Full Moon Rising (Riley Jenson Guardian 1)

There was no way I was coming back to this house. It might contain the warmth of many colors, but it was cold. And I had the uneasy feeling something beyond sex had happened here, something I should remember

"I promised Misha I'd stay with him."

"Then I pray something distracts him, because I want you to be mine, and only mine, this phase."

"Exclusive?" The thought made my body ache more than it already was. "I don't think so."

"Just one phase, not forever. I have a desire only you can fulfill."

I snorted softly as I washed off the soap. "Me and your seven other lovers."

He walked in as I turned off the taps. He tossed me a towel, then crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame. "The others haven't hair your magnificent color. Nor do they have your strength."

"Which is why I imagine you have seven of them."

He grinned. "And they certainly don't have your lushness. I want that lushness. I want - " He stopped, and his sudden smile was distant

I had the strangest feeling that at that moment, he wasn't really with me, that he was lost somewhere in dreams that just might have dire consequences for my health. Which was daft. Talon was often ruthless, but I didn't think he'd hurt me

"What I want, I get, little wolf."

He wasn't getting anything more from me. Not this evening, anyway. I tossed the damp towel into the hamper, then said, "Are my clothes still in the office?"

"Yes."

"And that is?"

"Just down the hallway."

There was amusement in his expression, cold calculation in his eyes. I liked neither, and wasn't sure why. I'd seen both often enough in the last two years. Talon was an extremely successful businessman, and arrogance had always been a part of his makeup. Until very recently, it had never bothered me

He followed me up the hall, a heat I could feel but not hear. I found my clothes, and the folder was with them, but before I could get dressed, he slipped behind me, his hands snaking around my waist to pull me back against him. He was hard again. He might be a wolf, but his hunger and his rate of recovery were definitely abnormal

"Let me go, Talon."

"Tell me why you won't stay with me." His breath caressed my neck, and a second later, his teeth grazed my earlobe. This time, it wasn't pleasure that shuddered through me, but annoyance

"Because I don't want to." I elbowed him hard enough to force a grunt. He backed away, and I got dressed. "And because occasionally it would be nice to have a bit of foreplay before sex."

He crossed brawny arms, his expression an odd mix of amused tolerance and steel. "I thought you liked it hard and fast."

"I do. Sometimes. But it would be just as nice to take some time."

"Then meet me for breakfast. We'll eat, flirt, fool around some, then do the hard, passionate sex."

I hesitated, but the truth was, the moon had me in its grip, and when that happened, it was simply easier to be with partners I knew than starting afresh with strangers. And as much as I enjoyed Misha, Talon was right. Misha couldn't do to me what Talon did to me. Couldn't satisfy me in the same way. It was an addiction all right, but his type of danger was far different from the one Jack was trying to force on me

"I don't know."

"Then let's agree to just breakfast, and we'll see what happens from there."

I hesitated again, but only briefly. Addiction or not, I couldn't walk away from Talon. Not when the moon rode me like this. "Where?"

"The Kingfisher, in Collins Street."

The Kingfisher was one of Melbourne's boutique hotels, and from reports, spectacular. It also wasn't that tall, scraping in at nineteen floors. "Okay. But I also have to go to work and I'm not sure how long I'll be there. I can't give you a definite time." But not because of work, and not because of Rhoan. I needed time to recover from his demands

"So call," he said, as he escorted me to the door