Dark Wolf Unbound (Heart of the Shifter #2)(40)

The man at the bar leaned forward, drawing Anya's attention off the  mirror and back to him. He was staring at her even more intensely, his  gaze boring into hers as if it were a dagger that could cut out her  heart. She could feel him testing her psychic defenses, trying to get  back in her mind.

She jerked her gaze off him, refusing to let him distract her. She  closed her eyes to cut him off, so she could focus on the woman behind  her. She couldn't afford to miss a word. "Where is Julia?"

The woman's breath tickled her neck. "You must go to the warehouse on the corner of Hartford and-"

Fingers closed around her wrist. Anya's eyes snapped open as she was  jerked off her feet and across the floor. She slammed into the hard body  of the man at the bar, and his arms locked around her. He stared down  into her eyes. No longer were his eyes blue. They had shifted into dark,  bottomless pits of death … and something else. Something more dangerous.  Something more personal.

"I love you," he said, his whisper rolling through her, making sudden  tears fill her eyes as longing swept over her. To be loved, to be held  like she mattered, to be-

He kissed her.

Not just a kiss.

A kiss so tender, so beautiful, so seductive that it made her heart cry  for more. Never had she been kissed like that. Ever. His lips were  decadently soft, his tongue a sensual dance of promise and tenderness,  his hands on her hips like he was her shield against the world. He was  pure male, offering himself to her as her protector, her lover, the man  who would never let her be alone again.

Her soul cried out for his kiss and his declarations with an intensity  so strong that it made her heart ache with longing. The pain jerked her  back into her own mind just enough for her to realize that something was  wrong, terribly wrong. He was in her mind again, reeling her in,  offering her the words and emotions that she burned for, as if he knew  exactly what triggers would ensnare her. He was manipulating her,  drawing her into his kiss … with a sinking heart, she realized suddenly  that his kiss was his weapon, wielded with the skillful, ruthless  finesse of a well-practiced assassin Why had he come for her? Sudden  fear pulsed through her, and she knew it had to be because of Julia. Was  he trying to keep her from talking to the woman? Or was he there to  kill her?

She was in danger. Sudden, dire danger from him. She had to break his  hold on her. She had to talk to the woman. She had to find Julia. She  shoved at his chest, trying to raise her mental shields and boot him out  of her mind-

He deepened the kiss, a searing hot kiss that seemed to ignite her very  soul. His lips were hot and sensual, his kiss deep and intoxicating,  sending desire sparking through every part of her body. Yearning filled  her, a desperate need for him, for his kiss, for his touch, for  everything he could offer her.                       
       
           



       

In the deep recesses of her mind, she knew it was wrong. She knew what  she felt was unnatural, but the realization was faint, fading, too weak  for her to grasp. He tunneled his hands through her hair, angling her  head as he deepened the kiss, drawing her away from her mission and into  his spell.

She couldn't stop herself from responding to his seduction. Her soul was  crying out for him. She could sense the danger he presented. She could  feel the emptiness of his soul. She knew that his whispers of love were  lies he didn't mean. But it didn't matter. Something about him called to  her, something far deeper than the seduction he was weaving in her  mind.

She needed to stab him.

She needed to run.

But she couldn't.

She simply wanted him.



Like it? Get it now!





Sneak Peek: Darkness Awakened





DARKNESS AWAKENED



An Order of the Blade Novel

© 2015 Stephanie Rowe





Quinn Masters raced soundlessly through the thick woods, his injuries  long forgotten, urgency coursing through him as he neared his house. He  covered the last thirty yards, leapt over a fallen tree, then reached  the edge of the clearing by his cabin.

There she was.

He stopped dead, fading back into the trees as he stared at the woman  he'd scented when he was still two hours away, a lure that had  eviscerated all weakness from his body and fueled him into a dead sprint  back to his house.

