CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE

Hearing footfalls head his way the next afternoon, Deke turned away from the coffeehouse’s front window mere moments before the waitress placed a mug of black coffee on his table.

Cassandra gave him a bright smile. “Here.”

Looking up at his pride mate, Deke tipped his chin at her in thanks.

Resting a hand on the back of the chair across from him, she tilted her head to study him carefully, making her high pink ponytail hang to the side. “How are you doing?”

“Fine.” He flexed his fingers, restlessness still living and breathing in his system. But the arousal had subsided, and he no longer felt so uncomfortable in his own skin that he was tempted to claw it off. Which, of course, was courtesy of last night’s orgasm. Something he’d told himself he wouldn’t think about, because that only led to his cock stirring, and he’d had enough of walking around with a constant hard-on.

“You don’t look fine. You look tense as a bow.”

Well, if memories of last night would stop crawling to the forefront of his mind, he’d be a lot more relaxed. Jesus, he hadn’t come that hard in … he couldn’t even remember. Maybe never.

What else could he have expected, though? He’d practically been dancing on the edge of an orgasm for weeks. He’d been wound so tight it almost hurt. Coming had almost hurt it was that intense. He’d felt wrung dry afterward.

But he’d be lying if he said that his release would have been so violent and mind-numbing at the touch of just any woman. That it had been Bailey’s hand wrapped around his dick, Bailey’s pussy rippling around his fingers, Bailey’s taste on his tongue had magnified the moment.

He could still vividly remember the feel of her hot inner walls clenching his fingers so tight he was surprised they hadn’t gone numb. He’d wanted to feel those same muscles clamped around his cock, but it hadn’t been possible.

The only reason his cat had allowed Deke to touch her in the first place was that he’d been determined to make his point. Once the moment was over, he’d hissed at Bailey and whipped his tail aggressively … leaving Deke no choice but to back off and take it no further.

Now his cat was back to being averse at even the thought of another person’s touch. Which was a realfucking problem, because the touch-hunger would flare up again at some point. And likely without warning. That was usually how it went—there was no build-up; it struck out of nowhere, and it struck hard.

Deke inwardly sighed. He had no idea what to do about his cat. No clue if there was anything that could help.

Cassandra slipped onto the chair opposite him. “Why are you doing this to yourself?” she asked, her pale-green eyes soft with concern. “You know you could come to me to work off the touch-hunger, right? There’d be no strings, just like last time.”

Deke’s cat hissed, unsheathing the tips of his claws. But even if the feline hadn’t been so against it, even if Deke had thought it fair to sleep with one woman when his mind was on another, he would have turned down Cassandra’s offer. He made a point of not working off touch-hunger with the same female twice. It seemed disrespectful.

“It’s bad enough that I’d be sleeping with someone purely to get rid of the touch-hunger—I’m using them, plain and simple,” he said. “I’m not going to use the same person repeatedly like it’s all they’re good for.”

“I wouldn’t see it that way. And don’t forget, I’d be using you too,” she added, smiling. “The difference is that I don’t have touch-hunger. I just want emotionless sex.”

“You wound me.”

She snorted. “Doubtful.”

He lifted his mug and took a sip of his coffee. “It wouldn’t be good to put yourself on my mother’s radar all over again.” Back then, Livy had done her best to coax him and Cassandra to turn their arrangement into something more—it had driven them both nuts.

“I guess,” uttered Cassandra.

“I’m pretty sure that Sam wouldn’t like it if I took you up on your offer anyway.” Deke slid the healer a brief look. The trim Asian male was leaning against the counter, his dark eyes on Cassandra … and not looking too pleased about her sitting with Deke.

Her lips hiked up. “He’s hot, no doubt about it. And a total sweetheart. But he’s not dominant enough for my cat’s liking. She’s frustratingly picky that way, as you know.”

The bell above the door chimed.

