Chapter Twenty-Eight
I rolled over in bed with a groan. Even that small movement caused a twinge between my legs.
Remy had been partly right. I would’ve regretted telling him not to hold back if it weren’t for his borrowed healing abilities.
With them, I was only a little sore. Without them, I’d likely be walking gingerly for a week.
And it would have been worth it. I hadn’t known my body was capable of that many orgasms. I had half a mind to text every other guy I’d had sex with the same scathing message: Quitter!
I glanced at the other side of the bed. Remy was gone. I didn’t know when he’d left. I must have slept the night through.
I swung my legs over the side of the mattress.
The vines covering the bed parted. My room in this hotel had had a garden theme with a swan bed.
Remy’s bedroom looked like a dark forest had sprung up in the middle of a gothic cathedral.
His bedposts were branches twisted together before fanning out into a stunning canopy above his large mattress.
Dark, leafy ivy acted as panels, parting and closing when someone entered or exited the bed.
The room’s walls and floors were stone, with tall, arched windows showing off the famous cityscape beyond.
I left the bedroom for the en suite bathroom.
After I showered, I raided Remy’s armoire and put on one of his shirts and a pair of boxer shorts.
Thus clothed, I went into the hallway I vaguely remembered from last night, when Remy finally carried me from the library into the bedroom.
Something wonderful teased my nose as I approached. Was that coffee?
I nearly ran the rest of the way into the library.
Remy sat on one of the ornate glass couches, looking at his phone.
The drapes were open, and the stained-glass windows bathed him in a myriad of colors, making him appear almost as magical as the unbreakable glass furniture and the moths that flitted from bookcase to bookcase like bees pollinating flowers.
He looked up and saw me. His slow smile made my heart flutter like the wings on those glowing insects.
Wonderful smells snagged my gaze onto the large cart with silver-domed trays to the right of Remy.
My stomach had me moving toward it like I’d been pulled by a tractor beam.
I flipped the domes off. Fluffy scrambled eggs, home-fried potatoes, pancakes, bacon, sausage, French toast, fresh fruit, cream, and a carafe of coffee, glorious coffee!
“Thank you.” I sat on the couch across from Remy, then grabbed a plate and started piling food onto it. “I’m starving.”
“I’m sure,” Remy said. “My fault for not feeding you.”
Yeah, well, you were very busy, I thought.
Silence descended as I ate my breakfast. I wanted to talk, but I wasn’t sure what to say. I’d never had to deal with the whole “morning after” awkwardness before. My few trysts had taken place at the hospital, where the Beast was below the surface enough for me to have a safe, unemotional quickie.
Now I could have more than a one-off, and I was scared to realize that I wanted more.
It didn’t matter that there were lots of good reasons why it would be safer to keep Remy at an emotional arm’s length.
Yesterday alone had proved that Remy was still keeping secrets from me.
Big ones, like the cold-blooded way he’d managed to kill a Beast.
But my attraction for him didn’t care. Neither did my growing feelings, although if I were being logical, I’d say that last night was a mistake. Sex would complicate our already complicated situation.
Take right now. I’d been eating for ten minutes, and Remy hadn’t spoken the entire time. If I hadn’t spent the night with him, I wouldn’t care, but now, his silence gnawed at my nerves.
Did he also think that last night had probably been a mistake? Was that why he’d been gone when I woke up, and why he was barely speaking to me now?
“Aren’t you hungry?” I asked when I could stand the silence no longer. “There’s plenty here.”
A grin touched his mouth. “Are you sure about that?”
I put down my third piece of French toast. “Uh, I…”
His laugh was only a sound this time. Not a touch. “I’m teasing, Raine. This is all for you. I ate earlier.”
And showered and dressed. His hair hugged his head in ebony waves, his charcoal-gray pants looked freshly pressed, and his sky-colored shirt clung to his torso with sexy refinement.
I suddenly felt like I should apologize for borrowing his clothes, let alone for spilling a drop of syrup onto his shirt. But my green dress had had a big rip in it from Remy being too impatient with the zipper, and all my other clothes were back in his Baltimore hotel.
Why wasn’t he saying anything else? He’d stopped looking at me, too. I couldn’t stand it anymore. “It’s okay if you regret fucking me. I get that it was probably a mistake.”
His brows went up.
I didn’t blink. The harsher my wording, the more I could pretend I didn’t care if he rejected me.
