“But—”
He caressed her jaw, holding her gaze with a ferocity that he feared would frighten her. “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to go bear and never come back.”
“So let’s keep working?—”
“But I won’t spend my last days working and eating crap. If I’ve only got a few more sunrises?—”
“Don’t say that!”
“Then let me spend this sunset having a wonderful dinner with a beautiful woman.”
She blinked quickly, but not before he saw the sheen of tears in her eyes. Then she released a low snort. “I’ll need a shower and some serious makeup before I even approach beautiful.”
He studied her face, memorizing every glorious feature including the acne scars and the furrow between her brows. He saw the mole near her hairline and the extra fullness to her mouth. And every imperfection added up to the most beautiful face he’d ever seen in his life because of all of it was her. Fierce, determined Julie.
“You’re beautiful,” he said, meaning it to the depths of his soul.
“You’re hallucinating from malnutrition.”
He laughed. “Carrots and hummus do not sustain a guy like me.”
“Don’t forget the Ho Hos.”
Oh, yes. Those were great, but those ran out hours ago. “A mere bite.”
“Exactly—”
“Julie, I need you to hear this, okay? You are so beautiful, I can’t even express it. I like how you look. I like the way your hair curls around your ears. I like the full hourglass figure. I love the large breasts and hips. And I—” He cut himself off before he said the rest. Before he admitted to himself and her that he was falling in love. Because that spelled disaster to a doomed man. And it meant even worse things for the woman he’d leave behind. So he swallowed that part and substituted something vastly less real. “And I need to take you out to an expensive dinner and dessert. Right now.”
Her eyes shone bright, but she didn’t look away. “No shower?”
“Can I join you in there?”
She snorted. “We’d never make it out of the house.”
“Oh, well in that case…” He let his voice trail off suggestively.
She wasn’t having any of it. She pushed away from him and he counted it a huge victory that he let her go. “Ten minutes,” she said. “Well, maybe twenty.”
“Fifteen. And I’ll shower in your father’s bathroom.”
She was already halfway up the stairs. “Good idea.”
He frowned. It was hard to focus when her ass moved like that. “Are you saying I stink?”
“Does a grizzly shit in the woods?”
His mind scrambled to replay her words. She was laughing as she rounded the top and heading toward the bathroom. And he…he was stunned. She’d just made a shifter joke. A lame one, but still…What normal had ever accepted the shifter world so quickly and so easily? Especially after her traumatic introduction.
God, she was one impressive woman. Now all he had to do was figure out how exactly he could stay human long enough to get his fill of her. Probably only take a few hundred years…
Julie took twenty-seven minutes to get ready. Shower and sundress were easy, but the accessories took some time. Especially since she hadn’t packed for a date night. She could only thank heaven that she’d thrown some makeup into her bag out of habit, not intention. And while she curled her hair away from her eyes, she contemplated her lack of jewelry.
She hadn’t brought any from home, but there were pieces left over from when she was a teenager. Wild flights of fancy and daring costume jewelry that suited someone a lot bolder than the woman she’d grown into. But what the hell? Mark made her feel bold. And so she put on the huge gold hoop earrings and decided to go for broke with the necklace.
The pendant was a simple glass drop in lightest blue shot with gold. It dangled from a cheap chain, but it plunged all the way down her ample cleavage. She’d had plenty as a teen, but now as a woman? She had big mounds that (thankfully) Mark seemed to like. And the teardrop drew the eye to her massive assets.
She was nervous as she came down the stairs, but the look in his eyes was like the prom night she’d never had. His eyes widened. She saw his mouth drop a little open, and his hand squeezed the railing. He looked like he was going to climb up the stairs and carry her to bed where he would ravish her all night long. And at that moment, she wondered what exactly she wanted. Because ravishment sounded pretty damn good to her. Especially since she could see the indecision on his face. He wanted her and it was taking every bit of his control not to take her.
