by Marie Mason
Whether it was the warmth radiating from his body, the culmination of the night’s event, or those words of promise, Katie didn’t know. All she knew was that she was drifting off to sleep, feeling safe and secure for the first time in a very long time.
CHAPTER THREE
The next morning, Logan watched as the woman beside him slept. It was a peaceful sleep, so his wolf didn’t go all crazy worrying about her. He fingered the bump on her head. It had already turned an interesting shade of bluish purple.
He wasn’t surprised by the fire—the need—ripping through him as he watched her. Jarod had told him how it would be when he found his mate. He hadn’t expected this swelling up of protectiveness that engulfed him, though. He wanted to wrap Katie in cotton wool so she’d never get hurt again. Now he really didn’t understand how Jarod was resisting claiming his mate. And why the hell he would want to. His big brother was either a fool or had more control than any other wolf Logan had ever known.
He was putting his money on Jarod being a fool. There was no way in hell this woman would ever be out of Logan’s sight again. Maybe he’d just keep her here at the cabin forever. Now he did sound like the stalker she’d halfway accused him of being last night.
His instinct on discovering his mate had been to throw her over his shoulder and take her to the nearest bed. To thrust his cock inside her, bite her, claim her, so no other man would ever come near her again. All of those feelings had flashed through him when he’d only caught her scent. After he’d seen her pretty face and curvy body, he’d had a hell of a fight on his hands to keep his animal side from taking over.
Katie snuggled into the soft pillow and sighed, dreading the moment when she’d have to open her eyes and start her day. She was on nights this week, no doubt that’s why she still felt so groggy. Switching shift times played havoc on your system the first few days. At least the hospital where she worked scheduled its nurses for thirty days at a time, unlike others who switched a nurse’s shifts every two weeks.
She stretched her leg, thinking how good her sheets felt. If she didn’t know better she’d say she was sleeping on satin—
Crap!
Her body stilled as she came instantly alert and aware of her surroundings. Aware of the down pillow under her cheek and realizing those were satin sheets under her naked thigh. But that wasn’t the worst of it. There was a big, solid male body sprawled out beside her.
She slowly opened her eyes not at all startled to see beautiful brown eyes staring back at her. She felt her heart skip a beat. Maybe two. She was conscious of more than a tug of attraction and a tremor of anxiety.
“Good morning, beautiful.” His dark hair was a pleasing contrast against the white pillowcase. Sunlight from the window gleamed on the planes of his strong brow and prominent cheekbones. One arm was bunched beneath his head and the other was stretched across the space between them, his hand lying possessively on her thigh. His finger span widened, covering a larger expanse of her skin protected only by a thin layer of cotton. They flexed and smoothed across her flesh as he studied her expression. She wanted to close her eyes and imagine those hands roaming across every inch of her needy body.
He moved slightly and his scent wafted over her. He smelled of the woods and man. The mysterious essence curled around her making her pussy clench in need. She could have sworn she heard the growl of a wolf inside her head.
The man looked sexy and terrifying as he smiled slowly, the not-so-drowsy gaze taking in her face then her throat before resting on the crevice of her breasts, bunched as they were between her arms. The neckline of the t-shirt he’d given her was wide. She had no doubt she was exposing more cleavage than she wanted to. Trying to pull up the neck would only draw more attention to the fact that her nipples had hardened under his gaze.
At his hungry gaze, a wisp of something she’d never felt before tingled along her body, lifting the hairs on the nape of her neck.
“So last night wasn’t a bad dream?”
He chuckled and she remembered that sound from last night. It was warm and deep and seduced her almost as easily as his good looks and roguish charm. His personality was laid back and not nearly as intense as some of the shifters she’d encountered in the ER. She liked that. She wasn’t good with intense men. They intimated her to some degree. What had her mother said? There was a fine line between dominant and domineering? She had no doubt Logan knew the difference and how to make the most of being a dominant alpha male.