Looking behind her, Deke saw Shay breeze inside. The very sight of the newcomer made Deke’s cat narrow his eyes and let out a rumbly growl of agitation. This had been a “thing” for months now, and Deke was damn tired of it.

Shay had been a good friend of his for years. His cat had never had a problem with the other male … until Shay first began sleeping with Bailey. Even now, despite that the pair were no longer sharing a bed, the feline bristled just looking at him.

Really, Deke’s cat could be weird where Bailey was concerned. Before becoming strangely averse to sexual intimacy, the feline had been intrigued by and attracted to her, even though she made him crazy. Though he hadn’t pushed Deke to pursue her, he also had never liked when she was with other men; never liked that she evidently saw a value in them that she didn’t seem to see in Deke or his cat. This hadn’t changed.

Shay’s gaze swept the space, pausing when it landed on Deke. His eyes widened slightly in what seemed like pleasant surprise. He began heading Deke’s way, which only made his inner cat growl again. Louder.

Cassandra stood, giving Deke a too-quick smile. “You know where to find me if you change your mind,” she quietly said.

He gave her a subtle nod, though he wouldn’t accept her offer at a later date.

Reaching them, Shay beamed. “Hey, D. Cassandra, you look gorgeous as usual.”

“Always the charmer,” she said with a playful huff.

“Any chance of a pumpkin spiced latte?” Shay asked her, skimming his fingers through his tousled brown hair as he took the seat she’d vacated.

“Give me five minutes and I’ll bring it right to you.” She then strode off.

Turning to Deke, Shay snorted at whatever he saw on his face. “Don’t look too pleased to see me,” he said, his voice dry.

Deke grunted. “I’m not in the best mood.”

“When are you ever?” Shay teased.

“Also, you’re annoying.”

The other male grinned. “God, you’re a rude bastard. Good thing I’m used to it.”

“Does that mean you’re not going to go away?”

“Yup. You’re a big boy, you can handle a little company and conversation. I can’t remember the last time we shot the shit. It was before I started dating Bailey.”

Deke felt his back teeth lock, and his cat bared a fang.

A smile pulled at Shay’s mouth. “I heard something went down between her and some dude at your dad’s party. No one seems to know exactly what got said or who he is. Care to share?”

“No.” Unlike many of his pride, Deke wasn’t one to gossip.

Shay snickered. “Fine. I’m more intrigued about something else I heard anyway. See, apparently, your body language was all kinds of protective. You didn’t seem to like seeing another dude so close to her.”

“Of course I didn’t like it. He was practically in her face.”

“Hmm. I think it was more than that, though. It might not be obvious to those who don’t know you,” he went on, lowering his voice, “but you have a little thing for the mamba. No, don’t deny it—we both know you’d be lying.”

Biting back a growl, Deke calmly took a sip of his drink.

“I have to ask …” Shay leaned forward. “Why aren’t you exploiting this opportunity you have to go after what you want without breaking your vow to Dayna?”

Deke felt his nostrils flare slightly. “Leave it, Shay.”

“But I don’t get it. It makes no sense to me—if for no other reason than it’s only logical to get something good out of being struck by touch-hunger.” Shay paused as Cassandra materialized with his drink. He cast her a grateful smile and waited for her to walk away before then refocusing on Deke. “Seriously, why not just do it?”

“This isn’t your business.”

“Since when would I let something like that bother me?”

Deke rolled his eyes.

Shay leaned away, his face scrunching up. “You’re not holding back from Bailey because you mistakenly think I’ll otherwise be hurt, are you? I like her, but I was no more serious about her than she was about me. Which made it easy to back off when I realized you had a thing for her.” Humor glimmered in his eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you jealous before.”

Deke frowned. “I wasn’t jealous.”

“Oh, how you lie.”

Okay. Fine. He’d been jealous. So what?

“You hid it well at first. If I’d sensed it sooner, I’d have broken it off with her quicker.” Shay sobered. “You know that, right? You know I wouldn’t date someone you were interested in?”

