by Kimber White
He looked down at me, his eyes going in and out of focus, and I had the first thought that maybe he thought this was his dream. But, when I reached up and touched his face, his eyes went wild, flashing dark then brilliant green like two emeralds that cut through the darkness.
The wolf’s eyes. The man’s eyes.
As Luke sank to the ground with me in his arms, I knew. I had always known. My grandfather’s words hovered in the air along with Beau’s now. Some last attempt by my rational brain to ward me off of what might happen next.
Ask him what happens to the women in your family when they don’t do what they’re told.
Wendigo. Stay away from him.
I pushed those thoughts aside. Right here. Right now. I was about to do the opposite of what I was told. I tilted my head to the side then lifted my lips to Luke’s and kissed him.
Chapter Six
We tumbled through the doorway into Luke’s cottage. His skin warmed mine, driving away the frigid air. I ran my fingers along his shoulder, trailing them down his chiseled bicep. He held me against him and tried to kick the door closed, but the force of his effort made it bounce back open.
He laid me down near the hearth, cradling my head in the crook of his arm. I don’t know what he saw when he looked at me. His eyes filled with wonder, sadness, and fear all at once. He struggled to make sense of something just like I did. I was human, and that seemed to shock him as much as knowing he was a werewolf should shock me.
The door to the cabin still stood wide open. Snowflakes danced around like blue crystals, bathed in the moonlight beyond. Luke knelt before me on all fours. His eyes shone bright, then dimmed as he seemed to struggle between the wolf and the man. His back arched and he threw his head back. The muscles of his shoulders bunched and contorted. New terror filled his eyes as he looked at me. His body seemed to need to shift, but he didn’t want to. Was he afraid he might hurt me? I don’t know why I wasn’t afraid. I know I should have been. Luke was part man, part beast. But, as he knelt before me, the strangest sense of calm came over me. Like I was meant to be here with him.
I didn’t know what I wanted. I marveled at his perfect form. Hard muscles forged from physical labor and maybe the force of keeping the wolf inside of him. My thoughts turned bold again and part of me wanted him to let the wolf out. I wanted to be this close to it too, so I could study its silvery fur, have those brilliant, clear green eyes just inches away from me.
I reached out and held my fingers in the air around his cheek. He flinched, even though I didn’t touch him. Fear settled in his eyes that I couldn’t understand. Was he afraid of me? He was raw power and strength. I couldn’t hurt him. I leaned forward and ran my finger along his solid jaw. The stubble tickled my skin. Something sparked between us. That same electrical shock I felt the first time he touched me.
Luke reared back, stumbling awkwardly until he landed on his ass, his back pressed against the far wall.
“You’re real,” he whispered as he held his cheek where my fingers touched him as if I’d seared his skin.
“Luke?” I don’t know what made me do it. It was me who should have been terrified. He was a wolf man. My grandfather had called him a demon. And even if he wasn’t any of those things, I found myself alone in the cabin of a virtual stranger big enough to do me harm. A very naked, very aroused virtual stranger.
I couldn’t help that my eyes traveled to the space between his legs. Luke was huge and hard; his cock pulsed with arousal. A shiver ran through me and settled between my thighs. It felt new and strange, and I grew instantly wet at the sight of him. God, this wasn’t me. I was careful. Cautious. In high school I was the girl my friends made tag along so they wouldn’t do anything foolish with some hot new crush. Responsible. Shy. Class bookworm.
Luke felt along the wall, struggling to get to his feet. His fingers closed around a checkered wool blanket thrown across one of the chairs. He wrapped it around himself, tucking the ends into a knot.
“I’m sorry,” I said. I didn’t move from my spot by the hearth, but drew my legs up to my chin and hugged them. Now, shyness and fear took root in my heart. “I don’t know why I came out here like this.”
