A hand glided up my side.

Aaron murmured my name. “I missed you,” he said against my lips.

Sighing into his kiss, I wrapped my arms around him and wiggled closer. He was so warm. Everything about him was warm and solid, and I felt cold and empty.

His mouth skimmed down my jawline, my neck, pressed against the pulse he found there.

“Aaron…”

One hand tangled in my hair, twisting it. The other slid between my thighs, and I gasped as he sought out my clitoris, rubbing against it, toying with it until I arched up, desperate for more.

Clothes fell away.

We kicked the blankets aside.

Curling my arms around the wide shelf of his shoulders, I tugged his mouth to mine, but he had begun a meandering path lower down my body. When he caught one swollen nipple between his teeth, I groaned. He tugged on it, stretching it out with his teeth before drawing it back into his mouth.

The sensations arrowed straight down into my core, heat licking at me until I was certain the flames from the fire had managed to reach us.

Flames…the fire…the fireplace…

His beard rasped along my skin, and that tickled another memory.

Aaron didn’t have a beard. I shoved him upright and found myself staring into slate-blue eyes. “Lukas,” I whispered.

He reached up to touch my mouth. “I want to kiss you again.” That was all he said, then he was kissing me, and it was a kiss that shook me to my toes.

Was this real?

It had been Aaron before–

Dream, I thought. I’m dreaming.

Then I stopped thinking because after Lukas kissed my mouth, he began to move lower on me, pausing to kiss the tip of each breast. That was when I realized that I was naked, and so was he. The fire burned in the fireplace like an inferno, and it was so warm in the cabin. I didn’t feel chilled at all. How could I with his hands and mouth roaming over me?

“I want to kiss you again,” Lukas said, but this time, he said it between my thighs. I was too caught up, too lost in the pleasure to be embarrassed, further proof it was a dream, I’d think later on. I’d never been comfortable with Aaron doing this, and he didn’t seem to mind that I didn’t like it.

But not liking it didn’t seem to be an option right now.

Lukas licked me, and my entire body lit up like the sky on the Fourth of July.

He licked me and pleasure flared inside, so hot, so bright, so all-consuming, I might have forgotten how to breathe.

Did it matter?

What did breathing matter when something felt this good?

He thrust two fingers into my cunt and twisted them. I came hard and fast, moaning, and then Lukas was on top of me, his mouth slamming down on mine as he drove inside me.

I cried out and wrapped my legs around his hips.

“I want to eat you up,” he growled against my lips.

And I thought of the wolf.

If this was what it was like when Lukas feasted on me, then I couldn’t think of anything I wanted more.

* * *

I woke up, panting.

I woke up with the dream clear as crystal, vivid as life, pulsing in my brain.

I woke up with my entire body clenched, right on the verge of orgasm, and it didn’t help that Lukas was pressed against me. I was lying on my side, and he had me tucked up into the cradle of his body – his cock was against my butt, and it was thick, heavy, and hard. It took everything I had not to press back against him.

He grumbled under his breath, and I squeezed my eyes closed.

Please don’t let him be awake, I thought desperately.

If he was awake, I just might die of embarrassment.

But he made no noise. His breath stirred my hair, and I continued to lay there, so aroused I hurt with it, but I was afraid to move for fear that he’d wake up.

Seconds crept by, turning into minutes. I counted a full two of them before I dared to move. He hadn’t so much as moved a muscle and other than that one sleepy grumble, he hadn’t made a sound either.

He was still asleep.

Carefully, I started to slip out of the bed. The second I stuck a toe out from under the covers, I almost changed my mind.

Lukas sighed and shifted, thrusting his hips against my ass.

I bolted out of bed.

I had no choice. It was either that or turn around and climb on top of him.

I wasn’t sure I was ready to handle the consequences of that – no matter what they might be.

I darted into the bathroom as the bed squeaked behind me and shut the door. I just barely managed to keep from slamming it, and once it was closed, I turned around and pressed my back against it.

What the hell?

What the hell…

* * *

“Is it always like this?” I demanded. Turning away from the window – one of the unbroken ones – I found Lukas staring at me. But the minute I met his eyes, he looked away. A few seconds of uncomfortable silence passed. “Well?” I prodded him.

“What?” he asked, sounding irritated. “Cold? It’s the Rocky Mountains. Yes, it gets cold up here.”

“I’m talking about the storm. How much longer is this going to last? I want to get out of here.” Realizing how rude that sounded, I hurried to explain. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate you saving me, or the hospitality…” Such as it was. He barely spoke to me. “But I’ve got a life to get back to. A job I’m supposed to be starting. My boyfriend must be worried, my parents.”

“The sheriff is getting word to your family,” Lukas said, not offering anything about Aaron. “And there’s nothing we can do about the storm. It’s out of your control, and mine.”

I’d gathered that much. It had stormed all day, the snow piling up outside while frozen rain turned the windows to sheets of ice. There was one good side to the weather – I think all the ice had frozen over the boards outside, and at some point, we stopped hearing the window whistling through the plastic and blankets. Maybe snow had plugged whatever gaps and the fluffy white stuff that held me prisoner was offering some insulation against the cold.

And it was cold.

Lukas had ended up giving me one of his flannel shirts and a pair of socks to wear over my own. My jeans did a good enough job of keeping my legs warm, and I spent most of the time by the fire, but my arms were freezing. Or they had been, up until he held out the black and gray checked flannel shirt.

“It’ll break soon,” Lukas said, and I thought I heard a note of reassurance in his voice. “These storms never last more than a few days.”

A few days. Closing my eyes, I dropped my forehead onto the mantle and stared down into the flames until it was too warm to stay so close.

