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His voice shook.
So did her knees.
“But, hell, yeah, I’mterritorialabout you. You’re in my head every minute. I close my eyes, and I see you, and I want you so much I can hardly breathe.”
Oh, that was?—
“The timing for us is shit.”
True. Her timing was generally always like that.
“And I know with that SOB out there, the last thing you need is a man trying to get too close.”
Jude already was too close because the things he’d said...You’re in my head every minute. I close my eyes, and I see you, and I want you so much I can hardly breathe.
She could have said the same things about him. All true.
“So I’m gonna take him down,” Jude rumbled, “and I’m gonna take the fear out of your eyes. I’m gonna prove that you can trust me, that I’m not some sick freak like him.”
“No, Jude, I know?—”
“You’ll see who I am.” He stared down at her. “And we’ll see if we can’t fix this damn timing.” She saw him take a hard gulp of his own. “And as for the mating...”
Her chin lifted. “I can’t control the mating. If that wolf is right, then?—”
“Then nothing! You...you’re different from every other shifter out there, sweetheart.”
Yes, different. Nice, easy word for her situation. Because she’d always beendifferent.
“You’re different...human and shifter. So what makes you so sure that you’d mate like the others? What makes you so sure you’d only have one mate?”
Her lips parted in surprise. “Jude.” What was he telling himself? No, no, he had to see—shifters only had one mate. One chance for children. Fate didn’t care if a shifter’s mate was a killer or a savior. The mating was forever.
The beast inside her had recognized the wolf. That part was the most humiliating for her. So humiliating, she hadn’t told Jude. Her body had known the wolf shifter at the first touch. No, not her body, but the dormant beast inside. Erin had been horrified, afraid, but, dammit,awareof him. An instinctual response she couldn’t control. One that made her sick.
“I know.” Simple words, gruff.
Her gaze met his, and she saw the understanding in his eyes. Understanding and a banked rage. Erin licked her lips.
“I know,” he continued, “but I alsoknowhow your body responds to me, and Iknowthe beast. It’s awake when I’m near, and it’s hungry for me.”
He was right.
Erin rocked back on her heels, banging her hip into the desk. She’d thought the sex was just great because she wasn’t having to hold back and because, well, Jude was freaking fantastic, but what if there was something more there?
What if...
No. No one got two mates, and sure as hell not someone who couldn’t even manage one shift.
“Forget the mating,” Jude told her and his eyes burned with intensity. “The mating isn’t what matters anyway.”
He’d know. He’d seen firsthand just how wrong those fated matings could be. So had she.
“I’m not looking for a mate for my beast.”
But with full-blood shifters, the beast was never separate from the man. Not really.
His fist thudded against his chest. “I’m looking for someone who?—”
