Page 19 of Claimed By Werewolf
At least, that’s what I told myself when I slid into a booth across from Werewolf and felt the weight of his stare pin me to the seat like I’d just made the dumbest decision of my life.
Maybe I had.
But after watching him choke answers out of a man in an alley like it was just another Tuesday night, I wasn’t waiting for him to come to me.I needed answers, and I needed them now.
“Why here?”he muttered and leaned back against the booth like he owned it.I couldn’t help but notice his broad shoulders stretching the leather cut tight across his chest.
“Because you can’t slam me against a wall in front of half the city,” I said, my voice sharper than I intended.
One brow arched.“Don’t tempt me.”
Heat flared low in my stomach.Damn him.
I grabbed the menu like it might shield me and flipped it open, though I already knew I wasn’t ordering anything.
His gaze didn’t waver.
I slammed the menu shut and leaned forward across the table.“You know more than you’re telling me.My brother didn’t just stumble into something.He was killed, and you know who did it.”
His jaw clenched.For a second, I thought he’d shut me down again and feed me some line about keeping quiet.
Instead, he leaned forward too.The space between us shrank until I could feel the heat radiating off him and the faint mix of leather and smoke clinging to his skin.
“You keep saying you want the truth,” he said, voice low and dangerous.“But you don’t know what the truth costs.”
“I don’t care.”My pulse raced, and my breath was shaky.“He was my brother.I loved him.And I’m not just going to let him be another body nobody talks about.”
For a moment, his eyes softened.Just a flicker, but enough to send my heart lurching.
Then the softness was gone, replaced by steel.
“You think loving him changes the fact that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time?That chasing a ghost is going to bring him back?”
I leaned closer until our noses almost brushed.“I think if you really believed that, you wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”
His lips twitched, not a smile, not quite, but something dangerous flickered there.
“You’ve got a mouth on you,” he said.
“And you don’t scare me.”
The lie tasted sharp on my tongue.He scared the hell out of me.He scared me in ways that kept me awake at night, my body buzzing with adrenaline and something hotter I didn’t want to name.
He leaned back suddenly, dragging the air with him, and left me gasping like I’d been holding my breath.
The waitress appeared with two coffees we hadn’t ordered while her eyes darted nervously between us before she scurried away.
Werewolf wrapped his big hand around the mug, lifted it slowly while watching me over the rim as he drank.
It shouldn’t have been sexy.It was just coffee.But the way his throat worked, the way his lips curved against the ceramic, and the way his gaze stayed locked on mine made my skin burn.
I shoved my hair back and tried to shake it off.“You’re impossible.”
“And you’re reckless.”
“I’m determined.”
“Stupid.”
