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Gabe walked Serena from the car to the isolated cabin. The night would have been dark if it weren’t for the amazing blanket of stars overhead, but he couldn’t appreciate them. All he could think about was this woman and how he didn’t want her to walk through that door and out of his life.
In the dim pool of light from the single overhanging porch bulb, she stopped. She held her purse and sweater in front of her like a shield, and her face was tight. “Thank you for taking me out.”
“Fuck this.” He pulled her into his arms and moved his mouth over hers. She stiffened, her whole body resisting in his arms. Despair washed through him. She’d walk into that cabin and he’d turn around and get into his car and nothing in his life would be the way he knew it could be. Instead of a life filled with love and light, it would be years of loss. He couldn’t let that happen. All the need, frustration, and want that even one day without seeing her had bottled up inside of him and poured into the kiss.
She made a sound, and it all teetered on a moment.
It was as if a dam had burst. She opened her mouth wide and kissed him back. Her lips, taking and giving just as fast and as hard as his, and the rush had his knees going weak.
He used his body and backed her up, until her back touched the cabin wall. He leaned his arms on the sides of the wall, caging her with his body. Chest to chest, the mounds of her breasts crushed against him. Groin to groin, his cock aching in the cradle of her abdomen. And mouth to mouth, the kiss going wild.
She finally ripped her mouth away, turning her head to the side and gasping, “I can’t breathe.”
They stood pressed together, her heart pounding so loud in her chest that he thought maybe it was his own.
“Tell me this isn’t worth chasing.” His own breathing was ragged in the night.
“I don’t know. I can’t think.” She pushed on him.
He didn’t want to move. His wolf howled success inside—they had her, now they should make sure she stayed theirs. He lowered his head and dragged his face over her neck, sniffing, inhaling the sweet scent of her skin.
Then he forced himself to give her the space she needed and moved away. Letting her go and taking those two steps away was one of the hardest things he’d ever done in his life. It left a hollow ache in his chest.
“The fact that you can’t think should be telling you something—this is important.” He couldn’t stay this close to her and not touch her. He reached up and gently stroked her cheek, when what he wanted to do was take her over to the clearing past his car and lay down with her in the grass. Repeat what they’d had in the meadow—God, had it only been Friday? It felt like he’d known her forever.
She jerked her head away. “Don’t.”
“Please, Serena.”
She went to the door, digging through her purse and pulling out a key. “I’m sorry. None of this is your fault, but there’s so much going on. I need some space to think.” Sadness glinted in her eyes making them look as precious and rare as black diamonds. “Can you give me that?”
No. He couldn’t. He wanted her. His cock was rock hard, and he wanted to push into her softness and claim her for his own. But he rolled his neck, hearing the bones pop, and took three steps away from her. “How long?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
A growl rose up in his throat, and her eyes widened. She gripped her keys tight in her fist and glared at him. “Gabe Wulfric, don’t give me that alpha crap. I need time and you are going to give me time. Or so help me I’ll make my decision right now.” She turned her back on him without even waiting for his response and unlocked the door.
“Wait.” He moved, but it was too late. She was inside. The door slammed, nearly taking off his fingers as he reached to grab it.
A long howl ripped out of him and the shift rolled under his skin. He tore off his clothes, leaving them in a pile on her front porch. His bones contorted, pushing out as the change violently ripped through him. Then he let the pain and anger drive him down the road and into the deep woods, heading for the meadow that still smelled of sex. And Serena.