Hunting Ground [Claiming Series, #3]

- 10 -

"I didn't exactly help you, did I? I think I was at least half-responsible."

"But you don't know."

She scowled. "I'm not an idiot. I've heard all your warnings. But now I want to know the truth."

"I've been giving you nothing but the truth. Truth about what?"

"I want to know what's wrong with me."

"Wrong with you?" He could scarcely believe his ears. "If there was something wrong with you, we wouldn't have this problem!"

"Shh," she said quickly. "You don't have to yell."

"I wasn't yelling. I'm stunned. You have brought me to my knees. I'm clawing for some vestige of self-control so that we don't both wind up hating me forever, and you think there's something wrong with you?"

"Is it because I'm lycan?"

"Mon dieu," he groaned.

"Well, you keep calling me little wolf."

"An endearment. One that is special to you. It is not a curse, condemnation or complaint."

"Oh." Then she astounded him. The corners of her mouth lifted just a little, making her look almost impish. "So I don't revolt you. I bring you to your knees?"

"Most assuredly. Never in two centuries has anyone brought me so close to madness."

"No one has ever said anything so nice to me before."

More to astonish him. "Never? Are they blind?

"Well, I'm not exactly attractive."

"Who told you that?"

"No one."

He suddenly caught on. "Because you never changed?"

She nodded.

"So..." he asked slowly, "no boyfriend ever?"

"No."

"No lover ever?"

"No."

"Mon dieu," he said again, this time in wonderment. Then conscience pierced him again. "I should not be your first. I cannot do that you."

She bit her lip. "Kane..."

"Yes?" He hoped he sounded encouraging because he didn't want to wound this woman any more than he evidently already had.

"Kane, I don't know how...what...Do you want me to beg?"

That placed him squarely on the horns of a dilemma. To leave would wound her, however right that choice might be. To stay... He could do it, he decided. If he just didn't drink from her, it would be safe enough.

He could make her dizzy with pleasure without ever taking her to that place she would never forget. Surely he could maintain that much control.

"You don't have to beg," he murmured. "You don't have to know how or what. It will be my honor to show you the way."

A long shuddery sigh escaped her, her eyelids drooped, and she moved infinitesimally closer. Never in all his long, long years that he ever been offered something as precious as what he was being offered now.

Be careful, Kane, he warned himself. Then he gave up the battle.

Tessa felt suspended in anticipation so intense that everything else flew from her mind. She hardly knew what had driven her to this point, what had caused her to make herself so vulnerable. She knew she wanted Kane; she knew she had never felt a longing so intense for anyone ever.