Over and over, I heard people talking about—” He surged forward when my voice cracked, his hands cupping my chin. “But I picked myself up, and I got on with my life.”
“I know, love.”
His voice was so soft and deep, his hands so warm.
“I…I got over you.”
I thrust the words at him like a dagger, aiming for his heart. Something, anything, to keep him from getting closer.
“I don’t love you, Jai. I’m never—”
He took me in his arms, ignoring my bad-tempered wriggling, and just closed them around me, then brought his lips down on mine. He licked the lies off first, then used his tongue to push them open so he could taste the truth.
It came in the rapid intake of my breath as I felt him, my fingers reaching up and burying themselves in his hair. It came when he backed me up against the wall, our mouths opening.
“Shan…” he growled against my lips. “You’re not running from me. A rabbit runs before a wolf? He hunts them down. You run, I’m coming with you. If you take off without me? I’ll find you. Unless you tell me no. You don’t want this, want me?”
“I can’t—”
He stopped my excuses with a powerful kiss.
“Don’t try and talk yourself out of this. I love you, Shannon Bruce. My heart, it’s always gonna beat for you. If you don’t want me, don’t want to settle down… If you love someone else?”
He tipped my chin up to meet my eyes, studying them like all the world’s secrets were there.
“You know that was never the problem,” I said finally, not able to bear his gaze any longer.
He pulled me against his chest, holding me tight, arms like bands of steel. But I couldn’t think of anywhere else I wanted to be. Something loosened in him when my arms went around him, then he stiffened again when my hands slid under the hem of his shirt. I couldn’t bloody help myself, that feel of satin over steel… No other man I’d been with had felt like this, that fierce heat radiating off him.
“Shannon…” His voice was a low rumble I could feel through my bones, and it made me want to rub myself all over him. He made me forget my grandmother’s words, what happened at the institute. I tipped my head back, presenting my lips to his, which made him smile, then his mouth came down on mine.
I’d often read about being kissed senseless, but I had no idea what that meant until now. His mouth chased mine, tugging at my bottom lip, scoring it with his teeth, his fingers raking my scalp as our tongues tangled. “Yes…” he whispered as my hands slid under his shirt, pushing until the snap buttons popped open. I pulled away when my fingertips scudded over the cobblestones of his stomach. He chuckled as I parted his shirt to take a closer look at the masterwork of his abs.
“Jesus, where were these when I was a kid?”
His hand closed over mine, stopping me from tracing the channels between each muscle.
“That’s very distracting.”
“You’re telling me! This is what you were packing under these bloody shirts?”
“Like that?”
My mouth went bone-dry as he pulled the shirt off. He nodded when my hand rose, hovering in the air until I was brave enough to reach out and touch. A large wolf tattoo prowled over one shoulder, and I pressed a fingertip to its paw, then traced upwards, across its snarling muzzle, past its feathery ears, and up where its fur blended with Jai’s hair.
“If you knew what you were doing to me…”
I glanced up, saw those molten eyes, but he didn’t move an inch, letting me take my time.
“I think I have an idea.”
They called me rabbit girl, but I was more than that. Away from pack rules and the world, when it was just the two of us? My other hand slid up the front of his jeans to the musical sound of his growl, cupping the long, hard length of him. The rabbit stared the wolf down, and he snarled in response.
I yelped when he swept me up into his arms, dumping me on the bed moments later. He covered my body with his, settling down between my legs like that was where he belonged.
“We’re not having sex,” he said.
“OK.” I kept my tone cool, even if I was feeling anything but. “If that’s the case, you can stop grinding the can of Pringles you got going there into me