I still wasn’t expecting him to reach up, tangle his fingers in my hair. It took the breath straight out of my lungs. He leaned in close, so close I could feel the brush of every word across my lips when he spoke.
“I’m a patient man, and I’m not going anywhere. I want you. I want this.” He tightened his grip in my hair, not enough to pull, just enough to give that delicious, prickly-scalp sensation that reminded me he was there, holding me hostage. “If you trust nothing else, trust that I want you. And I’ll dowhateverit takes to get you.”
Hot. Damn.
My panties were damp and my head was spinning as he released his grip on my hair, letting his hand run over the back of my neck and down my arm, where he twined our fingers together.
“There’s one more thing,” he added, tone casual.
“What’s that? You’ve got a wife and kids in Reno?”
He snorted a laugh, shaking his head at my sarcasm. “No. Just that I’d be honored to spend your heat with you.”
Arrow, right to the heart. Damn him.
How did he disarm all my defenses so easily? He wasn’t even trying, and I was a goner.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” he repeated, a sarcastic twist to the corner of his lips.
“It’s a perfectly good word, when I’m the one using it,” I teased.
He threw his head back and laughed. Not some polite, restrained thing. A full belly laugh that teased a giggle from my own lips.
Goddess, it felt good to let go with him. Reckless, but good.
“Come to dinner with me tonight,” he demanded, eyes glowing turquoise with his wolf, who clearly wanted him to press the issue.
“Are there any good restaurants around here?” I asked, toying with him, even though I was going to say yes.
Valens shook his head. “I’m going to cook for you.”
I groaned, letting my head fall back a bit. “You can cook too? Is there anything you can’t do?”
“Let you go.”
He pressed a ghost of a kiss to the corner of my lips, the worst kind of tease, and then headed for the door.
He paused, hand still on the knob. “My house, seven p.m.”
And then he was gone.
I pressed my fingertips to my lips, as if I could hold onto the memory of his lips a little longer and sear them into my skin forever.
I spent my day shadowing Olivia as she went about her duties, giving Galyna her first day off in too long.
By the time night rolled around and Olivia was off, blushing to spend the night with Lucien, well, I had plans of my own.
And I’d never been more nervous. Anxious. All twisted up inside as if I’d just ridden a tilt-a-whirl at the county fair after eating too many deep-fried Oreos.
“Elodie Carmichael, you knock that shit off,” I scolded myself under my breath as I walked slowly up Valens’s tidy front pathway. “You have faced down literal death without hesitation. This man likes you, and he wants to get to know you. He isn’t going to do anything worth getting anxious about.”
I stopped a few feet from the door, suddenly second-guessing my decision to change out of my uniform. Looking down at my simple jeans and plain white T-shirt, I knew I’d messed up.
Normal women got dolled up for dates.
Granted, I owned likeonedress, and it was technically my dress uniform for special occasions, like weddings.
