I lay on my bed and listened to Mari warming up her nighttime snores. I tore more tissue hunks and balled them up to push into my ears. I sighed in relief when it muffled her rumbles to a dull roar.
If only I could do the same with my hormones. I was restless to begin with, and crystal-clear images of Matt au naturel weren’t helping the situation. My fingers twitched, my body aching for the release they could offer, but there were disadvantages to having a roommate. Even though I suspected she could sleep through fireworks.
I practiced deep breathing until, finally, my eyes grew heavy...
I ran along the path. The moonlight flickered over the lake on one side of me, while on the other, the tall meadow grasses bent in the brisk night breeze. Ahead, the forest beckoned.
It felt good to run. To burn off the restlessness that had taken hold of my soul. I pushed myself harder and harder, until my feet flew over the crushed stone and the trees closed in around me.
The branches swayed overhead, sending the shadows dancing over the path. I slowed down, pacing myself. And something flickered at the edges of my consciousness.
A huge form paced me in the darkness. I glanced toward him and caught a familiar gleam of emerald. His soft breath panted beneath the soughing of the wind through the leaves. Almost as though he laughed as he raced along with me—his sleek, powerful body slipping through the trunks.
I was seized by a sense of rightness, running with Matt’s beast. But I found myself searching for the thunder of galloping feet, or the whisper of wind on wing. I didn’t understand it. Why would I be seeking others with him so close?
As if he sensed the direction of my thoughts, he slipped away. Faded into the shadows. I couldn’t fathom my sudden feeling of loss as I ran alone. I was bereft. My heart ached.
Then, with a panting laugh, he leaped onto the path ahead of me.
I skidded to a halt, breathing heavily, my heart hammering. But not with fear... His vivid eyes held me, transfixed, as his face began to change. Bones altered as the human emerged through the beast, rising on two legs, the fur falling away to reveal the smooth skin contoured over ridges of hard muscle.
Within seconds, Matt stood before me. Just as he had on the path that morning.
Completely naked.
I lost the ability to think at all. As he stepped into me, my hands slid over the plains and valleys of his chest. I searched for and found the pulse at the base of his throat.
It pounded perfectly in sync with my own.
Matt’s long fingers slipped beneath my jawbone and tilted my face up to his own.
“Hello, Angel. We have unfinished business? Maybe this time, the bloody Dragon will keep his nose out of it.”
Then he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine.
I wanted him with a desperation that shocked me. He started the kiss gently, but I was having none of it. I wove my fingers into his thick hair and pulled his head down to me. Attacked his mouth as though I was the wolf, and not him.
His lips curved over mine. Beneath my palms, I detected the deep echo of his laugh. Then his hands slid down my back to cup my butt.
I growled with impatience, pulling away to rip at my clothing. Leggings, panties, tee shirt, sports bra. Matt tried to help, spluttering with laughter, but I waved off his efforts. Until my skin glowed as naked beneath the moon as his own.
He froze, his gaze roaming over me, his beast gleaming from his eyes. My own eyes feasted. Every rock-hard inch of him vibrated with a need that my body matched. When he peeled his lips back from his teeth, I wasn’t sure it was a smile. But I answered it with my own version and placed my hands on his powerful forearms.
“Want to teach me some cage-fighting holds?” I asked, pulling him into me.
“Strewth,” he groaned the word. “Do I ever.”
His arms encircled me, his hands renewing their grip on my butt to lift me against him. I wrapped my legs around his waist, gasping as I pinned the rigid length of him between us. The brush of my breasts against his chest sent exquisite ripples of sensation through me.
I expected him to set me down again, but he didn’t. He just held me up there, as though I weighed nothing at all. He carried me off the path and slid one arm free as he pressed my upper body back against a rough trunk. He palmed my breast, his fingers gently tweaking the aching tip.
I moaned and squirmed as electricity zinged straight through to my core. When his hand smoothed its way down my abs to insert clever fingers between us, I gasped, “No way that’s a legal move.”
“Ain’t nothing legal about cage fightin’, Angel.” The fingers slipped and slid, and he growled low in his throat.
He deprived me of the ability to speak, to think, to even breathe. I writhed against his fingers as his skillful touch wound me tighter and tighter. And then I cried out, as with a glorious surge, it released.
“Anna! Wake up!”
