Wild. Primal.
Julie!
CHAPTER 8
Julie was floating on a sea of happy afterglow. She’d had sex before. She’d made love with men she thought she’d spend the rest of her life with. And once, yes, she’d gone to bed with a man she’d guessed wasn’t the right one but wasn’t exactly sure. Oddly enough, that had been her best sexual encounter…until now.
Now there was a whole new bar for excellent sex. Like in a whole new galaxy.
They were spooned together with his arm wrapped around her while she tucked tightly back against him. She’d probably passed out there for a bit or been catapulted to a new universe. Either way, she was barely conscious except for her state of satisfaction. And the way he kept pressing sensuous licks to the back of her shoulder made her smile from the inside of her soul.
Didn’t men fall asleep after sex? Apparently not Mark, who punctuated his licks with a kiss while gently stroking her arm. Long, petting strokes. She purred in delight. Wow, a whole bunch of new noises had come out of her this morning. She might have been embarrassed, but he’d seemed to enjoy her every sound. Which had, in turn, encouraged her to let herself go without restraint or self-criticism.
How freeing was that?
She sighed happily, stretching her fingers out to entwine with his. He caught her easily, then tugged on her thumb for some unknown reason. She giggled, and he did it again while rubbing his chin stubble across the back of her neck.
Rough and exciting.
“Aren’t you sleepy?” she asked. After all, he’d been up all night.
“And miss this? Hell, n?—”
His word was abruptly cut off at a clanking noise from outside. It was quick and quiet, but he went rigidly still.
“What?”
“Perimeter,” he whispered.
He gently rolled her off him and padded to the window. She didn’t hear anything anymore, so she relaxed into the sight of his gloriously naked body as he stood in profile. Roman nose, biceps better than a Marine’s, and a stomach of rippling abs that made her mouth water. He’d cleaned up at some point, so the condom was gone, but his penis was still thick and partially erect. A good look on him.
While she stood there admiring his body, he flipped the latch, then pulled up the window. He probably wanted it to go up quietly, but nothing in this cabin had been oiled in years, so it opened with a shriek that made him wince.
She sat up. “It was probably just a raccoon or?—”
Gunshots rang out. Three quick ones. If she hadn’t spent a summer volunteering on the South Side of Chicago, she would have thought it was a car backfiring or something. But she knew that sound, even though it still took her brain a few seconds to believe it.
Gunshots? Here?
What the hell was a hunter doing this close to her dad’s cabin?
She scrambled out of bed, heading for her clothes, but that was nothing compared to what Mark did. He shot her a single look, dark and angry.
“Stay here!” he said, and then he ran out the door. She hadn’t even fully stood up when the front door banged open.
Her gaze shot to the window where she clearly saw the front yard and a flash of skin…Wait, no! She saw a freaking animal running across the front lawn. And not just a dog or a possum. A huge animal with dark fur that really, really looked like a bear. But it couldn’t be that, she told herself. What would a bear be doing running across her lawn?
She stared out the window, looking for a hint of what she’d seen. Nothing.
Oh hell, she realized with a dull kind of shock. Mark had gone out there looking for God-only knew what. He’d set perimeter alarms to catch some vague idea of a bad guy, but he sure as hell wasn’t thinking bear.
She had to warn him. He’d run out naked, for God’s sake. Not even a weapon against the hugest creature she’d ever seen outside of a zoo. She pulled on her clothes as fast as she could manage while simultaneously shoving her feet into sandals. Like pretty flip-flops were going to be useful when tromping through the woods. But she wasn’t going far. Just into the backyard to call for Mark.
She was already out the back door when she realized she didn’t want to yell for fear of attracting the wild animal. But that was ridiculous, she told herself, striving for logic to calm her racing pulse. First off, wild animals ran from humans, right? Second, the thing had been in the front, not the back. But Mark had said the perimeter alarms were around the back of the property. So that’s where he would be. So she could be as noisy as she liked, right?
“Mark?” she called, pitching her voice to be loud, but not a scream. “Mark, come back. I think I saw a bear.”
She listened and thought she heard something, but who could tell? Thumps or wind? God, she had no idea what she was supposed to hear in the country. What was normal, what was Mark being a freaking moron.
