As Elise got to her feet, still wrapped in the blanket Axe had given her, he couldn’t find the words he wanted to say.

“God, I’m so pissed at myself,” she muttered as she turned away. “And I’m leaving before—”

He caught her arm. “I don’t want you to go.”

Looking over her shoulder, she seemed dumbfounded. “But—”

“I want to …” He cleared his throat. “I want to show you something.”

Taking her hand, he led her past the stairs, into the kitchen, and over to the cellar door. On so many levels, he couldn’t believe what he was doing. Couldn’t believe what he’d said. Really, totally couldn’t believe that she didn’t seem horrified in the slightest.

She also didn’t seem to judge him at all.

And all of that made him want to go deeper into his past with her.

Even though that made no sense.

Opening the cellar door, he kindled the lantern he’d left at the head of the stairs and then led her on a descent down the wooden steps. As the yellow glow fanned out at the bottom, she gasped.

“He did all this? Your father?”

She let go of his hand and walked forward to the shelves of finished figurines. “These are … incredible.”

Axe hung back, aware that, as she inspected the woodland creatures his father had excised—or maybe exacerbated—his grief with, Axe was showing her a part of himself.

“He was an artist,” he heard himself say. “A master. And yet he wasted it all just pining away for her.”

“Is that why you never got mated?” she murmured as her slender hand cradled a rabbit that was up on its haunches with ears pricked. “Are you always worried that the female will leave you and you’ll do what he did?”

“I don’t …” Axe shrugged even though she wasn’t looking at him. “I don’t think about it a lot.”

Coward, he said to himself. And what a liar he was.

That was exactly the reason. Well, that … and he’d never met the likes of her before.

Putting the woodland rabbit back next to a deer and a raccoon, Elise came over to him, moving in that lovely way she did. As she put her hands on his upper arms, he jumped at the contact, but didn’t step away.

“I’m not going to try to fix you, Axe. That’s not my business. But if I think you’re off base, I’m going to tell you and then you can do with it what you will. No judgment.”

“Well, you know all my dark secrets now.”

“And I’m still here, aren’t I.”

He reached up to brush her cheek and wasn’t surprised that his hand was shaking. “You scare the shit out of me, female.”

He’d rather face a thousand lessers than her in a blanket, standing in front of his father’s wall of misery. And yet he wasn’t leaving. And he sure as fuck wasn’t going to tell her to go.

“Intimacy is scary,” she said as she stroked down his arms, soothing him. “If you let people in, they can hurt you. In fact, in your case, that’s what you grew up believing was a natural consequence of loving someone. They fail you. You fail them. And everything falls apart. But it doesn’t have to be like that.”

Axe put his hands on her waist and brought her up against his body. As he stared into her blue eyes, he whispered, “I lied.”

“About what?”

“I’m flat-out terrified of you.”

She shook her head. “You can trust me. I’m not going to desert you.”

Axe kissed her mouth. Because he wanted to. And because he desperately wanted to stop the conversation. “Come on, let’s get out of here. It’s cold.”

More to the point, he had this superstitious fear that maybe his parents’ bad road was something the two of them could catch. A relationship virus or something.

Back upstairs, he hurried her into the living room. The sun was coming up soon, and the heaviest drapes were in there.

Damn, he’d never given it much thought before, but he didn’t feel safe with her here during the day. He wanted them behind steel doors, so sheltered underground from the sun that it was as if that big, glowing death orb didn’t exist.

As they resettled in front of the fire, lying together, he said, “I haven’t done any drugs since the night I found out he was killed. I stopped using them then. I still drink every once in a while, but not like I used to.”

“So that was your bottom point,” she commented.

“Guess so.”

The fact that he didn’t tell her about the sex stuff wasn’t something that sat well with him. But he wasn’t going to do that anymore, either. Going back to The Keys tonight had been a revelation in how much he did not need that now that he had the real deal—

The sound of a phone ringing across the room made him frown.

It was his cell. Which Craeg had dropped off for him earlier.

The thing went silent. Only to ring again.

“Goddamn it,” he muttered as he got up.

Fishing through the pockets of his cloak, he took the cell out and frowned. Answering it, he said, “Novo? You okay? … Yeah, I’m fine.… Nah, I’m home. Where are you? … Are you leaving now? … Novo, seriously, it’s right before fucking dawn. What the fuck are you doing—huh? … Yeah, I lose track of time there, too, but Christ, come on. Don’t make me regret getting you in.… Fine. Will you get off the phone and call me when you’re home? Dumb-ass.”

He hung up and kept the phone with him as he went back over to Elise and lay down again.

“Sorry. That’s one of my fellow trainees. A real hardheaded hard-ass who’s just about as stupid as I am. I just—you know, I don’t want anyone hurt.”

