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Max swept the moist tendrils of her hair away from her face. "Now. How soon can you get your things together and move in with me?"
Chapter Eleven
Shannon stilled, not sure she'd heard Max correctly. "What?"
"You're moving in here with me. As soon as you can. There's plenty of space for some of your furniture if you'd like. And the closet in here can more than adequately handle your clothes and mine."
She pushed away from him and sat up, wishing she could see his face in the darkness, certain he was teasing her. "Are you insane? I'm not moving in here with you."
He caressed her back and she shivered, refusing to allow his touch to sway her.
"You and I are destined to be together, Shannon. It's pointless to deny it. You felt what's between us as well as I did. Quit fighting the inevitable."
She wrenched away from his touch and moved to the side of the bed, switching on the lamp. Max squinted against the light.
"What's wrong?" He lifted up on one elbow to reach for her.
She kept her distance. "What's wrong? This is wrong. You and I are wrong. I can't believe you'd be so egotistical as to assume I'd move in with you just because you gave me a good fuck."
He frowned and shook his head. "That's not what this is about. There's a lot more to it."
"I don't care what's going on in your mind. Your suggestion is ridiculous." What the hell was he thinking? He'd never even told her he loved her, that he cared for her. Did he think she'd just give up her life and shack up with him so his fucking partner would be close by when the urge hit?
"If you think about it, if you feel it, it's not ridiculous at all. We're mated, Shannon. As sure as if we'd married. You want me. I sure as hell want you. We can start by moving in together, but in short order I want to get married."
Chills crept through the languorous warmth she'd felt earlier. Marriage? Now he was talking marriage? This was all too much. She slipped off the bed and went looking for her clothes, finding them draped over a chaise. The underwear was ruined, but at least she had her shorts and tank top to slip on.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going home."
"You are home." His voice lowered and she looked over at him, shaking her head.
"No. This is not my home."
"It will be soon enough."
He really expected her to move in with him, just because he deemed them a match? And what about love? Was he going to mention the words? Did he even feel the emotion?
Hurt etched its way deep into her heart. Pain that came from the realization she'd fallen in love with the wrong man. A man who wanted to control her completely, not just in the bedroom. One who obviously didn't love her enough to ask her what she wanted, and then let her make her own choices. A man who hadn't even said he cared for her.
"Shannon, it's storming outside. Really bad. Where do you think you're going?"
"I told you. I'm going home."
"You don't have a ride."
She zipped up her shorts and met his concerned gaze. "I'll get a ride home."
He pushed away from the mattress and got up. She couldn't help but admire his long, lean body, the way his muscles bunched along his arms and shoulders.
"You're being unreasonable about this. I'm going to take a shower, then we'll go downstairs and fix something to eat, and talk about it. I have some things to tell you. Important things."
She stood there as he went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Grabbing her tennis shoes, she hurried downstairs, determined not to be there when he got out.
Tree limbs lashed against the roof, the wind picking up force. How was she going to get out of here in this storm? It was way too far to walk home, and the thought of facing any one of her family members right now made her nauseous.
Dammit, now what? She wasn't going to ask Max to take her home; she couldn't handle having to endure the confines of the car with him. He'd just try to convince her that his way was the right way, and the ensuing argument would be more than her blooming headache could handle.
What she needed was to get away from him and fast.
She went to the kitchen and grabbed the phone, intending to call Kaitlyn. There was no dial tone. Maybe it wasn't turned on yet, or maybe it was the storm. She found her purse and grabbed her cell phone. No service. Shit!
Closing her eyes, she willed her magic to come forth, to settle the raging weather outside long enough for her to walk to the end of the road, where she knew a convenience store could be found. She'd call from there. Less embarrassment that way. She could even take a taxi, then she wouldn't have to explain to her family why she was sneaking away from Max's in the middle of the night.
That's what she'd do. But she had to get out of here first. No way would Max wait around while a taxi showed up at the house.