“Do you think being in bed with me is the remnant of a bad dream?” He brushed one finger down her cheek.
“Maybe.”
“Oh, honey, I think you enjoyed sleeping in my arms last night, even if all we did was sleep.”
She shivered as his mouth curved slightly in a sensuous smile.
If he wanted to disconcert her, he knew exactly what to say in order to do it. Thinking of sleeping in his arms—of not sleeping while she was in his arms—conjured up all kinds of erotic dreams. She’d never thought of herself as a sensual woman and had convinced herself whatever she was experiencing right now wasn’t reality. It was leftover sensations from last night. A surreal night.
“I need to find the cabin I’m supposed to be in.”
“We’ll call the rental agency after breakfast.” Although, he already knew exactly where she was supposed to be. Right here. In his bed. In his arms. At his side. He only had two days to convince her of that before the world intruded. Against all his instincts, Logan pulled away slightly because he didn’t want to scare the woman with the instant response his body had every time he looked at her. Smelled her. He knew her scent did not come from the shampoo and conditioner he’d washed her hair in last night, but from her skin, from her essence. And it beckoned to him and his wolf.
“But first, I think I deserve a thank you for saving you, don’t you?” he murmured as he leaned down to kiss her. There was no sense in have a reputation as a rake if you couldn’t cash in on it once and a while. And fuck, he just wanted a taste of her.
As Logan’s mouth roamed over hers, warm and firm and tempting, all Katie could do was hold very still. Afraid if she moved, he’d stop. Afraid if she moved, she’d climb all over him. He tasted as good as he smelled. Masculine, dense. His light kiss slid to the corners of her lips, nibbling as if he was trying to taste her. He didn’t linger anywhere very long. He moved those full lips to her cheek and to her ear. He nuzzled the soft spot beneath her ear slowly as if he was breathing in her scent. It wasn’t just his mouth that was touching her. The hand on her thigh caressed her, seduced her, and caused a wave of heat and hunger to slam into her. Her hand reached for him, cupping his jaw as if she needed to touch him to know that this was real, that he was real.
Hers, she thought hazily as that same unknown sensation of before washed over her. He was hers.
The thought scared her and she jerked away.
“Katie?”
He still leaned in close, their breath mingling together. “Thank you for saving me, Logan.”
He searched her eyes and he waited a heartbeat before pulling away and answering. “Any time. I’m going to take a shower and then fix us something to eat.”
Turning away from her, he flipped his side of the covers up and bounded out of the bed. She had little choice—unless she closed her eyes—but to watch him walk toward the bathroom. Needless to say, she didn’t close her eyes. His ass was firm and flexed with each step that he took. Some men didn’t have a butt, but Logan McCall wasn’t one of those men. It was firm and fleshy. He had it all.
Broad shoulders, wide chest, huge arms and a muscled torso. She’d caught more than a glimpse of his six pack abs. She couldn’t see them, but had no difficulty imagining the bulging muscles of his legs and thighs as he walked.
It didn’t take him long to shower and dress and leave the bedroom, after giving her a big smile and telling her to make herself at home. She sighed, realizing she’d stayed under the covers as long as she could. She hesitated
about making the bed. Would he want to change the sheets? Her ingrained sense of responsibility wouldn’t allow her to leave the bed unmade. She straightened the sheets and smoothed down the comforter, lingering on his side of the bed.
She shivered thinking of going to bed with the big wolf without being injured or suffering from the cold. Her memories of last night had returned. She totally remembered the shower they had taken together. Walking away, she hurried to the bathroom.
Shaken at her unprecedented reaction to a man, she stared at her reflection in the mirror above the sink. She looked like a woman who had just been thoroughly kissed. She could still see the need darkening her eyes. If Logan hadn’t stopped when he had…
Her heart thundered at the thought. Yes, he was sexy. Okay, he was damn sexy, but that didn’t mean she could throw herself at his feet. She couldn’t keep kissing him. He wasn’t her boyfriend, her lover or even a friend. He was a virtual stranger who had saved her from potential hypothermia after a nasty fall. He was just offering her shelter from a storm.
