“I can barely move my arms.”
He settled on the stool next to mine, gaze roaming over my arms. “You got a serious thrashing out there. All those rocks.”
Had he been there?
Before Matt left to play, he tossed out, “If Liam annoys you, call out my name. Or Hulk. I’ll respond to both.”
I smiled.
“Did Ness Clark just crack a real-ass smile?” Matt winked at me, which had me shaking my head. He scooped up the three beers and then returned to the others.
“I heard I had you to thank for getting back to the inn.” I twirled a chip in the air, twisting the string of cheese glued to it until it snapped off.
Liam didn’t say anything.
Without taking my eyes off the chip, I said, “Tell me I wasn’t naked.” Some people could sweep things under rugs; I was the type who’d rather vacuum them.
“You weren’t.”
I exhaled a long breath.
“They covered you up the second you changed.”
Another breath rushed out of me. “I wonder how the other packs-the ones with females in them-I wonder how they…operate.”
“You mean does everyone get naked together?”
Heat curled up my throat.
“I would imagine nudity isn’t such a big deal for them.”
I finally dared look away from my chip. Liam raised his beer to his lips and tipped it, his Adam’s apple bobbing sharply under his dark stubble.
“At least I don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
He laid a long, muscled forearm on the bar. “What do you mean?”
“Now that I’m out of the pack.” Out of Boulder…
“You’re not out.”
“They said that if I failed, I couldn’t get into the pack.”
“But you didn’t fail.”
“I did. I changed during the trial.”
“Ness, you’re still in the running. Matt’s the one who’s out.”
I knocked my beer over, and it spilled onto Liam’s jeans.
“Shoot.” I grabbed a handful of napkins and dabbed his thigh.
He wrapped his hand around my wrist and stilled my fingers. I froze as something pulsed against my knuckles.
I snatched my arm back. “Sorry,” I mumbled, ogling the row of backlit liquor bottles and wondering how many of those I should ingest to forget that my hand had just connected to a very private part of Liam Kolane’s anatomy. I wiped my shaky fingers on a napkin. “I broke the rules…” My disloyal voice was wobbling. I prayed Liam would think it was the emotion of not being disqualified that was affecting my larynx and not- “To save his hand,” Liam said huskily.
I feigned great interest in the baseball game on the TV hanging from an articulated arm over the liquor shelf. “He wouldn’t have gnawed it off.”
“He might’ve. In wolf form, we can act like animals.”
I side-eyed him.
Pale arms slid around his chest. “Baby, you abandoned me.” Tamara tried to kiss him, but he twisted his face, and her lips landed on the hard line of his jaw.
I ogled my half-eaten basket of tortilla chips. When minutes later she was still trying to coax him off the barstool, I stood.
“Before I forget.” I slid out the fifty-dollar bill and extended it to him.
Tamara stared at the bill, nose crinkled. “Are you paying him for his company?”
I frowned. “What?”
She shot me a sweet smile that was anything but sweet. “Isn’t that how you make your living? Cash for company?”
She could’ve thrown a glass full of ice at my face, and it would’ve chilled me less than her comment.
Liam pried her arms off him.
“Excuse me?” I said, playing dumb in case I was reading too much into what she’d insinuated.
“The boys said you were a wh-”
“Tamara!” Liam’s complexion went a little ruddy.
She pushed out her lower lip in a pout. “What?”
In what world did I think I had friends here? I backed up, and then I turned, emotion burning on my lids. My ears buzzed as I stepped onto the street. I felt drunk and sick to my stomach, but I was neither. What I was, was ashamed. And angry. It wasn’t like I could explain what I’d been doing on an escort service website in the first place.
I started walking, not caring where I ended up. I just needed to get away.
“Ness!” someone called out.
Even though my legs ached, I quickened my pace, but someone stepped out in front of me, blocked my path.
Itried to sidestep Liam.
He shuffled, blocking me again. “Ness, I’m sorry.”