Chapter 7
SEVEN
Holly
“Put me down!” I screech.
Camden doesn’t react. He just keeps marching down the path. I squirm on his shoulder, trying to break free from his hold, but he simply grips me tighter.
“Knock it off before you get hurt,” he snaps.
I pound on his back. “Put! Me! Down!”
He grunts as I hit him, but otherwise doesn’t react. I’m starting to get tired and decide to wait him out. He has to put me down eventually, and that’s when I’ll escape.
Except, you don’t know where you are or how to get back to Adeline’s house, I remind myself. Shit.
I growl in frustration. I’m so tired, so sick of Camden and everything that’s happened in the last few weeks.
I hang over his shoulder, staring at his ass and muscular legs as he walks.
He really is handsome, I think, then stop myself.
I can’t seem to control my attraction to him, but this isn’t what I want.
I want to be someone’s first choice, not their last. I don’t think Camden would’ve ever chosen me willingly.
If he really wanted me, he would have come up to me that first day.
He would have been excited to find me, not angry or dreading it.
I remember how he looked at me that first day and steel my walls as he walks up some porch steps and into a house.
A minute later, he dumps me onto a couch. I glare up at him. He crosses his arms over his chest and glares right back.
“We need to talk,” he says.
“We did talk. Back at Adeline’s house.”
“Talk more.”
“Do you always abduct people to force them to talk to you?” I ask, sitting up on the couch.
“No, you’re my first.”
“Lucky me.”
He frowns as he sits in the chair across from me. “Listen—”
My stomach growls. I didn’t eat this morning. I was waiting for Adeline to get back from dropping off her desserts in town before we made something to eat.
My cheeks heat, and I clear my throat. My eyes dart around the room before landing on the front door.
“Not a chance,” he growls.
Camden stands, and I lean back against the couch cushions as he approaches me. He doesn’t say anything as he grabs my hand, pulls me to my feet, and drags me down a short hallway to the kitchen.
Grabbing my hips, he lifts me onto a barstool without a word. Then he turns and rummages in the cupboards. My eyes flick to the front door, then back to him, debating if I can reach it before he catches me.
“You won’t get off the porch,” Camden says without turning around.
I flip him off behind his back.
He shakes his head. “I saw that.”
“Saw what?” I ask innocently.
He shoots me a look over his shoulder, then continues making a sandwich.
I sigh, tapping my foot against the kitchen island as I look around his house. It’s pretty bland. No personal effects, no décor at all. Everything in the kitchen is something he clearly uses often. Same in the living room. Just a couch, two chairs, a TV, and a lamp. The bare necessities.
“Eat,” Camden orders, setting a plate and a bag of chips in front of me.
I don’t argue. I grab the sandwich and eat quickly, hoping I can leave when I finish.
Camden leans against the counter and watches me like a hawk.
“What?” I ask, shoving a chip in my mouth.
“I think we got off on the wrong foot.”
I snort.
He sighs.
I eat another chip.
“But,” he continues, “we can start over.”
“I don’t want to.”
He tenses, looking annoyed. “I’ll leave our first encounter up to you.”
I eye him dubiously. “How?”
“I… don’t know yet.”
“Great.”
“Holly,” he growls in warning.
My nipples tighten, and my core clenches. I take a bite of the sandwich to hide my reaction.
It doesn’t work.
He braces his hands on the kitchen island across from me and leans closer. “I can smell your desire. Why are you fighting this?”
Anger overtakes me. He thinks I’ll fall into bed with him now he’s deigned to give me a bit of attention. “I want to be with someone who actually wants to be with me, and you’re not that person.”
I hop off the stool, spinning to leave, but he’s faster. He cages me in with his arms, and I gasp as my back hits the counter behind me.
“No one is better matched for you than I am.”
I shake my head. “We’ll see about that.”
He snarls. “You’re not dating anyone else.”
“Oh, yeah? How are you going to stop me?”
“I’ll guard your ass and threaten anyone who gets close to you. No one else in town, in any of the Packs, will go near you.”
“You can’t always be there. There are a lot of tourists here in town. I’m sure I could find someone to—”
His phone rings, and he reaches into his pocket, still glaring at me. When he answers the call, I try to duck under his arm, but he catches me and wraps his arm around my waist, holding me to him.
“Yeah?” he answers.
I wriggle in his hold, and his cock hardens against my ass. I freeze.
“Goddamn, mate,” he growls into my hair.
“Let me go,” I order.
He holds me tighter. “Okay, I’ll be right there,” he says into the phone. He releases my waist and grabs my hand. “I have to go into town.”
I smile sweetly at him. “Okay. I can find my way back to Adeline’s.”
“No, you’re going with me,” he says, walking toward the front door.
I dig my heels in, or try to, but Camden easily tugs me along behind him.
“I want to go home!” I shout as he drags me over the threshold and toward his truck.
“You are home.”
I stare at him as if he’s crazy. “No, this boring house isn’t my home.”
“It will be,” he says as he buckles me into the passenger seat. He slams the door before I can get out.
I groan as he climbs behind the wheel and speeds out of the drive.