Page 54 of The CEO Alpha’s Substitute Mate

“Wear one of my shirts,” I suggest.

She narrows her gaze at me. “If I wear your shirt and come out of your room, everybody will know we did something.”

“This is my estate. It doesn’t matter who knows.” I stand up. “Nobody will dare say anything to you.”

She sinks back onto the bed and puts her face in both hands. The silence runs long enough that I start to wonder whether she’s crying. Then she lifts her head, looks up at me, and her eyes go wide before she fixes them very hard on the ceiling.

“Can you—” She swallows. “Can you please put on some underwear or some pants?”

I look down and realize I am completely unclothed. I grab my pants from the chair I had tossed them on and put them on for her benefit. She keeps the sheet wound around herself the whole time, watching me sideways.

“Why were you so calm about this?”

“I don’t see a reason to panic.” I fasten the waistband. “We just slept together. It’s not like we committed a crime.”

She looks up at me with her brows pulled together. Whatever she braced for, an argument or some cutting remarks, she’s not getting it.

Wrapping the sheet tighter around herself, she gets up and squares her shoulders inside it. “This cannot happen again.”

I nod as gravely as I can manage. “Well, as long as you can stay away from alcohol, that’s fine. It will not.”

She opens her mouth. “What? You don’t have any self-control?”

“I’m a man. I did try to tell you to stop, but you seemed pretty aggressive.” I spread my hands. “What could I have done?”

She stares at me for a long second. “Are you seriously acting like a victim?” Her voice climbs. “As if you could not push me away and tie me up somewhere?”

I take my time looking at her, interest flickering inside me. “You like to be tied up?”

The color goes into her face so fast that I can hear her pulse from where I’m standing. I have never enjoyed flustering a woman more than I do this one.

“I’m leaving,” she mutters.

She storms out with the sheet trailing behind her. The door slams. Not a second later, it bangs open again, and she throws herself inside, closing the door behind her. Her back presses against the wood, and she’s breathing hard. “There was a maid in the hallway.” She holds a hand out without looking at me. “Give me a shirt.”

I pull one off the shelf and sit down on the end of the bed with it held out.

“Turn around,” she orders.

“I’ve already seen it all.”

“Turn around, Callum.” She points at the wall. “I don’t want you looking at me.”

I sigh and turn my back. When I face her again, I see that the shirt comes to the middle of her thighs with the shoulders somewhere down her arms. She has the cuffs rolled four times and still can’t find her hands.

“Do you want my pants as well?” I blink at her.

She goes a deeper red than anything I’ve managed so far. “You know what?”

I raise my brows and wait for the rest of it. Nothing arrives. She points one finger at me instead, holds it there, then wheels around to storm out for a second time.

The laugh slips out of me before I realize it. As soon as it does, it stuns me. When was the last time I laughed? I can’t remember. Even from my childhood, I can’t summon a single memory. But this woman is able to bring it out.

The tiny smile on my lips fades, and I turn my attention to the messy bed. The human side of me recognizes that last night was a dangerous mistake. But the wolf…I’ve never felt my animal so satiated.

I get up and go into the shower. My wolf drags at me the entire way, wanting Ariela’s scent left on us where the world can witness it. I hold him down and wash it off.

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