Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Daphne
Travis in his dire wolf form was even more magnificent than I remembered.
His silvery coat glistened as he towered over me, his back level with my shoulders, yellow eyes locked onto mine.
He did a downward dog so I could fasten the leather belt around his thick neck.
Unable to help myself, I gave him a little scratch behind his ears.
He nuzzled my palm then flashed me a sharp look that said, Get the fuck on, so I obeyed him.
I clung to his back as he surged through the frigid black water and tried to ignore how cold it was. The hiking cabin wasn’t far, he’d said, and I trusted him to keep me safe. I wasn’t so sure about my heart, however.
The surf was relentless, but Travis’s wolf was incredibly strong and we soon made it to shore.
Good thing, because I was wet and cold as hell when we got there.
I repositioned my hands—one on the leather belt and the other holding a fistful of his fur.
I was mesmerized by the feel and rhythm of his powerful muscles as he shot up the stairs and into the dense forest.
I didn’t remember how we got to the cabin, just that we ran through the trees and were suddenly there.
It was possible I’d lost consciousness at some point along the way, because the next thing I knew, I was in a bed wrapped in blankets, while a fire crackled in a nearby fireplace.
A shirtless Travis, wearing low-slung jeans, was adding another log to the fire.
That perfect physique of his held my attention like super glue.
Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from how the firelight reflected on the bulging muscles in his back and arms. And the man had abs for days and days.
No wonder his wolf was able to cut through the powerful current like nobody’s business.
He threw a glance over at me, then hesitated when he realized I was awake and watching him.
Busted. I smiled awkwardly. “Um, I thought your clothes didn’t get wet when you shifted.”
His brows drew together. “They don’t.”
“Then where’s your shirt?” I asked.
“You’re wearing it.”
And that was when I realized I was naked under these blankets, wearing nothing but this man’s flannel shirt.
Heat crept to my cheeks. How had I not been aware when he undressed me? I saw my clothes now, including my sensible bra—not a lacy, cute one—and my granny panties, draped over a chair near the fire. I frowned, pissed as hell at myself for my lingerie choices this morning.
But how was I to know that a gorgeous man was going to be undressing me later that night, after rescuing me and taking me to a cabin in the woods—I glanced around—with only one bed?
“What’s wrong?” he asked, concern marring his ruggedly handsome face. Then he was at my bedside. “I thought you were warming up.”
“I...I am.” But just as I said it, I realized I was still very cold, like my bones were frozen from the inside.
It was possible I may have let my teeth chatter a little more than was necessary though, because he wordlessly climbed onto the bed and got under the covers with me, wrapped those strong arms around my body and pulled me close. Had he done this earlier? Surely, I’d have remembered if he had.
“Mmmmm.” He was soooo warm…and this felt heavenly.
“Better?” His lips brushed the edge of my ear and I shivered. He must have thought it was from the cold because he held me even tighter.
“Much.” I nestled the back of me to the front of him, quite aware that my ass was pressing against a very hard part of him. I mean, all of him was hard, but you get the picture.
With all this rustling around, the shirt I was wearing—his shirt—had scrunched up past my hips. If I were a good girl, I’d pull it back down, putting one more barrier between us. It would be the smart thing to do—the sensible thing to do.
But I was not a good girl and left it exactly as it was.
“Was it worth it?” he murmured, lips against my hair.
For this? A laugh burst from my throat. It was hard not to think that it wasn’t. “Well, I did find some beautiful moonstones.”
He chuckled. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’ then.”
I softly elbowed him and took the opportunity to snuggle in deeper. “How did you know I was even trapped in that cave?”
Travis explained how he’d been on a run with his pack when a bedraggled Sarah had stepped out of the woods. “I wish you two had read the tide table better,” he said, a light note of reprimand threading through his husky tone. “You could have been hurt. Or worse.”
I stiffened. “Have you seen that little booklet? It’s extremely confusing.”
When he didn’t immediately agree with me, I pressed my cold feet to his bare ankles and he jumped.
“Heaven’s Moon, woman! Your feet are like ice cubes.”
I snickered. Served him right. “Then admit it.”
“Okay, okay, it’s confusing.”
I started to move my feet away, but he hooked his foot around mine and kept them close.
At some point, his warm, broad palm had slipped to my hip, my bare hip. If I twisted just so, his hand would be right there. My breath caught in my throat as he grazed his thumb over my skin like he was waiting for something to happen and was just biding his time.
Meanwhile, liquid heat was building up inside me, and I realized I wasn’t cold anymore. “Your guidebooks on this island are something else.”
“My guidebooks?” He chuckled again and the sound rumbled through me. “Don’t blame your poor map-reading skills on me.”
So, we were back to that, were we?
Indignant, I turned to face him. His lips were inches from mine, and something dark moved behind his eyes, igniting more warmth between my legs.
“It’s nuts you’re supposed to remember that the light blue section means low tides and the dark blue section means high tides. Or maybe it’s the other way around. I mean, they’re both blue, for goodness sake. And don’t get me started on that map from the hotel.”
A corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk and the strand of heat inside me curled tighter. He thought this was funny?
I continued. “As the king of the island, you really should do something about this.”
His laughter shook the entire bed. “King of the island?”
“King of the pack. Whatever you want to call it. Everyone fawns over you like royalty. The island’s favorite son.” I poked a finger into his ribs to make my point, and he jerked like he was really ticklish. I filed that away for later.
“It’s called Alpha,” he said, enunciating the word slowly as if I had the IQ of a turtle. “And there are several packs on the island. Not just mine. Oh, and let’s not forget about Drake Valentino. He’s quite famous, you know.”
“Oh, heavens no, how can we possibly forget about him?”
He gave me a narrow-eyed look—like he wasn’t sure what to do with me, but his grip on me never wavered.
Truthfully, I rather liked teasing him like this. Getting under his skin like he’d done to me. I exhaled slowly in a futile effort to control the rapid beating of my heart.
I wanted this powerful, dynamic man. Needed him like I needed air to breathe.
And unless I was reading the signs wrong, he wanted me too.
I considered that for a moment. If I gave in to him, I knew I could lose my heart.
Was it worth the risk? After all, I was just a lab technician, here temporarily, and he was a werewolf celebrity. Our worlds couldn’t be more different.
Still, he did nothing.
Was he waiting for me to make the first move? I decided to do a little experiment.
He let me push his shoulder back against the mattress, confirming my suspicions. This powerful werewolf Alpha was letting me, a human woman, take charge of him in bed.
Was it because of my weakened physical condition? Out of respect for the obvious power imbalance? Or maybe he didn’t want to frighten me in case I changed my mind? Whatever the reason, it was hot.
I straddled his legs and caged him between my forearms.
“Would Drake Valentino stand for poorly worded guidebooks?” My still-damp hair cascaded around his face and I stared at his full lips, desperate to kiss him again.
“Drake doesn’t do a lot of readin’, darling,” he said in the cowboy drawl of his alter ego, making me laugh.
“Then what would your wolf do?” Tracing the tip of my finger along his jaw, I heard the rasp of his stubble and wondered how it would feel against my inner thighs. Then I quickly dashed that thought away. “Would he let something like this happen?”
“My wolf?” Travis growled and yellow flashed in his eyes. “He’d be sick of all this talking and would be fucking you by now.”