Milla
What was that pounding?
My eyes refused to open as the sound got increasingly louder. Shit, it wasn’t outside of the building, it was in my head. Why for the love of Pete did I think matching beer for beer with a group of rowdy male shifters was a good idea?
When I cracked them open, the tiniest of bits, the sun beamed in like a fucking laser. Today was going to suck beyond sucking. The worst part was, I knew better, but a few courage beers turned to having fun beers turned to—shit. Where was I? There was no way I’d be dumb enough to get behind the wheel of a car, not that they’d let me.
I wriggled my toes. Shoeless and sockless under the covers. Covers. I sucked in a breath as I forced myself to focus. Double shit. I was in a bed and not alone. What had I done. A groan escaped me, unbidden.
“That bad?” Justice sounded far too chipper for the way my head sounded and far too close for me not to slip into panic mode. The night was a haze, but that kiss—that kiss was clear as day and, shit…
“Head. Pain,” was all I managed to squeak out, not ready to face the morning or, for that matter, the night before.
“I’ll hook you up.” He climbed out of bed, the covers never moving from me. That was at least a semi-decent sign. If he’d been under the covers with me, I’d have been taunted with at least a subtle breeze.
I slammed my eyes shut, trying to force myself to sleep with the unrealistic expectation I’d wake up in my own bed, headacheless and alone.
“Time for your medicine.” Justice shook my shoulder gently. If I had the energy, I’d have decked him for disturbing my attempt at sleep. Or had I fallen asleep? Not that it mattered. What mattered was I had to sit up. Fuck. No more beer for me, ever.
“I doubt that, Milla.” His hand took mine as he helped me sit. “Now, drink this. You’re welcome.”
A small shot glass pressed against my palm. Small was good. No way my stomach was going to tolerate a glass of anything. I peeked down. The cup was filled with green. Fuck that. I slammed them shut again.
“Asshat,” I mumbled, still not grabbing the glass presented to me.
“The asshat that is going to make your day less fucking miserable.” He curled my fingers around the glass, and I conceded. Poison was not his thing and, even if it was, Eti would have my back.
“Thanks.” I held onto the glass, willing myself to put its contents into my mouth, rationalizing it couldn’t taste any worse than the dead thing that had taken up residence in there while I slept. I needed a fucking toothbrush and a few bottles of mouthwash. Stat.
“Drink,” he ordered, and I did in one vile gulp.
“Ewww, what was that?” A cross between spicy and sour, slimy and clumpy, worst of all, it left an aftertaste reminiscent of five-week-old milk.
“You don’t wanna know, but give it ten minutes.”
Sure enough, the fog began to lift and the pounding dissipated within minutes. Grabbing the covers, I decided to use the Band-Aid method to get up and out of the bed. Fast and pain-filled, but over quickly. As I stood there, more relief than just the shot glass of evil filled me—aside from my bare feet, I was completely clothed.
“I’m dressed.”
“Of course you are. Why would you—” he began as my cheeks heated in embarrassment for assuming we’d done anything. “Oh, you thought that because I kissed you to see how awful you were at it, that I’d bed you?”
Lies. I tasted a lie, but which fucking part. Why couldn’t he just say what he meant and mean what he said? Was he lying about why he’d kissed me, or that, of course, he wouldn’t sleep with me. I could give fuck all, but my gator needed to know.
“I can kiss,” I spat out, my ego bruised because why? He hadn’t taken advantage of me. This man—argggg. I needed to get a grip on myself when it came to him. It wasn’t like either of us was moving anywhere.
“No shit, but a man can hope.”
Truth. My gator pranced at his compliment. Pranced. She was a gator, a crappy one that refused to show herself in her skin, but there she was, acting like a lovesick fool.
“So, we didn’t do anything.” I brushed the wrinkle down. It was going to look like the walk of shame regardless, so I gave up quickly.
“How little you think of me to believe I’d take advantage of you while you were drunk.” He sounded more hurt than anything. Shit. The morning had somehow managed to spiral downward.
“More I was thinking I took advantage—sorry.”
“Ha.”
I met his eyes, eyes that were more gator than human.
“Callum was right. He said you were horny for me. I told him he was full of shit. You are, though, aren’t you, woman. Too bad you ruined my life ’cause your body is smokin’.”
“I was a kid.” Not that it seemed to make a difference with him any of the other times I mentioned it.
“My gator agrees with your assessment.”
His gator forgave me, possibly liked me, even. Holy cow.
“You?” I all but whispered, scared of the reply which somehow seemed to matter far more than it should.
“Don’t. Just don’t.” He picked up a rumpled towel from the bottom of the bed. “Here’s a towel. It’s cleanish. I’m going to make bacon.”
I took the towel to my nose as he walked to the kitchenette. His. The scent was his, all amber and musk. Where it should gross me out that he gave me a used towel, it did the opposite. I wanted to roll around in it, revel in his scent. I was a hot mess of who knew what.
I padded into the bathroom and, after searching, found an unopened toothbrush and began to clean up. I might be going home the loser who drank too much, but I was going to do so smelling like a human who hadn’t spent the night in a dumpster. Better yet, I was going to smell like Justice and, for some reason, that made all things seem better. My gator was getting too much power over me if I wanted that.
As I turned on the water, the memory of Callum getting hurt flitted through my mind. He was so far gone, he was ignoring his crew—or not crew as the foolish boys seemed to claim. Yet, he’d listened to me. Normally, only the alpha or a mate could do that. Did Callum think of me that way? I sure as shit hoped not because, as much as I wanted it not to be true, I had my eyes set on a different gator.
I wanted Justice.
Goddess help me. I did.