“I’m not interested in anything but changing this subject.”

“Tell me you know I wouldn’t have touched her if I’d seen you were so into her,” Shay persisted.

“Okay, three things. One, I’m not as into her as I think you believe.” Deke sounded convincing even to his own ears. “Two, even if I was, I’d have been in no position to expect you to stay away from her, given I made a promise to Dayna. Three, yes, I do know you’d have kept your distance from a woman if you thought I had more interest in her than you did. Now, if it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer to talk about something else. How’s your mom? I heard she had a fall.”

Shay stared at him, his lips pursed. Finally, he sat back with a resigned sigh. “Fine, we’ll change the subject.”

Between sips of their drinks, they talked of general things. Shay occasionally tried circling back to the topic of Bailey, but Deke was having none of it, so the other male eventually relented. Once their mugs were empty, they exited the coffeehouse and then said their goodbyes.

Deke had taken two steps toward his apartment building when he heard someone call his name. Half-turning, he found a petite brunette speed-walking in his direction, a huge-ass smile of excitement on her face.

She stopped in front of him. Human, his nose told him. “I came to surprise you. I was going to head to your building, but then I saw you from across the street and, gah, this is nuts!” She slapped her hands on her reddening cheeks. “I can’t believe you’re right there.” She moved as if to hug him.

“I know you?” he asked, almost taking a step back.

She blinked, her body tensing, her smile faltering. “I … What?”

“Do I know you?” He didn’t believe so. He was good with faces, but nothing about hers tickled his memory. He didn’t recognize her scent either, and neither did his cat. Yet, she was looking at him as if they were well-acquainted.

She cleared her throat. “Deke, it’s me.”

“And who is me?”

A frown slipped over her face. “Are … are you trying to be funny?”

“No.”

“I know my hairstyle is different—I went to the salon yesterday—but you can’t not recognize me.”

“From where?”

Her mouth flattened. “My pictures, obviously.”

Okay, now he was beyond confused. He turned to fully face her. “What pictures?”

Her hands fisted at her sides. “This isn’t funny, Deke.”

“No, it ain’t,” he agreed.

“What game are you playing?”

“Woman, no joke, I don’t know you. I have no clue how you could know me.”

Her nostrils flared. “It’s Maisy.”

“I don’t know any Maisy.”

Red flags of anger stained her cheeks. “There’s no way to not know someone you’ve been in a relationship with for the past three months.”

He felt his head jerk. “What the fuck?”

The anger began to melt from her expression as a glint of confused panic entered her eyes. “You’re Deke. Deke Hammond. Right?”

“Right.”

“You’re thirty-five. You like hiking. Hate bad food service. You have two brothers—one older, one younger. Right?”

His nape prickled. “How do you know all that?”

“Because you told me. It was you. It has to have been you.” With an unsteady hand, she yanked her phone out of her purse, tapped on the screen a few times, and then held it up. “Look. That’s you.”

Recognizing the social media profile on the screen, he went to confirm it, but then something caught his eye. His brows snapped together as a shocked anger flamed to life in his belly. “The fuck?”

“What? What is it?”

“That isn’t me. Same name, same pictures, same general info. But it’s not my profile.” The posts weren’t his. Someone was clearly posing as him online. “Son of a bitch,” he breathed.

She stared at him, horror making her jaw drop. “Oh, God. Your … your voice sounds different, but I didn’t think anything of it. Most voices sound different over the phone.”

Sensing she was going to bolt out of mortification, he said, “Let me get this straight. You’re in an online relationship with this person here?”

She shoved a hand into her hair. “You—they—contacted me through this profile. We connected. We grew close … Why would someone do this?”

“I don’t know.” But he’d goddamn find out. “Let’s go somewhere and talk. I’ve got questions I’m gonna need to ask you.”

“Come on, Bailey, really?”

