Silence of the Wolf(64)

She didn’t dare move. She hoped he’d wake, release her, and leave the bed while she pretended to sleep, not wanting him to think she was that needy to have sprawled all over him. But he held her close and didn’t appear to be waking anytime soon.

She listened to his heart beating, smelled his masculine gray-wolf scent, and loved how he felt warm and protective of her. She hadn’t felt that way since before her human mate had had the urge to stray.

She tried to assess the way she felt physically and opened her eyes. And took a soft breath of relief. Her muscles ached slightly, but she felt so much better. Her skin was still scraped a bit, lightly bruised, and her forehead still throbbed some.

Closing her eyes, she couldn’t believe anyone who was a wolf would help her this much. Not given her history with wolves.

Tom didn’t move. She thought to disengage from him, pretend she was just rolling over on her back and was still asleep.

Something banged outside the cabin. She jumped a little. Tom’s arms tightened around her. Protective or maybe he feared she would leave him. Maybe he dreamed of having a little wolf loving. And she actually wished they could.

The room was cold and she didn’t want to leave the warmth of Tom’s embrace, the comfortable mattress, or the heaped-on blankets and comforter.

Maybe he had stolen the covers in the middle of the night, and she’d planted her whole body against him to ensure she got her fair share of the blankets.

Whatever banged outside—Tom had said it was a broken window latch on the shutter—did it again on the other side of the cabin. She wondered if it had done that all night long and she had slept through it, or if the wind had picked up again and was blowing something around.

Tom groaned and rubbed her arm in a loving way, then kissed her on the forehead. He was awake. Had he been all along and waited for her to stir, not wanting to disturb her? Or maybe the noises outside had startled him from his sleep.

She looked up at him. He studied her, his dark amber eyes roaming over her face from her forehead to her eyes to her chin, assessing her.

She parted her lips to tell him that she hadn’t meant to be crawling all over him in the middle of the night and to apologize. Just as quickly, he kissed her on the mouth, silencing her, making her forget what she had in mind to say.

She gave in to the kiss, the sweet, loving, gentle way that he had with her as if he was afraid she’d break apart. “I’m okay,” she said, and his mouth curved up against hers.

“Yeah,” he said, and deepened the kiss. “Better than okay.”

Their tongues teased and tangled as he stroked her hair, his fingers combing the strands in a caring manner. She could feel his erection hard beneath her belly and knew this had to stop, but she didn’t want it to. Yesterday, she could have been dead, just like the men who had taken her hostage.

She wanted this. She wanted him. A family. A pack. Was she crazy?

Who wouldn’t want this?

She’d managed to survive so many near-death experiences at the hands of wolves that she felt she had a guardian angel watching over her.

Whatever banged outside did it again. Tom didn’t appear to be in any hurry to check it out, despite it being light enough to see now. He quit kissing her, his hands still stroking her hair, his eyes open as he considered her. “Beautiful.”

She gave a soft, ladylike snort and tried to move off him, but his arms quickly wrapped around her back, and he held her tight. “Your forehead looks better. The area around the bandage is a little yellow and green, but the color doesn’t look too bad on you.”

“Yellow doesn’t look good on me.”

He laughed. “You look fine to me.” He sighed, not loosening his grip on her like she thought he would. “This feels just right. I don’t want to leave the bed. It’s too cold out there.”

She smiled at him. She loved this side of him. So he wasn’t all alpha after all, or he would have taken charge, had the fire going, fixed coffee, and checked to see what made the banging noise. “You don’t expect me to bring you breakfast in bed, do you?” she said.

He grinned at her.

She felt her whole body flush with heat. Why was it that men always thought of sex?

He still didn’t make a move to leave the bed.

“You’re not a late riser, are you?” she asked.

That got a chuckle from him.

She shook her head, placed her face against his chest, and let her breath out in a heavy sigh. “Your family will be worried about you. Then they’ll come up here and find us in bed together and…”

“They’ll know we’re smart and kept each other warm during a blizzard.”

“I’ll have problems going home,” she said, thinking again about her ID.