WHERE DARKNESS LIVES

He lowered his head to deliberately tease the tender spot just below her ear, chuckling as she quivered in ready response.

“Okay, maybe it was above average,” she whispered huskily.

“You’re playing with fire, cara.” Nipping the lobe of her ear, he planted hungry kisses down the length of her throat, pausing to nuzzle the tender flesh he intended to hold in his teeth as he brought them both to an explosive climax. “Shall I remind you of just how good it is between us?”

She groaned, her hands branding a path of heat over his chest and down his stomach.

“It’s coming back,” she assured him. “Slowly.”

For all his brawn, Luc had always been surprisingly intuitive. In truth, it was his ability to read others that made him such a lethal killer.

Any Were could use his teeth and claws to battle his enemies. But a soldier who could predict what his opponent was going to do before he did it, priceless.

It wasn’t intuition, however, that made him pull back to study his companion with a searching gaze. No, this was much deeper. Much more ... intimate.

“Sophia?”

“Hmmm?” she murmured, her hands continuing the path of destruction toward his fully erect cock.

Mierda, he wanted to forget the concern that niggled at the edge of his mind. Surely whatever was bothering Sophia could wait?

At least for a few hours.

Then, as he caught the scent of wariness threaded through the rich spice of her desire, he heaved a small sigh, catching her hand a mere heartbeat before she captured his shaft and put an end to any coherent thought.

“There’s something on your mind.”

She flashed a deliberately wicked smile. The kind of smile intended to divert any red-blooded male.

“A sexy six-foot Were who thinks he’s all that?”

Bringing her hand to his lips, he pressed a kiss to her knuckles, his gaze never wavering from her pale face.

“Nice try, but I know when a female is distracted.” He smiled wryly. “Not a problem I usually have when I’m in bed with her.”

She rolled her eyes. “You really need to work on your self-confidence.”

“Sophia, tell me what’s troubling you.”

There was a long silence as she inwardly debated the odds of keeping her secrets. Then, clearly accepting that there wasn’t a chance in hell, she heaved a resigned sigh.

“I’m not sure you actually want to know.”

He hissed, his muscles rigid as he prepared for an unseen blow.

“Dammit,” he rasped. “If you try to convince me you regret our—”

“No, it’s not that.”

“Just tell me.”

She licked her lips, looking oddly vulnerable. “I was attracted to you from the moment we first met.”

“I knew you had good taste.” His voice remained tense even as he gently tucked a golden curl behind her ear.

“But I told myself that I would be an idiot to give in to that attraction.”

“Why?”

She lowered her lashes, as if she could somehow hide from his searching gaze.

“Because I wasn’t going to be a convenient lay that would be forgotten the moment you returned to Miami.”

He froze, his brows snapping together. “That’s what you thought of me? That I intended to use and abandon you?”

“I wasn’t judging you,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed more than my share of meaningless hookups.”

Was that supposed to reassure him?

Dios.

Abruptly rolling onto his back, he threw an arm over his face.

Why didn’t she get a little salt to rub into the wound?

“You’re right, I don’t want to hear this,” he muttered.

He felt her turn to press against his side, her hand lightly running over his chest in a gesture of apology.

“Luc, let me finish,” she softly pleaded.

He refused to look at her. Maybe he was being childish. After all, he couldn’t deny that he’d had a few one-night stands in his past. And while he had never intentionally used a woman, there might have been a few who had wanted more than he was willing to offer.

But the thought that Sophia could ever have dismissed their powerful connection as a meaningless bout of lust pissed him off.

Royally.

“Say it,” he snarled.

“I was lying to myself.”

“About what?”

There was the slightest hesitation before she heaved a deep sigh.

“About you and why I was terrified to let you into my bed.”

He lowered his arm, grudgingly meeting her troubled gaze. “Then what was the reason?”

“I was afraid I would never let you out of it.”

The blunt words hung in the air as Luc allowed them to slowly ease the sick ball of dread that had lodged in his gut.

At last he lifted a hand to lightly touch her pale cheek. “Sophia?”

“My wolf recognized you from the beginning,” she admitted. “It understood... .”

“Don’t stop now, cara,” he coaxed, desperately needing to hear the words.

“It understood that you belong to me.”

“Ah.”

The emerald eyes flared at his noncommittal response. “I warned you that you wouldn’t want to know.”