Page 32 of The Wolf's Surrogate

I rubbed my right cheek idly, remembering the shiner Phil had given me as ripely as the day he’d dished it out. “I never bothered calling the police. Why would I? Anybody else who did found out fast how useless that ended up being.”

“What did he do to you, Anita?”

Memphis pawed my thigh and purred loudly. He did that whenever I got worried or upset. While petting his head, I looked at the window facing the front porch, watching the way the world outside dimmed. “I don’t like talking about it.”

“I can’t imagine why.”

I felt the heat of my anger at his sarcasm as I glared daggers at him. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“I understand a lot more than you know, Ani.”

“When are we going to my apartment?”

He started to speak but stopped, his fists relaxing as his gaze drifted from my eyes to my lips. His mouth parted again to speak. And again, he stopped. “We can go right now, actually. Fred is ready to go.”

“Will Memphis be okay here by himself?”

“He’ll be the prince of the whole house without anyone around.”

I grinned, trying to shake off the grime of my memories. Any talk of Phil usually made me feel gross, and I just wanted to forget what had happened last night. The sooner, the better. “Well, he is royalty.”

Liam guffawed while reaching for the doorknob. “Sure, and I was raised by a pack of wolves.”

“I don’t appreciate your tone, mister.” But even as I chided him, I couldn’t stop smiling. I got the feeling he was trying to cheer me up.

After shoving my feet into my boots and grabbing my coat, we bounced out the door and to his car. The wind brought with it the smell of the ocean—this place must have been prettyclose to the sea. I thought about asking Liam about it, but he looked so stern when I got into his car that I figured I could just ask him later.

I shivered when he turned on the car and cold air blasted from the vents. Liam rushed to fix them, mumbling his apologies the whole time. A crooked smile from him was enough to make my whole body heat up, and then I wasn’t shivering from the cold anymore. I was shivering because I wanted him.

The ride back to town was awkwardly quiet. I kept trying to think of something to say, something to ask, but fell into small talk instead. Liam didn’t seem unnerved by the silence, so I tried to lean into it and get comfortable. But how could people stand sitting quietly? Or sitting still at all? I felt fidgety, like I was charged up with electricity.

My apartment soon came into view. Feelings returned in a flash, sending my heart into overdrive and my thoughts into a tailspin. I just kept staring at the porch, at the way the yellow light haloed the pavement, at the empty place where Phil had been standing the night before. Any minute now, he would jump from the shadows and start yelling. He would launch an attack.

He’s going to hurt me.

I shut my eyes and took a shuddering breath. Within seconds, my face was snugly shoved into a warm jacket, one that smelled like leather and spice.

My eyes snapped open.It’s him. The smell comes from him.

Liam kept his right arm around me, and I stared at the steering wheel, at his knees under the wheel, at the darkness now blanketing the area where his feet were resting near the pedals.

“Don’t worry. He skipped town,” Liam whispered. “He’s not coming near you. Not anymore.”

“So, I can stay here then?”

His grip tightened. And while it should have been alarming, it actually made me feel a lot safer. Like he was worriedly protective of me.

It felt so nice to feel that from someone.

He coughed, cleared his throat, and then rubbed my arm. “I’d feel better about you coming back to my place for another night or two.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

His embrace lightened, allowing me to sit up. At this height, our eyes and lips were level with each other. I studied the shadows crawling the left half of his face, noticing how strikingly bright the right side was, illuminated by the street lamps. Hazel brown with tiny dazzling sparks of green were what made his irises so alluring.

The shadows intensified as he leaned toward me. I felt his warm breath coast my lower lip, his hesitant inhale that came next. I felt how the cold penetrated the windows as we stared at each other in the stark silence of the night.

A creak broke the quiet as he sat back. He reached for the handle of the door, the sharpclickfeeling louder than usual. “Uh, we should grab some things for Memphis too.”

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