Chapter 17
Ophelia
Ialmost winged a curse at the door as it burst open and a tall, massive figure crowded the doorway. Only the fact that Cricket remained interested in my yarn and not the intruder gave me the confidence to stay seated. That and I’d just finally untangled the yarn on the shuttle and didn’t want to drop it again.
And then Henry stood there, wearing dark clothes and staring at me in consternation—as if he’d expected to find me doing something other than what I was.
The muscles in his arms bulged as he held the doorframe and studied me, and my whole face felt aflame as his attention settled on my boobs and I was suddenly, painfully aware that I didn’t have a bra on and the girls were fully on display. Not that Henry minded, from the way he adjusted his stance and kept looking.
I wanted to crawl under the bed and hide. What did he want? What could a man that handsome and powerful want in the middle of the night? Did he expect some kind of booty call? Was being up late at night automatically an invitation to fuck? I cleared my throat and debated getting to my feet, so at least some of the imbalance created by me sitting on the floor would have been corrected. But I didn’t want to put my breasts right under his nose, either.
At least Cricket showed his displeasure by sliding his claws into Henry’s leg; the wolf scowled at the house cat, who gave precisely zero shits and sauntered out into the hall to find a quieter place to sleep. I cleared my throat and tried to get some other kind of response out of the wolf, since he hadn’t bothered to answer my previous questions. “What do you want, Henry?”
Saying his name made him twitch. His blue eyes searched my face for a long time, then his hand tightened on the door until the wood creaked and I wondered if it would break apart in his hand. “I was on patrol outside and thought I smelled you. When I saw your light on, I was concerned.”
“So you decided to burst in here like the Kool-Aid Man?”
My doubt must have been clear, because the corner of his mouth twitched in a quickly hidden smile. He glanced over his shoulder at something he heard in the hall, then he stepped into the room and let the door mostly close behind him. I gulped for air, since I hadn’t meant for him to get closer. The wolf took up too much space in the comfortable guest room where I’d holed up for the previous few days. He was too... masculine and capable. He owned the otherwise feminine space and made it his, surveying it as if it were more of his territory.
Henry frowned as he studied the loom and a bag of yarn I’d picked up on another errand with Mercy in the city. “I was concerned.”
“Concerned about me or concerned that I was off doing something that endangered your pack?”
His gaze flicked to mine and I knew I’d guessed right. He thought there was something else afoot. I pinched the bridge of my nose. Not that I blamed him for doubting my intentions. Despite that there had been no signs of Rocko or more trouble with the coyotes and wolves since my arrival, I braced for the other shoe to drop. It was only reasonable for the pack to do the same. And since Henry took caring for his pack very seriously, I shouldn’t have been surprised to discover him wandering the night searching for those threats.
He studied the rest of the room, taking stock of its contents. “Both.”
I might not have been able to smell lies, but I could hear them pretty damn well. I snorted and shoved to my feet, unwilling to let him loom over me another second. “I call bullshit. You wouldn’t have come running back here unless—”
He turned and then I found myself staring at his chest, the wolf taking up an awful lot of space right in front of me. My breasts almost brushed against his chest, and when I tried to step back, my legs bumped into the bed and I wobbled. He caught my shoulders and kept me steady, but that left me practically pressed against his chest, and his proximity stole all the air in the room.
I hadn’t been so close to a man in months, since running from Rocko. And I certainly hadn’t been that close to Rocko by choice. The warmth of Henry’s grip created electricity in the air, even more than the unfinished magic I’d been working into the weaving, and I stared up at him as I struggled for control or something to say.
I hardly knew him. And he turned into an animal. I definitely shouldn’t have shivered with anticipation as he stared down at me with hunger lighting his eyes and turning them gold. I was a guest in someone else’s house; it would have been rude to shack up with someone in a borrowed bed. For sure. Besides, everyone in that damn house knew everyone else’s business and the last thing I wanted...
I tensed as I realized I was actually considering sleeping with Henry—falling backward into the bed and taking him with me, just so I could finally feel something good. I hadn’t felt appreciated or cared for in what felt like forever, and even though I didn’t deserve the kind of attention I knew Henry would shower on me, maybe I could still enjoy it. For a little while. Just until I had to run again.
Henry’s voice was low and rusty as his thumbs drifted against my skin in a casual caress. “Are you okay?”
I meant to make a sassy comment, maybe something about how I’d be better if he lost the pants and hopped into bed with me. But instead my head shook back and forth, and I couldn’t find any words to explain what made me suddenly wary and uneasy.
His head cocked to the side in a wolf-like gesture, and his head leaned down until his nose bumped against mine—almost a kiss. So close to a kiss I could have tilted my head back and found his lips with mine. He breathed the words as one of his hands caressed my jaw and down my throat. “How can I help?”
It should have been easy to rip off my shirt and spread my legs and demand he fuck me. I should have been able to find the courage to demand what I wanted from him. Any other witch would have been able to. But I stared at his throat and leaned into the gentle drift of his fingers, my lips parting as I struggled to breathe, and it felt like magic curled up in smoky tendrils all around us. I managed to whisper, “I don’t know.”
A grumbling noise built in his chest and he leaned his head to the side so his mouth could follow where his fingers had been on my neck and shoulder. He kissed behind my ear and dragged his teeth against the sensitive skin of my throat. “Are you sure?”
He wanted me to invite him. He wanted me to open my arms and my legs and tear off my clothes, or at least give him a hint of whether things would go in the direction he expected. I knew it. I knew what he wanted by the heat of his body and the hard line of his cock as it pressed against my stomach as he held me closer. I swallowed the knot in my throat. He’d been kind to me. He hadn’t been mad when I zapped him accidentally. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who liked to make it hurt. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal if I let him...
But I’d been quiet too long, too tangled in my own thoughts. Henry lifted his head and studied me with half-gold eyes, curiosity warring with lust. “Ophelia?”
I couldn’t. I couldn’t trust him with all of me, even though he’d been kind and considerate. I cleared my throat and looked away. “I don’t know if...”
I didn’t know how to finish that sentence. I didn’t know if I was worthy of his attention. I didn’t know if he’d actually want me once he saw me naked or knew what an awful person I was. I didn’t know if I would be good enough for him, when a guy like him had to have brought supermodels home. I didn’t have the experience or wild streak to make the night worth his while. If I didn’t end up killing him with misdirected magic. If Rocko didn’t appear out of nowhere to kill me for “cheating” on him and to kill Henry for taking what Rocko thought was his.
Henry’s gaze searched my face and his hand drifted down my arm until his fingers tangled with mine. “Let’s talk. Will you sit with me?”
Sit with him? I swallowed but nodded, since sitting with him was a hell of a lot tamer than the suggestion I’d been bracing for. Henry grumbled and arranged the pillows and blankets into a nest against the headboard of the bed, then shooed me in. He practically tucked me in, frowning, before sitting on the end of the bed to study me. I felt his distance like a cool wind, both a relief and a hint of trouble to come.
