Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 43422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
No need to tell me twice. I shed my jeans on the way, then grin when she swings me around and shoves me backward onto the bed.
“Don’t be scared,” she teases, climbing over me on all fours, kissing a trail up my thigh. “I’ll be gentle.”
Oh Christ, and she is. So damn gentle that I nearly go mad. So careful with her fangs as she licks and sucks on my cock. So mindful of her claws as she strokes me with her hands, until I’m hoarsely begging for more, because my need for her is ripping my control to shreds.
Her eyes are glowing bright when she finally moves higher, straddling my hips but not yet taking me inside. Instead she leans closer, kissing me before whispering, “How much of me do you want, Travis Ranger?”
“All of you, Alicia.” Emotion raw in my throat, I catch her face in my hands, my gaze burning into hers. “And I give all of myself to you. Forever, if you’ll take me.”
And my woman is so beautiful when she does. Rising up, hands braced on my chest as she welcomes me into the heaven of her body. I don’t even know when the chain vanishes. All I feel is her, all I see is her. A wildfire above me, blazing so hot, welding together everything within her that was torn apart.
She takes me, then takes me with her when she comes, her pussy gripping me so tight. And her kiss afterward echoes everything her body just told me, long and sweet and slow.
When she finally raises her head to look down at me, her lips are red and swollen, her fangs gone, her eyes no longer glowing. Yet she is, with the happiness I can see and smell coming off of her.
Because she tamed her beast. But it wasn’t only me who had to accept and love that part of her. She did, too.
“You’re all right, then?”
She nods, a dazed and wondering look in her eyes. “I don’t feel much different. But also…I do. And it’s as if so much I knew—but didn’t know that I knew—just opened up inside me. Such as how to transform without hurting. I simply don’t fight it.”
“That’s damn good.” I brush her hair back from her face. “So you want to go outside, turn into werewolves, howl at the moon?”
A giggle ripples through her, but she shakes her head. Her gaze drops to my mouth. “I’ve got a better way to pass the time tonight, Ranger Ranger.”
Yeah, she does. A hell of a lot better.
But I still make her howl a couple of times.
10
Alicia
I wake up to the soft rustle of Ranger pulling on his Forest Service uniform shirt—though earlier than usual. The sky outside is still dark. Then I smell what woke him.
Smoke.
I sit up. “You’re going?”
“Yeah. Depending on how this goes, it might be a few days before I’m home.” He leans in, kisses me. “I want you to gather up everything you can’t easily replace—photos, documents—and take them to the house in town.”
Dread clutches my stomach. “It’s that close?”
He glances toward the window, which looks out over the hills behind our farmhouse. And the sky is still dark…but with an orange glow in the distance. “If the wind picks up in this direction, I’ll be evacuating everything on this side of town. You will be all right, baby. But we can’t be too careful about the rest.”
Heart thumping, I nod. “Okay.”
From downstairs, I hear the sound of a door opening and closing. Then Brandon calling out, “You ready?”
Ranger cups my cheek, his dark eyes searching mine. “All good?”
“Yes.” I turn my face and press a kiss to his palm. “Be careful.”
“I’ll be all right. It’s everyone else we ought to worry about. Make sure your phone’s charged and the volume up. They’ll be sending out emergency alerts. If they send the evacuation notice, check in on your neighbors, make sure they got it. You’ll be safe, even if you’re the last one out.”
Because I’m impervious to fire. “Got it.”
He kisses me again, hard, before leaving. I send a message to Samantha, find out she’s already been pulled in for an extra shift. Then I start packing up the contents of our safe and our photo albums before carrying them out to her pickup. It’s not yet dawn when I make the first trip into town.
After returning to the farmhouse, I begin packing up my closet—not because it might burn. But because I don’t want to wait any longer before starting my future with Ranger.
Of all things that I thought taming my beast might mean, I never expected this sense of…peace. Not quiet, because nothing inside me is quiet. My emotions feel as huge and as loud as they’ve always been.
But only yesterday, I was thinking that meeting Ranger and Brandon had helped me become comfortable in my own skin again. Yet there was no “again.” I’ve never been comfortable in my own skin. Not when I was a little girl. Definitely not in high school. Not later.