Page 49 of A Sinful Trap

I can’t lose him.

They weren’t human. They were more. And they’d both experienced more than she’d ever imagined, been to places she’d never heard of.

The life they’d lived? The way they loved? She had no frame of reference for that. She’d thought of Cam as alien before because of his money, but he was more alien than she’d realized, and not only because he could change into a wolf at will.

She could never be on equal footing with them. And they would never love her the way they loved each other. It was almost laughable, that these two long-lived beings in the epic romance of the goddamn ages would see her as anything but an interesting diversion. A curiosity who happened to live a few steps away from the real reason they’d come.

“Cam, I don’t like where her mind is going,” Davide said warily.

“Neither do I.”

She took a jerky step back, out of their reach. “If you don’t like it, you can both stay out of it. I mean it. I can’t think around you and I need to think. I need space.”

She backed up another step and felt for the door of her truck. “Now I’m going to go do my job, and you two are going to go right home and put on some damn clothes.”

She couldn’t believe she was saying that. This is what they’d driven her to.

“Damn it, Bailey…” Davide’s frown did little to mar the perfection of his face. “Let us help you.”

“You can help me by letting me do this alone. Give me time to organize my thoughts and know they’re mine. When I’m ready, I’ll bring you what you want and let you both off the hook, okay? Problem solved.”

“Off the hook?” Cam shook his head. “Bailey, I’m not sure what you think we want, but—”

“You’re what I saw, Cam,” she said, interrupting him. “Your love. Your fear of losing him. Isn’t this what you wanted?”

Before he could answer, she climbed into the cab of her truck and revved the engine, making sure they were out of her way.

She was running away from two men she would give anything to touch. Two gloriously naked, legendarily endowed men who wanted to make her dreams come true. This had to be the definition of insanity.

Cam leaned into her open window and inhaled, his eyes like liquid mercury and his expression provocatively primal. “We won’t follow you tonight, Bailey. We’ll give you your space. But this doesn’t mean we’re giving up. Not now.”

“Why?”

“Because you know. You know what we are, who we are, and you still want us.” He almost sounded surprised.

“I’m not blind. I’m only human. You thought that, too. Remember?”

Bailey drove off down the hill, glancing in her rearview mirror for another sighting, but they weren’t following her and they wouldn’t. She could sense what they were going through and everything they felt. Their sexual frustration. Their concern. Their integrity.

The spider wasn’t a dud after all. It was just understandably angry at her for being put in this impossible matchmaking situation. Her boss was a shifter in a long-term happily-ever-after-type commitment, and she’d gone and fallen in love with him anyway. With them.

Her only hope was that it was a temporary side effect of the link. A hormonal imbalance of the magical variety. Because it wouldn’t end well if it wasn’t, and they all knew it. She’d be left here, knowing they existed, knowing it all existed, and nothing else would ever be enough again.

You could leave. You have money. It wasn’t enough to buy the inn, but it could take you somewhere else. Anywhere else.

Bailey dismissed the thought as quickly as it came. She was not her mother and Sedona was the home she’d chosen. It didn’t matter how big the world had suddenly gotten, this part of it was hers.

Theycould leave. And they would, as soon as she found whatever it was Cam wanted in the attic.

She pulled her truck into its spot behind the inn and walked swiftly through the garden until the front porch came into view. She paused, touching her temple as her vision blurred. Then she was on the roof, looking down at a woman in sparkly shorts and a cowboy hat, humming in the garden. The gut punch of arousal wasn’t as surprising as the longing.

They never stayed anywhere long enough to plant a garden, but she enjoyed it so much, it made him wonder if it would be as satisfying as it looked. Her happy, off-pitch hum made him smile. He didn’t want to smile, didn’t want to like her, but everything she did made her more intriguing. He almost laughed out loud when he finally recognized The Doors’ song. Hello, I Love You. He already knew her name, but he wanted to know more. Needed to get closer. Cam was probably going to kill him.

Bailey stumbled, righting herself with her hand on her welcome boulder. That was what Davide felt when he first saw her? What he’d thought?

She kept moving. “It doesn’t matter.”

The first thing she noticed when she walked inside was the distinctive smell of sage.

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