by Lynn Graeme
A beautiful, elegant, naked woman’s skin.
From his vantage point, Liam saw Isobel leave her fortress and head toward his cabin. She was fully clothed, but no matter. He’d take whatever he could get, and maybe even a little more. After last night, he definitely wanted more.
He followed her every move. He couldn’t help it; he was unable to tear his eyes away from her. Isobel was all lithe, luscious curves, a petite body built for combat. Her hair was loose, free from its typical gladiator-like confinement. A thick cacophony of curls tumbled over bronze shoulders. Muscles flexed under soft skin as she strode across the field.
He could still taste her in his mouth.
He saw her stop mid-stride. Her head whipped to the side, then lifted up in his direction. It was as if she, too, shared the same sharp prickle on the back of her neck, this intense sense of mutual awareness. She changed direction and crossed the property toward him.
God, he wanted her.
Liam climbed down the cliff face to meet her.
She waited at the base for him. Liam could feel his heart thumping its way out of his chest as he reached the bottom and stalked toward her. Her lips, the same lips he’d tasted last night—dreamed about after she’d left him flat on his back, still panting—parted slightly at his approach.
Soft, full, and lush. He wanted that mouth. He’d spent the entire night—hell, the entire year—imagining all the ways he could use that mouth. He stopped in front of her, a mere two inches separating him from this sensual, intoxicating woman.
And then he stiffened.
He scented them on her.
It’d been years but he still recognized the smell of his cousins. He couldn’t help instinctively baring teeth. “They found you.”
A few months ago, the very thought of his packmates being so close would’ve sent him heading for the mountains. Now, however, the last thing he wanted to do was leave.
The first thing he wanted to do was rip their throats out.
“What happened?” he demanded. “Did they hurt you?”
His fists clenched, veins standing out prominently along his forearms. The instinctive surge of protectiveness stunned him, but felt natural all the same. He welcomed it. He didn’t stop to examine the reaction, nor to choose his words, even as he saw Isobel’s gaze narrow.
“You insult me, Liam. Do you honestly think me so easily intimidated or overpowered by a couple of snappish, backwoods idiots?”
Liam’s jaw tightened. It didn’t matter that, rationally, he knew Isobel could protect herself. She dealt with rogues and factions on a regular basis, and unpleasant as his former packmates were, Liam knew they weren’t criminals. All that didn’t matter a whit. He didn’t want the pack anywhere near this woman. His woman.
His mate.
The realization made him swallow. Roughened his growl. “My cousins, my pack… . They don’t always follow the rules. They don’t follow the same code, especially when it … when it comes to women.”
Isobel snorted. “Yeah, I figured that out when they got aggressively interested in Naley. Only unsocialized jackasses with a death wish would threaten a female shifter with a cub.”
Liam’s blood ran cold. “They threatened Naley?”
“They saw her with you yesterday. Traced your scent to Hooper’s. Naley and I ran into them on the way to lunch.”
Fuck. “Is she all right?”
Isobel nodded, and he breathed a small sigh of relief.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured. He didn’t know what she was thinking. Was she angry at him? Did she blame him for his cousins’ actions?
Isobel would do anything to ensure Naley’s safety. She’d eliminate every threat, which likely included a tenant whose relations had attempted to intimidate her niece. She could evict him and tell him to stay the hell away from her and Naley.
His heart plummeted to his stomach. He couldn’t let that happen. Couldn’t. He had to do everything possible to convince Isobel that he’d never let anything happen to either of them.
He was already forming rapid counterarguments in his head, anything to convince her, when she continued conversationally, “I politely encouraged your dear cousins to redirect their attention to me instead. They weren’t all that receptive to the idea, so we got into a little scuffle.”
Liam tensed as he imagined what this “scuffle” might’ve looked like. Isobel looked unharmed, unmarred, but he couldn’t help stepping closer. He wanted to shove back at all the dangers ever-present in her world. He wanted to pull her into his arms and never let her go. He wanted to wrap himself around her—wrap her around him, soft, wet, and welcoming—so that she’d know her place was always with him, and his with her.
“Don’t try any of that overprotective wolf shit,” Isobel warned softly.
His lip lifted in a snarl. “Don’t try and stop me.”
“I’ve been at this a long time, Liam.”
“Is that how they got their smell on you? From the ‘scuffle’?” He wanted to rip his cousins to shreds. He didn’t want them tainting the one good thing he’d found in his life.
She surprised him with a grimace. “Damn, I miss that compound. Now I’ll be an open book for the next two weeks.” She hesitated at his perplexed look, then explained, “On-duty agents mask their scent with a specially formulated compound. Helps not to give away their location when hunting down suspects.”
Liam blinked, startled out of his possessive anger.
So that was how he’d missed signs of her arousal. He’d been blind to her attraction to him all these months, and it had never even occurred to him to question it.
I’m a bloody fool.
Not the first time I’ve acknowledged that, he thought with unexpected humor.
Isobel looked both uncomfortable and reluctant at sharing the information. “I suppose you’ll get to know my scent really well while I’m on leave these next couple of weeks.”
