“True,” she agreed, still blindsided from her stupidity. How could she have let him come inside her?
“We could get married to seal the deal,” he teased. “Want to hang around until Saturday and let Ned walk you down the aisle to me?” The sudden passion in his bright eyes blinded her. “Honey, what’s wrong?”
“I can’t marry you.” Her sisters would be disowned and cast out. Ty would hate her as soon as he learned what she really was. The good girl she’d strived to be her whole life would no longer matter once she lost what meant so much to her. Acceptance, a place in society. Her home. Ty’s love.
He paused and glanced away. “I was just teasing, Julia. Relax.”
Her face flamed. Of course Ty wasn’t asking her to marry him. The most eligible bachelor in town didn’t want Julia. Though an Easton, she was little more than an orphaned fox with little standing in the community.
“Question number one, why wouldn’t you marry me, if I was asking, that is?”
“Are you kidding me? You want to play twenty questions now?” She couldn’t believe she’d acted so uninhibited with him. God, I actually begged him to come in me. I am seriously losing it. Because thoughts of having Ty’s baby pleased the hell out of her.
“You want me to smooth things over with the council, answer my questions. Honestly. I can smell a lie.”
Foxes couldn’t do that, could they? She never had been able to smell with that degree of precision, but Ty was the sheriff. Perhaps his sense of smell accounted for what she’d always attributed to a cunning mind.
“But, Ty—”
“If I have to ask again, I’m going to go back and tell the council Meghan not only left Cougar Falls for a man, but that his family is a bunch of hunters who kill for sport.”
“That’s a lie.”
“It’s true. They hunt for sport. They’re just not Hunters.”
She fumed. “Blackmail?” Before he could open his mouth to retort, she stopped him. “Fine. I wouldn’t marry you because I don’t—” Love you? That would be a lie. She loved him. And that was a big part of the problem.
“You don’t what?”
“I don’t want to get hurt.” There. That was the truth.
He frowned. “I’d never harm you, Julia. I admit, I was a bit rough before, but I’m the one carrying bite marks.” He glanced down at his arms, looking pleased.
“Not physically harmed. Emotionally. You have a lot of girlfriends. I couldn’t marry a man who wouldn’t be loyal.”
“Had a lot of girlfriends, and there weren’t actually that many. Does it bother you I dated women who weren’t fox?”
“Not at all. I think the clan’s too narrow-minded for their own good.” The one thing she’d always respected about Ty, he didn’t seem to care for outward trappings. Though the women he’d dated were pretty, each had substance. To Julia’s annoyance, she actually liked the women he’d been linked with, silver fox and otherwise. “I think we should be able to date whoever we want, provided they’re Ac-taw.” Visions of her mother dying outside of town never quite left her thoughts, and worry for Meghan returned full force.
“If I was mated, there would never be another for me, or for my wife,” he added in a hard voice.
She thrilled at the possession in his tone and had to push past silly dreams of forever with Ty. “On that I’d agree.”
“Good.”
“Fine. But you’re not looking for a mate, right?”
He didn’t say anything, and his silence bothered her. Granted, she wasn’t offering, but plenty of men in town had thought her pretty enough to at least want to date. Apparently to Ty she was nothing more than an easy lay.
She frowned. “I’m not looking for a man.”
“Too bad you found one.”
Chapter Six
Ty entered the house after Julia, slipping through her opened window into her bedroom. They fell into bed together and slept the minute their heads hit the pillows.
Movement wakened him and he blinked up into the sun peering through the open window. Julia didn’t spare him a glance as she got up, pulled on her robe and headed to the bathroom.
He heard the shower start and sighed. Not that he wanted to talk, but he and Julia had a lot left needing to be said. He shoved his legs through his jeans and buttoned up seconds before Gabby burst through the door.
She stopped upon seeing him and her nostrils flared.
“Well it’s about time.”
When she continued to stand there staring at him, he sank back onto the bed. He’d had a long night. Having sex with Julia hadn’t sated him, though it should have. His animal spirit yapped at him to stop dicking around. He’d had Julia, naked, in bed, all night long, and he’d only come inside her while in the forest—once as a fox and twice as a man.
But he needed to slow down.
The idea he might have already impregnated her freaked him the hell out. On the one hand, he wasn’t ready for kits and family. Single-guy living suited him just fine. On the other hand, he’d made love to Julia. The only woman who’d ever wormed her way under his skin—and dammit, into his heart—didn’t want to mate with him.
He should have been happier about her not wanting any ties. Instead, her independence insulted him. She belonged to him. He could feel it, much as he almost wished he couldn’t. She’d been so tight around him, so new. Not a virgin, but not an experienced woman by any means. He’d never heard of her dating anyone in town, and his curiosity about her past consumed him.
“I’m so happy for you two. I’ve been waiting years for this.” Gabby stunned the hell out of Ty by jumping on top of him, knocking him flat on the bed. “She’s always had a thing for you, you know. Not that she would ever admit it.”
Ty stared at Gabby in fascination. Julia had a thing for him? “What are you talking about?”
“Come on, Ty. When’s the last time you saw Julia drinking at a party?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
Gabby grinned. He’d never seen her so cheery before. It gave her already cute features a beauty all their own. Her golden skin flushed with pleasure as she rolled off him and sat next to him on the bed. “She’s so serious all the time. I didn’t even know what she’d done until she confessed it while drunk at the last celebration. You dropped her off and I found her slurring her sorrows a few minutes later.”
“Yeah? What’d she say?” He needed to know. Never had anything been more important than hearing Julia might have a thing for him.
Gabby tilted her head. “I don’t know how much I should tell you. I don’t think it’s wise for you alpha types to always have the upper hand.”
Ty smiled wide. “Gabby, honey, do I look alpha to you?”
“Yes.”
The woman wasn’t buying the dimple. “Come on. I’ve wanted her for years. Fool woman never even noticed me. Still wouldn’t have if I hadn’t hightailed it out here to help her.”
“Yes, why did you?”
Ty paused, not sure he wanted to admit any more to Julia’s sister. Then again, Gabby seemed in the mood to reveal her sister’s deep, dark secrets. If he played this right, he could find the information he needed.
“Sarah Duncan told me Julia might be dealing with Hunters.”
“Oh, man. No wonder you followed.”
“I couldn’t bear the thought of Julia in danger.” Truth.
Gabby softened. “So you rushed out here to save her. That is so sweet. No one ever saves Julia.”