I licked my lips. Was Cody literally suggesting I have a one night stand or a fling with Boone? That it would be okay, that I’d be safe, and that I’d… what? Set the rules about what we did and how we did it?
Did I want something? Could I feel that way again? Could I act on sex in such an easy, fun way like I’d seen women do multiple times already tonight. Want a guy? They went for it.
God, he was. Cody was blatantly suggesting I use this guy. For sex, I presumed. Or, I guessed, I could use him to move a load of lumber. Pick up a piano. Bench press a car.
He seemed pretty capable of anything physical I could ask of him.
Did I want sex with that big, burly man?
His arm around my waist had been the first time a man besides Marty had ever touched me. My father hadn’t been a hugger. Marty wasn’t a hugger either, but he’d touched me. Oh, he had.
Boone’s touch was possessive, and that was what scared me, but it also felt… protective. Different. Like those big muscles weren’t going to be used against me but would protect me and take care of me.
Keep me safe.
I licked my lips and wondered. Could I let a guy like Boone touch me? Did I want that? To feel his calloused palms coast over my skin? The soft feel of his whiskers on my inner thighs? To feel the thick heft of his dick as he pressed into me?
I squirmed where I stood at those very naughty ideas. Suddenly, the bar was stifling hot. I wanted to go outside and drop into the snow and make snow angels to cool off.
Did I want Boone? I looked up at the man in question. Yes. Yes, I did.
Cody’s suggestion that I could give that clearly dominant man rules meant while he was definitely the bigger of the two of us, I would be in charge.
I snagged the beer bottles I needed and popped their caps off, loading them onto my tray, then added the shot of whisky, vodka tonic, and whisky sour that Cody had poured for me.
I wanted to grab that shot and down it myself. I needed some liquid courage. I could do this. I could be a normal woman with needs. Needs Boone could fill, no question.
When I strode back out from behind the bar, I stopped in front of my new admirer, who’d watched me approach with his very intense dark eyes. Dark eyes that hadn’t left me since I arrived at the bar.
“My name is Summer.” I pointed my finger right up in his face. I was going to do this. “First rule–no touching without asking permission.”
3
BOONE
* * *
Hell, yeah.
She gave me her name. Gave me a rule.
Like all shifters, I had remarkably powerful hearing, but the bar was packed. And loud. Cody must’ve said something to her to vouch for me. I owed him big time. But fuck, my wolf nearly tore free from me and howled when he’d told me she was married.
Married! Claimed by another human by their legalities that didn’t mean anything to shifters.
He’d said she was married, but divorce papers had been filed. That there wasn’t a chance she was going back to the man. Cody said she was actually staying over at Rand and Natalie’s place next to Wolf Ranch. I had to admit, it eased my mind she was under that roof where she’d be protected by a pack member.
“Summer.” It came out as a grunt, but I loved having her name in my mouth. Fuck, I sounded like a big oaf instead of a guy with the MBA and a big Wall Street career under his belt.
My mate’s name was Summer, like the most glorious season of the year in Montana. It was as beautiful as she was.
I extended my palm but laid it open on the bar rather than handshake style, still trying to show her I was harmless–a decided challenge for a guy who was six feet seven inches and two hundred and fifty pounds.
And waited. As long as she was in front of me, I could wait all night.
She studied it for a moment then lowered her tray to the counter. I couldn’t miss her hand shake as she placed it in mine. Her eyes were grey-blue, like the sky before a storm, and something in her slender stature and the firm set of her chest made me think she’d been through a lot.
Maybe the divorce had been hard on her.