“I’ve always known your scent, Isobel.” He saw her slight shiver as he spoke her name, and his wolf was soothed by that. “Crisp winter smoke from the mountains. I’d know it anywhere.”
She frowned. “You can’t have. I’ve worn the compound so often it’s probably leached into my system by now. No shifter ought to be able to scent me.”
“You forget,” he said softly, “I was the best tracker in my unit. I’ve had your scent in my head since the first day I met you.”
She looked discomfited at being so exposed. She masked herself in more ways than one, this woman.
Then he stilled as a thought occurred to him. “You can’t mask your scent anymore?”
“No, the Council confiscated my supply. I had to turn over all my Council-approved items this morning. I’m cut off until I report back to work.”
Damn. “My packmates will be able to track you here.”
Her eyes widened. “They couldn’t. This isn’t the first time I’ve been on leave, and when I was, I’ve never had a suspect come after me in my own home.”
“But you haven’t been on leave since you’ve built your house here, have you? At least, I’ve never seen you take time off in all the time that I’ve been here.”
He could see the realization dawn on her face. “No, the house was only completed two years before you moved in. Before that, I lived with two other agents in an apartment in the city. Even when I was on leave, at least one of them would still be on-duty. Their compound was bound to have masked me as well, since we lived in such close quarters.”
She whirled around and paced. She’d suddenly gone pale.
“Damn. Damn, damn, damn! I built a whole sanctuary and all this time Naley would’ve actually been safer back when she stayed with me in an overcrowded apartment… .”
It hit Liam, then: Isobel was afraid. She was too tough, too bold, to be afraid of any opponent coming after her, but she was terrified at the thought of exposing Naley to danger.
He grabbed her shoulders as she passed him, made her stop and look directly into
his eyes. “Nothing will happen to Naley.”
She swallowed. “That was part of the reason I wanted my own place, you know. So that Naley could stay with me more often. So that she wouldn’t have to see my colleagues come home in all manners of bloodstains and bruises. So that she could be normal. Instead, she’s here in the middle of nowhere, alone and away from her friends, and a sitting duck because of me. Dammit!”
Liam shook her lightly. “Isobel. Listen to me. No one is going to harm Naley. We won’t let them. We’ll keep her safe. You know that.”
We. Both of us. Because Liam knew that he was in this just as deep. Nothing would happen to either Isobel or Naley, not on his watch.
“My packmates want me, not Naley. She’ll be safe. I’ll make sure of it.” He could only pray she didn’t resent him for this, that she wouldn’t decide it would be far easier to just get rid of him. He’d be shameless in this; he’d pull everything in his arsenal to convince her it was in their best interests for him to stay. “Hell, they might not even come here. You probably scared them off today, sent them fleeing up north.”
“I’ve met your packmates, Liam. We both know they don’t give up that easily.”
“Doesn’t mean they’ll find us. Find me,” he amended, because he was the one they were really after. Although knowing them, he had no doubt they’d want Isobel as well, if only to repay her for the little “scuffle.”
Isobel glared. “Don’t treat me like a fool, Liam. I’m betting you learned to track from your packmates.”
“Perhaps, but they’re not as good as I am.”
Isobel shot him a dry look, but her distress was visibly receding. Liam exhaled with relief as he saw her pull herself together.
“I’m fine,” she muttered, trying to push his hands off her shoulders. He kept them there, tightening his grip. She looked up at him, eyes flashing. “I said—”
“I know,” Liam said. “But maybe I’m the one who’s not fine.”
He kissed her. He needed that bit of contact, that reassurance. His senses had gone on red-alert the moment he’d detected his cousins on her, and he still didn’t think his heart had stopped racing yet.
Unlike last night, this kiss wasn’t as demanding, as contentious. It sought comfort, gave back reassurance. It conveyed hopeless longing. And, to Liam’s surprise and pleasure, it was returned in equal measure. A caress of the tongue soothed him. A soft suckle appeased his pacing, possessive wolf.
He felt Isobel’s hand slip under his shirt to clutch at his waist. His first instinct was to pull away before she could feel his scars. A foolish notion; it wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen everything when they’d come together last night. He forced himself to remain still, to settle at her touch. Isobel, he was beginning to realize, was a chest woman.
He slipped his arms around her, drawing her closer as he explored more of her taste. It was a heady drug, one that he was already addicted to. He’d do anything for more of that mouth. For more of her.
She placed her palm against the warmth of his stomach. Reluctantly, Liam let her end the kiss to rest her cheek over his thumping heart. Her thick tresses glowed bright in the gloaming. Liam rumbled deep in his throat as he felt her light, idle scratches on his belly.
“I should walk around shirtless more often,” he murmured.
“Don’t,” she murmured back. “I’ll never get any work done.”
He smiled and pressed his face to the top of her head. “You’re on leave for the next two weeks. You can afford to spend them mindless with lust.”
A soft, startled laugh escaped her before she pulled away. The sound was low and husky, warming Liam in that place deep inside that had felt cold and alone for much too long. He wanted to pull her back into his arms just so that he could take in more of her heat.
“Come on,” she said. “I was actually sent here to invite you over for pizza night.”
“You mean it wasn’t to jump my bones in the wild outdoors again?”