His lungs heaving with the effort of pushing his severely damaged body  so hard, Quinn stood rigidly as he studied the woman whose scent had  called to him through the dark night. She'd yanked him out of his  thoughts about Elijah and galvanized him with energy he hadn't been able  to summon on his own.

And now he'd found her.

She'd wedged herself up against the back corner of his porch, barely  protected from the cold rain and wet wind. Her knees were pulled up  against her chest, her delicate arms wrapped tightly around them as if  she could hold onto her body heat by sheer force of will. Her shoulders  were hunched, her forehead pressed against her knees while damp tangles  of dark brown hair tumbled over her arms.

Her chest moved once. Twice. A trembling, aching breath into lungs that  were too cold and too exhausted to work as well as they should.

He took a step toward her, and another, then three more before he  realized what he was doing. He froze, suddenly aware of his urgent need  to get to her. To help her. To fill her with heat and breathe safety  into her trembling body. To whisk her off his porch and into his cabin.

Into his bed.

Quinn stiffened at the thought. Into his bed? Since when? He didn't  engage when it came to women. Not anymore. The risk was too high, for  him, and for all Calydons. Any woman he met could be his mate, his fate,  his doom. His sheva.

He was never tempted.

Until now.

Until this cold, vulnerable stranger had appeared inexplicably on his  doorstep. He should be pulling out his sword, not thinking that the  fastest way to get her warm would be to run his hands over her bare skin  and infuse her whole body with the heat from his.

But his sword remained quiet. His instincts warned him of nothing.

What the hell was going on? She had to be a threat. Nothing else made  sense. Women didn't stumble onto his home, and he didn't get a hard-on  from simply catching a whiff of one from miles away.

His aching quads braced against the cold air, he inhaled her scent  again, searching for answers to a thousand questions. She smelled  delicate, with a hint of something sweet, and a flavoring of the  bitterness of true desperation. He could practically taste her anguish, a  cold, acrid weight in the air, and he knew she was in trouble.

His hands flexed with the need to close the distance between them, to  crouch by her side, to give her his protection. But he didn't move. He  didn't dare. He had to figure out why he was so compelled by her, why he  was responding like this, especially at a time when he couldn't afford  any distraction.

She moaned softly and curled into an even tighter ball. His muscles  tightened, his entire soul burning with the need to help her. Quinn  narrowed his eyes and pried his gaze off her to search the woods.

With the life of his blood brother in his hands, an Order posse soon to  be after him, and his own body still half in the grave, he should be so  focused on business that a woman could dance naked on his chest and he  still wouldn't notice. It shouldn't be possible for a woman he didn't  even know, hadn't met and barely even seen to rock him on his ass like  this simply because he'd caught a whiff of her scent.

He was disciplined, dammit, and disciplined warriors didn't fall for that shit. It made no sense.

His intense need for her felt too similar to the compulsion that had  sent him to the river three nights ago. Another trap? He'd suspected it  from the moment he'd first reacted to her scent, but he'd been unable to  resist the temptation, and he'd hauled ass to get back to his house.  Yeah, true, he'd also needed to get back to his cabin to retrieve his  supplies to go after Elijah. The fact she'd imbued him with new strength  had been a bonus he wasn't going to deny.                       
       
           



       

But now he had to be sure. A trap or not? Quinn laughed softly. Shit. He  hoped it was. If it wasn't, there was only one other reason he could  think that could explain his reaction to her, and that would be if she  was his mate. His sheva. His ticket to certain destruction.

No chance.

He wouldn't allow it.

He had no time for dealing with that destiny right now. It was time to  get in, get out, and go after Elijah. His amusement faded as he took a  final survey of the woods. There was no lurking threat he could detect.  Maybe he'd made it back before he'd been expected, or maybe an ambush  had been aborted.

Either way, he had to get into his house, get his stuff, and move on.  His gaze returned to the woman, and he noticed a drop of water sliding  down the side of her neck, trickling over her skin like the most  seductive of caresses. He swore, realizing she wasn't going to leave.  She'd freeze to death before she'd abandon her perch.