Remy rose. “I always knew it would be a mistake.”
His crisp tone made his answer that much harsher. Pain nearly knocked me off my couch. Only years of locking my emotions away kept my eyes dry. I thought I’d been braced to hear that from him. How wrong I was.
“Well,” I said shortly. “You don’t have to worry, because—”
“It was a mistake because I knew it would make me want you more,” Remy interrupted, coming to me and seizing me. Strong hands lifted me up and pressed me against him. My plate clattered onto the floor. He only kicked it aside.
“I let you sleep despite wanting to fuck you as soon as I woke up.” He growled each word as he grabbed a handful of my frizzy, too-big hair.
I hadn’t been able to tame it without product, and his bathroom didn’t have any.
“Then I let you eat your breakfast because I knew you had to be hungry, so I pretended not to notice how ravishing you looked in my shirt, or how slowly you licked that syrup off your lips, or how my boxers showed all your luscious legs and thighs.…”
He hiked my thigh against his hip with that, keeping me upright only from how tightly he held me.
“But then you inferred that I regretted what I haven’t been able to stop thinking about, even as I try to deal with the very serious threats to my territory.” His eyes burned as he brought my hips flush against his. “Does that feel like regret to you?”
No, was my instant thought. That feels like dessert.
A cough stopped me from replying. The sound hadn’t come from Remy. I followed it to its source.
Setreg stood at the entrance to the library. Gone was the tunic he’d worn in Orion. Now he had on a sharp beige suit.
“This can’t wait?” Remy asked without looking away from me.
“After I waited the entirety of yesterday? No.” The words were firm, but Setreg’s tone was amused. “Now at least I understand your prior ‘unavailability.’”
“Let me go,” I hissed to Remy, my cheeks heating up.
Remy dropped my leg, but the intensity in his gaze didn’t lessen. “We’ll continue this conversation later.”
Oh, I was looking forward to that.
“Setreg, thank you for agreeing to head up my security,” Remy said, moving away from me. “I know you hate the rules in this world, but there’s no one I trust more.”
My brows flew up. Had something happened with Mandal that suddenly made Remy trust Setreg more?
Setreg caught my look and boomed out a laugh. “Mandal is Remy’s chief advisor. That position supersedes every other, so as head of security, I now answer to both Remy and Mandal.”
That explained that. And Setreg was certainly perceptive, reading my consternation and its source from a single look.
“I’m Raine, by the way,” I said. No reason to keep that a secret anymore, clearly. “Nice to officially meet you.”
Setreg inclined his head. “The honor is mine, Raine.”
As if talking about him summoned him, Mandal came into the library. One look at his face, and I knew something was wrong.
Remy did, too. He strode toward Mandal, and in those few steps, he changed.
Gone was the passionate lover who’d been about to sex me up over a stack of French toast. In his place was someone dangerous enough to make gooseflesh race over my skin while the hairs on the back of my neck prickled in warning.
“What is it?” Remy demanded.
“Four campers’ bodies were found in western Maryland this morning,” Mandal replied. “Police believe a bear killed them, but there were unexplained ashes at the scene, and their wounds were more extensive than a normal bear attack.”
Remy’s tone was knifelike. “Another one.”
Ice shot through my veins. “Another one what?” It sounded like a Beast, but it couldn’t be. I was with Remy all night.
Remy didn’t look my way. “Is the scene contained?”
Mandal nodded. “As much as possible. The police already had Forensics there, but I kept them from moving the bodies.”
“Good.” Remy’s voice was brisk. “Have the chopper readied.”
I couldn’t stand it anymore. “I didn’t kill those campers, so why are you rushing out to the scene?”
“And why would she feel the need to deny killing them?” Setreg asked in a confused tone.
“In a moment,” Remy said to him. To me, he said, “There was a Beast attack on my lands the first night we met. That’s how I knew you didn’t do it, once I realized what you were. You couldn’t have. You were with me all night then, too.”
I opened my mouth … and nothing came out. I don’t know why I was so shocked. I knew there were more Beasts in the world than me. Remy had confirmed that several times. I just … hadn’t realized one might live in Maryland, too.
“Oh,” I finally said.
Remy and Mandal exchanged a look before Remy came over and stood in front of me. “Will you come with me to the site?”
My legs felt like they’d been replaced with toothpicks. I hadn’t been back to any forest since my family’s murder. Still, my voice was steady. “Why?”