Never Tease A Wolf

Abigail was mesmerized by the sight of Luke’s body flexing as he stood and stretched like a wolf ready for the hunt. An instant later, that powerful body settled itself beside her on the couch. She looked into Luke’s gray eyes and found a purely feral gleam.

The hairs prickled on Abigail’s neck and goose-flesh rose on her arms. A wolf was on the prowl. And she was its prey.

Luke’s hands lightly grasped her shoulders from behind, and he began to knead her shoulder blades with his thumbs. “You must be sore from carrying that heavy pack this morning.”

“Uh . . . a little, ” Abigail admitted. Suddenly she wasn’t the least bit tired anymore.

Luke’s hands moved up under Abigail’s hair to massage her neck and sent a shiver down her spine.

“Caught a nerve?” he murmured in her ear.

Abigail shivered again and tried to laugh at her powerful reaction to his touch. Only her breath caught in her throat when Luke’s hands lifted her hair away and his lips caressed the back of her neck.

Abigail shot off the couch as though she had been bitten, leaving Luke with his empty hands hanging in the air. “I think I’d better go to bed now,” she said. Abigail started up the stairs without looking back, but had only gotten halfway up when she realized she had no idea which bedroom was hers. She turned around and found Luke on the step just below her.

“Abby, I—”

Abigail put a hand on his chest to keep him where he was. The feel of hard muscle under her fingertips set her pulse to pounding. “Don’t come any closer,” she warned.

“I want you.”

She put the other hand against his lips. “And don’t say anything.”

He reached up ever so slowly and took the hand she held against his lips and moved it so he could kiss her palm, and then her wrist. “I want you.”

Abigail’s knees felt wobbly. He had to stop doing what he was doing or she wouldn’t be responsible for the consequences. “Please don’t say things like that,” she pleaded.

“Why not?”

“I thought we were going to be friends.”

“We are,” he said with a smile.

“Friends don’t—”

“Friends do.”

Abigail moaned as Luke took one of her fingers into his mouth and sucked on it.

“I don’t even know you,” Abigail said, her whole body trembling as Luke bit the pad between her thumb and forefinger.

“You know everything you need to know about me.”

“I doubt that,” Abigail muttered.

“Ask me anything.”

“Do you have any social diseases?”

Well, that certainly broke the mood. “I mean,” Abigail continued in a firm voice, “that a woman can’t be too careful nowadays.”

Luke’s eyes had narrowed into slits. “I don’t have any social diseases,” he said. “Anything else you’d like to know?”

“Uh . . . do you have any . . . uh . . . protection?”

“You’re not protected?”

Abigail blushed and licked her lips. “No.”

Luke swore under his breath. He shoved his fingers through his hair in frustration, then gripped the banister with both hands. She had as much as admitted she hadn’t had a man since her husband had died, so there would have been no need for her to be protected. Unfortunately it had been so long since he’d had a woman, he didn’t have any protection handy, either. Luke swore again. “I don’t have a damn thing in the house.”

Abigail breathed a sigh of relief.

“You don’t have to act so damned happy about it,” Luke snarled.

Abigail put a hand lightly on Luke’s shoulder. “You’ll thank me for this in the morning,” she said.

Luke stared at her in disbelief and then laughed out loud. “Only a woman could make an idiotic statement like that.”