Shameful by May Dawson
22
Legacy
I wokein the shadows of a dark hotel room, penned in on either side by the two shifters.
I stared at West’s face in sleep, at the hard angles of his face and the dark lashes resting in the hollows above his high cheekbones. It was the first time I’d ever slept in bed with a man. And this big brute was tucked in beside me, dozing like a kitten. It was so different than the life I’d expected. I let out a huff of laughter, then pressed my hand over my lips, a second toolate.
West blinked his eyes open slowly. “Are you okay? Or are you losing your mind in a whole newway?”
“I’m trying to get some sleep,” Isaid.
He yawned, then closed his eyes again, pointedly ignoring me. The two of them were overheating me; they were a wall of muscle that—while they didn’t touch me—radiated heat. I tossed and turned, working the sheet down until I lay on top of the sheets.
Slowly, I became aware that West was staring at me again.
I turned toward him, met his eyes, which were a brilliant shade of icy blue, eerie in thedark.
“Why are you staring atme?”
“Are you preparing for another embarrassing escape attempt?”
Those words only stung because of how badly my previous attempt had failed. It had definitely not been a well-thought-out moment on mypart.
“No,” I snapped, as if it were ridiculous. “I guess I’ll go to Reject Island. Serve my time. Count on the alpha to bring me back once I prove I’m not actually batshit.”
“Good plan.” He closed his eyes again.
“Is that what you did? You’ve been there how longnow?”
“Why do you want to talk at two o’clock in the morning?” He didn’t bother to open his eyes again.
“I don’t, but I didn’t know it was two am. Some asshole smashed my phone. Now I can’t check thetime.”
“Some assholes only get more grouchy if they’re sleep deprived. I’d hate to see what else could happen.”
“I don’t see how you could get more grouchy.”
“Try me and findout.”
I had good intentions to charm West, to get him to open up to me. But mostly, I just seemed to succeed in antagonizinghim.
“I can’t sleep,” I whispered. “I’m toohot.”
“Mm.”
“And I’m worried about my family.”
Those words were too honest, and I wanted to take them back as soon as they lingered betweenus.
West finally opened his eyes up again. He looked at me as if he were going to say something meaningful.
Instead, he told me, “You should talk to Rhett. He’s the one who likes to hear himself talk. You two have a lot in common.”
Maybe I would murder him and escape. Acerbic words came to my lips, but then I decided to play it differently.
I remembered the heat in West’s eyes when he’d watched me writhing across the backseat. He seemed indifferent to me, but he hadn’t been indifferentthen.
“West,” I said softly.
He sighed and pulled his pillow over hishead.
His action didn’t have the deterring effect he might’ve hoped. It was easier to talk to the pillow than to his stupid, cold, handsomeface.
“If Lucas was having sex… if he was hurting me…would you have sex with me? To take away thepain?”
He ignoredme.
“What if I promised that it was something I wanted? Before the pain even started?” I lifted the pillow up, pushed my head underneath it until the two of us were nose-to-nose.
And Mr. Ignoring-Me’s breath hitched, no matter that he was feigning sleep.
“All right, this has been highly entertaining, but stop torturing my brother,” Rhett said sleepily, rising onto his elbow. “We all need some rest, Legacy. You most of all, clearly.”
My cheeks flushed in the dark. “You heard allthat?”
“Mm, and I know you’re just trying to use my brother’s dick to soften his disposition.”
I let out a disgusted sigh and laid backdown.
But Rhett wasn’t entirely right.
Part of me wondered what it would be like to let my fantasy from earlier tonight play out in real life. Rhett was sexy and approachable and I was drawn to him, but I also felt a strange tug toward the grouch.
It was all Lucas’s fault, I told myself as I kicked off the blankets. It had nothing to do with them. My mating impulses were going wild. These two just happened to behere.
But I couldn’t quite convince myself.