Chapter 16
Ollie’s POV
Seeing my phone, Hugh makes a grab for it. Just as his fingers brush the plastic case, I snatch it back, holding it against my bosom with both hands.
Hugh chuckles lightly, his chest rumbling against my back, as his breath warms the shell of my ear. “You like your little games, don’t you, lovely?”
“No, I just…” Gods, how to I talk myself out of this? “I want to show you I’m serious, I can enter your name myself.”
He hums, pleased by this. “You want to be a good girl for me, eh? I like it, though I think Declan would be more appreciative of your submissive side. Me, personally? I want to see
you throw caution to the wind. Show me your wild side, fated mate. I’m sure you have one.”
“Someday I will,” I said, lying through my teeth. “If you let me go.”
“Promise not to run again?”
“I promise.”
He moves his hands across my waist, slowly as if he’s memorizing the way. At my hips, his touch lingers a moment, his thumbs tracing over my hipbone.
“You’ve got some curve to you,” Hugh muses. “I like to have something to hold onto when I fuck.” He laughs. “Gods, you are a delight. Are you sure you won’t let me have you? We could go out to the balcony. I don’t care who sees.
Panic surges as hot as the lust that sears through me at the suggestion. Sex… in public? He doesn’t care who sees?
Those words should not turn me on as much as they do. I should find the very idea repulsive. And yet, at the same time, I can’t help but imagine, Hugh standing behind me as I hold onto the railing. In my mind, he grips my skirts and lifts up and up.
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“You’re blushing again,” his voice is so damn smug, satisfied with himself. “So responsive. I’ve going to have so much fun with you.”
Terrified of my own body’s reaction, how my nipples are tightening and my panties getting wet, 1 jerk myself out of his hold. He doesn’t hold tight so I’m able to slip free. I have no misunderstanding. If he wanted to keep me captive under his hands, he could do so.
Turning toward him, I pretend to be submissive so he will not find cause to capture me again.
Lifting my phone, I quickly unlock it. “Your number, please.”
He grins as he tells me. I punch in the numbers like I don’t already have him saved in my phone.
“What should I save it as?” I ask. I know him as Hugh, but he hasn’t revealed his name yet to the mysterious woman he believes me to be.
His smirk widens. “Your fantasy.”
It’s cheesy and should make me roll my eyes. Instead, I’m again transported to my imaginings of me against the railing of the balcony, with Hugh tugging down my panties. His own pants are around his ankles.
Shaking my head, I return to the here and now, and finish pretending to enter him into my phone.
“Can I go now?” I say when I’m done with the ruse.
“In a moment,” he says. He steps forward and grabbing my wrists, holds them like shackles to his chest. His face is so close, too close. His eyes drop to my lips and I find myself licking them. “Tell me you will call me.”
This time it isn’t a lie to say, “I will.” Likely, I will need to contact Hugh in the future. He doesn’t need to know that I will be calling him as Ollie, and not as his mystery mate. Only I will know that is the same person.
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“Shy little thing,” he says. “I can’t wait to set you free and see you wild. My dick can make that happen. Don’t keep me waiting.”
With that he releases me.
Not waiting for him to change his mind, I turn and run toward the drink table. I reach it just
as Ella comes to the front of the line. Before she can even reach for new champagne glasses, I grab her by the arm and tug her away.
“We have to go. Now,” I tell her.
“What? Why? I thought we were having a good time?”
“Hugh is here,” I say.
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Her good humor immediately falls. “Shit. Yeah, okay. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Together, we rush out to the car and Ella drives us away from the ballroom. Even with distance, Hugh’s scent remains in my nose.
“He’s a romantic,” Scarlet says in my mind.
I scoff. “He’s a playboy. I bet he’s used every single one of those lines he’s said to us on some other girl first.”
Scarlet’s jealousy prickles inside of me. “He should be ours.”
“Even if he accepted us as his mate, and we accept him, he will never be able to settle down. He’s cheated on every girlfriend he’s ever had,” I told her in my mind. “It’s better to forget him along with the rest.”
“You want him. I’ve seen your thoughts.”
“Yeah, well. I want a million dollar check too, but I’m not holding my breath for it.”
I understand my wolf’s hesitation to give up on our mates, but the sooner she comes around to the idea of forgetting them, the better things will be for us.
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“Just let it go,” I tell her.
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I’m a hypocrite. Even now, I’m remembering the strength of Hugh’s arm around my waist, and the feel of his breath on my ear.
“What you need is to forget all this,” Ella says. “The masquerade was a bust, but I have another idea.”
“What is it?” I ask, eager to hear anything that will get my mind off of Hugh.
At a red light, Ella glances over at me. “We should go for a run.”
Ella drives to a forest park where, after we park, we shift and race through the forest.
Scarlet is so relieved to be free that even she isn’t thinking about Hugh anymore. Together,
we run and chase the call of the wild.
I follow Ella for a while, relying on her to be my guide as Scarlet and I become acquainted
with one another. It takes some practice running on four legs.
Eventually we reach the edge of the forest, where we find a small cabin. It seems
abandoned. Ella and I sniff around it, but there’s no new scents.
We share a look. This place could be somewhere we could escape.
Later.
For now, it’s getting late. We need to get back to the estate before we are missed.
Ella parks in the lot on estate grounds, near but not inside the garage. It’s after ten, and
most of the lights in the main house are off.
“My parents are worried,” Ella says, checking her phone.
I check my own. No one has bothered checking in with me. No one in the family seems to care about me anymore.
Ella and I leave the car and sneak in through the back door of the house. We only make it
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two steps into the hallway before the overhead light clicks on.
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Sylvia stands in the doorway, her finger on the switch. Seeing me, she loudly announces, as if trying to get everyone’s attention. “Ollie?! You are only getting back now?!”
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