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.