Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 116535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
“You know, I admire how long you and Aspen managed to resist each other,” Bailey went on. “I’m not so good at resisting temptation.”
“Is that why you threw a headguard at Jackson?” he asked, referring to the ex who cheated on her—something that was seriously stupid, considering mamba shifters were very unforgiving creatures.
Bailey grinned. “No. I did that for fun. Anyway, back to you and Aspen … did you spank her?”
Camden frowned. “What?”
“See, I once had this interesting premonition.”
“You still think all dreams are premonitions?”
“Not all, or I’d have danced the Macarena with lobsters. Anyway, I had a vision of you spanking Aspen while she wore a Pocahontas get-up.”
“Yeah, that didn’t happen.” But the whole spanking part held some appeal.
Bailey’s shoulders drooped. “Bummer. That doesn’t mean my dream wasn’t a premonition. It could still happen, since you plan to have more monkey sex with her.”
“I never mentioned I had any plan at all.”
“Fine, you don’t intend to repeat the experience.” Bailey gave him a dramatic wink.
He could only shake his head. “I know you have better things to do than irritate me, so go do them.”
She snorted. “What doesn’t irritate a tiger? You’re all cranky bastards. And so rude. I mean, here I am being remarkably pleasant, and you’re trying to send me away like—”
“Bailey?”
“Yeah?”
“Remember that game we used to play when we were kids?”
She tilted her head. “The one where you’d bet me that I couldn’t go a whole day without speaking, or the one where you’d ask me to go hide but then you wouldn’t come look for me?”
“The first one. Let’s play that now.”
She folded her arms. “In other words, you want me to shut up.”
“Yeah.”
She huffed. “See, rude. I don’t know how—” She cut herself off and then gave a low whistle. “Well, he doesn’t look happy at all, does he?”
Following her gaze, Camden found none other than Grant bearing down on him. His tiger peeled back his upper lip and unsheathed his claws.
Aspen and Havana were hot on the pallas cat’s heels, urging him to calm down and leave. They were both ignored.
His fists clenched so tight it had to hurt, Grant stopped in front of Camden. “You had no right to do what you did,” he spat, his eyes hard as stone. “None.”
Camden had known this moment would come. He’d actually been looking forward to it. But he didn’t like that it was happening at the center in front of a bunch of kids and juveniles. Neither did Corbin, by the looks of it. The grizzly quickly approached, standing close enough to intervene if necessary.
“If you want to talk, we do it outside,” Camden told the pallas cat.
Grant sneered. “I don’t want to talk. I want to pound your face into the goddamn ground. It’s one thing for you to work against me while I’m trying to make Aspen see the truth. It’s another thing for you to mark her.”
“The truth,” Camden echoed. “The truth as you see it, you mean. In reality, it’s a theory, at best.” And it was wrong.
“I don’t care what you believe.”
“I’ve noticed that. You don’t give credit to any beliefs that don’t cohere with your own.”
“She isn’t yours to mark,” Grant went on, proving Camden’s point. “And if you thought branding her would scare me off, you seriously underestimated me.”
Was that really what the asshole thought? “I didn’t brand Aspen to scare you off. Or to annoy you. Or to spite you. You didn’t come into it. I marked her because it fucking pleased me. The last thing on my mind while I was buried deep inside her was you.”
Grant lunged at him.
Corbin planted his large hand on the cat’s chest and shoved him back. “Maybe you haven’t noticed, but there are children in here.”
The enforcer didn’t even look at the grisly. His eyes were firmly fixed on Camden. “I challenge you. We’ll duel right here, right now.”
“No, we won’t,” said Camden. “You don’t get to come here and cause a scene. You want to get your ass kicked, I’m down with that.” He would derive a lot of pleasure from every moment of it. “But it will not happen here.”
“Too damn right it won’t,” said Corbin, glaring at Grant. The pallas cat went to object, but the grizzly added, “No. You got a problem with one of my employees, you deal with it away from my property. You have absolutely no business coming here and throwing your weight around. I won’t have it.”
Grant looked about to give Corbin attitude, no doubt unhappy with a loner laying down the law, but then Havana cut in, “Don’t, Grant. You’re already in deep shit with me—and trust me, you’re not going to like the consequences of that. Don’t make it worse for yourself.”
Grant’s eyes flickered. He slid his gaze back to Camden and jutted out his chin. “We’ll duel later, then. In the communal yard of our complex.”