Pausing scribbling on the sheet of paper tacked to the office corkboard, Bailey looked at the grizzly shifter who was stalking into the room. “What?”

Corbin gave her an incredulous look. “You’re actually signing the petition to have you fired?”

“I’m feeling left out.”

Shaking his head, he took a seat behind his desk.

“Why haven’t you taken the petition down?” Havana asked him from the chair directly opposite him.

Corbin cast a quick glance at Bailey. “She asked me not to.”

Well, of course she had. “It’s wise to know who your enemies are.”

Havana inclined her head, allowing that.

“I thought you three would have left by now—your shift is over.” Corbin rested his clasped hands on the surface of the table, his gaze cautious as it settled on Bailey. “I’m guessing you want to talk about Ginny’s recent allegation. You should be aware that she’s made several calls to the staff here—me included—swearing you’re responsible for the attack on Jackson.”

“Unbelievable,” muttered Aspen, stood beside Havana’s chair. “Do any of the staff believe that Ginny’s right?”

He snorted. “No. They know full well that Bailey isn’t a person who’ll hide her crimes. As one of the staff said … ‘Bailey won’t stab a person—metaphorical or otherwise—in the back; she’ll aim right for their fucking eye.’”

Smiling, Bailey put a hand to her chest. “Aw, that’s sweet. Also accurate.” She’d actually gone for someone’s eye a time or two. There was nothing quite like feeling an eyeball pop. “That’s not why I’m here, though.”

Corbin’s brow inched up. “Oh?”

She crossed to his desk and set down the pen she’d used to doodle her name on the petition. “My cousin made a reappearance. The one who keeps dying.”

The grizzly’s mouth tightened. “What did the little bastard want this time?”

“Protection,” replied Bailey, moving to stand near Havana. “He owes the Westwood jackals a shit ton of cash.”

Corbin’s brows flew together. “Jackals? You shitting me?”

“Nu-uh.”

The grizzly shook his head again, grim. “I should be surprised, but he isn’t the brightest bulb. What’s truly surprising is that he’s lived this long.”

“I had the same thought,” muttered Aspen.

“I’m guessing you all sent Roman on his way,” he hedged.

“Good guess,” said Bailey. “The jackals will probably want to talk to me at some point—they’ll hardly overlook his debt; they’ll try to hunt him down. Much as it pisses me off, it’s possible that they’ll come looking for me here, so I wanted to give you a heads-up. Actually, there’s a chance Roman might show here too. It would be wiser for him to go to ground, but he could think he can convince me to change my mind.”

“If that little shit stain comes here, he’ll wish he hadn’t.” Corbin cricked his neck. “That nest of his is a joke.”

Totally. Even thinking of the Umber Nest made her snake want to bite someone. Anyone would do, really.

The way Bailey saw it, she’d been better off with Corbin than growing up with that bunch of selfish assholes. That didn’t make her anger at the choices they’d made years ago any less potent, though. Nor did it make much of a difference to her mamba.

Havana twisted her mouth. “I don’t think we’ll have to worry that the jackals will do anything stupid. They’re not going to struggle to believe she turned Roman away, because when they look into his relatives and learn of her existence, they’ll also learn that the Umber Nest fucked her over. The jackals will see that she has no motivation to help anyone from the nest.”

Aspen nodded. “And even if they aren’t willing to dismiss that she’s aiding Roman, I don’t see them attacking her or anything. Their pack might be tough, but Roman was right about one thing—they won’t want trouble with a pride mostly made up of pallas cats.”

“Still,” began Corbin, “be ready for trouble all the same. The Westwood Pack have a bad reputation, and jackals don’t always do what you’d expect.”

“Yeah, that species can be pretty unpredictable.” Bailey grinned, adding, “Like me.”

“Should you really be so proud of that?” Corbin questioned. “I’m thinking no.”

“I’m thinking yes.”

