11. Chapter Eleven - Veiled Restraint #2
My mouth parted, caught somewhere between snapping at him and melting beneath the force of his attention. Heat climbed steadily into my cheeks, my pulse racing. Being spoken to like that while trapped beneath his gaze felt unfair, like he was stacking every advantage against me on purpose.
“I noticed,” I muttered, narrowing my eyes. “You weren’t exactly subtle, you perverted wolf.”
He exhaled, not quite a laugh, and shook his head with an unreadable expression that unraveled me. I caught myself staring again at the way his shirt clung to his chest and the quiet strength in his arms and hated how effortlessly he still pulled me apart.
“Take your time,” he said, turning slightly. His voice softened, clipped but gentle. “Change in the dressing room. I need a moment alone with my sister.”
His sister.
There was no hidden lover, no scandal. Just complicated family dynamics I had walked straight into without a map.
I nodded, forcing myself to move as I padded back toward the dressing room. The hoodie swayed around my thighs, soft and oversized, and I clutched it with one hand. I pretended modesty, pretended I wanted to hide, even while a tiny, unholy thrill sparked at the idea of him watching me walk away.
Yeah, I definitely wanted him staring at my ass. I didn’t look back. But I felt him.
And something told me he hadn’t stopped looking.
By the time I leaned back against the cool dressing room door, my head was spinning.
In a single day, I had accidentally groped Culver, stripped naked in front of his sister, and stood frozen while he looked at me like I was something he wanted to consume.
And yes, “consume” felt like the right word.
His gaze had dragged over me with unmistakable hunger.
The memory alone made my thighs clench, warmth pooling low in my stomach with a slow ache that refused to settle.
I pressed my legs together instinctively, searching for some kind of relief from the tension still winding through me.
I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek and focused on breathing.
At this point, I deserved financial compensation for emotional distress.
Curiosity won out before common sense could stop it. I pressed my ear to the dressing room door, straining to catch anything beyond it.
Muffled, Anna’s voice drifted through, smooth and teasing. “Aren’t you just the gentleman?”
Culver’s reply came sharply. “What are you doing here?”
A silence stretched between them before Anna spoke again, her voice purring. “I came to visit Ira, of course. She is family, after all.”
Family?
My brows furrowed as my pulse jumped unevenly again. That was new information, and the way she said it made my skin prickle, as though there was more buried beneath that word than I was meant to understand yet.
“She was coming to dinner tonight regardless,” Culver said, colder now.
I shifted, fully dressed, but the friction of my panties suddenly felt unbearable, every small movement reminding me how worked up I still was. I rubbed my thighs together, trying to dull the ache that refused to fade.
Anna laughed softly. “What’s a little fun now and then?”
“You are all fun,” Culver shot back. “You and Rupert alike.”
Her response was light, knowing. “You shouldn’t stay angry for too long. Seeing her naked is hardly reason for it, especially when you’ve already—”
Her voice dropped too low to catch the rest.
My heartbeat quickened as I leaned closer to the door, straining harder, but the conversation dissolved into indistinct murmurs. Nerves and anticipation tangled together until I couldn’t separate one feeling from the other anymore.
After one last steadying breath, I reached for the doorknob and opened it.
I immediately wished I hadn’t.
Instead of finding them mid-conversation, I was met with Culver’s hand wrapped firmly around Anna’s throat, pinning her back against the wall as though something volatile had detonated between them. The sight stole the air from my lungs.
“Oh my God,” I gasped, rushing forward without thinking. I grabbed his wrist and yanked, panic flooding my veins. His hoodie slipped from my hands and hit the floor. “What the hell is going on?”
The instant my skin touched his, his eyes widened. He released her without hesitation, though the tension in his face didn’t fully fade. Anna stood unfazed, brushing her fingers along her neck as if it were routine.
“There’s no need to panic, delicate flower,” she said calmly. “You grew up an only child, didn’t you? This is quite normal between siblings.”
Uh, no. Rich people were terrifying.
“Yeah, I mean… I was an only child, but choking isn’t exactly normal sibling behavior. He was hurting you.”
“Hurting me?” Anna laughed, checking her phone and smoothing her hair. “There’s no need to worry about him.”
Against my better judgment, her confidence eased something in me. I loosened my grip on Culver’s wrist, swallowing hard. “Sorry,” I muttered. “I just got scared.”
“You really are innocent,” she said with quiet amusement.
Culver stayed silent. He sat heavily on the couch instead, elbows braced on his knees, hands loosely clasped while he watched me as though nothing else in the room mattered.
The force of his attention settled over me, low and unreadable enough that I couldn’t hold his gaze for long without my chest tightening.
Anna broke the moment, smoothing her dress. “As entertaining as this has been,” she said, “Liam is here for me. I’ll see you at dinner, delicate flower.”
Her thumb brushed my cheek as she passed, cold and unsettling.
“Dinner,” I echoed faintly.
She smiled as though she already knew what I tasted like and turned toward the exit. “Brother,” she added, “Soroush will be joining us tonight.”
I turned slowly back to Culver, whose eyes never left me.
“Soroush?” I asked quietly.
“Finally,” he replied.
I wanted to ask what any of it meant—the situation with Soroush, the cryptic behavior from Anna—but Culver’s quiet presence filled the room now that it was just the two of us.
I caught sight of him pulling his hoodie back over his head, and I knew I couldn’t stay quiet.
I owed Culver something. At least something to help pull us through the embarrassment hanging between us.