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—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 satisfy your curiosity, 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 before.”
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 were 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, but 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 to 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.
But she 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 until daylight. There would be time enough for her.
“Kat, stop,” he all but groaned.