Emma did her level best to stay awake. She was furious about her laptop being snatched, and she struggled to hang onto her fury, but she’d had a long day. A long weekend, for that matter. The craziness was catching up with her.

Several times the book slipped from her grasp, but she snatched it upright again and rubbed her eyes. She’d grabbed a book at random and should have chosen more carefully. Something involving murder and mayhem would have been good.

Once Aidan showed up, her anger would reappear. She was sure of that. But he wasn’t here. Instead he was off racing through snowy woods with his immediate family. His laptop-stealing family.

In their absence the house was very, very quiet. And Aidan’s bed was very, very cozy. A girl couldn’t be blamed for snuggling down on pillows that were probably covered in thousand-thread-count cases.

Or whatever the top thread count was these days. She’d have to research that, because if she intended to make her next batch of werewolves rich—no, wealthy—she’d have to know her glitz and glamour.

First, though, she had to get her hands on her laptop, and then she might chain it to her wrist. Aidan should be back soon. Or maybe werewolves stayed out all night and slept all day. There was so much to learn…

Despite her best efforts, her eyelids closed. But just as she started to drift off, she heard a noise. Forcing her eyes open again, she saw Aidan standing in the bedroom doorway. Only it was Aidan the wolf, not Aidan the man. She blinked, just to make sure. Yep, Aidan the wolf.

Even though she knew he was behind those golden eyes, her heartbeat kicked into high gear as she slowly sat up to gaze at him. He was a very big wolf, and she was a very small human. She wasn’t afraid, exactly.

But she had a complaint, and even if he was a wolf right now, he would be able to understand her. “They took my laptop,” she said. “You have to get it back, Aidan.”

He blinked once, turned around and left the room.

Emma rubbed her hands over her face. “Dear God, I feel as if I’ve just given Lassie instructions to fetch a rope from the barn so we can pull little Timmy out of the well.”

Would Aidan return with her laptop in his teeth? She hoped not. That wouldn’t be good for his teeth or her laptop. No, of course he wouldn’t do it that way.

He was too logical, and logically he’d have to shift back into human form to retrieve her laptop. That would leave him wandering through the mansion naked because the clothes he’d worn today lay over the end of the bed. If she’d been thinking she would have tossed those at him before he left. But how a person was supposed to anticipate these situations and be prepared for them was a mystery to her. Maybe given enough time she’d get used to the wolf-to-man-to-wolf thing, but she wasn’t there yet.

The room seemed colder than it had before, and she was antsy waiting for Aidan. She decided to light the fire. After climbing out of bed, she used a small butane torch she found in the copper tub. The wood caught right away, which was lucky because she was a city girl who knew diddly-squat about making fires.

She’d like to learn, though. There was something satisfying about watching the flames lick the wood and something sensual about the heat. She also loved the sweet smell of the smoke. Except the smoke was becoming a little overpowering and made her eyes water.

“Good God! Are you trying to burn the place down?” Aidan rushed into the room holding her laptop and waving the smoke away with his free hand. “Did you open the flue?”

“What’s a flue?” Even through the smoke she could see that he’d found a pair of brown sweats to put on, probably swiped from Roarke’s room.

He tossed the laptop on the bed and crouched in front of the fireplace. Then he stuck his hand into the flames. “Ouch! Shit, that’s hot!”

“Aidan! You’ll burn yourself up!” Coughing from all the smoke in the air, she tried to pull him away from the fireplace.

“Got it.” He withdrew his hand. “Open the French doors and air it out in here. I’m going to the kitchen for some mustard for my fingers. They’re a little toasty.”

“Your neck! You’re bleeding!”

“Am I?” He swiped his unburned hand over his throat and it came away smeared with blood. “I’ll pick up some antiseptic ointment on my way back.” He pinned her with a look. “Stay here. Don’t leave this room.”

“Okay.” The wound on his neck scared the bejeesuz out of her. The last time he’d had a wound like that had been on his leg after he’d tangled with Theo. Just now he’d been out in the woods with his family.

She shivered. Had one of his own family members attacked him? And had she been the reason?

