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That et me to react? What the hell kind of a bedside ed, she chucked the empty bottle into the pristine backseat "I aluts and you - "

"When did you become such a scared little mouse?" His tone was hard, his eyes trained on the road

"Trauma, Clay! I was traumatized It had an effect"

"So was I," he said,my head in the sand"

She knew i "You saved hter was harsh "Years too late"

"No" She had to reach him, had to make him see "Orrin never tried to choke me before" He’d wanted to watch the life leave her eyes, just like he’d done with those other girls he’d buried

"He abused you, Talin Hurt you, touched you, irl should have to endure So what if he saved the brutalshould have stopped hi before that!"

"I never told you," she cried "And you were a child, too"

"I should have known I’m a cat - I could smell hi me you could smell their parents on all the kids"

He didn’t respond She stared at the dark stubble along his jaw, at the ebony silk of his hair He was so close and yet she didn’t dare touch hi He had always spoken to her, even if he didn’t to anyone else

His fingers clenched on the steering wheel "Tell me about your life with the Larkspurs"

Relieved, she took a deep, shuddering breath "They’re farmers, all of them Well, Dixie isn’t, but she’s a farmer’s wife Already has two babies It’s what she wanted"

"You like Dixie"

"Yes" She sentle She used to followme every day, as if - I like Dixie"

"The others?"

"Tanner and Sae operation Saanizes the business end of things Ma and Pa Larkspur supervise everyone"

"They sound like a happy falanced at her "So why are you still stuck in that roo me tear Orrin apart?"

She should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy to escape the past "I tried to get better I pretended I was But I never did and I don’t knohy" Though after her recent slew of uess at so me?"

"Somewhere safe"

She watched the city retreat behind them "Where?" she insisted

"My lair"

Her heart stopped "I thought you didn’t take strangers there"

"I’ an exception"

It almost made her want to smile Except"Don’t These people who are afterthe kids They could follow and hurt you and your pack"

He laughed and it was a deep masculine sound she felt in the innermost core of her body, a place no one had ever touched "We’re not some minor pack you can blink andareas We’re also allied to the wolves No one enters our forests without our knowledge"

"These people are s we animals aren’t?"

"Don’t pull that racial crap on"Or I’ll tell you what I really think of big cats who like to growl and bite"

Clay felt his lips curve despite hiiggle escaped Talin’s lips "Idiot"

And that suddenly, she was his Tally again Sweet, funny, and strong So da who had ever stood up to hihter seeped out of the air "I broke"

Talin noticed the flowers the second she entered the low-level aerie Clay called his lair Outwardly, it appeared nothingbranches of a heavily leafed tree Inside, it proved wide and clean, with a retractable ladder that led up into a second level invisible froave away nothing "I built it so it could be isolated froround at a second’s notice You’ll sleep up there"

"Oh" She couldn’t get her ement "Nice flowers"

It seemed to her that his expression softened a fraction when he looked that way "From Faith She said I needed color in this place"

Talin’s fingernails dug into her palms as he named the woman who had been allowed to meddle in his lair - in the lair of a man she’d known as a boy who rarely let anyone close Even now, flowers aside, the starkwas in shades of earth, with only occasional splashes of forest green and white, froe, flat cushions that seemed to function as Clay’s version of sofas It ht His leopard probably much preferred to curl up on the cushions<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>