Isobel flushed. “Don’t provoke me. Anyway, Naley says I’m to haul you in with a blade to the neck if necessary.”
“Seems a bit excessive for pizza.”
“Besides the obvious reason that she’s concerned over the need to feed you, I believe she also wants to make sure I haven’t chased you off the property.”
Liam looked at her in surprise. “Because of what we did last night? She knows?”
Isobel jabbed him in the ribs, not even reining it in. Liam grunted sharply.
“She thinks I’m going to go on overprotective aunt mode after what happened with your cousins today. She thinks I’ll evict you.”
Liam was quiet. He nearly admitted aloud that he’d expected the very same thing.
From Isobel’s scowl, he could tell she knew exactly what he was thinking.
“You and Naley seem to think I’m after any excuse to kick you out,” she growled. “I already told you I wasn’t going to give you an excuse to leave.”
Liam remembered what she’d said last night—the ridiculous reason she’d given for not wanting to give in to her desire for him.
He slowly reached out and tipped her chin up with his finger.
“Even if you’d told me to go,” he said softly, “I wouldn’t have left.”
A flash of … something? … crossed her face, too quick for Liam to discern. It was gone too soon, and she lifted her hand to close over his.
“Are we going to talk about last night?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Not … not now.”
“When?”
She lowered their hands, then turned around and began walking.
So, the subject was closed. He planned to reopen it very soon. For now, he could simply be thankful that she wanted him around, despite his packmates’ intrusion. It settled that subject, then.
“I’ll grab a change of clothes,” he said.
She stopped walking and glanced over her shoulder. “What you have on is fine.”
“If Naley is inviting me to dinner, the least I can do is show up in a clean shirt and jeans.”
A smile formed, quickly smothered, before she nodded. He headed for his cabin. He was only slightly surprised when he felt Isobel join his side. He’d expected her to go on ahead without him.
“It’s not just your cousins I’m concerned about,” she confessed, returning to the previous subject. “I can take your cousins. They’re pugnacious pests but that’s all they are.”
He nodded in understanding. “It’s the other scum that worries you. The ones you hunt down every day.”
“Yes. Any damn shifter could track my scent here, if they knew what they were looking for. I mean, most of them don’t care. I’m just one of many agents and enforcers out there. Rogues are usually too busy trying to save their own hide to really concentrate on a nameless and faceless agent who happened to get the drop on them. But still… .”
“You prefer not to take chances.”
“Not when it comes to Naley.” The corners of her mouth turned down. “Even if nothing happens during the next two weeks, this won’t be the last time I’ll be on leave. Which means it’s a never-ending possibility.” Her hands fisted in frustration. “I refuse to have us live in suspense indefinitely, waiting on tenterhooks for the worst to happen. I made this our sanctuary. I won’t have Naley hurt because of me.”
He reached out and enveloped one of her fists. “She won’t be. You have your cameras, your alarms, your security system. Naley is well-protected.”
“I know.”
“And I’m here too.”
Isobel glanced at him, her expression oddly hesitant. Liam squeezed her hand, wondering what was going on inside that head of hers.
“I’m here,” he repeated, the words firmer this time. “I’d never let anything happen to Naley.”
Some of her tension eased. “I know that too.”
“Good. I won’t let anything happen to you either.”
“Now you’re pushing it.”
Th
ey approached his cabin. He’d cleared his workbench a few hours ago, his tools put away. His next upcoming projects could wait until he’d tackled the east side of the property.
Liam had been thinking about it while he’d been up on that cliff today, surveying the area from on-high. The east section would make a good practice field for Naley. There were fewer brambles to clear, and the grass there, once tamed, could be easily maintained. He’d have to look around for steel posts and netting in order to form a goal, but it shouldn’t be too hard. Naley might have a better idea of what such materials entailed.
Of course, he supposed he’d have to clear it with Isobel first. It was her land, after all. Still, he didn’t think she’d mind. She liked having her expanse of land—her sanctuary, as she’d called it—but as far as he could tell, she didn’t quite know what to do with it besides use it as a home base. It wasn’t as if she had any interest in rosebushes or planting fruit trees.
He was just pushing his front door open when she quietly asked, “Why are your cousins looking for you, Liam?”
He stopped and turned around. Her gaze was too incisive. She saw far too much.
“What are you running from?”
He drew out his breath. His eyes traveled beyond Isobel’s shoulder. Behind her, the evening shadows were already extending their reach, slowly but surely eating up the ground like some carnivorous beast.
“Liam?” Her voice was oddly gentle. “Look at me.”
He shook his head, keeping his eyes on the shadows. “I promise I’ve committed no crime.”
At least none that warranted his arrest. The things he’d done in the war, however, would forever stain his hands an indelible scarlet. He could already feel the voices lurking inside his head.
“I know. Look at me, Liam.”
His eyes darted to hers, then away.
“Do they plan to hurt you?”
Now his gaze flew to stay on hers. Her words were hard now, angry. Her expression had turned fierce, but then Liam realized the anger wasn’t directed at him, but for him.
And just like that, the little curl of warmth in his chest expanded, chasing the whispers back into the darkness.