The door blew shut over Luke’s shoulder as a howling wind kicked up. The light, swirling snowflakes turned to thick, falling snow. Finally, I seemed to come back down to earth. I shivered from head to toe as the effects of exposure settled in. My bare feet burned where I’d trudged through the snow. My wet hair hung in strings and my cotton nightgown clung to me like a second skin, becoming sheer. As a result, I realized I was pretty much just as naked as Luke and looked around the room for another blanket. He got to one first, pulling an afghan off the back of the couch, and he tossed it to me.
“Th-thanks,” I said, wrapping it around me. With my soaked gown against my skin, it didn’t really do me much good. My teeth rattled so hard I bit my tongue.
“My God, you’re hurt.” Whatever struggle Luke fought between the man and the wolf, the man seemed to win for the moment. He crossed the distance between us and slid his hands around my right calf, bringing my leg up into his lap. His hot fingers soothed my freezing skin. I dug my nails into the floorboards to stop myself from snuggling against him. I couldn’t help it. If just his fingers were that warm, I wondered what the rest of him would feel like.
My eyes traveled down my leg. I had a deep gash across my ankle. I must have scraped it against a branch or something when I ran through the woods. What in God’s name had compelled me to do it? Now that I had, I started to feel like a fool.
“It’s just a scratch,” I said, pulling the blanket to cover it. Then, I slid my leg out of Luke’s grasp and tucked it underneath me.
“You saw what I am,” he said. “Why aren’t you afraid of me?”
“Who says I’m not?”
Luke lifted his hand. He took two fingers and held them against my skin just above my left breast. The air went out of my lungs and time seemed to stand still. For just that instant, every cell in my body centered on his touch. My ears popped. Then my heartbeat became the only sound. My pulse pounded slow and steady between my ears, and I felt a tiny pulse in Luke’s fingertips where they fluttered against my skin. His beat in perfect time with mine. His eyes snapped wide and he drew back his fingers, balled his hand into a fist, and pressed it against his thigh.
“What was that?” I pressed my hand against my breast. I was cold everywhere else except for that small patch of skin over my heart. “What did you do to me?”
“Nothing,” he said, turning from me. He got to his feet and went to the window. The storm raged beyond it. At this rate, we’d be under three feet of snow in the time it would take me to get back to my grandpa’s house. God. How was I going to get back to my grandpa’s house?
Pulling the ends of the afghan tighter around me, I rose and went to him. “Luke. Tell me what you did to me. I felt you. Inside me. Like your pulse became my pulse.”
He pounded a fist against the window. When he finally turned to look at me, he held his lips in a grim line. “It’s dangerous for you to be here.”
He could have said a lot of things. Somehow, he managed to pick the exact phrase that set my blood simmering. “And I’m tired of people telling me where I’m not supposed to be. I was born here, dammit. My mother was born here. Oodena was supposed to be my home. I didn’t leave by choice.”
Luke reared back as if I’d struck him. His eyes went wide as he processed my words. “You’re not in Oodena. This is Wild Lake. Your lands are on the other side of the creek. Why didn’t you keep to them?”
I was what? Why didn’t I what? “Geography? We’re splitting hairs about geography right now? I saw you turn into a wolf and back again. And I think you know why I’m here.”
I paced the floor in front of him, anger rising within me and finally driving off the chill. I didn’t plan what I was going to say, but the words came to me. The instant they did, I knew they were all true.
“I came h
ere because of you. I don’t know how you did it, but you made me come here. I saw you in the woods this afternoon. As the wolf. You were watching me, weren’t you? And tonight. You . . . called to me. Didn’t you?”
On a roll now, I stopped pacing and turned to him. I closed the distance between us and pressed two fingers against his chest in the same place he’d touched me a minute ago. He stood stock still. So did I. It happened again. When I closed my eyes, a pulse beat filled my head. Mine at first, but then his. When I opened my eyes, his had flashed to emerald again. His wolf eyes.
My fingers trembled when I finally drew my hand back. “What are you?”
