Blue moon - By Lori Handeland Page 0,27

this."

True enough.

"Besides." He reached out and brushed one of those enticing fingers back and forth over the short ends of my hair. "I wanted to see you again."

The shudder that rippled through me at his touch halted immediately at his words.

"What for?"

He dropped his arm. I figured he'd step back, finally let me pass, then tell me he had unpaid parking tickets or a bogus warrant hanging over his head - they were always bogus - or some other legal problem that made him want to see me. You know, the usual.

I was preparing my standard "sorry, can't help you" speech when his descending hand cupped my hip. I had no time to say anything, because he yanked my body flush with his - he was a helluva lot stronger than he looked - and kissed me.

Since my mouth had been half-open, ready to speak, his tongue slid right in. He didn't waste time on niceties but went straight for the good stuff. I liked that in a man.

The tip of his tongue did a hard slide up the center of mine, then teased at the end. He pulled me tighter against him, center to center, then rocked his hips forward. I nearly came right then. Deprivation will do that to a girl.

Moaning, I tried to pull back, but not very hard. Especially when he did some fancy move with his other hand and my starched sheriff shirt popped open past my bra.

Suddenly his mouth left mine and he lowered his head to my breasts. That clever tongue dipped into their center, in and out, as he echoed the motion with his hips.

My body was on fire. My mind a complete mess. It wouldn't take much to convince me to do it right here on the Formica table. I didn't think we'd make it inside.

My arms rose of their own accord, fingers tangling in his hair, so soft, so sleek. I ran my palm over his head, petting him, then urging him on. His mouth closed over my nipple, through the bra, and lightly he bit the tip. I arched, pressing my entire body into his, and that one small movement shoved me over the edge.

From far, far away drifted a low, mournful howl. In the middle of the first orgasm I'd had in several years, the sound confused me. Coyote? Wolf? Human?

Cadotte tensed, lifted his head, and stared past my shoulder into the night. The chill wind brushed my bare skin, iced the moisture left by his mouth. His body was still pressed to mine, but I no longer felt warm.

He pulled his gaze from the trees with obvious effort. His face gentled and he buttoned my blouse up to my throat. I certainly wasn't capable of doing it.

He lowered his forehead to mine and whispered, "That."

"Huh?"

Typical me, grace under fire.

"You asked why I wanted to see you." He kissed my eyebrow. Heat flooded through me, chasing away the chill.

Since when had my eyebrow become an erogenous zone? Apparently today.

"For that."

"You wanted to see me for that?" I repeated, not sure what that was. A kiss, a dry hump, a thwarted fuck on the balcony?

"Yes. You have a problem with it?"

At the moment I couldn't find a single problem with the world, but I would. Such was my nature. I shook my head, unable to articulate much of anything.

"Good. I've got to go."

He released me and headed for the front door. I must still have been dazed, or I'd have made a smart comment about jumping from the balcony. As it was, I followed him like a puppy, and when he pressed the totem into my hand, then folded my fingers around it, I merely held on tight and watched him leave.

I never thought to ask him what he'd discovered about the markings.
Chapter 11
I should have driven out to my land and plunged my treacherous body into the chilly pond right then. To hell with the wolves. Though I'd been satisfied, embarrassingly so, I still felt empty, even achy. I knew why. I might have come and it had been great, but I hadn't done what I really wanted to.

Cadotte.

Man, was I in trouble.

Perhaps if I'd swum until I felt nothing but limp, I wouldn't have been so distracted all night. However, I doubt anything could have erased his taste from my mouth and his image from my mind.

I know that an hour's worth of pacing did not get rid of the question: Why me?