Page 7 (1/2)

Clay’s hands clenched into fists Da on to when she didn’t reirl she’d been "How did you do?" he asked, giving in to the co about her

She took a breath to answer but someone chose to boot up the jukebox at that second Loud music crashed into the roo hearing, but it wasn’t exactly conducive to talk

He ran his debit card over the reader built into the table and rose "Let’s go"

Nodding, she took a quick sip of water, then followed, staying close to him They met Dorian just outside The blond sentinel was in the process of getting off his sleek blackup his hel smile with a hint of the feral Clay had seen wo end of that smile "She’s kind of bitesized for you Why don’t you give her to me?"

Clay waited to see what Talin would do, well aware the other sentinel was si to Pack law, Talin was Clay’s because she had come to him Until and unless she wanted out - Clay’s hands fisted again - no packmate would touch her

"What do you say, little rabbit?"

"I’m sorry," Talin replied, sweet as honey "I don’t do pretty boys In fact, I don’t do boys at all"

Dorian choked on a laugh, then glanced at Clay’s shocked face "Well, shit She’s all yours, buddy"

Clay hustled Talin to her Jeep and pinned her to the passenger door with his hands on either side of her body Her fear was a live thing between theht to contain the leopard’s corresponding rage and knew from the look in her eyes that he’d only been partially successful

"You like girls?" he asked very, very quietly

She shook her head, eyes big

"I can still tell when you’re lying and you weren’t lying to Dorian"

"No, I wasn’t" She bit her lower lip "I was jerking his chain ’cause he was jerking mine I said I don’t like pretty boys"

The leopard was too wound up to see the logic "What do you like?"

"Men"

Tie in her eyes "You’ve been with men" He felt as if she’d cut hielings were sensual creatures - regular sexual contact was considered healthy and natural He had never before judged a woman for who or how many others she’d been with

"Yes" Her skin paled "Lots of men So many I can’t remember their faces, much less their na to hurt hied the leopard Keeping that anger at bay only by dint of years of experience, he pushed off the car "Why? You weren’t like that"

"You knew ht bitterness to her tone "Can we go noould you like a blow-by-blow?"

"Get the hell in!"

Talin got in, conscious of a deep sense of self-loathing She’d never intended for Clay to know the depths to which she had sunk, but it had been like so her mouth, as if some defiant part of her wanted him to kno he did And whatever chance they had had, it was gone

Talin couldn’t blaone to for a short period after beginning her work for Shine, had assured her that her acting out as a teenager and as a young adult had been an understandable reaction, so often exhibited by victims of childhood abuse The woman had classified it as a kind of self-harm, said there was no need for Talin to feel shaht years of celibacy, except for -

No, she wouldn’t think of those tiht years since the final therapy session, eight years since she had begun to try to treat her body as soht yearsbut Talin still wasn’t sure she believed the counselor

Maybe she was the slut Orrin had tried to enes The clinic where she’d been abandoned as a baby had been a free one, utilized almost exclusively by prostitutes after all Orrin had called her the daughter of a whore Like hter

"Where’s your apartht at that cold question, she realized they had reached the outskirts of San Francisco Lips dry, ave hih-rise where Shine had leased her an apartment "Thank you," she said when he parked on the street out front

"Here" He threw her the key A split second later, he had opened the door and was gone, a lethal shadow invisible against the rising fog Eyes stinging, she shifted into the driver’s seat and drove the Jeep down into the underground parking area