Breathlessly I confirm that I am.
“That’s the day I fly in. Throw in driving time from Portland, and I’ll pick you up at seven, yeah? I’ll take you to dinner and then—”
“I can’t,” I break in, my heart twisting so hard it feels as if it’s tearing from my chest. “Not next Friday night.”
The night of the full moon.
His expression darkens. “You’ve got another date?”
“No. Just…other plans.”
“Blow them off.”
“I can’t,” I whisper painfully. “I really can’t.”
His face hardens. A muscle in his jaw clenches and unclenches before he continues. “Saturday, then?”
Do I dare?
It might be the only time that I can dare. The week following the full moon is the easiest. As if the monster sates itself while roaming free, and for a few days that beast isn’t as needy, isn’t as hungry.
But I am. I’m so hungry for more of Ranger. To hear that sooty voice and rumbling laugh in person and not through a speaker. To watch the powerful movements of his big body uncaged from a small screen. To feel the roughness of his hand against mine when we greet each other.
And to smell him. To draw in his scent and fill myself with it, the same way I’d fill my body with him, if I could. To smell him, and be mounted and fucked and—
“It doesn’t have to be dinner.” His voice sounds hoarser now, his gaze burning through the screen as he waits for my answer. “Whatever you feel comfortable with, I’ll make sure—”
“Dinner’s good,” I tell him, praying that it’ll be true. That I’ll have control. “It sounds really good.”
“Okay. All right,” he says but doesn’t seem relieved, raking a big hand through his black hair and looking away from the camera. His lips draw back in a taut grimace and his breath hisses through his teeth, a multitude of emotions warring over his face. As if he’s fighting himself. And when he looks back to me with torment in his eyes, I don’t know if he’s won or lost that battle. “It’s not just dinner I want from you, Alicia. But if dinner’s all you want, say so now and I won’t show up at your door with expectation of more.”
A quake rolls through me, hope and fear tumbling over each other. Hoping that I understood him correctly. Afraid that I didn’t.
Afraid that I did. “What kind of more?”
“The kind that gets my hands and mouth all over you,” he says, and in the harshness of his voice I can already feel them on me. “The kind that has your thighs spread wide and my cock deep inside you, fucking you the way I’ve wanted to from the first goddamn second I saw you. If you don’t want that, you tell me and I’ll take the edge off before I get there.”
I’m shuddering and shaking with need but that last part is a bucket of ice water over my head. “Take the edge off by hooking up with someone else?”
“By jacking my dick raw.” He looms in closer to the camera, a snarl twisting his mouth. “You think I’d touch anyone else now? After I spent a year wanting you, you think any other woman would do?”
“It doesn’t matter to some men,” I whisper.
“I’m not some men.” Those dark eyes narrow. “Is that what’s got you wary all of a sudden? Some asshole did you wrong?”
Biting my lip, I shake my head. That’s not why I’m wary. But the truth is, despite how much I want him, I probably am looking for reasons to push Ranger away. To keep him at a safe distance.
But if he’s only here for a short time…it should be okay.
“I want all that, too,” I tell him. “I want it so bad.”
“I fucking hope so.” He studies me for a long second. “How about this, instead? You show up at my hotel with an overnight bag, and we order room service for dinner—after.”
My inner muscles constrict with anticipation. “Okay. Or you could stay at my place.”
“No, I can’t. A sweet girl like you, I show up and you change your mind, you might not feel so comfortable sending me away after promising me somewhere to stay.”
“I won’t change my mind, Ranger Ranger.”
Like it always does, using his title and name like that makes his lips quirk, but his gaze remains intent. “We’ll see. Because you’ve never seen anyone standing next to me, don’t know how big I really am. You might take one look and run screaming. So we’ll meet in the hotel bar or the lobby, and if you decide dinner is all you want, no hard feelings. Yeah?”
“All right. But I’m not changing my mind.”
He relents a little. “Even if you did, I’d spend all that dinner trying to persuade you—preferably by spreading your pretty thighs and getting a taste of your hot pussy.”