How could she possibly forget any of that? Still in disbelief that she’d had sex with a man so soon after knowing him, Erica was even more astonished that she didn’t feel the least bit humiliated by it. Having sex with Dominic was the most natural thing, the right thing. Feeling his hard, muscled body over hers, having him inside her, hearing him groan and whisper nasty things in her ear…
Dominic broke her daydream and chuckled. “I thought so.”
Erica looked up, eyes wide. “What?”
Dominic gave her a smoldering look. “You might want to be careful what you think about too soon, or we may never get to take that hike I was planning.”
“How do you know what I’m thinking about?”
He set down the cooler and tapped his nose. “I can smell the effects, sweetheart.”
Forget the part that he could smell when she was turned on. The fact that she wasn’t furious with him calling her that nickname made her feel a little uncomfortable. Were they at the point that they were free to use endearments? She had never been with a man long enough to reach that stage of the relationship.
She folded her arms over her stomach and shot him a look. “You can’t blame me for daydreaming about all that mind-blowing sex.”
Dominic grinned. “Mind-blowing, huh? Yeah, I think that describes it pretty well.”
Secretly, she hoped she’d have her mind blown again just about every night. Once more, her doubt came back to remind her that all good things came to an end. Maybe that would be several years down the road, and not anytime soon.
She desperately wanted to believe that Dominic was right, that she wasn’t like her mother. But she saw far too many similarities. How could she not be like her mother? Or worse, what if she’d end up like her father and didn’t try hard enough to keep Dominic if he was the one who wanted to leave?
“Stop thinking about it,” Dominic gently scolded.
“What? Do you smell that on me too?”
“No,” he replied as he tossed the sleeping bags in the tent. “I can feel it.”
“Feel it?”
Dominic’s smile faded and Erica braced herself for more bad news.
“It’s a little complicated.”
As much as she dreaded to hear something else that would make her question reality, she hated the idea of there being secrets between them. Everything was going so well so far.
“Then explain it to me.”
Dominic straightened from his inspection of the cooler contents and slid his hands into his jean pockets. His eyes wandered through the trees around them. “Maybe we should start that hike now. This might take a while.”
“Is this a shifter thing?”
He only nodded, and she went to retrieve her camera bag from the truck. She couldn’t have cared less about bringing a change of clothes or hygiene amenities. She wasn’t going to miss out on a chance to photograph the park. It’d give her mind something else to think about, anyway.
Dominic led them toward the forest, and at first, there was no clear path through the trees. The bushes and low-lying branches snagged at her clothes and brushed against her legs until they finally found the well-worn dirt lane just wide enough for two people to walk abreast of each other.
Erica fished out her camera and turned it on. The slight whirl of the electronics was incompatible with the peaceful nature around them, but Dominic didn’t nag her for bringing the piece of technology into a world that might have been considered part of his territory. He was part animal, after all. This park must have been like his domain.
“You’ve heard the thing that wolves mate for life?” Dominic began as her thumbs worked the settings.
She froze when her mind started to turn over his words, and she stopped completely. “Oh, God,” she groaned and looked to him for a more thorough explanation.
Dominic laughed. “Don’t get ahead of me. It’s nothing that permanent. Come on.”
He offered out his hand and she took it, almost without thinking, despite the momentary panic at what he’d said. The last thing she needed to hear was that they were somehow cosmically bound for all eternity. At the moment, it didn’t seemso bad, but everything seemed too uncertain to commit to forever.
“Shifters experience relationships differently than humans,” he began again. “When we feel that true, deep, meaningful connection with someone and that feeling is reciprocated, our animal sides kind of get ahead of ourselves and form what we call a mating bond. The best way I can describe it is a spiritual linkage of the souls.”
Okay, maybe there was a little cosmic nonsense to it. “Like soulmates?”
