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“Should be easier to see tomorrow, with the moon full.”
“You’re right.” He dried his hands on his pants, forgoing the towel.
There were no claws on those hands.
“Does the approach of a full moon make animals restless? I think I hear them at night,” Skylar said.
Now she was pushing things. She was an idiot.
He 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.
Chapter 4
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 prisoner, his captive. Christ! He felt her need melt into him. Her anxiousness called him out, and the wolf inside him twisted into knots, wanting to accept her challenge.
Did this woman feel how fast his heart was beating?
“Kiss me,” she said, meeting his eyes, tugging him forward with both of her hands fisted in his hair. “Make it real.”
Real? Was that just her way of telling him to get on with it?
Take your time, Gavin.
Don’t listen.
The excitement he felt had to be measured. Nothing was to be taken for granted or rushed.
He didn’t kiss her. Not yet. One step forward and his knees bumped the mattress. Gavin loosened his grip on the sleek body he wanted to tear into. She was covered in faded jeans and a fitted shirt—a lot of layers to peel back while testing himself.
She felt so damn good, and smelled even better. Her body was slim, taut, pliant. Through the shirt, her ribs were ridges beneath his fingers. In place of curves, she was composed of lovely muted angles.
Gavin liked all of this.
He knew exactly what to do and how to do it, if he dared to press this further and face the consequences of accepting the woman’s gracious invitation so close to the full moon.
Not long now and he would become the beast, at least in part. Thank God his mind remained his own and in the driver’s seat when that happened. The same couldn’t be said for the monster that had savaged him not far from here.
Not far from this cabin.
The woman’s hands moved, and Gavin sucked in a breath. Warm fingers slid beneath his collar in a meeting of overheated flesh.
God. Help. Him.
He had to be cautious, careful, diligent. He had to keep sharp and pay attention when all he wanted to do was lose himself in the woman’s succulent body and bury himself inside her, where he’d forget the rest of the world for a brief time.
He wanted that very much.
He set her on the bed. Her arms came away from him, limbs falling, muscles wired. She continued to look at him as if she knew him already, as though this wasn’t the first time they faced each other in this way. That should have bothered him, Gavin supposed, but it wasn’t the time for reasoning. His hunger was growing, and so far he was okay.
All right.
He sat down beside her on a lavender-scented bed not intended for two. The woman watched him with her eyes wide-open and her lips quivering ever so slightly.
I can do this.
This is what I need.
When she blinked slowly, he felt the loss of her gaze, as if part of him had been torn away. In her eyes he was a man, not a freak.
“Look,” he whispered to her. “Look at me.”
She did, letting out a breath.
With careful hands, in quick movements, he pulled the shirt over her head and tossed it to the floor. The sight of her creamy ivory bareness made him pause to take stock. She was splendid, flawless, made for him. The back of Gavin’s neck prickled with appreciation.
Small, rounded breasts rose from a smooth chest beneath a graceful slope of shoulders. The delicate lace of skimpy blue lingerie covered those breasts, held in place by thin ribbons that ran up and over her shoulders to disappear beneath a tangle of tawny golden hair.
Pressure rose in Gavin’s chest and groin as he waited out a moment of incomparable agony. Then he eased those ribbons down, leaving them to cross her fair skin like slender slashes of watercolor shadow.
He closed his eyes, aware of the irony.
He was that shadow.
When she touched him, he jumped. She’d tucked a hand inside his shirt, between the buttons, so that once again their fiery skin met. Gavin fought back a sound he was sure would have fallen somewhere between a groan and a growl.
Her touch spurred him on.
Captivating scents, rich and floral, saturated her skin, the see-through lace covering her and the pillows behind her. He had smelled this fragrance before, from afar, and it was what had brought him here, to her.
Her skin was dewy, soft. A flat stomach stretched to the button on her low-slung jeans. Sharp-edged hip bones raised the denim, highlighting the concavity between them that, wolf willing, he’d get to settle himself into. But that was wishful thinking, and he was getting way ahead of himself.
Lowering his mouth to her breasts, Gavin placed a kiss between them, feeling relatively safe if he stayed away from her mouth. With a spike in his pulse, he absorbed the ungodly pleasurable sensation of the delicate lace against his lips.
He placed a second kiss on the exposed edge of one rounded breast, knowing this might be pushing things and that he was about to become undone.
Taking his time wasn’t going to work. Climbing into bed with her wasn’t, either. He was starting to sweat, burning up from the inside out, and his hands were quaking. Maybe she was the wrong woman to try his luck with. He’d never ached for a woman this badly, and he didn’t want to lose the connection.
Damn it, how would he explain stopping this now?
She was too exquisite to be a test run for his current predicament. He was rock hard, his body begging to be inside her. That kind of inner turmoil tended to spark the wolf to life.
