haven't you?'
He stared at her, at a loss for words. He'd never met anyone as forthright and open about sex as these two seemed to be. Maybe he just had to get to the big cities more often. 'This is different than sex.' It was more personal.
'Rubbish. And watch that arm doesn't bleed all over the sheets.'
She walked away, leaving him with no option but to obey. He carried Kat into the other cabin, stripped back the comforter and laid her down. He grabbed a couple of towels from the bathroom, placing them under her arm before he began removing the tourniquet. Amazingly enough, the wound didn't seem to be bleeding anymore.
He stripped off her clothes, trying to ignore her warm scent, trying to ignore his own reaction to the sight of her naked body.
Gwen came in and sat down on the bed. 'Here,' she said, thrusting a bowl of what looked like dried herbs at him.
'Hold this.'
He did as ordered, watching as she washed down the wound with a soft wet cloth. When the wound was clean, she grabbed the bowl and began packing the herbs in it.
He couldn't ever remember seeing this step in any of the first aid manuals he'd read over the years.
'What is that you're using?'
'My magic mix. Kat heals fast naturally, but this will ensure no infection gets into the wound over the next couple of hours.'
'Hours? It's going to take a week, if not more, to heal a wound like that.'
Gwen smiled. 'By the morning this will be nothing more than an annoyance. Hand me that bandage, will you?'
Werewolves could heal that fast, but he'd never known a human to do so. Maybe it was simply a matter of magic — and that was something he would never have even half believed before meeting these two.
Still, time would tell which of them was right. He grabbed the white roll off the side table and handed it to her. She quickly bandaged the wound, her movements deft and fast despite her gnarled hands.
'There,' she said, rising a little stiffly. 'That should do.
Make sure she takes it easy for the next couple of hours, but after that, you both should be all right.'
He chose to ignore the twinkle in her eye. 'Are you going to be okay alone in the other cabin?'
'Safer than you are, Detective.'
'Because of the stones?'
She nodded. 'To ease your wondering, when the stones are placed in certain sequences they can provide protection against either magic or evil.'
'Oh.'
She patted his arm. 'Don't worry, my boy. By the time this week is over, you're going to believe in a whole range of things you never have.'
He didn't trust the sparkle in her eyes. He watched her leave, then grabbed the comforter and drew it over Kat.
She stirred, murmuring something he couldn't quite catch.
He let his fingers brush her cheeks, then ran them down to the lips he wanted to kiss and keep on kissing.
He snatched his fingers away and walked into the next room. It was going to be another long night without sleep.
Kat stirred. The night was still, and the ache in her arm was little more than a twinge — one that shouldn't have been strong enough to wake her. She didn't move, just opened her eyes. She was in the cabin. In bed. Alone, although that in itself didn't surprise her.
What did surprise her was the condoms scattered on the bedside table. Ethan had obviously had intentions of doing something during the night.
She could hear no sound, and yet awareness stirred. But not an awareness of evil. It was an awareness of longing.
Need.
She reached for one of the foil packets then looked around. Ethan stood near the window, his arms crossed as he leaned against the frame and stared out. He wore black silk boxers but little else, and his hair looked rumpled, as if he'd spent the last few hours tossing and turning rather than sleeping. But if the pristine sheets on the other side of the bed were any indication, he certainly hadn't tossed and turned with her.
She took a moment to simply enjoy the sight of all that firm, hard flesh, then threw off the comforter and padded across the room to him. He didn't move, didn't say anything, though his shoulders tensed.
'What's wrong?'
'Nothing. Everything.'
She touched his shoulder, and he flinched. She ignored it and ran her fingers lightly down his spine. 'Tell me.'
He took a shuddering breath. 'My niece is out there.
Maybe alive. Maybe dead. And all I can think about is how badly I need to sate my lust.'
'You can't do anything more about your niece than what you're doing.'
She slipped her hand around his waist and took a step closer, pressing her breasts against his tense back. His skin quivered, as if touched by fire. And that was what raged through his system right now. A cold, moon-spun fire that needed be quenched before things got out of control. She knew enough about werewolves to know she didn't want to face the consequences of that.
'That doesn't stop the feeling that I should be doing something,' he replied. 'That I should be looking, or going through the files again, or going over her room — ' 'If you didn't find any clues the first few times, what makes you think you'd find them now?' She slipped her hand down the flat of his stomach and under the waist of his boxers.
He sucked in air. 'Hope. Desperation.'
She ran her fingers down the length of him and pressed feather light kisses across his back. Still he didn't move, though his whole body shook with the effort of control.
'Don't,' he said softly, 'do this.'
She didn't stop but continued to caress him. He needed the pressure released and she was more than willing.
While she had no doubt this first time would be hard and fast — more so than at the beach — they still had hours left to daylight. There would be time enough for her.
'Kat, stop,' he all but groaned.
'Why?' She ran her tongue across his neck and shoulders, tasting him as he'd tasted her earlier.
'Because you're injured. Because my need is so great I might just hurt you.'
'You're need is a bigger danger than my wound.'
She touched his face, forcing him to look at her. His eyes were almost otherworldly. The moon fever truly had him in its grip, and once released, there would be no going back until the fever was sated. It was a wonder he'd had enough control to resist her this long.
She kissed him gently, then said against his lips, 'Take me, werewolf. Take me now.'
He groaned and grabbed her, pulling her so close his heat nearly melted her skin. His mouth claimed hers with such ferocity her head swam. He forced her back, not to the bed but to the rug in front of the fireplace, and lay down beside her. He kissed her lips, her throat, her shoulders as his hands set her alight with an urgency as great as his own. She was more than ready when he thrust inside her, and she groaned at the sheer pleasure of it. His powerful stokes drove deep, promising satisfaction, but they were too fast, too soon. He came with a roar that flushed heat through her body and left her trembling with unfulfilled desire.
When his shuddering stopped he kissed her again, gentler this time but no less urgently. The fever still raged in his eyes, and she knew that at this moment she was a just a body on which he sated his needs. He didn't actually see
But this wasn't about her. For the moment, it was about him.
He continued to kiss her, and after a while she felt him grow hard again. He began to move, stroking slow