After opening the French doors and trying to wave the smoke out, she abandoned the effort. Might as well just leave the doors open and let the night air suck out the smoke. Hugging herself to ward off the cold, she began to pace. Despite that jovial evening meal she’d shared with the Wallaces, she had to believe they were sharply divided about how to handle her.

Aidan had pledged to protect her freedom. Had his demands on her behalf prompted an attack? Her tummy ached as she tried to imagine what had taken place in the woods. Had Aidan retaliated? How much blood had been spilled in her name?

“We can close the French doors, now.” Aidan returned with gauze wrapped around the first two fingers of his right hand and a damp cloth pressed to his neck.

“You bet.” She rushed to do it. “I’m so sorry. I was trying to warm up the room.”

“I know.” He nudged the hall door closed with his foot. “You have to open the flue in order for the smoke to—”

“Of course!” She slapped her forehead. “Duh. I’ve read the Harry Potter books. They talked about flues all the time. But I’ve lived in apartments all my life, and none of them had fireplaces.” She walked toward him, her tummy still doing a very unpleasant dance. “Let me see your neck.”

“It’s nothing.”

“Don’t go all Bruce Willis on me. Let me look.”

With a sigh of resignation, he took the cloth away.

The blood had stopped oozing from the jagged tear on his neck. The wound didn’t look deep, thank God. “What happened?”

“Never mind.” He walked into the bathroom and dropped the cloth in the sink before returning to the bedroom. “It’s over.”

Her gaze flew to his. “What do you mean by over? Is anyone else hurt or…”

“No.” He cupped her face in his bandaged hand and wrapped his arm around her waist. “Relax, Emma. Everyone’s fine.”

“You swear?” She could smell the mustard he’d put on before wrapping his fingers in gauze. “Nobody else is even bleeding?”

“Just me, and this is only a scratch.”

“Who attacked you?”

He hesitated.

“Please tell me.”

“My dad. I don’t think he meant to break the skin, but his reflexes aren’t as good as they were when he was thirty-five.” Aidan brushed his thumb across her cheek. “Have you checked your laptop? Is it okay?”

Her throat felt tight and angry tears threatened to fall. “Who cares? You were out in the woods fighting with your father because of me. What if he’d misjudged and severed an artery?”

“But he didn’t.”

“Not this time, but I can see this pledging with your life crap is real, and I don’t want you doing it anymore! Don’t you dare risk your life for me ever again, Aidan Wallace. Promise me you won’t.”

He smiled gently. “Sorry, but I can’t promise that.”

“Sure you can. People retract promises all the time.”

“A werewolf doesn’t.”

“Okay, but you made the promise to me, and I release you from it. I’ll sign a document, swear in front of witnesses, whatever it takes.”

“You don’t have that power, Emma. You could sign a hundred documents in front of a thousand witnesses, and my life would still be yours.”

“Oh, Aidan.” She was going to start leaking tears any second, and she didn’t want that. “You may be the bravest person—werewolf—in the world, but I’m a rotten coward, and I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, ever.”

“I don’t expect anything bad to happen to me. For one thing, I trust you not to betray the pack, no matter where you go or what you do. And you’re free to go, Emma. Ralph can take you back to your loft tomorrow if you want.”

That should have made her ecstatically happy, but leaving him sounded like a horrible idea. Besides, something about that plan didn’t sound right. “They’ll just let me go? What sort of guarantee do they have that I won’t blow the whistle on all of you?” She was afraid she knew the answer.

“Me. I’m the guarantee.”

She closed her eyes. “So if I slip somehow, they’ll come after you.” They’ll kill you. She couldn’t make herself say that part.

“You won’t slip, Emma. I have great faith in you.”

She opened her eyes to gaze into his beloved face. “Look, I know you’ll end up with a Were wife someday soon, and I’m cool with that, but—”

“Are you?”

“No, but it seems like the right thing to say. You obviously want me out of here ASAP, so I thought it would be classy to wish you a happy life. But the thing is, I don’t want to lose touch, because communicating with you will help me remember not to screw up accidentally. You’re like my lucky charm.”

“Your lucky charm.” He didn’t seem all that pleased with that.

