His wolf was trembling with excitement inside him, but his human side…
It should have been wonderful, it should have been the best thing that ever happened to him, but instead the same nausea that had hit him back at the building site struck him like lightning: This can’t be happening. Not now.
This woman was his mate.
He tightened his grip on the woman’s hand. “You’re—”
Human.
Oh, hell.
5
Jacqueline
“Are you all right?” The man’s voice was strange, almost choked. Jacqueline looked up quickly. Christ, if he’d inhaled half the ocean saving her and was about to fall over with secondary drowning…
“I,” she began, and then she was the one swallowing her words. “I, um, yes. Fine. Thank you.”
The seal pup snuffled and dove into her elbow. She repositioned her arms around it absently, still staring at the man who’d saved her life.
Mary mother of God, he was the hottest man she’d ever laid eyes on.
Not just literally, although heat poured from his body, as though he was hiding a furnace under—Jacqueline gulped. Not under his clothes, because he was barely wearing any. A worn shirt clung to his shoulders and biceps like it had been painted on, and hung open in front to reveal a muscular chest that gleamed and glittered in the light from the small lantern. His pants were low-slung enough that…
Jacqueline raised her eyes quickly.
Water streamed from his dark, curly hair, too, dripping over his forehead. He blinked a droplet away and suddenly Jacqueline couldn’t look away from his eyes.
His eyelashes were dark and thick, surrounding eyes the color of the night sky, and he was staring at her with an intensity she hadn’t experienced since… since…
“I’m f-fine,” she repeated. The bench seat they were sitting on was very small, she realized. Too small for both of them really. Her hip and thigh were pressed tight up against his.
The man’s eyes flicked down her body and darkened. “You’ll freeze, wearing that.”
“Really, I don’t feel cold at all,” Jacqueline replied automatically.
She glanced down at herself and bit back a grimace. The nice dress she’d picked out for the Spring Fling hadn’t exactly fared well against the might of the Pacific Ocean. It was flattened against her body, rucked up and twisted from when she’d clambered into the boat. And—oh, God, how could she not have noticed it riding up that far?
Jacqueline tugged at the hem and managed to at least cover the tops of her thighs before the little seal pup started wriggling enough that she had to turn her attention back to it.
“Hey, hey, it’s all right. I bet you’re not cold, huh, with that lovely fur coat.” she cooed to it. It snuffled at her, gazed at her with its big wet eyes, and then dove back into her elbow.
The man made a stifled sound like a groan. When she looked up, he was grimacing.
He caught her eye and looked away. “Let’s get in to shore,” he muttered. Without looking at her, he gestured at the oars. “I’ll need to…”
“Oh. Yes. Sorry.” Jacqueline moved to the bench opposite. It was still a close fit, their knees almost touching across the gap—but it was an almost touch, not a squeezed-so-close-I-can-feel-you-breathe touch.
Jacqueline let out a slow breath.
She had been telling the truth. She didn’t feel cold. But she’d just dived headfirst into the ocean. It might technically be spring but no one had told the water that. She should be freezing, and the fact that she wasn’t feeling it now wasn’t a good sign.
“Mrrf!” The seal pup squeaked into her elbow. “Mrrf!”
“We’ll be there in a minute,” the man said, “and you can tell me all about it.”
“I didn’t say anything,” Jacqueline replied, and he gave her a guarded look.