No more kissing, she told herself firmly as she washed her face, then brushed her teeth with the new toothbrush and tube of toothpaste he’d obviously put out for her. See, she told herself? He was a bachelor who had extra toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste on hand. Who did that except for a man who had women coming and going out of his life at an alarming rate? He probably bought them by the gross at Costco.
When she entered the kitchen twenty minutes later, he was standing at the stove. She’d taken advantage of the large shower but had missed him next to her as the hot water had cascaded down her body. Boy was she in sad shape.
“Did you find everything you needed?” Logan turned around, a black spatula in his hand. The scent of pancakes and bacon filled the air. Of course, he would have to fix her favorite breakfast. Her stomach growled to let her—and him—know just how hungry she was. The last time she’d eaten had been breakfast yesterday. That had been close to twenty-four hours ago. She’d skipped lunch, trying to get everything done before her shift ended so she wouldn’t keep Brad waiting. Had she been a fool or what? She realized she had put him completely behind her. Yesterday on the trip here, she’d known that her heart had never been involved.
Another hunger rose inside her as her gaze travelled up and down the length of the man in front of her. She hadn’t satisfied that hunger in well over twelve months.
His faded jeans were unbuttoned at the waist, the material dipping below the gorgeous vee his body made below his naval. The material strained at the thighs, trying to contain all the muscle beneath it. Unwillingly her eyes were drawn to the natural bulge of his body. Again, the material was straining to contain all that masculine strength. He hadn’t donned a shirt and the smoothness of his chest was a wide expanse of yumminess she appreciated more than she could say. A dark shadow of stubble covered his jaw and upper lip, giving him that rough look she so loved on a man. Her nipples puckered thinking of what it would feel like to have those bristles brush over her flesh. As she looked, she knew she was seeing sex appeal in its rawest form.
“Thank you for the loan of the clothes.” She plucked at the long-sleeved t-shirt and knit pants he’d left for her in the bathroom. She had blushed when she’d caught sight of her bra on the shower rod. However, she hadn’t found her panties or other articles of clothing.
“You’re welcome. I put your clothes in the wash. Do you want milk or orange juice with your pancakes?” He motioned for her take a seat at the breakfast bar before turning away to place three pancakes on a plate.
“I’ll have milk.” She groaned to herself as she sat down, knowing she was going to give into temptation and eat all three of the golden circles before her. As long as she didn’t give into the temptation to beg this man to make love to her, she’d be okay.
He poured two tall glasses of cold milk and brought over another plate which held six pancakes. It had been sitting to the side, ready to go. She realized he’d given her the last ones made so they would be hotter.
Katie watched Logan as he ate. She tried to still the rapid thumping of her heart, but with him sitting so near, it refused to obey. Every fiber in her body had come to attention the moment she’d walked into the room. She could only hope he didn’t look down and see the faint movement to her shirt and realize how he affected her.
“Aren’t you, umm, cold?” she asked between bites of the delicious pancakes. They both knew she was talking about his shirtless state of being.
“No, I’m a wolf. We’re usually hotter than most males.”
Oh, yeah, baby, she silently agreed. Katie couldn’t be sure he realized what he had said until she looked at him from beneath her lashes.
He knew exactly what he was doing.
Lord, help her; was he trying to seduce her?
And was that such a bad thing?
Katie looked at him while thinking she had never seen a man quite as sexual as this one. And it wasn’t just the pleasing shape of his features or his thick dark hair or even his very, very male attitude. She wasn’t quite sure what it was about him. But the faint squint of his eyes, the sensual little curve to his lips even when he wasn’t smiling, and the strong angle of his jaw all worked together to do strange things to her sleeping libido. Well, her swiftly awakening libido. It had started to snap to attention the moment she’d seen this wolf.