He felt the wolf rising now in direct proportion to the stiffening of his cock. His throat was no longer his own. He didn’t dare make a sound with this pressure building.
In hindsight, he should have known better than to come here, this close to a full moon, for any reason. Being drawn to this woman only made matters worse.
Wildness coated the underside of his skin. Although fur wouldn’t burst from his pores tonight, the wolf’s drive was what Gavin feared. He couldn’t be entirely sure which needs were ruling his desires, his or the wolf’s. Surely the wolf’s hunger had become his own.
Gavin brushed a stray tendril of gold from the woman’s forehead, fighting to remain sane when the wolf desired powerful thrusts and the slapping sounds of bodies fiercely merging. The wolf wanted to bite and bruise and voted for ruined beds, broken furniture and swollen mouths.
Fast. Hard. Take it now. That was the way of the wolf. And maybe also the thoughts of a man who had long gone without.
Be careful.
Keep control.
Gavin’s teeth slammed shut when she whispered in his ear.
“Now,” she said. “You and me, here, now.”
To get a grip on a restraint that was rapidly slipping away, Gavin shut his eyes.
If I do as you ask, I’ll never be able to see you again. I’ll never look into your eyes again or feel the softness of your skin. You’d know me for what I am, what I’ve become. My secret would be out.
Those were words he could never say out loud. But the truth was that she didn’t want him to stop this. She was trembling and ready to take him on. The look in her eyes explained it all.
She reached for his shoulders, dug her fingernails into his shirt as if to tear away barriers and accept everything he had to give.
Forgive me...
He could try to be a man, and only a man, one more time.
For you.
Pulling her from the pillows, Gavin released the clasp keeping her lacy bra between them. As she fell back, he covered one of her breasts with his hot, breathless mouth.
The wolf swam in his bloodstream, causing his heart to thunder as Gavin drew her in, circling the pink raised tip with his tongue. A lick and a draw and then he bit down lightly, teasingly, sweating with the effort of holding passion back. None of this was enough by far, yet it was clear that he wouldn’t get much further if he hoped to maintain some control.
More thunder hammered his skull and beat at him from behind his ribs. Beneath his belt, his body was demanding this union, though shadows lengthened in the room, darkening the floor. Night was near, and inside of that darkness roamed a monster this woman needed protection from.
Two monsters, actually.
When he looked down, it was to find his shirt hanging open from mid-chest down, with a few buttons missing. The woman beside him was running her hands over his stomach with a touch like hot coals—over his abdomen and halfway around to his lower back. He arched with each incendiary caress, maintaining eye contact, holding his breath.
Her nails grated against his ribs to leave long red grooves. She let out a sultry, sexy-as-hell sigh that shook Gavin to his core. This was her own growl of need and longing, an expectation of the otherworldly boundaries she planned on obliterating with him, and a promise to see this through, whatever he had in mind.
“Who the hell are you?” he whispered as his chest met hers.
Her lips separated, luring him into a kiss, daring him to devour her. And what the hell, he would have done it anyway, damn the beast, damn the curse that mocked his life.
Or so his thoughts went until he heard a distant sound that froze him inches from her, and kept him from taking that beautiful mouth for all it was worth.
The roar echoed in the clearing around the cabin and instantly chilled Gavin to the bone. He hesitated for several agonizing seconds, horrified. “No. Not now. Not yet,” he whispered.
The woman in the bed also heard the noise. White-faced and wide-eyed, she sat forward, her heart beating as furiously as his.
“What was that?” she asked.
“Nothing you’d want to meet.” Even that much of an explanation seemed to expose too much, Gavin thought.
Damn the timing. He should have known better than to put his mind and energy elsewhere when he was sure the monster had returned.
On his feet in a flash, Gavin reached for the radio still tucked into his belt before deciding against using it. Who would believe him or want to face whatever made that awful roar?
With a graceful swing of one arm, he retrieved the gun from the floor and set it on the bed.
“I’m sorry.” After taking one last look at the woman who’d distracted him into nearly forgetting a vow, and with his heart filled with regret for having to pass up what she offered here tonight, he added, “Really sorry.”
Then he turned for the door.
She scrambled after him. He heard the sounds of her bare feet on the old wooden boards. “What was that?” she repeated. “Tell me.”
“Wolf,” he said. “Big one. Badass. Doesn’t belong here.”
“You have to go after it?”
Her voice kept him hard and hating the separation.
“I have to find that beast before it finds other things to harm,” he explained.
“Aren’t wolves usual out here?”
Gavin stopped at the front door thinking that people were so damn naive. But though this woman looked bewildered, she didn’t appear to be the slightest bit hurt by his hasty withdrawal, and only truly curious about the sound they’d heard. She didn’t ask him to explain his abrupt behavior. She was looking at him with hunger dilating her beautiful green eyes.
