Cord shakes his head. “I’m a bit of a coffee snob, I’m afraid.” His smile lingers, his gaze coasting along my body and back to my face.
The air stills. It’s impossible to breathe around this man when he studies me like I’m his next snack. He takes a step into my space. My wolf senses, attuned after so long away from everyone else, snap on.
“I never would have picked it.” I can’t help it; I scoot around the table and shoo him toward the living room. Somehow, he sucks all the breathable air out of the kitchen. “You’re too big for this space. Crowding me.”
I close my eyes. My painkiller-fogged brain appears intent on letting out all the state secrets today. I crack one eye to find myself his singular focus.
It’s… unnerving.
Cord’s cool blue gaze sharpens as it settles on me from where he’s stepped back to, the kitchen threshold, which seems to be as far as he’s willing to retreat. My cheeks heat beneath his intense study.
“I’m crowding you, or the room?”
“Both,” I blurt, confronted by his knowing gaze. “I’m sorry. I’ve had migraine pills for the last few days. They’ve fogged my head and canceled all my inhibitions.”
Dear Brain, please keep up with Mouth in front of the nice rancher.
He huffs a laugh. “Not your usual medicinal dependence?” Those still-twinkling eyes return my humor, thank God.
“Dependent-free. All free, here.” Wishing I could be as calm as I was back at his homestead, I shut my mouth with a click that my dentist will resent on my next visit.
Cord rubs a hand over the shadow on his chin. “Not a fan of being tied down, huh?”
And he’s perceptive as well.Bonus round.I let my hair swayforward in a shield between us, glad I left it loose. “I’m surprised you can make sense of my mumbling. Where do you and Winnie usually hang out?” I guide him through the equally small living room, pretending I didn’t just imagine being tied down by him, or, at least, not in the way he meant it. I halt, glancing back.
As he follows, a dark glitter in his eyes sends a jolt rippling through me.
You’re not sixteen anymore, Lanie.Nope, I’m an adult. And I’ll behave like one.
“I don’t hang out with my sister much at all,” Cord says softly, breaking the moment.
His eyes track me as I circumnavigate a small square coffee table, using it to put distance between us and reclaim some much-needed breathing room.
“Oh.” I perch on the edge of a two-seater next to a single recliner. “I usually socialize with wolves, so not a people person.”
Brilliant. You’re an antisocial, anti-person, canine-driven nomad.
Cord steps around everything to settle beside me, removing the barrier I put between us. Heat radiates from his jean-clad knee as it brushes mine.
I swivel to face him, my gaze halting on his perfect, arched lips. My big-girl words desert me. “At least you have clothes on this time.” I close my eyes.Just…don’t talk.
Ever. Again.
Cord’s choked exhale brushes my cheek.
“She’s not usually this bad.” Winnie reappears as I pry my eyes open. She takes the recliner opposite us. I smile, grateful for the rescue while internally cheering the support of the sisterhood. “Meds. You know.” She whistles like a deranged budgie, swaying in her seat.
My smile weakens.So much for solidarity.A phone vibrates somewhere in the townhouse. Winnie shrugs, rising to locate it.
“It’ll be work.” Cord sobers as his sister leaves the room. “She won’t stop.”
“She loves what she does. It’s her passion.” I lean back, right onto Cord’s arm stretched across the back of the sofa. Everything about him is oversized. My mind whizzes off in an inappropriate direction as a frisson of awareness tears through me. “Sorry.” I wriggle around, but as with the kitchen, Cord’s presence consumes all the room in our cramped space.
I can’t decide if I love or hate that. Maybe a bit of both.
Cord’s gaze takes on a predatory look as he assesses me, and breathing becomes optional. Hard lines of muscle give his hands a carved quality that continues along his forearms, where his sleeves are rolled to his elbows to display the sort of hard-won muscle that’s beyond droolworthy. I add those to my Cordell Rand obsession, becausedamn.Butterflies riot in my stomach while I try to shift back, but I have nowhere to go.
He clears his throat. “You’ve known her for a while?”
