Page 53 of Rough

Was it also forbidden for him to be with me? Was that why he seemed so out of sorts when he came back to the truck? Why he hadn’t spent the night with me?

“Hi, Dr. Ames?”

I jumped in surprise. I’d been so deep in my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed the woman leaning against my car at the curb.

Oh shit. It was Total Bitch from the bar. Karen. James’ sister.

She wore snug jeans, cowgirl boots and a plain white t-shirt. The neckline was a deep V that accentuated her ample breasts. She was beautiful, I had to give her that. She was also a bitch, so I approached her warily.

“Hi. I just wanted to thank you for saving my brother’s life yesterday. He told me he almost drowned.”

And got shot, but apparently that wasn’t life-threatening to a wolf.

“Oh, no problem. That’s what I do.” I smiled wanly. “I am a doctor.”

She showed no intention of moving her ass off my car. “Yeah, I heard that.”

Okay, what the hell does Total Bitch want? It clearly wasn’t to thank me. Most family members who were thankful brought me a Bundt cake or sent pictures of their baby.

“Listen, I don’t know if Boyd told you, but—” She rolled her lips in like she was breaking bad news to me. She looked left and right, as if my neighbors were leaning out their windows to overhear us. “—shifters can’t mate with humans.”

I frowned. “Like, it’s not biologically possible? Because I can say you’re wrong.” I could play a little bitchy, too.

Her eyes narrowed because she caught my meaning. James probably mentioned the waterfall, and it was easy to put two and two together about what we’d been doing there. It hadn’t been Bible study.

“Like, it’s forbidden,” she clarified. “I hate to tell you this, but since you were so kind to James and all, I thought you deserved to know. I feel like it would be even worse if you found out later.”

My stomach tightened, and I didn’t want to ask. But I did. “What?”

She tucked her dark hair back behind her ear. “Rob sent Boyd to date you. To keep you quiet about his bull riding accident because while it was probably pretty bad when it first happened, he healed way too fast to be human. You couldn’t know the truth. Boyd’s always been the charming one of the three Wolf brothers.” She shrugged her slim shoulders. “I guess Rob figured a little attention from the good-looking one, and you’d be smitten enough to do whatever he asked.”

She looked me over, head to toe. “A little attention goes a long way with some women.”

Oh God. I wanted to puke. She was manipulating me and being a total bitch. She knew a woman’s weaknesses and went right for them. I was smart enough to see that. She’d been all over Boyd at the bar before I got there. Hell, even after. Then her little stunt with the mechanical bull. Boyd had rebuffed her efforts, and she was scorned. He’d wanted me, not her.

The cattiness was one thing, but something in her words rang true.

Boyd had used sex to distract me from examining his wounds. He’d gotten me in the barn, got my panties down around my thighs and made me forget my own name, let alone to look at his wound. Or lack of. He’d even covered the spot with a bandage to fake me out. It was only because of her brother’s eagerness to fool around with his girlfriend and a meddling Jett Markle that the truth had come out. Boyd hadn’t told me he was a shifter.

Had Boyd been seducing me just to keep what they were a secret? How would Karen know that if she hadn’t actually heard it from one of the brothers? She hadn’t been there.

“You’re not one of us. You never will be. He may have had fun with you, but he’ll be back in my bed. He can mate me, bite me as we fuck. I’ll give him pure pups.” She stuck her chest out and practically preened with pride over her ability to birth a shifter baby.

I might deliver babies for a living, but I knew jack about shifters. Was a shifter/shifter mating required? Could there be mixed babies? Was that even possible? Was she messing with me or telling me the truth?

Boyd hadn’t filled me in. He hadn’t answered any of my questions. He’d promised to do so, but instead of coming in last night and staying when he could’ve given me the answers I needed, he’d left. Was he stalling?

I blinked. I couldn’t process all this or look at Karen a second longer.

“Excuse me, I’m late,” I snapped at the same moment Boyd pulled up in his giant truck. I hadn’t expected to see him this morning, but my heart flipped at the sight. I had it for him bad, and I realized now that was more trouble than I ever imagined.

“Uh oh. Speak of the devil,” Karen said, a sly smile curving her glossed lips. “Just be careful, that’s all I’m saying. Have a fling, ‘cause he’s that good. But I don’t want you to get your heart broken like every other human female who slept with Boyd Wolf.”

“What did you just say?” Boyd growled as he climbed out of his truck and slammed the door. He couldn’t have possibly heard that unless—

Oh yeah. They probably have super hearing, too. Wolf ears.

He stalked toward Karen, but she dashed away. “Gotta run! Thanks for saving James yesterday!” She jumped in a beat-up VW bug and drove off.