And I think I’ll die if I don’t taste her soon.
The next moment, I’ve pulled my woman into my lap, hand cupping the back of her head as I feast on her mouth. There’s nothing gentle or sweet about this kiss. I’m an animal, taking what I need to survive.
But from the way Juliet’s fingers dig into my shoulders, clutching me close, I can feel her hunger for me too. And as we let passion take over, the tension between us is briefly forgotten.
Maybe our problems aren’t gone, but they’re not keeping me from her in this moment, and that’s the best I can ask for.
Juliet presses her body against mine, nails raking along my scalp, as if she wants to mark me. The gesture gives me hope. Hope that, one day, twining her life to mine won’t seem so abhorrent. That, one day, her fear for my kind will fade and she can approach the idea without disgust.
All I need is patience.
There’s a knock on the door, which Ross shut on his way out, and I tear my mouth from Juliet’s with a low growl.
“Wait!” I bark out at the new arrival. Another wolf most likely, proving Juliet’s assumption correct that now isn’t the best time for a private conversation.
“When do you get back into town?” Juliet whispers the question against my mouth.
“Tomorrow.” I nip at her bottom lip, then suck on the area and enjoy her light gasp.
“Can we talk tomorrow night then?” Her question doesn’t bring discomfort like it did a moment ago. Not with her arms wrapped around my neck and her soft body draped over mine.
“But I want to try.”That’s what she said, and it’s all the hope I need.
“Yes. I’ll come to you.”
She pulls away, and I grumble a protest. The smile she gives me is small, but now there’s a hopeful glint in her eyes. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
My lap feels icy cold when she lifts her warm body off me.
Juliet is almost out the door when she pauses, fingers clutching the knob. Then she meets my stare, hers determined. “You don’t scare me, Roderick Jameson.”
She goes then, strolling straight out of my office, past the pack member who barely registers in my mind, and leaving me to fight the urging of my wolf to chase after her.
“You don’t scare me …”
I have trouble accepting her words as truth, not when I still have her panicked reaction playing on a loop in my mind.
But maybe Juliet means she doesn’twantto be scared of me, which isn’t nothing.
Pressing my hand against my stomach, where I sometimes still get a phantom ache of past wounds, I consider how even if something appears to be healed, hurt can still linger. And maybe that’s how it is with my librarian. Juliet is healing, but she aches. And it’s the aches—the reminders of her previous pain—that make her flinch.
Not me. Not really.
I’m not the source of her pain, and I want to be the one who soothes it.
Knowing the truth could be a starting point.
My chest fills with a tangled war of excitement and fear. What will tomorrow bring?
Having my focus divided like this is not a good thing. This trip is vital to the continued safety of the Pine Falls pack, and I need to be completely engrossed in the meeting to come.
With all my willpower, I tuck thoughts of my woman into the back corner of my mind so I can focus.
Anything else is dangerous.
49
RODERICK
