Full Moon Rising (Riley Jenson Guardian 1)

"I'm sorry I attacked you." I smiled slightly, and added, "Both times."

His fingers drifted down my neck, trailing heat across my skin. His expression was distracted - a look that had nothing to do with blood hunger, and everything to do with a man being confronted by a naked woman. "Both events were instinctive. There's nothing to forgive."

His touch reached my shoulder and skimmed the bandages. Goose bumps fled across my skin, a sensation that owed nothing to fear or pain

"But there's something we need to talk about."

His gaze came back to me. Fires burned in the black depths, a heat I could feel through every fiber. "I want you."

It appears werewolves weren't the only ones up front when it comes to sex. "Good."

His fingers skimmed the rise of my breasts, and my nipples woke to painful life. My mind might be advising caution, but my body was screaming yes, yes!

"When?" He was speaking softly, the lilt of Ireland caressing his voice, sending my already erratic pulse into overdrive

"Soon," I said, voice breathy. "Not now."

His fingers slipped under the sheet, taking an agonizingly circular route to my aching nipples. Slowly, teasingly, he rolled his thumb across one hard nub. "That's a shame."

My hormones thought so too. "Tell me about the wolf who hurt you."

He stopped, but his fingers were so warm against my skin it felt like he was branding me. Then his gaze met mine, and I saw the hardness there. Rhoan was right. This man would never give me anything more than sex. The wolf who had been here before me had totally destroyed this vampire's heart

His touch left me, and while I regretted that, curiosity was still stronger than desire. One of these days, I was going to have to leash my curious instincts before they landed me in water too hot to get out of. Or, in this case, out of luck with one of the sexiest vampires I'd ever come across

He leaned back in the chair, his face expressionless. "Why?"

"Because Rhoan warned against getting too involved with you, and since he rarely gives that sort of advice, I'm wondering why he chose to do so now."

Surprise touched his stern features. "Rhoan said that?"

"You've said that, too," I reminded him. "I'm gathering that we werewolves are good enough for a dance or two, but nothing more?"

His gaze met mine, the dark depths cold and hard. "Basically, yes."

"Meaning, you hold the all-too-human view that werewolves are little more than whores who have little or no control over their base instincts?"

"Yes."

I snorted, inexplicably disappointed. "And here I was thinking that a thousand years might have knocked a little knowledge into your brain."

His smile was grim. "A thousand years has knocked knowledge into my brain. And my experiences with wolves have confirmed my beliefs."

I thought back to the pictures I'd seen of his fiancee. Remembered the articles saying she'd disappeared. "Eryn was a wolf, wasn't she?"

His nod was short, sharp

"What did she do?"

His hesitation was brief, but nevertheless there. His reluctance to talk about the subject was obvious, and yet he was. Did that suggest he wanted me more than he wanted to keep his secrets?

"We met during a moon phase," he said, voice low and devoid of the sexy lilt. "But the fever continued on after. I couldn't get enough of her. I thought it was love."

I raised an eyebrow. "And it wasn't?"

"No. It was a drug called Everlasting."

I frowned. Everlasting wasn't a drug I'd ever heard of - though there were certainly plenty of them to be found in the clubs. "What does it do?"