Honesty by Viola Rivard Page A

rage blazing in his blue and gold eyes. Through clenched teeth, he said, “I can smell how badly you want me.”
    “I’m with your brother.”
    His gaze hardened. “You’re attracted to my brother.”
    “No,” she said, shaking her head. “I care about him.”
    “You don’t know anything about him.”
    “I know that he cares about me,” she said. She could feel her eyes begin to prickle. “And he’s pretty much the only person in the world who does and I’m not about to screw that up, so please, get off me and leave me alone.”
    A muscle ticked in Hale’s jaw. After a long moment of silence he pushed up off the ground and stood. Taylor saw he was still as hard as a rock before he turned his back to her and walked away.
    She sat in the mud, rain falling on her face , as she watched him leave. She wondered where he would go and if he was going to find another woman to satisfy his needs. She told herself that it didn’t matter.
    ***
    Hale wasn’t with the hunters when they arrived at the river, carrying their game. Taylor was both relieved and disappointed. Part of her had hoped that seeing him again would dispel some of the anxiety that had taken root in the pit of her stomach. She needed to know that things were settled between them and there wouldn’t be any lingering weirdness.
    But by the time she was plucking the feathers from a second unfortunate turkey, Taylor had realized how ridiculous that thought was. Of course things would be weird between them. You didn’t go from being about to have crazy animal sex with someone one minute to being coolly indifferent to them the next. Just thinking about Hale made her feel hot and bothered.
    As her mind continued to careen down that path, she inevitably began to make comparisons. Alder was the only person she’d ever had sex with. She’d never desired someone as much as him, until she’d met his brother.
    Alder made her feel sa fe, secure, and important. When they’d been together it was deep and passionate. He was the type of man she could maybe, one day, fall in love with.
    Taylor wasn’t sure she could ever love an arrogant and abrasive man like Hale. But there was something about him that set her blood on fire. Last night, it had been confusing. Tonight, it was downright disturbing. She was starting to wonder if maybe it would be better for her and Alder to leave after all.
    After a while of mulling over the issue, Taylor tried to put it out of her mind. The fact that Lark had overheard part of her exchange with Hale made that pretty much impossible. By the time she’d found her way back to Lark and Glenn, they knew almost everything and they hadn’t stopped talking about it since they’d arrived at the river.
    Even more annoying was that the other shifters on cleaning duty overheard Lark and Glenn talking and Taylor knew there was no chance of this not getting back to Alder. She could only hope she could get to him first and could somehow explain the situation in a way that wouldn’t make her seem like a floozy.
    Taylor found it hard to believe that she’d only just lost her virginity and already her sex life was a disaster. Was there any aspect of her life that she couldn’t screw up?
    Beka and her friends were thankfully absent tonight. That left cleaning to Taylor, Lark, Glenn, and Fenix, the latter of whom was the hawk from earlier. Holly, the fox, was also there, but rather than help she only seemed interested in taunting them.
    As Taylor worked on the speech she would give Alder, she picked up on the tail end of a conversation.
    “Well, I think it’s a good idea she didn’t couple with Hale,” said Lark. “It’s about time a female rejected him.”
    Taylor tensed, knowing Lark was referring to her. She kept her back to the group and continued to pluck at the turkey, deciding not to engage.
    “Don’t sound so proud,” Holly muttered. “It’s not as if Hale’s ever come on to you.”
    “Only because he knows he wouldn’t stand