TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 45

Forty-Five

LISA POV

My heart gave that stupid skip when he looked at me.

Cameron didn’t move. He stood on the stairs with one hand on the railing, watching me with the kind of focus that made my skin prickle.

I gave him a short nod, the same acknowledgment I would give any authority figure, and started toward the stairs, intending to pass him and disappear into my room.

He stepped directly into my path.

“Where were you?”

“Out.”

He scoffed. “I gathered that. Where, specifically?”

“The nursery. I’m volunteering there.”

Something flickered across his face. Surprise maybe. Or irritation.

“You’re working? Publicly?”

“Volunteering,” I corrected. “And yes. Franklin invited me to the pack run this morning. I found the nursery and they needed help, so I stayed. I can’t sit in my room all day doing nothing.”

His voice lowered. “You’re here for a specific purpose, Lisa. That needs to be your priority.”

“It is my priority,” I said. “But I’m also a person. I need something to do that makes me feel like I’m not just—”

I stopped before finishing the sentence.

Cameron studied my face as if he could see the rest of the thought anyway.

“I spoke with Evangeline,” I said when the silence stretched. “I apologized. For what happened. I told her it won’t happen again.”

“Did you.”

The tone was neutral enough to sound almost mocking.

“Yes.”

His gaze dropped to my neck.

To Franklin’s totem resting against my collarbone.

I waited for the reaction. The possessiveness. The anger I had seen before.

Nothing came.

He looked at the pendant, then back at my face.

“You’re wearing Franklin’s totem.”

“He gave it to me for protection,” I said. “Since I needed one.”

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I didn’t say the rest. Since Evangeline took yours.

Cameron nodded but didn’t comment.

The silence between us stretched until it felt tight.

He looked like he was holding himself back from reaching for me.

And the worst part was that I wanted him to.

I wanted him to close the distance, pull me against him, kiss me again.

But he didn’t move.

He stood there fighting something inside himself and said nothing.

The awareness I’d been ignoring all day sharpened suddenly.

My period was coming.

I could feel the familiar ache low in my belly and the heaviness that always came before it.

Which meant-

“I’m not pregnant,” I said.

Cameron’s attention snapped back to me. “You’re certain?”

“My period’s starting. I can feel it.”

“You need confirmation from the doctor.”

“I know my own body,” I said. “I’m not pregnant. Which means…”

I let the rest hang.

Which meant we had to keep doing this. Keep sleeping together until it worked. Keep pretending it was only business while everything between us grew more complicated.

Cameron’s gaze sharpened. I could see the tension building in his body, the way his shoulders set and his breathing changed.

He wanted to touch me.

Every line of him said it.

But he didn’t.

“We’ll schedule a test,” he said finally, his voice rough. “Just to confirm.”

“Fine.”

We stood there in the stairwell without moving.

I should have walked away. Gone to my room before I did something stupid.

Instead we both stayed exactly where we were.

Footsteps echoed from below as servants crossed the hall, breaking the moment.

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Cameron stepped back first. He walked past me up the stairs without another word.

I stayed there for a long time after he was gone, my hand resting against my stomach while I forced my breathing to slow.

My period started that night.

I woke around two in the morning with the familiar cramping and went to the bathroom to confirm what I already

knew.

Not pregnant.

I sat on the edge of the bathtub staring at the evidence and felt a knot of emotions twist together in my chest.

Relief, because being pregnant would have complicated everything immediately.

But also disappointment.

Not because I wanted a baby.

Because it meant this wasn’t over.

It meant more weeks, maybe months, of this arrangement. More nights with Cameron coming to my room. More sex that blurred the line between obligation and something dangerously close to intimacy.

More chances to fall for a man who would never be mine.

I pressed my palm against my lower belly and leaned forward with a quiet groan.

This was going to destroy me.

I could feel it happening already. The way my pulse jumped whenever I heard his voice. The way my eyes searched for him in every crowded room. The way my body had started craving his touch like something addictive.

And now we would have to keep going.

Keep sleeping together.

Keep pretending we felt nothing while everything between us grew tangled.

I didn’t know how much longer I could survive that without breaking.

But I didn’t have a choice.

The contract was clear. I signed it. Took the money. Made promises I couldn’t walk away from now.

So I would go back to his bed.

Let him inside my body.

And fight with everything I had to keep him out of my heart.

I closed my eyes and whispered a quiet prayer.

Please, Moon Goddess.

Let it work this time.

3/4

Before I lose myself completely.

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