“You’re determined to go back?” His voice dissipates into a brittle silence that hangs in the air between us.
I open and shut my mouth, resembling a guppy for a few heartbeats, before managing to make reasonable sounds. “I don’t really have any plans, Cord. I might not even get the grant. But if I do… Well, it’s what I do—it’s what I’ve been working on for years now. And I wasn’t sure about?—”
“Us,” he finishes for me. “My sister scared you, didn’t she?”
I bite my lip. “Yes? I wasn’t sure if I’d see you again.”
“You don’t need to be afraid, Lanie.” His voice drops as he twists to face me, his hands gliding beneath the blanket. Sensation hums through me at his touch. “Are you scared of something temporary or something permanent?”
Cord searches my face, one hand coasting up my spine to tangle in my hair. I lean into his touch, enjoying the way the gentle tug on the strands feels. I haven’t bothered to maintain the curls since our hike at Valiant Peak. My hair hangs messily to my waist, untamed and pooling around our blanket-covered legs.
“I’m not sure,” I confess, trying to remember the question. “Both, maybe?” It’s a night for bald truths. “I guess…I want to see what might happen.”
Cord strokes the back of my neck with the pads of callused fingers, sending little shocks of pleasure along my shoulders as he pulls me into him. His mouth comes down hard on my lips. He offers me no gentle introduction this time, just three days of absence and hunger communicated in a direct line between us. Tonight’s kisses are rougher than how he touched me in his kitchen, more possessive. I lean into him, welcoming the easy distraction as I rediscover the sculpted planes of his shoulders.
A deep growl rumbles in his chest. Strong arms scoop me over his lap to straddle him. The blanket topples to the edge of the step, but I don’t pause to grab for it. The heat absent a moment before returns in force. I should stop, but I can’t, or don’t want to. A laugh born of Cord’s personal brand of crazy bubbles within me as I slide over him to find how our bodies work together. The solid press of him between my legs leaves me panting against his mouth.
“I’m sorry I scared you, Lanie.” His kisses soften as I draw back, tracing the lines of his face with my thumbs.
“Things…can’t always be planned,” I breathe. Which, kind of strangely, is how I prefer life. Unplanned. Uncaged.
Free.
“That terrifies me.”
I study his eyes but appreciate his honesty. The cool blue deepens in the night to a fathomless sapphire that flares impossibly dark as he returns my blatant assessment. Cord’s life seems to be organized by a calendar, everything scheduled so tightly. Me? Mine is no more than a perpetual, chaotic tangle with no end in sight. In my version, there’s no overall game, no winner’s trophy for reaching a goal. Just…living through each day. Learning. Not stopping.
Perhaps opposites do attract, after all. The corners of my mouth quirk. “Let me terrify you into becoming impulsive.”
“Granted.” That blue flash in his eyes returns, his quick answer a bolt of pure desire that twists through me, or maybe it’s his fingers tangling in my hair as he presses our bodies together.
His mouth crashes against mine again, hard and unforgiving.Work-roughened hands graze my ribs, trace the curve of my ass. Cord doesn’t ask permission, sliding his tongue between my lips to search out mine. I arch into him with a soft moan at the intrusion, letting my hands knot at the front of his shirt.
“Damn, girl. Pack something. Come home with me.” His kisses travel down my throat, thumbs grazing the swells of my breasts. His breath comes fast, whether from the impromptu offer or need, I can’t tell. “Stay with me.”
I can’t think. I sure as hell can’t breathe.
“Lanie?”
“Cord,” I start, but my voice comes out strangled, like some poor dying beast. I try again. “You said you weren’t impulsive.”
“I’m not. I’ve wanted you in my house since the last time you were there.”
His confession floors me. “I can’t just move in with you.”
Cord laughs against my skin. Pleasure shoots from my belly to between my thighs at the sound, heat pooling there where I ache for his touch. His hands wander to my hips, squeezing as though he understands exactly what just happened inside me. “Impulsive, remember? Plus, I have wolves.”
“That’s a hook.” Maybe I can study his pack while I wait and see what happens with the grant…This man is all the wrong sorts of temptation. Worse. He knows it.Cord doesn’t seem to have the same limits as everyone else. That makes him both sexy as all get out and dangerous as hell. I suck in a shuddering breath as his touch tours my body, discovering sensitive parts all over me. PartsIdidn’t know about. “I can’t think when you do that.”
“Good. Come with me.”
“Cord. I can’t,” I protest. “I’ve had wine tonight. I need to think.”
“Stop thinking.” His mouth finds mine again, but this time his kisses are the slow sort.
Stop thinkingis the last thing I should do but with Cord, it’s easy. My anxiety drifts away, replaced by the memory of the man who defended against cruelty and harm with a cold passion that day at Valiant Peak. And in his arms I simply…stop. I take the peace offering and settle into his arms, allowing my protests to fade into the background.
For now.