A few days.

If I had to stay this close to this odd, compelling man who barely spoke to me, I just might go crazy.

* * *

I woke to an odd silence.

It took me a while to understand what was so odd about it, but finally, I realized the wind had died down.

It had roared and wailed like a grieving, angry woman for the past few days and finally, it had calmed. I could still hear it out there, but it was more of a whistle than a wail, and I hurriedly climbed from the bed. I didn’t see Lukas anywhere, so I swapped out the sweats he’d given me to sleep in for my blue jeans and hurriedly changed into one of my other shirts as well. While it had a plaid design, it was made of challis and had as much warmth as a dress made of tissue paper, so I pulled on the flannel Lukas had given me yesterday, and the socks too.

I’m a stunning work of art, I decided, staring into the mirror in the bathroom. It only showed my head and shoulders, but that was enough to see the two clashing plaid designs of my shirts, but I was at the point to where comfort and warmth were far more important than fashion. Once I was dressed and somewhat warm, I went over one of the windows – an unbroken one – and peered outside, gaping when I saw the sun trying to cut through the cloud layer.

I didn’t even think twice. I grabbed my tennis shoes and pulled them on, then took the extra coat from a hook by the door and headed outside. If I didn’t get some fresh air, I was going to go crazy.

I didn’t see Lukas anywhere outside, but more importantly, I saw no wolves.

I kept an eye out for both as I circled around the cabin, coming to a halt at the back where I saw a smaller, separate building tucked off between two towering pines. The tree branch that had crashed through the window was lying a few yards in front of the small shed, an ax buried in the trunk. Guess he didn’t lack for firewood around here. That was a good thing.

Curious about the shed, I started toward it. “It’s probably where he keeps the bodies of all the women he’s rescued,” I muttered morbidly. Not that I really believed it. He was…weird, but not creepy weird. Just…weird. And I wished he’d talk to me more.

The door was padlocked. Yet more proof of the weird. Somehow I didn’t think he had a lot of trouble with people breaking into his home around here. Annoyed, mostly because poking around in the shed would have given me something to do, I reached out to tug on the padlock.

I never managed to get my hand on it, because Lukas’s hand caught my wrist.

“You’re nosy,” he said right in my ear.

I shrieked, startled by his sudden and silent appearance.

Jerking back, I tried to pull away, but he hadn’t let go of my wrist.

“Good grief,” I snapped. “Make some noise next time.”

“What are you doing?” he asked, ignoring me. “Any reason you’ve got trying to dig around in my personal business?”

“I…” Huffing out a breath, I glared at him. “Yes,” I snapped. “I’m bored.”

“That’s no reason.” He gestured to the house. “There’s stuff in there. Go nose around in there.”

“Why? You afraid I’m going to find skeletons of the bodies you’ve got tucked in there?” I demanded.

A grin crooked his lips, momentarily lighting his eyes. “If you actually think I’ve got skeletons in my shed, how smart is it of you to let me in on the fact?”

“I don’t think that.” Sniffing, I tugged on my wrist again. He finally let go.

Backing away from him, I resisted the urge to rub the area where he’d been touching me. He hadn’t hurt me, but my skin burned where he’d touched. I could feel my pulse pounding against my skin, and there were other things pulsing as well. Abruptly, the dream from the other night came back to the fore of my mind, and that just pissed me off. “I just don’t see what the big deal is if I kill time looking around in the tool shed.”

“Because it’s my shed,” Lukas said, jutting his chin out at me. “Go on. Get back inside…or maybe you want to go chase down wolves again.”

“I didn’t chase down wolves,” I snapped.

“Could have fooled me.” But his voice softened a little. “Go on. Get inside, Stella. It’s safer in there. Look…the weather is clearing. Tomorrow, if you don’t drive me absolutely insane, I should be able to take you into the nearest town, okay?”

* * *

If I didn’t drive him insane?

A few hours later, his words were echoing inside my head, and I was hard-pressed not to sulk in a silent snit in the corner. Not that he would have noticed. Once he’d come in, hauling another armful of firewood, he’d prepared some food then retreated to his chair with a battered book.

He was clearly as talkative as ever.

I don’t know how much time passed or even what time it was, but finally, that silence, his refusal to look at me, even the memories of that dream were driving me crazy. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could put up with it, and at some point, after he turned what seemed like the gazillionth page in his endless book, I snapped.

“You know, I can’t wait to get to Denver. My boyfriend must be worried sick, and I’ve got admit, I miss him like crazy,” I said.

Over the top of his book, Lukas cast me a look, his brow arched.

“We’ve been dating practically since I started college,” I told him. What in the hell was I doing? He didn’t give a damn about Aaron and me.

His eyes drifted back to the page, and he slumped deeper in the chair. Clearly, his attention was not on me.

“I think he’s going to propose at Christmas.” The words popped out of me with no conscious thought of my own. “It’s been terrible being away from him all this time. He helped me get this job, you know. Well, it’s not like I’m not qualified for it – I am. I totally am.”

I kept rambling.

Lukas barely glanced at me or acknowledged anything I said.

Did that shut me up?

No.

It did have one positive benefit, though.

That night, he elected to sleep on a pallet of blankets in front of the fireplace instead of in the bed with me.

It probably had more to do with the fact that I hadn’t been able to shut my mouth up than anything, although would it have killed him to…I dunno, chat a little? Be nice? Talk to me?

He had to be one of the most anti-social people I’d ever met.

I was so ready to get back to town.

Get back to Aaron and away from Lukas, and how unsettling he was.

How attractive he was.

How…everything he was.