I should be running for the hills, calling animal control. Maybe an exorcist.
Instead, I stand there, heartbeat hammering, biting my lower lip as I meet his gaze—and realize that the look in those eyes isn’t hunger—not the I want to shred you with my claws and literally eat you kind, anyway.
It’s interest.
Possession.
Recognition.
“Holy fudge buckets,” I breathe.
He growls again, louder this time, the sound vibrating through the room like thunder.
My mixing bowls rattle on the shelves.
My pulse goes haywire.
Then, as quickly as it happened, his form shimmers again—and suddenly, he’s standing there.
Tall.
Broad.
Completely. Utterly. Heart-stoppingly. Naked.
Yep, he’s just totally NAKED.
My jaw drops.
My brain short-circuits.
Every inappropriate thought I’ve ever had decides now’s the time to stage a comeback tour.
“Oh. My. God.”
“Yeah,” he says, voice low and rich, a dangerous grin curving those unfairly perfect lips. “I told you.”
He steps closer, the air between us thick with heat and honey and something that makes my insides melt like buttercream in July.
“I’m a Honey Badger,” he says, that grin going full sinful. “And I never bluff.”
My mouth opens.
No words come out.
Only one very unholy thought flickers through my head.
I am so screwed.
Well, with any luck, I will be.
Chapter 6
Eb
“Um, so, you’re naked.”
Marigold’s voice wobbles between shock and sass, and I’d laugh if every nerve in my body weren’t already strung tight as piano wire.
