“No, Pennsylvania is not prime werewolf territory. I’ve never seen one until you the day of the race.”
“Am I everything you ever dreamed of?” he asked with a forced smile, all too aware of how horribly earnest he was.
“You’re nothing like anything I’ve ever dreamed,” Penn said.
That stung, but he tried to keep his face neutral.
He suddenly wished he’d invested in chairs. It felt completely awkward to tower over her, and yet sitting next to her seemed like a bridge too far.
Just as he decided he should sit down, she stood up, and he leaped to his feet. They stood together in the center of his cabin, an arm’s reach from everything else in it, yet he felt like the biggest gap in the world stretched between them.
Carefully, he reached behind him to put the bowl on the counter with a clank as the spoon fell out.
The atmosphere charged as she stared into his eyes.
Is she?he asked the wolf.
The beast ignored him.
She sighed. “And now I don’t know if I want you because I want you or because I want power like that.”
She wanted him? “And I don’t know if I want you because you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life, or because you could help my wolf.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know if I can.”
She frowned as he smiled and said, “Then I guess I just want you.”
Slowly, he reached out a hand to cup her cheek, and she leaned into it. She closed her eyes, and he took a deep breath.
“This is not a good idea,” she murmured.
He stepped closer and kissed the cheek he wasn’t cupping.
“This could be a good idea,” he murmured, his thumb caressing her cheek. It was so soft.
She turned her head and met his lips with hers, and the singing rightness rocked him.
He pulled back for a second to say, “I take it back. This is the best idea.”
She scoffed and shut him up with another, deeper kiss. She opened her lips, and he felt her tongue playing along his lips and opened his mouth to let hers dance with his. It was a breathtakingly intimate, overwhelming act.
He reveled in the taste of vanilla on her tongue and the warm, wet heat of her mouth. The scrape of her teeth against his tongue sent goose bumps from his scalp to his toes in a wave of pleasure.
“This wasn’t what I was expecting to do today,” she murmured, and he could feel the vibrations against his lips.
He laughed, thinking of the ridiculous tower of pastry. This was better. This was so much better.
Is she?he asked again.
His wolf was stunned within him, its attention fixed on the woman in his arms. Was that a good sign? A terrible sign? Heput it away, not wanting to be preoccupied as she deepened the kiss again, and he lost his breath.
Suddenly, she was gone altogether, stepping out of his arms, and he fought the impulse to come after her. Had he gone too fast?
He stopped spiraling when she sat down on the bed and then lay back, propping herself on her elbows with a smile.
He followed her as if she held a leash in her hands.
He leaned over her, desperate to experience the intimacy and pleasure of their kiss again, until he was hovering on his hands and elbows and joined their lips.
