The Mating Heat(20)

“It doesn’t have to be that way.”
Turning from him, she hugged herself. “Please leave me now. I’d like to be alone.”
Ryder sighed. “Rest a while. I’ll be back soon to take you downstairs to eat. Tonight everyone’s dining on their own.”
As the door closed softly behind him, she finally surrendered to the tears forming in her eyes. But she cried, not for the father she’d known, but the male he could have been, who’d locked away his life and his love in a cold, dark place forever.
    







 
    Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance by Jennifer Ashley, Alyssa Day, Felicity Heaton, Erin Kellison, Laurie London, Erin Quinn, Bonnie Vanak and Caris Roane
    
 


 
CHAPTER 7
After giving her a short break for privacy, Ryder came to fetch Kara. Determined to wipe away the sadness in her eyes, he didn’t know how to erase the painful memories. He only had instinct to guide him, and the depth of his feelings.
Kara accompanied him downstairs. Instead of heading for the large dining room, he hooked a right and went into the kitchen. She frowned.
“We’re eating here?”
“I haven’t planned a menu yet. Thought you’d like a treat first.” Ryder opened the pantry doors, gesturing to a wire shelf filled with plastic tubs of her favorite treat.
Her eyes widened. “Peanut butter?”
“Ever watch a wolf eat peanut butter?”
She laughed.
“I remembered how much you enjoyed it. So I cleaned out the store.”
Her smile transformed her entire face, lighting it like sunshine spilling upon a sparkling lake. The darkness inside him peeled back a layer.
“Why did you do it?”
Alpha Lupine males didn’t admit weakness. He must appear strong before the pack. But hell, Kara always had been his favorite weakness. And if it meant the pack thought he was vulnerable, so be it.
“Because I wanted to make you smile again like you once did. The memory of your smile kept me warm all those cold nights in the cell. If it meant buying every jar of peanut butter in Colorado to make you happy, I’d do it.”
Her expression softened. “Thanks Ryder. That means a lot to me.”
Ryder screwed open a jar, found a spoon. He dug into the peanut butter and handed her the spoon. “Taste.”
Kara closed her eyes, making a humming sound as those perfect and wet red lips closed over the spoon. She licked it. Slowly.
He stared, hot and hungry and feeling as lusty and out of control as a stripling Lupine male facing his first naked female.
“I don’t know what we should have for dinner. But this…” She smiled wider, opening her eyes. “Is dessert.”
Enough already. Ryder pulled her into his arms. Spoon and jar tumbled to the floor, bounced and rolled. He kissed her, his tongue tasting the peanut butter, sweetness and the flavor that was exquisitely Kara, the taste he’d dreamed about for years. The kiss turned desperate and pleading and burning. He gave her no time for thought, words or protest. He merely took and claimed because he must. If he did not…
I’d fucking die right now.
Never again was she leaving. He didn’t care if he had to fight every male in Aiden’s pack. He’d fight them all, one arm, hell, one paw tied behind his back simply to keep Kara here. If she walked out that door, part of him would crumble and wither. The pack would falter, too, for in some mystical way, Kara was the pack, the invisible umbilical cord that fed them purpose and strength. He was the head of the pack, but she was their heart.#p#分页标题#e#
When they both surfaced for air, panting heavily, he tugged her hand. “Come, meet your people.”
Panic replaced her passion-glazed, smoky look. “I can’t, Ryder. You can’t march me in there to meet all of them at once. They probably hate me for leaving like I did. Sneaking out like a thief.”
He caressed her wrist, circling it with his thumb. “They don’t hate you, sweeting. They miss you. They need you.”
Like I do, he almost confessed.
Kara did not answer. Instead, she examined the nearest shelf, her slender fingers combing over the canned preservatives and jellies. She picked up a jar of honey and unscrewed it, sniffing.
“I remember growing up with the beehives on the ranch, taking the fresh honey from the comb. It tasted so good, so sweet. But there was always that risk when taking the sweetness, because I’d get stung. At first it seemed worth it for a few moments of pleasure. But the pleasure was fleeting and the hurt always lasted longer.”
She shook her head. “You say the pack needs me, but they’re like the bees in the hive. They function as a unit, and as Lupines, will destroy those who threaten their home. There’s no going back for me, Ryder. You represent the new life of the hive, and I’m the ghost of a painful past they won’t want to remember. We have no future together. Alastair was right.”