All of her sins, whispered to him through the power of his unique extrasensory ability.
But there was no jolt of revulsion. No hideousness flooding him like a slick of black, putrid oil.
There was only the warmth and honesty of Leni’s smile as she looked at him.
Only the kindness of her intelligent hazel eyes.
“You stay safe out there, Knox.”
He smirked, amused by her concern.
Outside, the roar of the pickup truck’s engine intensified as Dwight Parrish hit the gas pedal and backed out onto the snow-filled road.
Knox let go of Leni’s hand and pulled the hood of his parka up over his head.
Then he headed out to the frigid darkness, bypassing the sheriff as the man returned to the diner.
A hundred miles, give or take, stood between Knox and the Canadian border.
Maybe he’d take the trek slower than planned.
Several hours trudging through the blizzard might be the only way to cool the unwanted fire currently simmering in his blood.
CHAPTER 3
Standing behind the counter as Sheriff Barstow came back inside, Leni watched the swirling snow and darkness swallow Knox up.
She couldn’t tear her gaze away, couldn’t seem to inhale a single breath past the pang in her breast, until he had vanished completely.
And even after he was gone, she had the strangest compulsion to run after him and ask him to stay.
Or beg him to take her with him, no matter where he was headed.
It shocked her that she would even think it.
God, was she really that hard-up and lonely that a few minutes with a handsome drifter could turn her into a quivering puddle?
She probably didn’t want to know the answer. And there was no need to do the math on how long it had been since she’d been in bed with a man. Or hell, since she’d even got within kissing distance of one she liked.
All she had to do was look at six-year-old Riley to be reminded of the length of her self-imposed abstinence. Not that she’d had much experience before the sweet baby boy had been dropped into her life and become her primary focus.
Leni hadn’t given birth to him, but Riley was hers in every way that mattered. He was also the only family she had after her older, troubled half-sister had left town without a word to anyone only a few months after her son had been born.
Leni didn’t regret a minute of her precious nephew’s existence, nor her responsibility to provide a safe and stable, happy life for him. She would never wish him away, but sometimes she did long for more.
Did it make her a bad person that every now and then she just wanted to feel female and sexy? She wanted to feel alive, the way she had under the unsettling, penetrating intensity of Knox’s stormy blue eyes.
Not going to happen. Not in a million years. About the only thing worse than thinking she could trust her heart—or her body—to any man in Parrish Falls or within a hundred-mile radius of the place would be getting involved with someone who was just passing through. Especially when that someone also happened to be Breed.
Knox was the most dangerous kind of male she could crave, and not only because she sensed the cold lethality in him. All it would take was getting naked with him just once for him to realize she wasn’t entirely mortal herself.
It would take far less than that, probably. Because even though the small scarlet teardrop-and-crescent-moon mark she bore on her belly was concealed beneath her flannel shirt and a layer of thermal underwear tonight, there were other things that would give her away soon enough to someone like Knox.
Her singular blood scent. Her imperviousness to physical harm or injury, which was her unique gift as a Breedmate.
So, it was good that he was gone.
Lord knew she had enough problems to deal with already.
