“You have no fucking clue how hard this has been for me.” Suddenly, he whirled on his heel, closing the distance between them in a heartbeat. “No clue. I can smell you every second. Your thoughts. They’re driving me fucking insane.”
“I can feel it,” Loren admitted in a whisper. More than that. She could feel his anger then and there. All of it. His frustration. Pain. Confusion. Desire—
Wait.That emotion was the most foreign of the tangled mass, taking more effort to decipher. It was something she rarely felt for herself. The closest comparison she could make was when she desperately needed a new pair of shoes. She’d risk a beating just to get them. The thought of going without was…unthinkable.
And he felt that. Every waking minute, the feeling seemed to grow, transforming from mere desire into… Hunger. Craving. Desperation.
Then, all of a sudden, she felt nothing as if the tenuous, invisible link to him had been closed off.
“Go to bed.” He stormed off, marching toward the forest. To hide, she realized. To run away and avoid her for another night. More hours. At least until he could get rid of her. Break ties. Cut her loose.
“No.” The voice didn’t even sound like her, but her ears rang with it. Her throat ached, her lips parted.
And he stopped short. She could count every ragged breath he drew in. Each one was a hallmark of how fiercely he grappled to regain control. He didn’t want to shout. Argue.
He couldn’t help himself. “Loren, I told you to—”
“You said it yourself,” she stammered over him. It was like she was possessed. This wasn’t just her saying this, but that inner voice finally making itself heard outside the confines of her mind. “You aren’t my Alpha. You aren’t my guardian. You didn’t even want me here. So, what are you to me? Because you certainly aren’t in charge.”
Something dangerous flitted across his gaze, gone in an instant. Her breath stuttered regardless. If she had been on thin ice before, it just shattered, plunging her into a place from which there was no turning back.
“Who am I?” He advanced slowly, but the contrast in his posture—even the way he breathed—made her pulse race. She took a step back. Then another, retreating inside the barn, driven by an instinctive warning to run. Or fight.
At the thought, her feet stopped, bracing against the concrete flooring just as he reached the doorway.
She took a step, and he ruthlessly followed, matching her movement for movement. Only this time, when she retreated toward a corner of the barn, far from the horses’ stalls, fear wasn’t driving her. Just anticipation.
An electric foreboding so thick she couldn’t stand it. The only cure was him. His heat as he lumbered closer, towering above her, blocking her in with sheer bulk. His breath fanned her throat as his hands palmed the wall on either side of her hips. But not close enough. He needed to touch her.
“Please,” she croaked. What exactly she was begging him for? She didn’t know.
But he did. His teeth gritted, a curse grated between them. “Fuck.”
The muscles in his arms twitched with the effort he exerted to fight whatever impulse he felt. Until he couldn’t. His fingers found her waist, feathering together over her lower back.
Loren’s mind went blank. Nothing in the world could describe the feeling—none of their previous embraces came close. This wasn’t a volatile reaction out of impulse. This was deliberate on his part, his way of answering her via the only method that mattered.
Touch.
Who are you?she’d demanded. The possessive brush of his calloused fingertips, easing beneath the hem of her shirt, satisfied that question more definitively than words ever could.
I belong to you. You belong to me. Don’t question it—don’t even fight it. Just trust me. Accept me. I know you. I need you.
That reassurance alone might have been enough for the scared little girl from over a week ago. But now? She needed more.
Unbidden, she reached up, lacing her fingers through his hair. It was wrong. She didn’t know him.
That didn’t matter. She continued to explore him, and the second her fingers made contact with the planes of his jaw, all doubt left her mind.Yes,a voice within her exclaimed, though it didn’t feel entirely hers.This is right.
More than right. Vital. Only breathing felt more natural.
Yet, he still hesitated, his arms tensing. “I can’t—”
“Please.”
His mouth was on hers again before she knew it, prying her lips apart for his tongue to probe deep. This was different. He didn’t test or goad her into fighting back. She relented to him, inching closer, inhaling as much of him as she could.
But it wasn’t enough.