“Gather the troops. Strategy session here at noon,” he decreed, then zoom. I was in his arms and my hair was flying out behind me as he took off like a bat out of hell. Then we were suddenly behind the closed steel door in his room downstairs.

My hair (and body) whooshed the other way as he stopped us, put me on my feet, and let me go.

I opened my mouth, probably to yell.

He got there before me.

“Your father is pissing me off.”

I closed my mouth in order not to yell, because if I did, I’d probably say things I’d regret.

I took a deep breath.

“Fuck,” Abel growled, dragging his hand through his hair. “He’s like a biker guru.”

Oh.

Well then.

Abel focused on me. “It’s irritating as fuck when you’re pissed to an extreme for someone to fight fire with logic.”

I suddenly wanted to laugh.

Instead, with years of experience with my dad, I replied, “I feel your pain.”

Abel stared at me. He did this a while.

Then, quietly, he said, “I did what I had to do.”

All of a sudden not angry at all, I moved toward him, lifting a hand to touch him, starting, “Honey—”

“Apparently, it’s beyond instinct. It’s why I exist, Lilah. Yesterday was great. Fuckin’ loved it, havin’ time with you, gettin’ to know you. But it’s not in me to stay in bed fuckin’ my woman while my brothers, her father, and his boys keep us safe. It just isn’t.” He shook his head and finished, “I did what I had to do.”

I laid my hand on his chest and got close, murmuring, “Okay, baby.”

The tightness of his chest relaxed (well, not all of it; it was safe to say my man was built so muscle like that stayed hard, thank God) and I got closer.

“You need to apologize to Jian-Li,” I said gently.

His hands spanned my hips and he muttered, “Yeah.”

Yeah.

I liked it that he agreed and did it so quickly.

Hell, I just liked my werewolf vampire.

I got up on tiptoe and touched my mouth to the skin under his chin.

When I rolled back, he dipped his chin deep and looked down at me.

The brown was seeping into his blue eye.

God, I loved that.

“You scared me,” I blurted.

“I’m sorry, pussycat,” he said softly.

“You gotta do what you gotta do, honey. I won’t stop you. I promise. But I want you to tell me so I know where you are.” I pressed into his chest. “I need to know where you are, like…need. It doesn’t feel good not to, and when I say that, I mean physically.”