The problem was that after what happened yesterday morning and how angry she had been when she found out he hadn’t told her he was her aunt’s lawyer, he’d grown more worried than ever about the far larger, far more important, far more life-altering secret he held.
It wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t known. He had no control over the actions of her own flesh and blood. But the repercussions would be felt by him.
Hunter took a deep breath as he held his mate’s gorgeous brown gaze. “Morning,” he responded. “You provide quite the wakeup call.”
She grinned. “After the way you put me to sleep, it seemed only fair.” She lifted her body off him, hovering over his for several seconds. Her breasts swayed over his chest. Tangles of her hair fell against his shoulders. He’d never seen anything so beautiful.
Please, God. Don’t let this end badly.
“I’m gonna shower,” she told him.
He grabbed her hips. “Can I come?”
“You just did.” She grinned.
He groaned at her joke. “Ha ha. May I please join you in the shower?”
She rose off him and stood next to the bed. “Nope. I need space. When you touch me, I can’t concentrate, which means I won’t remember to use soap or shampoo or something.”
He chuckled. “It’s all part of my evil plot.” He rolled onto his side, propped his chin on his palm, and watched her fucking hot body as she moved around the room.
She grabbed several things from an open suitcase at the foot of the bed and gave him a glare that had no oomph behind it. She pointed at him. “Stay. I mean it.”
He laughed again. “Babe, wolves don’t train well. No promises.”
She groaned at his joke this time, and then she padded from the room, her fantastic ass swaying as she went. This room she was staying in was a guest room. It didn’t have an attached bath.
Hunter took several moments to simply bask in the knowledge that he’d just spent the night with his mate, the woman he intended to wake up to for the rest of his life, if she’d have him.
Finally, he forced himself to climb out of bed. He quickly found his jeans and pulled them over his hips. He needed coffee, and he wasn’t about to wander downstairs naked and risk her sister finding him that way if she returned to the house.
For a moment, he considered calling Caleb and checking in with him. He’d known from the moment he became conscious that Caleb and Elena had not returned to the house last night. Which meant they were undoubtedly at Caleb’s. Lucky bastard.
Hunter needed to get Layla to go to his house this morning. It felt important. He wanted her in his space. Hell, who was he kidding? He wanted her scent to permeate his home. That was all that mattered. At least for this morning.
It only took a few minutes to find the coffee and brew a cup. He had no idea if Layla drank coffee or how she might take it, but a quick glance in the refrigerator suggested at least one of them was a fan of the elixir because there was a bottle of flavored liquid creamer.
Taking a chance, he brewed a second cup, added the creamer, and headed back upstairs. The bathroom door was closed, and the water was still running, but he didn’t care to be separated from her any longer, so he set one mug down on the hall table and knocked with the other hand. “Can I come in, babe?”
“Depends,” she shouted back.
He grinned. Their banter amused him. “On what?”
“On if the coffee in your hand is for me.”
He flinched. He shouldn’t have been surprised that she could smell the coffee from the shower, but how was it possible that she herself didn’t find that odd? He opened the door and grabbed the other cup from the small table.
This house was over fifty years old. The bathroom was large. He could easily fit inside and keep his hands to himself if she preferred. Although now that he was staring at his lovely mate, whose sexy body was right in front of him with nothing separating them but the glass door…
He tamped down the urge to join her and held out both mugs. He would gladly give her the black and make another cup if she preferred it plain. “I wasn’t positive if the creamer in the fridge was yours or Elena’s, so I made one with and one without.”
She turned toward him, water running down her cheeks. Her nipples were hard, and dammit but her fucking body was so perfect. It was impossible not to stare. “I do need coffee in order to fully join the world in the mornings, but I do not drink it black.”
He nodded and set hers on the counter before taking a sip of his. “I personally thought you were pretty wakeful a few minutes ago before you got out of bed,” he pointed out.
She shot him a smile, her arms lifted in the air as she massaged her scalp. “Yeah, well, you have a tendency to make me feel alert. You’re like my own personal caffeine.” She dipped her head under the water and rinsed her hair.
Hunter leaned a hip against the counter and watched her while sipping his coffee. Every move she made was mesmerizing. His cock was fully hard, even though she’d just sucked him off. The connection he had with her was beyond his expectations. And this was before they’d had sex.
When Layla turned off the water and opened the sliding shower door to grab a towel, she met his gaze. “I don’t think anyone has ever watched me shower before. I feel like I’m giving a performance. An audition. I’ve tried out for a lot of roles in a lot of television shows and movies, but I’ve never done so naked. How’d I do?”
He let his gaze wander up and down her body while she dried off and stepped out of the bathtub. “You got the part.”
She laughed. “Yeah, just like in LA. They offer you a small role but never quite tell you what it is. Could be a speaking part. Could be an extra. Might even get cut in the end.”
He set his coffee on the counter and sauntered toward her. As soon as he was in her space, he grabbed the towel and yanked it out of her hand.
She giggled.
“The role is as my mate and life partner, and you didn’t have to audition at all. The part was yours the moment I set eyes on you. Before that actually.” He set his hands on her waist and slid them up her sides until his thumbs could stroke over her nipples.
She gasped, her expression going sober as she gently brushed his hands away and picked the towel up off the floor to wrap it around her. “Hunter…” She stepped around him, grabbed her coffee from the counter, and padded from the room.
He followed her across the hallway and back into her bedroom, still watching her as she rifled through her suitcase and pulled out clothes.
Surprising him, she didn’t flinch as she set the towel on the bed and stepped into a pair of panties. He’d half expected her to kick him out. She didn’t. Thank God.
He understood her hesitation. She was nervous. Scared. He couldn’t blame her. This was intense. He needed to give her some space. “I’m going to take a shower, okay?”
She nodded and glanced at him as she put on a matching lace bra that made her look even better. Shit. “Yep. I’ll make toast. You made me hungry.” She smiled. It lit up her face, as usual.
“Sounds good. I’ll meet you downstairs.” He shoved off the doorframe and padded back to the bathroom, intending to take a quick shower and reunite with her. He didn’t like the separation, no matter how ridiculous that might be, and he wanted to get her to his house this morning.