A muscle twitched in his jaw. His shoulders quaked and again I got the sense he struggled to keep the beast within him quiet.
“You know what I am,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “And you came here anyway.”
It was impossible. Insanity. He got in my head somehow. Hypnosis maybe. Extreme stress. And yet, when I took another step toward him I felt the heat rising off him. It sent shivers of warmth through me and raised the hairs on the back of my neck.
“You should go,” Luke said. “Never come back here.”
Ask your grandfather what happens to the women in your family when they don’t do what they’re told.
But, even as he told me to go, Luke took a step toward me. He towered over me, his breath coming hot against my cheek, just like the wolf in my dreams. Standing before me now, he was all man. He slid his hand around me, pressing it against the small of my back.
“I should go,” I repeated.
He nodded. Then he took my chin between his thumb and forefinger and tilted my head to the side.
“You should be afraid of me,” he whispered.
“Uh huh.”
Then Luke leaned down and pressed his lips against mine. An electric current had passed between us when he touched the skin above my heart. His hot kisses nearly made me combust from the inside out. Heat. Light. Energy. The elements themselves seemed to swirl around me. It was as if everything inside me had been asleep for a very long time. It took the kiss of the beast to wake me.
I moaned as Luke’s other hand came around me and he held me close. I brought my hands up and threaded them through his thick, coarse hair. My clothes, the blankets between us. I wanted to tear them away and remove the last barriers between Luke’s flesh and mine. I needed him. Craved him. Felt like I would die without him.
Heat flared between my legs and I felt the first slow trickle of juices coat my sex, making it throb. I should tell him to stop. I should have wanted to tell him to stop. Why didn’t I? His heartbeat filled me.
“Tamryn,” He whispered my name against my lips, saying it over and over again like he was getting used to the sound of it just like I’d done when he first told me his. An ache, a hunger filled me, like I’d never get enough of the feel of his skin against mine.
I went up on my tiptoes and wrapped my hand around the nape of his neck. Then I let my fingers play along his shoulders and down his back. Gooseflesh raised on his skin and I trailed my fingers further down until I felt the edges of the deep scars raked across his back. The instant I touched them, Luke stiffened. His arms went slack at his sides and he pulled himself away from me. As soon as he stopped kissing me, it was like he’d taken the air out of my lungs, leaving me gasping.
I took a step closer, my lust making me bold. Each time his eyes flashed, it sent heat sparking to my core. A challenge. A dare. Was I afraid of him? Could I handle what might happen next? I wanted desperately to find out even though I knew it was reckless. Dangerous even. He was still a stranger to me. And yet, the pull between us was fierce and powerful. It was like I needed him to keep touching me in the same way I needed air to breathe. There was something supernatural going on beyond just the knowledge of who he really was. He’d awakened something just as powerful in me as what dwelled inside of him. I didn’t want to think. I just wanted to feel.
I took another step closer and laid the palm of my hand flat against his chest. His heart beat a furious pace in time with mine.
“What are you?” I whispered.
The corners of Luke’s mouth lifted into a smile. “You already know that.”
I cocked my head to the side, went back up on my tiptoes, and tucked a lock of his hair behind his ear, tracing my fingers along the curve of it. “Then what am I?”
He ran his hand down my shoulder. The afghan fell, pooling around my feet. I stood before him wearing nothing but my clinging, wet nightgown. Heat flared between my legs as Luke’s eyes traveled down and focused on my hard, pebbled nipples showing through the thin fabric.
“You should be afraid of me,” he whispered.
“I know.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then don’t.”
His fingers curled around the nape of my neck and he tilted his head down to kiss me again. Again, his touch quenched a deep thirst inside of me. But, I wanted more. I became overwhelmed by it. Luke grew bolder. His hands were everywhere. His fingertips skittered across the curve of my shoulder, the arch of my back. He gripped my ass and lifted me off my feet until he held me eye to eye with him. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he carried me away from the window and back toward the fireplace. But, the heat emanating from Luke’s skin seemed to blaze so much hotter than the fire. It consumed me from the inside out.
