Rowan looked up just as I reached her table. The hitch of her breath was barely more than a whisper of sound, but my bear heard it like a shout. He surged toward the surface, his claws scraping under my skin.
I forced myself to move slowly and set the plate in front of her. As I pulled my arm back, her fingers brushed mine. A jolt snapped through us, and she jerked slightly, staring down at her hand as though she couldn’t understand why it suddenly tingled.
My entire body locked to keep from reaching for her.
“Enjoy your meal,” I managed, the words rougher than I intended.
She looked up, confusion flickering in her eyes. But I saw desire swirling in the hazel depths. She felt the pull between us, even if she didn’t understand it.
Behind me, Mira whispered, “Told you he was in a mood today.”
Elias murmured back, “Looks like it broke the second he saw her.”
They were quiet enough that Rowan didn’t hear a thing, but I did.
And my bear gave a satisfied rumble.
As I turned to walk back toward the kitchen, one word reverberated through my head.Mine.
3
ROWAN
Istared at the plate in front of me, but the food wasn’t what held my attention. It stayed on the man who’d walked away after setting my meal down.
My fingertips still tingled from where they’d brushed his. A tiny, accidental touch that shouldn’t have meant anything. Except warmth had shot up my arm and bloomed across my chest, unlike anything I’d experienced before.
I shook out my hands, trying to dispel the sensation, but it didn’t fade.
Attraction was something I understood in theory, the same way I only ever vaguely made sense of abstract art. I’d always assumed I was someone whose body didn’t get the memo. That my childhood had damaged me too much. Until now.
I lifted my gaze to the kitchen door just in time to see him slip back through it. He was huge, easily six and a half feet, with broad shoulders stretching his black T-shirt across a muscular chest. His biceps bulged when he set down the plate. He had light blond hair that flopped against his forehead in a sexy way, and dark brown eyes that were intense enough to pin me in place even though they’d barely met mine.
All that combined to make him the hottest man I’d ever met.
As I dragged my gaze down to my plate again, my cheeks filled with heat. I was tired and overwhelmed. People did weird things under stress. Maybe that included wanting to climb a sexy stranger like he was a tree.
I tried to focus on my meal, but my fork kept pausing halfway to my mouth as my eyes drifted toward the kitchen again, waiting for him to reappear. I barely tasted the food even though it was delicious.
I didn’t know what to do with this feeling or even how to label it. My pulse was still racing, and no matter how hard I tried to ignore it, something inside me had woken up the moment our fingers touched.
By the time I finished the last bite of my dinner, I’d almost convinced myself I imagined the jolt from earlier.
I lifted a hand to get the server’s attention. “Could I have the check, please?”
She flashed me a bright smile. “Oh, your meal’s taken care of.”
I blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
“The grill chef covered it,” she explained in a low tone.
“Who?” I asked even though it wasn’t hard to guess her answer.
“Bexley North.” Her grin widened. “And I’m pretty sure you know exactly who I mean since he came out here to drop off your plate when he never does that.”
Heat flared in my cheeks so quickly that I almost pressed my palms to them as I mumbled, “I didn’t know his name.”
“Well, you must’ve made quite the impression on the big guy because your meal is on him.”
