“Hey, I’m sorry,” he whispered, the soft words rumbling up through his chest as his cinnamon scent completely enveloped her. “I didn’t mean to upset you with that crack about shifting. You’ll get there in your own time.”
She shook her head, taking the opportunity to blink her eyes a few times to clear the tears before they could fall and embarrass the hell out of her. “It’s not that,” she said softly, draping one arm around his neck to rest on his broad shoulders and placing the other hand against his chest. His skin was warm and solid beneath the button-down he wore. “At least, it wasn’t what you said. Not really.”
He dipped his head to catch her eyes, the expression on his face making her think he didn’t believe her. Not that she blamed him, since she wasn’t sure she believed it herself.
“Sometimes, it feels like I’m stuck,” she explained, the words coming slowly as she struggled to find the right ones. “Jake talks about using his werewolf abilities like it’s as natural as breathing. Hell, even Caleb, who can’t smell anything unless he steps in it, can wolf out at the drop of a hat—even faster if he’s pissed. But me…” She shrugged. “I’ve never known what any of that is like. Sometimes, I worry I’ve hidden from myself for so long that there’s no way to ever get back what I gave up all those years ago.”
Harley hadn’t known it until this moment, but as she admitted it out loud, she realizing that genuinely was it. She was terrified of what she was now, terrified she’d always be a werewolf stuck in a person’s body, terrified that was all she’d ever be. That didn’t seem like enough anymore.
Sawyer slipped a finger under her chin, gently lifting her face until she met his gaze. The warmth in those beautiful blue eyes of his was enough to take her breath away.
“So stop hiding.”
“That’s easy to say,” she murmured, liking the way he slowly slid his fingers along her jaw until his palm rested against her cheek. She leaned into his warmth, closing her eyes. “But I’m not even sure how to start.”
“Maybe start by finding someone you can be yourself with.” He leaned closer, his breath warm on her skin. “Someone who can make you feel things without having to think so much. Someone who sees you as you truly are—beautiful and perfect.”
She opened her eyes to see that his lips were only inches from hers, his eyes rimmed with the slightest hint of yellow gold. “Someone like you maybe?”
“Someone exactly like me,” he said simply, his mouth coming down to meet hers.
This wasn’t the first time they’d kissed, but Harley continued to be amazed at the thrill that shot through her every time they did. She tingled all over, her heart racing. Her hand found its way into his silky, dark hair, weaving in and holding tight as she melted into him, their tongues teasing each other, his taste so overwhelming, it made her dizzy. She was the last woman on earth to think in cliché terms, but it really did seem like she saw fireworks explode behind her lids when she closed her eyes again.
When Sawyer’s hands dropped to her hips, urging her to move, Harley did so without thinking, instinctively knowing where he wanted her. A moment later, she was straddling him, her knees pressing into the couch on each side of his hips, the junction between her thighs pressing firmly against Sawyer’s rapidly hardening cock.
She shivered when he slid his hands underneath her shirt, his warm fingers tracing lines of fire along her lower back and around to the bottommost ribs. His touch had her letting out soft little moans of pleasure even as she kept kissing him like a woman possessed. She surrendered to the moment, following Sawyer’s advice to stop thinking so much. She realized that with him, that wasn’t very hard to do at all.
As they continued to kiss and caress each other, the whole concept of time started getting a little fuzzy. In fact, Harley honestly couldn’t say how long they’d made out. But it must have been a little while because when she finally came up for air, she noticed that at some point, both she and Sawyer had lost their shirts and one of her bra straps was hanging loose down her shoulder.
She took a moment to enjoy the view of all that exposed skin, having a hard time deciding what she liked more when it came to Sawyer’s half-naked body—the broad shoulders, bulging biceps, sculpted pecs, or ripped abs. In the end, she decided getting her mouth on all those yummy muscles was a distinct moral imperative.
It was while she was busy nibbling on a bare shoulder that could have been sculpted from bronze it was so perfect, that she abruptly realized she and Sawyer were sitting there with their clothes halfway off, going at each other like they’d overdosed on lust. If their teammates walked in, this would be beyond awkward. Or maybe plain mortifying. Harley had no doubt Caleb in particular would rub it in for as long as they both lived.
“Sawyer, we have to stop,” she said breathlessly, forcing herself to stop kissing the tasty collection of muscles at the junction of his shoulder and neck and sitting back on his thighs.
She didn’t miss the startled expression in his eyes, immediately followed by one of confusion and then something more… Pain? He recovered quickly, hiding it all away, but she’d seen it there…the longing for more.
The same longing she was feeling herself.
“I don’t mean stop like that,” she corrected, leaning forward with a smile, placing her hands on those magnificent pecs. “I meant I think we need to move this somewhere besides the middle of the living room. I don’t think either of us want to be interrupted when everyone comes home.”
Sawyer stared at her for all of a second, then his eyes flared brighter gold. A heartbeat later he was on his feet, both hands cupping her butt and holding her tightly against him as he headed for the stairs.
“Our shirts,” she shrieked, laughing as she wrapped her arms and legs around him like a koala bear. “We can’t leave them on the floor. They’ll know what we were up to.”
Sawyer turned around with a growl, then stomped back into the living room, letting Harley hang upside down from his waist long enough to snag their two shirts. Then he strode toward the stairs, taking them two at a time, making her laugh again.
The sound was abruptly cut off when Sawyer pushed her up against the wall in his bedroom, kissing her senseless at the same time he kicked his door closed. The sensation of him grinding between her thighs as he pressed her forcefully against the wall, his mouth driving her crazy, was about the sexiest thing she’d ever experienced. His erection was so hard in his jeans she could feel it throbbing against her core.
His mouth moved from her lips to her jaw, tracing hot kisses along it and then down her neck. When she felt the scrape of sharp fangs on the sensitive skin there, she almost lost her mind. Would it be too much if she asked him to bite her…just a little?
Getting her fingers into Sawyer’s hair, Harley got a good grip and shoved him far enough away so she could look him directly in the eyes.