I looked back up into his stern face. “How did you even find out I was there?”
“Frank sensed you were in their territory. And then I caught a picture of you on one of their Instagram feeds. The Pines are social media whores.” His voice was as sharp and stark as his house.
For some reason, that last part made me snort. “You have Instagram?”
“What. The fuck. Were you. Doing there?”
“The agency sent me.” The lie slid out as smooth as the leather that ensconced me.
“The fuck they did. Julian would never use a Boulder wolf as an escort. Besides, I thought you were done with that.”
“I’m not a Boulder wolf. Plus it was easy cash. Andit gave me the opportunity to meet them. They’re lovely people. Way more civilized than yourpack.”
“I told you I can pay your debts.”
“And I told you I don’t want your charity.”
His hands moved to the towel at his waist. “It wouldn’t be charity if I fucked you, right?”
I blanched. “I-I just… It’s just d-dates.” My throat went dry. “I don’t have sex.”
He untucked the towel, his long fingers moving slowly. “I have trouble believing that.” The gray cotton slid heavily to the floor and pooled around his feet.
I backed up. “I’m not having sex with you, Liam.”
“But you’ll spread your legs for Julian?”
That made me snap. “I don’t spread my legs for anyone.”
“Look at you. Look at what you’re wearing.” He gestured to my dress, and I burned with rage.
I pressed my palms against the leather at my hips, wishing I could transform it into something else, something that stopped giving the impression I was a whore. “You’re a real jerk, you know that?”
“At least”-his voice was barely above a vibration-“I’m an honest one.”
Nerves skittered underneath my skin.
He took a step toward me, and I took another step back. My tailbone hit smooth wood.
“First…” His lips shut then parted again.
My heart held perfectly still.
“First Aidan. Now Julian.” He moistened his lips. “Do you have a thing for older men?”
“They were jobs.” My shoulder blades knocked together as I flattened myself against the wall.
Liam pressed one hand on the panel beside my face. His breaths whispered against my forehead. “Prove it.”
I gaped at him. How was he expecting me to prove it? It wasn’t like I’d documented my evenings.
An inhuman glow devoured his irises and coated the whites of his eyes. And then his nails lengthened into claws beside my face. They clicked against the wood. He snapped his eyes closed. When he opened them, they no longer shone yellow and his nails had receded.
I became acutely aware of his nakedness, of his proximity. He was careful not to touch me with any part of his body, and yet I felt him…everywhere. Smelled him. Heard the blood pound wildly in his neck.
“Damn it, Ness,” he growled. “Prove it!”
His tone broke me out of my daze. “I don’t need to prove anything to you, Liam Kolane.”
“You embarrassed me today.”
“I never asked you to retrieve me.”
“What’s your game?”
A knot of fear pulsed behind my navel. “Get away from me.”
I pressed my hands into his torso, but it was like trying to move a tree. An infernally hot tree. His body wasn’t on fire but felt like it was, especially in contrast to my clammy palms.
He spun me around and pushed me against the wall until my cheek was flush with the glossed surface, then locked my wrists behind my back with one of his hands.
“Let me go!” I screeched.
“Not until you tell me the truth. Did you or didn’t you fuck Julian Matz?”
“Go to hell.” A tear snuck down my cheek. And then another. And another.
“You leave me no choice.” His knees clicked as he crouched.
Horror shot through me, and I struggled against him. Was he going to rape me? Oh, God, Everest had been right. Liam waslike his father.
Silence. And then a long inhale. He’d sniffed me!
White-hot rage undid me, and I spun, ripping my wrists out of his grip. He rose, and I slapped him. Not once but twice, and I would’ve slapped him again if he hadn’t caught my flailing hands.
“You are a pig! No worse than a pig!” I shouted. “How. Dare. You!”
His expression went slack. I ripped my hands from his and punched him in the gut. I would’ve punched him lower, but I didn’t want to violate him like he’d violated me.
A groove formed between his slanted eyebrows. “You didn’t sleep with him.”
I shook, trembled, quaked. “I hate you. Hate you!” I fumbled to find the door knob. “If you ever…ever…come close to me, Liam, I will injure you so badly even your wolf gene will be powerless to fix you.”
Liam stood perplexed. I doubted it was my threat that was scaring him. I doubted he took me seriously. If he did, he wouldn’t have defiled me.
“Ness…” His voice sounded scratchy.
“Don’t talk to me.” I wrenched the door open and fled into the night, tripping on my heels. I kicked them off.