“All right. You mean a lot more to me than a four-leaf clover embedded in a plastic key ring, but since we’ll be going our separate ways, I think we should—”

“Do you want to go your separate way, Emma?”

She looked into his eyes, searching for the wolf and finding the warm gaze of a man, instead. “Do I have a choice?”

Slowly he nodded.

Her breath caught. “But I’m human. And your mother hates me.”

“No, she doesn’t. She’s the one who advised me to bind you. And the sooner the better.”

That jacked up her heart rate. “You’ll have to define this binding thing.” Tension coiled within her and she tried to ease it with a joke. “If it’s whips and chains, then I’m not interested.” She didn’t think that for a minute.

He touched his thumb to her lower lip and stroked softly back and forth. “We came close to it that first night in the hotel. I made sure we never came that close again.”

She gulped.

“If we make love that way tonight, you will be bound to me forever, and I to you. It’s the strongest bond possible, stronger than anything forged in a church or a law office, stronger even than blood. In our world, there’s no such thing as divorce. A wolf mates for life.”

She began to tremble, but clutching his muscled shoulders did a lot to steady her. And arouse her. “Does a wolf mate for love?”

“Apparently this one does.”

She sighed. Right answer.

“I’ve fought it with every breath in my body, Emma, but I can’t fight it anymore. I love you. And because I do, I must give you the choice to walk away. I want what’s best for you.”

She cradled the back of his head in both hands. “I’m thinking that would be you, hotshot.”

His steady gaze didn’t waver. “You need to consider your answer carefully. Living my life wouldn’t be easy.”

“I’ll say. Riding around in Town Cars, staying in luxury hotels, eating truffles. But just so you know, if anybody gives me a watch worth eight hundred large, I’m hocking it and donating the money to charity.”

Still he didn’t crack a smile. “You’ll have to be alert at all times so you don’t accidentally give away our secret. You can’t tell anyone, not even your mother or your best friend.”

She knew better than to joke about that. “I understand.”

“You could face antagonism from the other Weres, although no one would dare snub you when I’m around. Still, I can’t promise that the Were community will ever accept you.”

“Maybe not, but think of the research possibilities.”

Finally he gave up and grinned. “Is that all I am to you? A research assistant?”

She massaged the back of his neck. “Research assistant, dance partner, cabana boy…love of my life.”

His grin faded and heat flickered in his gaze. “Say that last part again.”

“Love of my life. I love you, Aidan. Whatever this binding process is, I want it.”

The wolf emerged from the golden depths of his eyes. “You could get pregnant.”

“Will our children be Were?”

“We won’t know. Can you…can you live with the uncertainty?”

Her heart beat so fast she grew dizzy. “The only certainty I need is that you love me.”

“I do.”

Stepping away from him, she pulled her sweater over her head. “Then show me, Aidan.” She stripped off her slacks and dispensed with her bra and panties. “Show me how a Were binds his mate.”

And so he did.

She’d expected wild and primitive. Instead he was tender and slow. He guided her down in front of the fire, and as the heat caressed her quivering body, he took her slowly from behind, easing into her with murmured words of praise and gratitude.

The slow rhythm spoke of passion, but also of intense emotion. He took his time loving her, holding her hips steady for each firm thrust. As her orgasm drew near, he seemed to sense it.

With a low growl, he increased the pace. This was more what she’d expected. She’d braced her hands on the floor, and he placed his hands on top of hers. His chest brushed her spine and his thighs slapped hers with ever faster strokes.

She cried out when the first spasm of her climax hit. Lifting his hand from hers, he combed her hair away from her neck. As she rode the waves of the most intense orgasm of her life, he surged forward and raked the back of her neck with his teeth. Then he came, shuddering silently against her and gasping for breath.

“It is done.” He gulped for air. “We are bound.” Gently he pulled her down to the rug and curled his body around hers. “I love you, Emma.” He kissed the spot where his teeth had been.

She took a long, shaky breath. “I love you, too, Aidan. And when I recover sufficiently, I’m biting you back.” She felt his smile against her skin.

“Anytime, my love. Absolutely anytime.”