Grabbing her by the shoulders, Gavin tilted her head back with a small shake. She didn’t object, just bit her lower lip hard enough to bring up a droplet of blood with her tiny white teeth.
“Christ!” He wanted her so blessed badly, and to prove it, he kissed her mouth so savagely, she uttered a cry of surprise.
He kept on kissing her, deepening the union of their mouths, devouring all he found, breathing her in, tasting her sweetness. And she met him with the fervor of a storm.
God, yes, she was a storm encased in fragile human skin. But it was okay. He could get away now that he had an excuse. She wouldn’t have to see what might happen to him if he stayed.
Unsure of how long the kiss lasted, Gavin finally drew back. He’d done it, kissed her, and felt a kind of weary triumph about that. But he had to go, leave her, take care of this. Although he wanted nothing more than to stay, the monster out there in the dark had torn him apart, injected a beast into his bloodstream and then left him to die. That beast was outside right now, close enough to reach out and touch.
He had no choice here.
“Close the windows and lock the door,” he said with his lips inches from hers. “I shouldn’t have come here like this. I should have known better than to let it get so close.”
He turned to go, torn and hurting.
“What do you mean? What’s getting close?” she called after him as Gavin, broken and unfulfilled, strode across the yard, vaulted the fence and headed for the hillside, leaving perhaps the sweetest night of his life behind.
Chapter 5
Skylar didn’t call for the ranger to stop as she stood in the doorway staring at the darkness settling over the mountains. The noise they’d heard hadn’t just interrupted her first unplanned one-night stand, it had jangled her nerves.
Harris’s haste in getting away from her would have seemed like a slap in the face if it had been for any other reason than going after whatever had made that terrible sound. His disappearance gave her breathing room to contemplate what she’d been about to do—to him, with him.
This whole night had proved a fairly spectacular hiccup in her present situation, and she wasn’t all that clear about what she wanted right then—a man or a creature that was more than a man. She wasn’t certain that a mere man could have done it for her.
Freud would have had a field day with that information.
So would her big sister.
Trish, as the most stable of the four Donovan sisters, wouldn’t appreciate that her sibling was in heat and lusting for a tryst with anyone who came along, let alone lusting for a werewolf. After a conversation like that with Trish, there’d be a reservation in a white padded cell and some little blue pills—a scene that hit too close to home.
Skylar stared outside.
Harris had warned her to lock the door. Yet as far as she knew, wolves, no matter what size, couldn’t handle a doorknob. So what good would a lock have done to protect her from the animal Harris said he needed to chase?
Reason told her that Ranger Harris had lied, that he might be hiding something.
Part of her wanted to listen to his advice anyway. The other newly rebellious part that would have taken a stranger to bed urged her to follow him and see for herself what was urgent enough to end their lovemaking session before the real fun began.
The guy had been seriously distressed over the sound they’d heard. There was no way she’d imagined that. And though her body, too, was trying to warn her about this sound, and shudder after shudder rocked her stance in the doorway, Skylar couldn’t let lies and secrets become an integral part of her new reality.
She was different here. She was letting go of her own secrets, one by one, and open to taking new risks.
Should she go after the ranger? In the dark?
What if her father had fallen to his death while chasing figures from his dreams?
She wasn’t familiar enough with the trails to find footing or have directional cues without proper sightlines. Her cell phone wasn’t good for much because the GPS was almost nonexistent.
As for wanting to jump into the sack with this guy, maybe she just needed a night with an honorable man for a change. Harris, at least, ran out on her before placing a ring on her finger.
Backing up, Skylar listened hard to Harris’s fading footsteps. With him went the rest of the evening’s light.
Her heart refused to slow as she backed from the doorway. Confusion reigned. The room dimmed around her, but Skylar didn’t reach for a lamp. Seconds flew by, then minutes.
Finally, she shut the door and leaned against it with her eyes closed, picturing Harris’s tight, tanned flesh pressed to her bare skin. Feeling, even now, his breath on her face.
* * *
Gavin picked up the trail of the monster much more easily than he could have hoped, almost as if the bloodthirsty beast wanted him to.
He didn’t know what to make of that, but it was too late to consider anything other than finding his prey. His blood was up. His muscles were seizing. The beast inside him recognized this other beast in an unseemly way.
I’m not like you, Gavin wanted to shout. I’m no killer.
But shouting would amount to a calling card and telegraph his presence...if the thing didn’t know already.
As he jogged up the steep path, the old thoughts returned, though answers to his questions had never been within reach. If he wasn’t like that monster, he had to suppose that the blood passed from beast to beast somehow got diluted in the transfer.