The weather fought her, the storm railing against her powers, but she was stronger. This was her season, these were her elements, and if she wanted it badly enough, they'd obey. They had to.
In short order the wind died down, the rain stopped. Ominous, black clouds hung low overhead, but the fury that threatened to rage was at bay--at least for the moment. She couldn't hold it back forever, but she could long enough to reach the outskirts of town and grab a ride.
Slipping out the front door, she peered around her, wishing for that full moon to light her way, but knew the clouds would not relent. She headed down the long driveway, carefully watching her step. Limbs had fallen in the storm, littering the road like an obstacle course.
The roadway was pitch black, but she'd been this way before and knew where she was going. She pushed back the fear of walking down a deserted road in the middle of the night, rationalizing that no one would be out in weather like this. No one sane, anyway, she thought with a laugh. She'd be fine. No harm would come to her.
She'd made it about a quarter of a mile when she heard a low rumble, looking to the sky to see if the storm was about to break free.
The rumble turned into a growl, and she realized then that it wasn't coming from the sky. It came from the line of trees along the side of the road, deep into the heavily forested bayou.
Shannon stopped, wondering what it could be that made a sound like that. Maybe it was a lost, angry dog, frightened by the storm. That had to be it. She listened for a full minute, and when she didn't hear it again figured the animal had wandered off. She started to move again, but hadn't made it more than a few steps when she heard the growl behind her this time.
Panic caused her throat to go dry, her heart ramming against her chest. She turned slowly, hoping it was a friendly but frightened dog. She loved animals. She could handle this.
But no dog had glowing yellow eyes, eyes that pierced the blackness of the road.
That was no dog. It was a wolf.
Wolves again. Just like the one she'd seen at her condo. Hell, they were out in the middle of nowhere, too. It wasn't unlikely that she'd find all kinds of strange creatures out here, but she sure as hell had never seen a wolf before in these parts. Not even in the rural area where her parents lived.
She summoned her magic, thinking a shot of lightning or a strong hurricane force wind would either scare it into running off or push it away.
Lightning arced down from the skies a mere foot in front of the wolf. It started and backed up a step, then sniffed the air around it and continued to glare at her. She tried the wind, summoning up a gale force at the animal, but it seemed to dig its long claws into the side of the road and held on, its fur blowing back as the gust blew hard against it.
What the hell; were these creatures impervious to nature's elements?
She had two choices. Stand there and let it attack her, or run. If she ran down the road, she was an easy target. If she headed into the trees, she might have a chance at escape, or at least could double her way back to Max's place, providing there was a path to follow.
Deciding anything was better than allowing the wolf to tear her to pieces, she slow
ly moved toward the trees. The wolf growled, but didn't advance. As soon as she lost sight of it, she broke into a run.
Her shoes immediately sank into the mud, her progress impeded by fallen limbs and watery muck. She heard the growls behind her and to the side, realizing then that there was more than one wolf out there.
Rampant fear cut off her breathing. She wanted to stop, to curl up into a ball and hide from the creatures out there. But she couldn't, had to keep moving or they'd be upon her. She made sure to swerve back and forth instead of running in a straight line, but frankly she had no idea where she was headed. The trees were thick, there were no paths and there sure as hell was no light.
Climb a tree. That's what she'd do. She'd be safe up there because wolves couldn't climb trees. Could they? Hell, she didn't know. She stopped at one she thought had a low enough branch, but her shoes were covered in slick mud up to her ankles and she couldn't get a foothold. The bark was slick on one, and when she tried another, the trunk wasn't stable enough to hold her. Dammit, she didn't have time to try and climb every goddamn tree in the woods!
She fumbled in the darkness, tripping over limbs and rocks, the dense trees and bushes scraping her arms and legs as she pushed by them. She knew she bled, felt the scratches like needle sticks in her skin, but kept moving, hoping like hell she wouldn't run straight into a bayou.
