TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 147

One hundred and forty seven

Cameron POV

The street stayed quiet as I turned into the driveway. Early morning blue light sat over the houses, the kind that made everything look mystical. I rounded into the driveway and slowed at the sight of the red jeep. My headlights cut off before I fully stopped…

I decided to check the time on the dashboard. It was earlier than I had planned to return. I could have sworn Evangeline went out yesterday with that car and was not due to return until tonight. I stayed in the driver’s seat with my hands on the wheel, thinking about whether I miscalculated her schedule. The engine idled rougher than usual, the vibration running through the steering wheel into my palms.

If she was the one, I had not expected her back this early.

The air held the first sounds of birds waking somewhere beyond the compound walls. I turned off the engine and stepped out of the car. A guard mounting the door straightened and saluted. I nodded and kept moving. I reached the front door and pushed it open.

Upstairs, the lights were on. I stepped in and tried to ease the door shut behind me. It resisted, pushing back as if the frame had warped in the night.

The living room came into view. Evangeline lay on the couch. She was truly here. A blanket covered her, pulled up to her chest.

Her car being outside made sense now.

The room lights were still on, casting everything in a steady brightness that left no corner hidden.

I contemplated whether to wake her and take her to her bedroom or just leave her. I concluded that I would rather not have her know I was coming from the safe house. Just as I turned to leave, the blanket moved. She adjusted under it. Her head turned. Her eyes found me.

“Are you sneaking to your bedroom?” she said.

“What? Why would I do that? I didn’t want to wake you.”

“I was already awake.”

I stepped further into the room.

“You’re back early,” I said. “I thought you were staying with your mother all day.”

She held my gaze. “You thought wrong.”

“I would have come to get you. You shouldn’t have traveled like that. Not in your condition.”

She ignored that completely.

“Where were you?”

I moved past her question. “How long have you been back?”

“Cameron. Answer the damn question.”

I stopped a few feet from the couch. “I had things to handle.”

“What things?”

1/4

The hundred and forty sovan

+15 Benus

I took a breath. “Work. I stopped by a few places.’

Her voice stayed level. “List them.”

I looked at her.

“You want a report?”

“I want to know where you were.”

“I handled pack matters. I met with suppliers. I checked on a few routes. I went to the safe house.”

Her eyes did not move.

“For what?”

“To see how things were going with the baby, of course. Our baby.”

“Enough of this baby talk. You went to her. You couldn’t send someone else. You couldn’t wait until I returned. You’re stepping out of pattern.”

“Eva.”

“Excuses. Open excuses. That is what you keep making.”

I held her gaze. “I don’t need an excuse to check on my own child.”

She went quiet. Then she spoke again, colder this time.

“Do you want me dead?”

The question landed without warning.

I frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“You heard me.”

“No,” I said. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“It makes perfect sense,” she replied. “You know what I’m dealing with. You know what the doctors said. You know how little time they gave me. And you still choose to step out of this house and go fuck her.”

“I went there to check on the baby.”

“And stayed,” she said. “In her bed. That’s the part you’re not saying. You didn’t walk in and walk out. You stayed.”

She held my gaze. I decided there was no point avoiding that part completely.

“So you admit it,” she said.

I didn’t deny it.

“You keep proving me right, Cameron. Every time I think maybe I’m overthinking this, you give me something new.”

“I’m not doing anything behind your back.”

I ran a hand over my face and let it drop. “You’re making this bigger than it is.”

2/4

ended and forty overn

+15 Benus

“No,” she said. “I’m finally looking at it properly.”

I said nothing.

“You think I don’t see what’s happening,” she continued. “You think I don’t notice the way you’re shifting. The moment I drop dead, you are running straight to Lisa.”

“That’s not fair,” I said.

“What isn’t fair is me sitting here wondering if the man I’m holding onto is already halfway gone.”

The truth sat hard.

“I’ve been dealing with a lot,” I said. “You know that. The headaches. The bizarre way I feel sometimes when I forget things.”

“You said you were fine. You said you were handling things. Does Lisa’s pussy have a part in that?”

“Language.”

“Oh please,” she snapped. “You don’t have to pretend. Especially now that it is clear you’re making decisions you don’t even stand by.”

I felt the weight of that.

“I stand by what I do,” I said.

“Then say it clearly,” she replied. “Say you chose to go there. Say you chose to stay. Say you chose to put distance between us today.”

I held her gaze.

“I went there,” I said. “I stayed longer than I planned. I checked on the baby. I stayed with her. That’s what happened.”

I stepped closer to the couch.

“This isn’t about choosing one over the other,” I said. “It’s about managing everything that’s happening.”

“You’re not managing anything,” she replied. “You’re having a field day, feeding me with pity and planning to replace me. You are a selfish bastard. That is what you are.”

I let out a slow breath.

“You’re tired,” I said. “You just got back. You shouldn’t be stressing yourself like this.”

She shook her head. “My safety and priority are clearly not your concern. I am nothing but a sick, pathetic mate to you. But even if you want to replace me, why her? And why now?”

“I told you,” I said, trying to placate her. “I needed to check on the baby. I needed,” I paused, “I needed to clear my head.”

She held my gaze.

“And it worked?” she said. “Fucking her?”

I didn’t respond.

“Are your headaches gone now? Do you feel lighter? Is Lisa a solution to all of your problems?”

3/4

hund and forty-seven

+15 Benus

I decided against lying. I felt light. I noticed the absence of pressure that had been sitting on me since we traveled to the North.

“I’m still here,” I said.

“That’s not the same thing,” she replied.

I didn’t argue that. Because it wasn’t. Silence settled between us.

“You don’t like lying,” she said. “That is one thing I’ve always respected about you. So don’t start now.”

“I’m not lying.”

“You’re leaving things out. If I asked you not to go there again,” she said, “would you listen?”

The question sat there. I felt the answer form before I stopped it.

“I can’t promise that,” I said.

She nodded.

“That’s all I needed.”

She got up, picked up her blanket, and headed to her room.

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