Elise nodded. “Of course. Do you want to go see if he’s okay or something?”

Axe just rolled his eyes. “Novo will be just fine, as long as—”

The phone rang again and he answered before the ring-a-linging stopped. “Where are you.” He exhaled. “Good. Don’t stay that late again, okay? You can always go back, just not if you’re fucking dead. See you tomorrow night, asshole.”

He was laughing a little as he hung up. “What a psychopath.”

Elise smiled, but it was a remote kind of thing. “It takes a special breed to do what you all and the Brothers are doing.”

As Axe recognized that her mood had changed, he wanted to ease her. “Don’t worry. I know where you’ve gone in your head, but I’m safe. I’m careful—”

“Axe … I think I’m falling in love with you.”

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight, Elise thought. Not what she’d expected to come out of her mouth. Like, not even close.

And as that bomb landed between them, Axe blinked like she’d spoken a foreign language. Which, yup, was precisely the kind of reaction you were looking for when you told a male you loved him.

“Oh, God.” She put her face in her hands. “I can’t believe I just said that.”

With subtle pressure, he made her drop her arms down. And his expression was …

Well, he was smiling.

It was a slight kind of thing, not a big flash of the fangs or anything. But it was definitely a small, secret smile, meant only for her—and created, she suspected, only by her.

Now, that’s what she was talking about, she thought as she smiled back at him.

“Say it again,” he whispered. “Send some more sunshine my way just so I’m sure I heard you right.”

Elise was very aware that she had two paths to choose from. She could deny the words, downplay them, be safe. Or she could let herself fly.

She picked glorious flight over fright. “I’m falling in love with you.”

Axe smiled a little bigger and then he was kissing her, his heavy body easing her back on the pallet. With sure hands, he disappeared the blanket between them, and then he rolled on top of her, his hot, hard erection going in between her legs.

It was the most natural thing in the world to kiss him back and welcome him inside. And there was no frantic pumping this time, just a gentle rolling motion that warmed her first before it lit her on fire.

As they made love in front of the hearth, she felt like her world was complete: Yes, it was early in the relationship, but with honesty and trust, all things were possible.

Especially as Axe dropped his head and whispered into her ear, “I’m falling in love with you, too.”

Elise giggled.

Yup, she let out a girlie giggle that was more fitting for the kind of female who got her nails done and had streaks in her hair and wore high heels and flirty skirts.

At the sound, Axe stopped and eased back. “Was that what I think it was?”

“No, not at all.”

“Did my psychology Ph.D. candidate actually—”

She clamped her palm over his mouth. “I did not.”

“Did too.”

“Did not.”

“Did—”

As he thrust fully into her, Elise arched under his body, pleasure flooding her veins. “Axe …”

“Admit it.”

“What?” she mumbled.

He rolled his hips twice. And then stopped. “You giggled.”

“Not fair—” He thrust again and this time she went for his butt with her nails. “Finish what you started!”

“Admit you giggled!”

“Why!”

They were laughing so hard, it didn’t matter what they were saying. A buoyant bubble of happiness had engulfed them both, and they were bouncing in the center of the joyful space, free of anything on the outside.

“Fine, I giggled—”

In response to her capitulation, Axe got down to business, thrusting into her … before reaching down, grabbing one of her legs, and stretching it all the way up so she was cocked to the side and he could get in still further.

Even through her pleasure, she managed to keep her eyes on him. He was magnificent in the firelight, his warrior’s body dominating her, his muscles standing out in sharp relief, the massive veins that ran down his neck and into his arms showing starkly against his tan skin.

When he bared his fangs, she knew he was going to go for her jugular, and she wanted him there. Turning her head to the side, she bared herself to him—

The strike was brutal, his fangs going in so deep, she screamed—but not in pain, even though it hurt in a delicious way.

This was the marking she had heard about.

This was the owning of the female by the male, the staking of the claim. And sure enough, he held her in place at the throat with his teeth as he marked her from the inside out by coming into her sex.

But he wasn’t done with her.

Before she could catch her breath, he pulled out, flipped her over, and yanked her onto all fours. Rearing up behind her, he bit her again, on the other side, and then he was in her once more, taking her from the rear, one hand running up between her slapping breasts and locking on the base of her throat, the other planted on the floor, holding them both up.

She was facing the fire, and her vision swung wildly with each of his pounding thrusts—the flames jumping this way and that, her hair flying around until some lashed into her open mouth.

At some point, her upper body just collapsed onto the blanket, her sex up in the air, his for the taking as he drilled her over and over again, coming so many times, he coated her with his marking scent.

Elise forgot how many orgasms she had.

All she cared about was that he never, ever stop.