that had her clutching at the edge of the table with one hand as she bit her wrist hard enough for him to feel it.
The wet mesh fabric clung to her nipple, and Jay gave her the slightest edge of teeth before turning his mouth to the flushed center of her chest. “That’s it, honey. You’ll feel so good coming all over me.”
As if the words had been a command, her hips jerked. Her back bowed, arching over his arm until her hair pooled on the table. She came in virtual silence, her face slack and her lips parted on a soundless moan, but the intensity of it slammed into him as her wolf surged.
“Kaley, were you thinking of—” Lorelei walked into the kitchen, her eyes fixed on the catalog in her hand. She looked up and clapped one hand over her eyes before spinning around. “Oh shit. Shit, I’m sorry.”
Eden sat up so fast she crashed into Jay as a choked squeal of embarrassment escaped her lips. Her cheeks flamed and she shoved at Jay’s chest with clumsy hands. “No, no it’s okay, we weren’t—we were just—” She clutched the open edges of her shirt together, but her fumbling fingers popped the button off when she tried to fasten it. “Fuck.”
A slightly hysterical laugh bubbled out of Lorelei. “Yeah, I can tell.”
Jay cleared his throat as he took over buttoning Eden’s shirt. “The witch is here.”
“She is?” Lorelei half-turned before snapping her head forward again. “Already?”
“Yeah.” Eden finally met Jay’s eyes, and embarrassment faded as her lips curved into a wry smile. “She’s over at the little house with Shane. Once she made Jay my Guide, everyone fled. And now I’m understanding why.”
“Uh-huh. I think I’m going to follow suit.”
“We’ll be out in a little bit,” Eden promised.
There was no mistaking her look, and even as Lorelei hurried away, Jay shook his head. “Later, Eden.”
Her breath hissed out. “I know. I know. But this is uncomfortably like being a teenager again. I just want enough privacy to get my damn hands on you.”
“Tonight,” he promised. The guys could take a hike for a few hours, maybe even until morning. He and Eden could be alone.
She shivered as he fastened the button over her breasts, and her eyelids drooped. “How do you do it?” she asked in a whisper. “If I couldn’t feel you, I wouldn’t think you were all that turned on. You’re still giving me a complex.”
The same way he did everything—because he had to. Because people were counting on him.
“Because it’ll be worth it.” He brushed her disheveled hair back from her face. In return, she turned her head to nuzzle his palm, her lips soft as they ran along his skin. A whisper, a quiet acceptance of his promise and an intimacy that went beyond sex.
Stopping was hell, but the tender way Eden touched him eclipsed all the discomfort. Knowing she wanted him just as much as he wanted her was soothing in its own way, turned a frantic rush toward pleasure into something more complex and rewarding. A chase in every sense of the word—stop and go, back and forth, but when they finally managed to catch one another…
The chase would end, and hell would turn to heaven in a heartbeat.
Chapter Nine
Eden had assumed the warmth and arousal of her new bond with Jay would fade eventually.
She’d been half-right.
Lunch was long behind them, and the men and women had parted ways for the afternoon’s work. Only practical when Mae still froze up when confronted with Jay or Shane and outright avoided Colin and Fletcher, but the division of the genders made the farm feel a little stuck in time. Eden could hear the men in the distance through the open back door, the pounding of hammers and occasional buzz of a saw interspersed with thuds and grunts. Masculine sounds, sharply contrasting with the bright chaos of yarn and crafting materials littering every surface of the kitchen.
It might have perturbed her more if Shane and Fletcher hadn’t seemed perfectly willing to sort yarn and package decorative soaps alongside the women. Respect had the males keeping their distance, not disdain or antiquated notions of gender roles. And no matter how far they strayed from the house, Eden could track Jay’s presence, a warm awareness that brought whispers of emotion along with a steady embrace of soothing power.
She wasn’t alone anymore. The knowledge made the ground solid under her feet again, and the shards of glass tearing up