Maybe that was why she was having such a strong reaction to him. He was a wolf shifter. He was a man whose animal side just wouldn’t allow a woman to overlook him.
Logan reached over and touched her face. “This looks a little better.”
Katie grimaced. “If you like the colors of blue and black.” It really wasn’t as bad as it could have been. She’d probably tripped over the edge of a sidewalk or maybe even a flowerbed and could have suffered a severe concussion. The snow had softened the blow.
“I’m sorry you hurt yourself.” He brushed his fingers across the bump before dropping his hand away. She immediately missed his touch.
Logan’s wolf was happy that their mate seemed to be enjoying her breakfast. Feeding and caring for a mate was a shifter’s most basic need. One of their needs. The other being fucking and impregnating them.
He couldn’t wait for that.
Digging into his own pancakes, he realized the only thing that would have made this a perfect morning would have been loving Katie slow and easy before they’d fixed breakfast together. He’d never had any woman set him on fire the way she had. Last night had been a study in torture, being so close but not being able to claim her. Hell, not even being able to touch her. His wolf had paced inside him the entire night and before dawn, he’d started to go for a run to burn off some of his excess energy, but the wolf had refused to leave its mate.
He knew he’d spend many nights with Katie—his freaking mate!—in his arms, but he wanted her now. He still couldn’t believe he’d found her. He wondered what she would do if he went with his instincts and tossed her on the counter and ravished every inch of her.
“I have more batter, would you like another pancake?” His wolf gave another rumble of satisfaction to see that she had eaten everything on her plate and drank all of her milk.
“No,” she answered hurriedly, then more calmly, “No, thank you.” She blushed as if she was embarrassed and he frowned. Was she somehow embarrassed to eat in front of him? That wouldn’t do at all but he decided not to make a big deal out of it. Not yet anyway. His mate would eat and she would eat until she was full. Her curves fascinated him.
“What about some coffee?” That got a smile out of her and he relaxed.
“That sounds great. Is that what smells so good?”
Logan silently agreed it smelled good, but not as delicious as she did. Rising from his stool, he grabbed two cups from the overhead cabinet. When he turned back around it was to see that she had cleared away their dishes and was placing them by the sink. He stepped close, behind her right shoulder, crowding into her space without seeming
to do so. Something his wolf was very adapt at doing with its intended prey. He needed to watch his prey, up close and personal, before he pounced.
Her cheeks flushed with color as he leaned into her and poured the coffee. His body brushed against her and he heard the slight inhalation of her breath. He placed the cups on the counter and asked, “Cream and sugar?”
“Yes, please.”
He grabbed the quart of sweet cream from the refrigerator. He was grateful that Morgan had been able to stock some things for him before the snow started. He knew it would have been difficult what with worrying about getting his wife to a more safe location in case she went into labor.
His cock stiffened as he thought of Katie’s stomach swollen and heavy with his child. He was grateful he’d grabbed a pair of jeans to put on. The knit material of a pair of pajamas wouldn’t have been able to control the raging hard-on he was now sporting.
He handed her the cream and pushed the canister of sugar toward her. He took his black but watched as she carefully added a touch of cream and two spoons of sugar to hers.
They stood in silence for several moments, drinking their coffee. The silence was peaceful. Unlike a lot of women, she felt no need to fill it with ceaseless chatter. Above the sink was a double paned window which over looked the large deck. Outside the snow sparkled in the sunlight, but Logan knew it was deceiving. It was cold outside and the sunshine wouldn’t last long. He’d checked the weather when he’d come downstairs and the storm hadn’t moved on just yet. It had just taken a breather. He took another sip of coffee, his attention divided between the beautiful scene outside and the beautiful woman standing by the sink. It was no contest though. He could look at Katie all day. For the rest of his life. His mind was already working feverishly as he realized he was about to embark on the most difficult journey of his life…
