The Wolf Marshal's Pack (U.S. Marshal Shifters 3)

So a tiny bit of order had descended since Eli Hebbert had hoofed it out the door. Just not much.

“I found something!” Aria called. “They’re not great, but they’re clothes!”

“Anything!” Colby yelled back.

She hurried in to meet him, a sheepish smile on her face.

“You might regret saying that.”

Just seeing her made his heart feel like it was going to beat its way out of his chest. Now that she was no longer shaken up, she looked vibrantly alive again—warm, tender, funny, and purposeful.

Colby had spent so much time lately feeling adrift. Looking at Aria, he knew he’d never have to feel that again. She was his solid ground.

His solid ground handed him a pair of boxers.

She said, defensively, “I sleep in them sometimes.”

That was an appealing thought. He imagined lying against her back and slipping his hand in through the gap in the front of her shorts, feeling the heat of her bare, slick sex against his fingers. Her ass would press back against him as he parted her folds to stroke against her clit—

In his defense, there was a long history of people making passionate love after some kind of near-death experience.

But none of them probably involved a whole family being on the other side of a half-wall.

Colby hastily stepped into the boxer shorts, amused—and delighted—by the way Aria couldn’t seem to bring herself to turn away from him.

She met his eyes and grinned. “Can you blame me?”

“I don’t know,” Colby said. He tucked his mouth against her ear and whispered, “I wish I could rip all your clothes and find out.”

She let out a small, breathless gasp, and he knew he wasn’t the only one who was having trouble fighting off the urge to seize hold and never let go.

To hell with it. He wasn’t going to have sex with her in her kitchen with her family in the other room, but he couldn’t bring himself to wait any longer before they even kissed.

He could have died tonight, and if he’d done that without ever tasting her lips—

He wasn’t alone in that thought either, because she suddenly went up on her toes and crashed into him.

Their first kiss was graceless and hard, like they were both trying to breathe as much of each other in as humanly possible. He could feel her almost whimpering with need against his mouth. He held her tightly, wanting to feel every inch of her skin against his own. Her breasts heaved against his chest.

She tasted like cinnamon. Her hair smelled like citrus and woods, like clean cedar bark and wind through leaves.

All he wanted was to stay in her arms forever. All he wanted was to hold her.

But that wasn’t all he needed—and it wasn’t all she needed either.

Wolves weren’t solitary creatures devoted to selfish passions, and neither were their mates. They both needed the rest of the world. Aria needed to explore it, and Colby needed to protect it. They had to think about her family, his friends, and the people who might get hurt if Eli Hebbert continued on his rampage through the world. If they could give all that up to just fall into bed with each other and stay there, they’d be completely different people.

This little moment in the kitchen was just an oasis before they tackled the next problem.

But, God, it was a good oasis.

When they finally parted, he saw the same wistful smile on her lips that he felt on his own.

“When this is all over...”

He couldn’t think of what to promise her, besides everything, so he just bent down and kissed the tip of her nose.

“When this is all over,” Aria agreed.