“I’m what?”
“In heat,” he answered quietly, and the words sent a shiver through me that had nothing to do with the cold. “And I’m about to…”
He didn’t finish the sentence, but something was happening to him. His breathing was heavier, and there was a tension in his posture that suggested he was fighting some kind of internal battle.
“About to what?” I asked, though part of me already knew—the part that wanted to climb him, wrap my legs around him,and grind against him until the ache between my legs finally eased.
“Rut,” he breathed, the word barely audible. “Gods, I can’t…this is…”
The market was nothing but background noise. All I could focus on was him—the way his chest rose and fell, and the way he was looking at me like I was something he desperately wanted but couldn’t have.
“Maybe that’s not such a bad thing,” I heard myself say, though I had no idea where the words came from.
His eyes flashed, and for a moment they looked almost inhuman. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I know exactly what I’m saying. I know that I want?—”
“No.” He backed away so quickly I nearly toppled over. “This is wrong. You’re not…I can’t…”
He raised his hand, and I could’ve sworn I saw something shimmer in the air between us. The world suddenly felt weighted, like I was trying to breathe underwater. My eyelids grew impossibly heavy, and the market began to spin gently around me.
“Sleep,” he said, and his voice seemed to echo from very far away. “Just sleep, Sylvie.”
The last thing I saw before darkness claimed me was the anguish in his silver eyes, and the way his mouth formed words I couldn’t hear but somehow understood:
I’m sorry.
Chapter Six
Sylvie
Iwoke up to the sensation of being slowly roasted alive.
The air was thick and humid, filled with the scent of cedar and eucalyptus. Every breath felt like swallowing steam, and my skin was slick with sweat—though I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten wherever I was.
I tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. The movement sent a wave of dizziness through my head, followed by a heat that had nothing to do with my surroundings. It started low in my belly and spread outward until every nerve ending felt hypersensitive and electric.
“Easy,” a familiar voice murmured from somewhere to my left. “Don’t move too quickly.”
I turned my head and found myself looking at Kenai—silver eyes, sharp cheekbones, and that distinctive scar running across his face. He was sitting on what appeared to be a wooden bench, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and an expression of deep concern.
Also, he was shirtless.
I tried to focus on the fact that I was apparently in some kind of sauna with a half-naked stranger, but my brain seemed more interested in cataloging the way the heat made his white hair stick to his forehead, and how the dim light played across the firm muscle of his chest and shoulders.
“Where am I?” I managed to ask, though my voice came out raspier than I’d intended.
“Safe,” he replied, which wasn’t really an answer. Maybe he was a lawyer too. “How are you feeling?”
“Hot,” I groaned, then immediately wanted to take the word back when his eyes darkened. “I mean, temperature-wise. It’s very warm in here.”
“Itisa sauna,” drawled another voice, and I turned to see a second man sitting on the opposite bench. He was broader than Kenai, with dark hair so long it grazed the bottom of his also very bare chest. He had the kind of build that suggested he spent a lot of time doing physical labor. His eyes were a warm brown instead of silver, and when he smiled, I realized he was probably the most beautiful person I had ever seen—that perfect mix of soft, feminine eyes and lips with a hard, masculine jaw and nose. And on top of his head rose a very distinct set of dark brown antlers. Just like Kenai.
But even that wasn’t enough to distract thirty-two years of ingrained danger awareness. I was in an unknown location with two strange, half-naked men. My inner negotiator came out immediately.
“A sauna,” I repeated slowly. “Right. And I’m here because…?”
The two men exchanged a look that suggested they’d been having this conversation while I was unconscious.
