came closer than she should have allowed, and faced her squarely. He smiled, but with an expression of sadness. Heartbreaking sadness.
Why?
Whatever she had expected, it hadn’t been that.
As he slowly moved toward her, she felt every inch he traveled as if the air between them compressed. When he stopped, they were nearly chest to chest, and she had to look up to see his face.
Liquid lava coursed through her veins, pumping, scorching, flowing fast. Her forehead dampened. Her heart raced. She was hot enough to be combustible and breathing hard. All these reactions confirmed that she hadn’t been wrong about one thing. Something was going on between them on a crazy personal level. Their chemistry had been instantaneous and wasn’t to be ignored.
Animal magnetism taken to extremes.
Lust at first sight.
Dreams trespassing into the realm of reality.
In that moment, she wanted no backstory or history with a man who spoke of relationships and marriage. No rules governing behavior and no regrets of any kind. This was the man she desperately wanted with an all-encompassing physical desire. His hands on her, for real. His mouth torturing her mouth, right now. His body inside hers, his every move making her writhe with pleasure.
Hell...she wanted to bite and scratch and become the beast. She wanted to dig her nails into him and wrap her legs sinuously around his waist. She wanted desperately to let go and be who she really was inside, without anyone else riding shotgun on her behavior.
Screw the dreams. These fiery cravings were real and pulsing and painfully acute. If she acted on them, she wouldn’t wake with her own hand between her legs because this guy would be there to do that for her.
“I’ve changed my mind about the porch.” Her voice was throaty and pitched low.
His eyes kept her riveted, casting a familiar spell. Skylar heard thunder, though the skies were clear. She felt lightning strike her, stapling her to the ground, and yet she was able to move.
Brazenly, she reached for his hand. She brought it to her breast and spread his long fingers over the thin fabric of the blue linen shirt covering her. His heat blended with hers, forcing her heart into a frantic tempo.
Miraculously, his face showed no surprise at this kind of sexual aggression. Maybe, like her, he’d known what was going to happen. With his free arm, he gathered her tightly to him. Warm lips brushed her forehead with the softness of a sigh.
Why in God’s name was she doing this?
Because she felt an unearthly attraction to this man, that’s why. No, not just attracted to, possessed by, and therefore willing to ditch caution for him, and for what they were about to do.
She looked into light blue eyes that sparkled with curiosity and contained no visible wolfish variation. Just a man, then. A really sexy man. One she didn’t have to have a future with, only a passing moment of eroticism that would be a culmination of her one-sided bed play.
She brushed off the little alarms going off in the back of her skull in favor of the quakes and the heat of the ranger’s seductive nearness. It was hardly surprising that she’d go for this. She needed to take the risk.
This guy wasn’t Danny. Danny lacked in some departments and was intimidated by her lust for sex. She had tamped down those lusts the entire time they were together in favor of hiding her wilder side. After being corralled so long, some of those needs were pushing back.
The man holding her stroked her face, sending waves of little shivers through her body. Did he understand what was happening to her or was this blatant offer of female physicality merely every ranger’s wish come true?
He moved first, backing up, his breathing as labored as hers. Calmly, he took the gun from her and tucked it into his belt. Then he reached for her hand.
She said nothing, couldn’t have managed one word. His touch was electric and uncommonly sensuous.
In silence, he led her up the steps toward the front door of the cabin of secrets, where some of those secrets, scary as they might be, strange as they had become, were about to be shared.
Only then did Skylar whisper a curse and a prayer.
Secrets.
Desire unleashed.
Gavin had touched this sexy woman and was still standing there in human form. His hand had been on her breast, and that hand had remained his own without altering its shape or hurting her.
So maybe he could do this, he thought. Perhaps in the grand scheme of things that made monsters of men, he’d prevail in something he wanted so badly.
The cabin was small, a one-bedroom affair, so the bedroom wasn’t hard to find. Once they reached it, Gavin lifted the woman beside him into his arms. In silence he held her, fearing to speak, afraid to ruin what was going on between them. He was sure she felt as strongly about it as he did.
Her eyes told him so. Big green eyes in a pretty oval face, with a small tapered nose, high cheekbones and beautifully arched brows—all of those features expressive and showing her impatience.
She looked young and felt light, almost buoyant, in his arms, but she buzzed with energy as she laced a slender arm around his neck and snaked her fingers into his hair, just above the nape of his neck. Heat flared white-hot in the spot she touched, and he held back a groan.
He could not afford to come unglued.
Pulse soaring, body hardening, Gavin checked a growl when her lush pink mouth parted and she ran her tongue over her lips, unconsciously wetting them in a seductive sweep without taking her eyes from his.
Siren.
Seductress.
Put here to tempt him. Push him. Test his limits.
Her exhaled breath smelled like the lemons she’d used to make the drink offered to him, but her lips offered so much more, if he dared to cross a line he’d set for himself so achingly long ago.
Gavin wanted nothing more than to devour that pouty mouth and draw from her a moan. He was close enough to her to do that, yet he didn’t kiss her, could not kiss her now, because that level of intimacy was too dangerous and might be too much for either man or wolf to bear.
Already her closeness was tricky. His skin rippled with tension. Nerves were firing, exaggerating his pulse, sending it skyrocketing. These reactions might have been normal when facing a situation like this—a beautiful woman offering herself to him on a warm evening, and out of the blue. But of course nothing about this meeting was normal. He sensed this, and so did the creature he carried inside him.
The wolf was stirring, wanting in on the deal. How far would he get? How much did he dare?
He’d have to put this woman on the bed in order to find out, and couldn’t make himself release her. Tight against him, she was safe—a