I was desperate for more of him. My whole body shuddered when he ran the pad of his thumb across my sensitive nipple. It sent a shockwave straight to the juncture of my thighs. I wanted to spread myself open then and there and let him ravage me on the hearth.
Yes. That’s exactly what I wanted. I wanted to give myself to him completely. Forget all the doubts I had. All the voices in my head telling me what I should and shouldn’t do. The warnings about what good girls do and what happens to bad girls. I wanted to be bad, reckless, if only for a moment.
Luke’s heartbeat seemed to drown everything out. He was strong and solid. I drank him in as he bathed me in sweet kisses from my lips, along my jawline and down the column of my throat. I felt him grow hard again beneath the blanket he’d wrapped around himself. My own legs tangled in the damp fabric of my gown. I wanted him to rip it away leaving me exposed to him completely.
He moved to my lips again, his tongue hot and urgent as he probed my mouth. “Luke,” I gasped. My body craved even more. My sex throbbed. Still, some deep part of myself cried out a warning. This was dangerous. Desperate. I could never ever take it back.
I was ready to give myself to him body and soul. And I’d only just met him. He was struggling to be good at the same time I craved the badness, the danger, the recklessness. Luke stayed frozen above me, his eyes held the question I asked of myself. Was I ready? This was it. I hadn’t told him and he never asked, but I was a virgin. This didn’t feel casual at all, but whatever happened in the next few seconds would impact the rest of my life.
If he had leaned down and kissed me again, it would have erased all of my doubt. I would have arched my back and pulled him into me. I know I would have. But, he waited for just that fraction of a second and it was enough to let me come back into myself.
“Wait.” My voice tore from my throat. It was the only word Luke needed to hear. He moved off of me, rising to his feet. His shoulders flexed as he straightened his back and held a hand out to help me up. I hesitated before taking it. He was tall and strong above me. Then, I reached up and let him pull me to my feet.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice still ragged with lust and the internal struggle he fought. I imagined it was very similar to the one I still waged as well. I wanted him. I wanted this man. I hadn’t planned to save myself, but no guy I’d ever met seemed quite worthy of it. Luke did. Or at least, this physical pull between us seemed to short circuit my reason.
I reached up and touched his cheek. “You haven’t done anything wrong. Not once. Why are you so afraid of hurting me?”
Luke curled h
is fist at his side and turned to the window again. “It’s getting harder.”
“What?”
“To be like this,” he said. “The wolf is easier. Stronger.”
“Oh.” I wanted to go to him and put my arms around him. I stopped myself, not wanting to send him any more mixed signals than I already had. God, I didn’t want to be that girl either. I came beside him and stared out the window. The snow had finally stopped falling, but a two-foot drift pressed against the glass.
“It’ll be daylight in another hour.”
My God. I’d been out all night. I hoped like hell my grandfather hadn’t woken.
“I can get you back,” Luke said. He went to a coat rack in the corner of the room and removed a heavy tan parka. He put it around my shoulders. The thing was heavy and hung to my knees, but it was warm and smelled like Luke. He pulled it around me and buttoned it. My hands disappeared into the sleeves. “I’ve got a snowmobile out back. I’ll take you home.”
“Thanks. If my grandpa wakes up, he’s going to probably freak out wondering where I am.”
Luke nodded. He gave me a pair of wool socks. They’d be enough to at least keep my feet warm until I got back inside. He threw on a pair of jeans and took me outside.
“Don’t go traipsing off in the snow again in your nightgown,” Luke said as I climbed on the back of his snowmobile. A smile lit his face and I was glad to see it. I wanted to see more of it. Anything to get the sadness out of his eyes. Whatever haunted Luke, it seemed to tear at me now too.