Head Hunter (City Shifters the Pack #3) - Layla Nash Page 0,63

of my life avoiding any kind of emotional attachment, any kind of real relationship. I don’t know if I’m even able to have a relationship with a woman that doesn’t end... badly.”

That wasn’t what a girl wanted to hear from a guy on top of her.

Before I could tell him to go jump in a lake, Dodge leaned down and kissed the line of my jaw. “But you’re the first woman who made me want to try.”

I froze, my heart in my throat. Did he mean...?

Dodge kissed behind my other ear and then down my throat, moving down my body until he toyed with the hem of my shirt. “I thought I could get you out of my system or at least hold out until you moved on to something else. I thought it might have been the adrenaline, the danger, that got me fixated on you. The wolf likes you – a lot.”

That was a sentence I’d never heard before. I held my breath, unwilling to hope that this conversation ended anywhere near where I’d hoped.

He pulled up the hem of the shirt so he could plant a long, slow kiss on my bare skin between it and the waist of my panties. Dodge grumbled more and dragged his teeth across my stomach, down to my side. His hands worked their way up under my shirt until he could palm my breasts. “And I didn’t want to start anything with you, to let myself... imagine, when you don’t want to be involved in the supernatural community. It wouldn’t be fair to expect you to give up everything you’ve worked for just to fuck around with me for a while.”

“That’s not what –“ I started, but I lost the rest of the thought when his beard tickled against my ribs and he unhooked my bra. My fingers slid into his hair and I closed my eyes. I had no idea what he meant by me giving up everything, since they’d all been clear that I could try to walk away if I wanted to.

“So here’s the deal, Persephone Lawson.” He pushed up on his elbows to fix me with a golden look, and my breath caught. I’d always thought him handsome, but the intensity in his gaze, the focus of his expression... He was more gorgeous than anything I’d ever seen in my life. “I’m yours as long as you want me. You can walk away whenever you want. I’ll take whatever you’ll give me, however many minutes or hours that might be. I’ll protect you from whatever danger we face, whether you want to fool around or not. And I’ll make sure no shifters or witches or fae bother you when you walk away from the community completely. All right?”

I blinked. “That’s... a lot to take in.”

“That’s what she said,” he said, then blew a raspberry on my stomach that made me jump.

I laughed. “I have a lot of questions.”

Dodge lay on his side next to me, tracing shapes on my stomach where my shirt had rucked up. His hand rested on my bare thigh, his fingers drifting down to just inside my knee. “I’ve got all the time in the world, babe. Ask away.”

“They can wait,” I said. My head tilted back as his callused fingers coasted along my inner thigh, creeping up toward where my panties still kept us apart.

“You sure?” The tip of his finger teased along the gusset of the panties, stroking so lightly I almost came out of my skin in anticipation.

“V-very.” My thighs parted to give him more room, and Dodge’s chuckle made me flush. “Just...”

Dodge arched his eyebrows as he lifted his head and waited for me to go on. But he kept caressing the insides of my thighs, the sweep of fabric over my lady business, around the leg of my panties. Heat kindled low in my stomach until my hips wanted to lift to meet him, to encourage a firmer touch. But when I remained silent, his hand stilled. Those gold eyes studied me with sudden seriousness.

I stroked his cheek, suddenly uncertain. I’d meant to ask him... I didn’t even know what. He’d talked about when I wanted to walk away, whether I wanted to be with him, which left me absolutely zero insight into what he wanted. Was he just using me for sex, and didn’t have any issue fucking as long as I was interested because he had nothing to lose? But he’d said something about me making