He playfully scoffed. “Of course you are.” He straightened in his seat. “Hopefully, the entire situation blows over very soon. Be sure to keep me updated.”

Bailey saluted him. “Will do, Paddington.”

He shot her a look of mock annoyance. “Paddington Bear is not a grizzly.”

“So?”

“So there’s no sense in—You know what, forget it. I’ve come to accept that the concept of logic will always escape you.”

Bailey grinned again. “Took your sweet time.”

Snorting, Havana stood. “Come on, let’s go.”

Outside, Bailey and her girls headed straight for the car she’d been assigned by the pride. Like all the other pride-owned vehicles, it boasted bulletproof windows.

As they decided to drop by the pride’s bakery, she didn’t drive Havana straight home as she usually did. Instead, Bailey parked her car in the lot outside her apartment building and then walked with Aspen and Havana to the bakery.

As they entered, the scents of coffee, yeasty dough, spices, and fresh bread washed over Bailey. She inhaled it all, loving it. Her snake wasn’t as equal a fan, finding no such things appetizing.

The place was at its busiest around noon, but though it was after six in the evening, there were still plenty of patrons sitting around or standing in the line at the counter. The sounds of dishware clattering, background music, and the tumbling of a dough mixer filled the space.

After Bailey and her girls bought both a drink and one of the baked treats from behind the glass counter, they claimed a table.

Peeling the crackly wax paper from her lemon muffin, Bailey hummed in delight. “So, we still on for movie night tomorrow?”

“Absolutely,” said Havana, lifting her éclair from her plate. “We’ll have it at my place.”

“Good. I like your TV best.”

“I don’t know why. It’s no different than your own.”

“Some things cannot be explained, they just are.”

Havana sighed, flapping her free hand. “Whatever.”

“Goddamn shitbag,” Aspen muttered under her breath, her upper lip peeling back in disgust.

Bailey frowned. “What? Who?”

Tearing open a sugar packet a little too hard, the bearcat tipped her chin toward a member of the line. “Check out his neck tattoo.”

Catching sight of what was basically the no-smoking sign only it featured a wolf’s head rather than a cigarette, Bailey had to bite back a growl. Her snake flicked out her tongue, feeling nothing but pure scorn. The sigil was commonly worn by anti-shifter extremists.

The hateful, fanatic humans were very much in favor of culling the shifter population—particularly by attacking them, bombing their territories, and insisting that mated couples be restricted to having only one child.

More, the extremists appealed for shifters to be electronically chipped, unallowed to leave their territory, prohibited from mating with humans, and placed on a register like sex offenders.

Grave mistake.

Because shifters were predators. They didn’t run or hide or play nice. They fought violence with violence. So they’d formed the Movement, a group which had no issue eliminating entire factions of extremists and assassinating those in power.

Preferring to keep the identities of their members private, the Movement often recruited unmated lone shifters since they were able to more easily fly under the radar. The group had recruited Bailey, Havana, Aspen, and Camden many years ago. While the four had appeared to live simple lives to the outside world, they’d actually done plenty of Movement-work in the background.

Members weren’t considered disposable soldiers. The group was a family who looked out for each other. They also didn’t allow members to perform more than eight years of service, wanting shifters to go find their mates rather than dedicate their lives to dealing with asshole-extremists.

Not many people outside the group knew that Bailey, her girls, and Camden were once part of it. Only Corbin, Tate, and Luke. As such, most had no idea that the four ex-members were trained in all kinds of shit that came in real handy at times.

“They all need shooting,” declared Havana before taking a hard bite of her éclair.

“If the dude knew he was currently surrounded by shifters, he wouldn’t be so at ease,” Aspen asserted, pouring sugar into her cup of coffee.

