Mated to the Wilde Bear novel Chapter 19

“You can stay with me,” Xavier said.

Her eyes whipped to his, but she couldn’t detect a trace of teasing in him.

“Seriously?” she asked, and he nodded. “No, that’s a bad idea. Very bad. I can’t just move in with you. We had one date, Xavier. And it ended pretty awful.”

“I don’t mean with me,” he said. “I mean at the Lodge with me and the crew. We have an empty room you can use until you figure things out.”

“Oh.” Disappointment pricked at her chest. Of course, that’s what he’d meant.

“But if you wanted to stay with me, I wouldn’t stop you,” he added.

Again, panicked desire had her staring back at him with rounded eyes. “I can’t keep hiding my animal from DOT if I’m openly living with a bunch of shifters,” she said.

“Well, you can’t exactly sleep in your car. Or tell people why you got kicked out of your apartment. This sounds like it’s your best option. Your only option.”

He had a point, darn it. She bit her lip, thinking it over, and realized she had no choice. Explaining to people that she’d moved in with a houseful of shifters would be the lesser of two evils. She sighed and kneaded her temple, warding off a stress headache.

Xavier cleared his throat. “I want to say sorry for last night. We had a great time and then I really fucked it up there at the end. I didn’t mean to make it sound like it didn’t mean anything to me. I think we should start over. Again.”

Her brow rose. “Didn’t we do that already?”

He flashed a smile that had undoubtedly melted countless panties. “Third time’s the charm?”