She was a woman totally at home in her skin and he envied it. Envied the ease with which she wore her otherness. It was sexy, exciting, incredibly enticing.

On the way back to the car he kept close. “So do you just think I’m an ass**le or what?”

She stopped at a huge SUV and clicked the locks open. “No. Why would you say that?”

He loaded his bags in and walked around to get inside. Once he’d shut the door, of the world died away, the scents of asphalt and smog withered, and suddenly he was hyperaware of her.

His gaze was locked with hers, he watched, fascinated as her pupils swallowed the sea of green. His breath seized as he truly scented her. Honey, lilacs, else…

“Oh. Well then.”

He swallowed hard, trying to figure out what she meant. “What?” And then he knew.

Understood. Despite the fact he’d lived his life outside a Pack, pretty much as a human, he did understand the mate bond. Believed in its power and knew she has his. Surety settled into his system even as he itched to rub himself all over her skin to mark her in some way. He’d only felt this much werewolf a few times in his life. When he first changed and when he performed the tri-bond with Layla and Sid. It freaked him out, the

wolf under his skin, the one his mother taught him to fear. But at the same time, the downright rightness of what he felt for her, of what he knew the mate bond to be, overruled his fear. He would have her, he would seal the bond and celebrate that part of himself. Tomorrow he’d worry about the rest.

He could barely hold a thought as need held him in her grip. “Go. How far is it?”

She jammed the key into the ignition one handed as she buckled up with the other.

“Twenty minutes. Pray for light traffic. Get money out for the ticket. In the console.”

He fumbled with the console and finally just yanked his wallet out to pay for parking. Of course there was a huge back up to pay but eventually they got free and she headed for the freeway.

He placed his hand on her thigh and the hem of her skirt rose as his fingers inched it upward enough that he could touch bare skin.

Megan gasped, never having felt anything with such total electric sensation before. She gripped the wheel so hard her bones creaked at the strain. She had to concentrate on driving but all she do was lick him up one side and down the other.

She rememberedTracy and Nick that first day they’d met and howTracy had just been swept away by the bond and her need to be with him. Megan hadn’t been able to grasp what that sort of need would be like. Until then, she tried not to get pulled over for speeding as she raced back toward the hotel.

If anyone stopped them when they arrived, she’d probably throw down with them. Best not to think on it. Best to just try and focus on driving. She talk to him, to learn more about him but she didn’t have the mental ability to concentrate on speaking, driving and not jumping those utterly delectable bones of his.

“Nearly there? God, your skin is so soft.” He stroked his fingertips along her upper thigh, sending shivers through her. His voice was rusty, like he hadn’t used it in a long time.

“Two more exits. And we’re going to crash if you keep that up. I can barely concentrate as it is.”

His fingers stilled but he didn’t remove his hand. He chuckled softly. “Gotcha.”

Just seven minutes later, not that she’d been watching the clock on the dash or anything, she pulled into a space in the hotel garage.

“Your room. Don’t let anyone stop you.” Urgency threaded through his voice, rode her hard as well as she scrabbled to get out.

“We’ll take this side door, back through the pool area. They might be in the lobby.”

He circled an arm around her waist, carrying his overnight bag but leaving his suitcase behind as they hustled toward the hotel.

Single-mindedly, she guided him through the area, scenting those she knew and avoiding them. They took the stairwell to her room and she barricaded her connecting door and put up the do not disturb sign, bolted the outer door and turned to face him.

Chapter Three

He could no longer hold on once they entered her room and she locked the door. His head swam in a sea of her scent. Of her desire, of the basic imprint of her on the room around him. He. Had. To. Claim. Her.

When she turned to face him, the primal male inside him thrilled to see her eyes widen at how close he stood to her. A soft sigh filtered from her mouth. A mouth he set his own to and fell.

Her taste roared through him. His senses hummed with satisfaction, his body hardened as his brain filled with all that was his woman. He consume her, wanted every inch of her inside and out. Never in his life had anyone ever held so much fascination for him and for the first time since he’d began to really struggle with who and what he was, he reveled in it. Accepted that he was a werewolf and she was his mate. The freedom of it was nearly as heady as the connection of their two hearts and souls.

Her head fell against the door as he pulled the front of her pretty dress open, the muted sounds of buttons flying and pinging off the carpet and walls filling the space between heaving breaths. Beneath was a feast for his eyes. Acres of creamy skin. A flat belly.

Pretty dark blue panties and a matching bra.

Bending his head, he feasted on the smattering of freckles on the curve of her right breast as he popped the catch of her bra, freeing them into his grateful hands.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “More. Touch me, Shane. Claim me.”

She writhed against him and his body reacted as her scent filled him up to the bursting point. He wanted her with single-minded intensity.