“I hope someone spits all over his order.” Havana licked at the small blob of crème that got stuck to the corner of her mouth. “A little rat poison wouldn’t hurt either.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Aspen tipped some milk into her drink and then stirred it with a teaspoon. “Going by the look on Jessie’s face, she’s considering it.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she did.” The female was as fierce as her mate, Farrell, who was also the pride’s head enforcer. Bailey took a bite of her muffin, almost moaning in delight as the warm, lemony filling hit her tongue. “On another note … I got finger-fucked by Deke last night.”

Havana’s éclair slipped out of her hands. “What?”

“And I jacked him off,” Bailey added.

“What?” demanded Aspen.

“It was totally unexpected, I—”

Aspen slammed up a hand. “Wait, slow down, are you serious right now?”

“Deadly.” Bailey had done her upmost best to put the encounter out of her mind but, yeah, she’d failed. Especially that damn kiss—it kept replaying in her mind.

No one had ever kissed her like that. As if every ounce of their focus had been on tasting and exploring and feasting on her mouth, like nothing had ever been more important. A girl could easily get addicted to something like that.

Havana did a slow blink. “Oh my God, you’re not kidding.”

Her eyes glinting with avid interest, Aspen leaned forward. “How did all that come about?”

Bailey took another bite out of her muffin. “He followed me into my apartment to make sure I didn’t bite Vera—it was a close call. She threatened to have me evicted. Can you believe that?” Her snake was still stewing over that.

Havana clicked her fingers. “Focus, Bailey. We’re talking about Deke.”

Setting down her muffin, Bailey rolled her eyes. “We talked. Well, bickered. I called him Eye Candy. He got all frowny. Then he warned me not to keep pushing him or I’d regret it.”

“So you kept pushing him,” guessed Aspen, breaking off a small piece of her white-chocolate-chip cookie.

“Of course.” Bailey lifted her bottle of water and unscrewed the cap. “I asked if there’d be bloodshed. He said it depended on whether I was a scratcher when I came. I snorted and told him there was no way he’d touch me like that. Next thing I knew, his hand was down south. He didn’t do anything at first, just kept his hand there.”

Pausing, Bailey sipped her water while her friends gawked at her. “I have to say, I was very impressed that he went that far. I didn’t think he’d dare. I have to salute the guy for being so ballsy.”

Havana waved that away. “Salute him later. I want to hear what happened next.”

“Nosy heifer,” teased Bailey, setting down her bottle. “I guess his pride got in the way, because he wouldn’t back down. It probably didn’t help that he was dealing with touch-hunger. He kissed the breath from my damn lungs, and then somehow his fingers ended up inside me. After I came, I jerked him off.” She shrugged.

“Genuinely?” asked Havana, leaning forward in her seat. “This really happened?”

Bailey dipped her chin. “It really happened.”

The devil eyed her carefully. “You’re not lying?”

“Why would I lie?”

“Because you sometimes make stuff up when you’re bored.”

“I don’t like having nothing to do,” Bailey defended.

“Woman, be real, did you and Deke honestly give each other hand jobs last night?”

“We honestly did.”

Her lips parting, Havana sat back in her chair. “Well, hell and damn.”

“Yes indeed.” Aspen tossed a broken-off piece of cookie into her mouth. “I don’t know what to say except ‘wow.’”

Frowning, Bailey bit into her muffin again. “Then why didn’t you just say ‘wow’ and nothing else?”

Aspen pulled a face. “Do you have to be annoying all the time?”

“It brings me joy,” said Bailey. “Don’t you want me to be happy?”

“No, not really.”

Havana cut in, “We’re wandering off the subject; I’m not ready for that yet.” She shot Bailey a glare. “I can’t believe you’re only telling us now that you and Deke got your hands a good kind of dirty last night.”

Bailey frowned. “Why?”

“Besties don’t wait to share intriguing stuff with each other.” The devil lifted what was left of her éclair. “Why did you both stop at foreplay?”

“He didn’t want it to go any further.” Bailey told herself that it didn’t bother her, but though she was a tip-top liar, she wasn’t very good at bullshitting herself.

