anything. I don’t want you to kill anyone.”

“You would protect this man who has made your life so difficult?”

“No, I would protect you! I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

He sighed. “We can argue about that later. Go ahead and tell me the story now, please.”

She sighed right back at him. If he could be quietly annoyed, so could she. “I had finally finished my nursing assistant program and gotten a job at the extended care facility when I met Neil.”

Riordan growled a little, but started making casual, slow circles over her skin with his palm. He was obviously trying to soothe her, and she appreciated the gesture.

“He was the grandson of one of the residents,” she went on. “Or so I thought. He was everywhere I was for a solid two weeks. My gut was telling me that was weird. But my head was telling me I was being paranoid because of my background. Just because people had hurt me doesn’t mean all people will, you know?”

“I do know,” he said quietly, pressing a gentle kiss to her temple.

“He was really nice to me. Attentive. Had a coffee for me, exactly the way I like it, from my favorite coffee shop, every morning. Again, I thought it was a little weird, but everyone I worked with thought it was so romantic that I ignored the red flags. Winston was the only one who said Neil wasn’t worth my time, and I ignored him, too. Mostly because Winston hates everyone. But I eventually agreed to go out with Neil.

Everything was fine at first. He called me a lot, always wanted to see me more between dates, but when we were together, he never did anything to worry me. He even arranged for his mechanic to fix my car when it broke down. I hadn’t asked, of course. He just did it.”

She swallowed hard. She wasn’t proud of how easily she’d accepted his money. “I never should’ve taken anything from him. The way he did that without asking was another red flag. But at the time, I was so overwhelmed and just—I don’t know—happy, I guess, that I wasn’t on my own and someone was looking out for me just once, that I didn’t refuse it. Loneliness and desperation made me…weak.”

Riordan tugged her a little closer. “I understand. You didn’t do anything wrong. Accepting a gift, freely offered, doesn’t obligate you to behave in any particular way. It was not transactional. But I imagine he took it that way?”

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