Page 66 of Love Bites Hard

There was no way to stop my body from responding.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Sleeping next to my mate.” He pulled the blankets away just enough to slide beneath them, and I bit the inside of my cheek.

What was I supposed to do?

The sex war would require draping my body over his and driving him as close to insane as possible.

Self-preservation demanded I scoot to the other side to get away from him.

Logic told me there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d be able to stop myself from rolling on top of him as soon as I was unconscious. But, most of me wanted to screw logic and lean hard into the self-preservation route.

“Can you scoot over a little?” Porter asked, his gigantic body squished up against one side as he tried not to touch me.

I did what he’d asked, but didn’t give him the entire bed.

It wasmybed.

I needed to hold my ground.

“I haven’t slept on a mattress since I lost my family,” he said, his attention trained on the canopy above our heads as it descended over us again.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. Haven’t tried sleeping in my human form, either.”

My uncertainty faded slowly, giving way to heartache.

The loss had hit him so insanely hard.

“Do you miss them?” I knew the answer to the question before I asked it, but I thought it might get him to open up a little.

“All the time. Do you miss yours?”

My parents.

Someone must’ve told him what happened to my family. Probably Hale, because I knew Blair had told him the story.

“No.” The blunt answer was honest, but Porter’s lack of response made me think I’d caught him off guard.

Hale wouldn’t have known what my parents were like. Him and Blair hadn’t been close for that long. He’d eventually hear all of the stories, but there were undoubtedly some that were still private.

And though my sisters had an idea how things had been for me, none of them knew the full story. Not that I planned to give it to Porter, either.

“You weren’t close?” he asked me.

“No. We definitely weren’t close.”

He moved a little. I got the feeling that he wanted to scoot closer to me, but he didn’t actively pull me into his arms. I thought maybe he was trying to be respectful after I yelled at him mentally while I was underwater.

“Are they the reason you keep your magic controlled more than your sisters?” he asked me.

Hale must’ve told him that too.

Or maybe he’d just picked up on it. It wasn’t a stretch, considering that he had only ever felt my power when I wanted him to.

Other than during our walk back to our room. And probably in that very moment.

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