Havana’s eyes narrowed. “Did you say something to piss him off?”

“No.” Bailey chucked what was left of her muffin into her mouth. “He just isn’t interested.”

“I highly doubt that. Like, I couldn’t doubt it more.”

“Same here,” said Aspen before taking a sip of her coffee. “Maybe he wants to clear things with Shay first; make sure the guy won’t be upset by it.”

Havana pointed at the bearcat. “Hmm, yes, it could be that. Deke’s loyal to his friends. Whatever the case, it’s obvious now that he doeswant to be up in her business.”

Bailey snickered. “Uh, wrong. I’m not saying he isn’t attracted to me.” She knew he was, since he’d made it clear last night that he’d wanted her from day one. She wouldn’t have thought it would matter much to her snake either way, but the mamba liked that a whole lot. “I just don’t think he’s happy about it. Probably because he doesn’t like me as a person.”

Her nose wrinkling, Aspen sipped her drink again. “I don’t think he dislikes you, but I do think it’s possible that he begrudges being attracted to you. And I think that’s because he’s all tangled up in a promise he made to another woman.”

“But while dealing with touch-hunger, he can act on what he wants,” Havana added.

“He didn’t, though, did he? He kept his distance from me all these weeks,” Bailey pointed out. “He had no intention of coming to me at any point. He never meant for last night to happen. And, hello, has it not occurred to you that maybe I don’t want to be used as a mere sexual plaything while someone gets rid of their touch-hunger?”

Aspen let out a low snort. “No. You like being a plaything. And you’ve helped guys through touch-hunger before. You enjoyed it.”

Yeah, she did. “They fuck like savages. It’s ace.” She liked her sex rough and raw, and she made no apologies for it. She didn’t see why anyone should have to.

“So then I’m not seeing why you’d have a problem giving Deke a helping hand.” Aspen set down her mug, flicking up a brow. “Unless you’re worried you’ll get attached?”

Bailey felt her brow crease. “To what?”

“To him,” replied Aspen, enunciating each word like Bailey was slow on the uptake. “Emotionally.”

Bailey started to laugh. “Get the fuck out of here.”

Aspen’s eyes widened. “Hey, it’s possible.”

“Yeah, nah.”

“You bonded with us,” said Aspen, gesturing from herself to Havana.

“That was an accident.”

“Well, maybe you’ll accidentally bond with Deke just the same.” Impatience rippled across the bearcat’s face. “Why are you still laughing? It could happen.”

Not likely. Her snake couldn’t believe the woman was even suggesting it. “How could I actually bond with someone who I once begged the universe to make fall face-first into a steaming pile of horse shit?”

Aspen looked at Havana. “That sounds like love to me.”

“Agreed.” The devil ate the last of her pastry. “The bond is already forming.”

Bailey crossed her eyes. “God, you’re such dorks.”

Havana used a napkin to wipe her fingers. “I’m thinking I should invite Deke round for movie night.”

Bailey tensed, pausing in reaching for her water bottle. “What?”

Aspen enthusiastically nodded at Havana. “He can hang with Tate and Camden on the deck.”

“That’s what I’m thinking,” said the Alpha female.

“But why invite him?” asked Bailey.

Havana smiled. “I want to watch you two together.”

“Like, in bed?”

“What? No, you freak.” Havana tossed the napkin at her. “I want to see how your interactions go now that you’ve touched each other’s no-no places.”

Bailey did a slow blink and then shrugged. “Well, whatever works for ya.” Hearing her cell ping, she fished it out of her purse to find that she had a text from Tate. She read it quickly and then said, “Huh.”

“What?” asked Havana.

Bailey lifted her head and met the devil’s gaze. “I’ve been summoned by your mate. He wants me to head to your place right now. Am I in trouble?”

“Is there a reason that you should be?”

Probably. “Not that I know of.”

“Then maybe he just wants your help with something.” Havana stood. “Let’s go find out.”