and capable. He owned the otherwise feminine space and made it his, surveying it as if it were more of his territory.
Henry frowned as he studied the loom and a bag of yarn I’d picked up on another errand with Mercy in the city. “I was concerned.”
“Concerned about me or concerned that I was off doing something that endangered your pack?”
His gaze flicked to mine and I knew I’d guessed right. He thought there was something else afoot. I pinched the bridge of my nose. Not that I blamed him for doubting my intentions. Despite that there had been no signs of Rocko or more trouble with the coyotes and wolves since my arrival, I braced for the other shoe to drop. It was only reasonable for the pack to do the same. And since Henry took caring for his pack very seriously, I shouldn’t have been surprised to discover him wandering the night searching for those threats.
He studied the rest of the room, taking stock of its contents. “Both.”
I might not have been able to smell lies, but I could hear them pretty damn well. I snorted and shoved to my feet, unwilling to let him loom over me another second. “I call bullshit. You wouldn’t have come running back here unless—”
He turned and then I found myself staring at his chest, the wolf taking up an awful lot of space right in front of me. My breasts almost brushed against his chest, and when I tried to step back, my legs bumped into the bed and I wobbled. He caught my shoulders and kept me steady, but that left me practically pressed against his chest, and his proximity stole all the air in the room.
I hadn’t been so close to a man in months, since running from Rocko. And I certainly hadn’t been that close to Rocko by choice. The warmth of Henry’s grip created electricity in the air, even more than the unfinished magic I’d been working into the weaving, and I stared up at him as I struggled for control or something to say.
I hardly knew him. And he turned into an animal. I definitely shouldn’t have shivered with anticipation as he stared down at me with hunger lighting his eyes and turning them gold. I was a guest in someone else’s house; it would have been rude to shack up with someone in a borrowed bed. For sure. Besides, everyone in that damn house knew everyone else’s business and the last thing I wanted...
I tensed as I realized I was actually considering sleeping with Henry—falling backward into the bed and taking him with me, just so I could finally feel something good. I hadn’t felt appreciated or cared for in what felt like forever, and even though I didn’t deserve the kind of attention I knew Henry would shower on me, maybe I could still enjoy it. For a little while. Just until I had to run again.
Henry’s voice was low and rusty as his thumbs drifted against my skin in a casual caress. “Are you okay?”
I meant to make a sassy comment, maybe something about how I’d be better if he lost the pants and hopped into bed with me. But instead my head shook back and forth, and I couldn’t find any words to explain what made me suddenly wary and uneasy.
His head cocked to the side in a wolf-like gesture, and his head leaned down until his nose bumped against mine—almost a kiss. So close to a kiss I could have tilted my head back and found his lips with mine. He breathed the words as one of his hands caressed my jaw and down my throat. “How can I help?”
It should have been easy to rip off my shirt and spread my legs and demand he fuck me. I should have been able to find the courage to demand what I wanted from him. Any other witch would have been able to. But I stared at his throat and leaned into the gentle drift of his fingers, my lips parting as I struggled to breathe, and it felt like magic curled up in smoky tendrils all around us. I managed to whisper, “I don’t know.”
A grumbling noise built in his chest and he leaned his head to the side so his mouth could follow where his fingers had been on my neck and shoulder. He kissed behind my ear and dragged his teeth against the sensitive skin of my throat. “Are