“How do you know I have anything for you?” he asked.
“Because that’s why you’re out here, right? Waiting for me to go to sleep. Well, I don’t want to go to sleep. I want to hang out. I’ve been having bad dreams.”
“About what?” he asked.
“I dream that I’m in this car and I’m drowning, but then I wake up.”
“Geez, woman. That’s horrible.”
Trina shrugged. “I’ve had it since I was a kid. Sometimes I get a break for a few months, but it always comes back and I always wake up gasping for air.”
“Do you feel trapped lately?”
In the blue hues of moonlight, Trina’s blond brows drew down and made a cute little worry line on her forehead. “Maybe a little.”
Kade made his way to the nearest tree and leaned against it. “Why?”
There was a slight smile to Trina’s lips when she ducked her gaze. “I don’t know.”
“Bullshit, you know. You aren’t one of those women who doesn’t know her own mind.”
“Well, I haven’t had anyone ask me that before.” She fiddled with the unopened tab of her beer. “I guess I’m stressed about the bar. It’s still a little new, and me and my dad barely break even on it right now. I’m in a new Clan, and it’s an adjustment.” She heaved a breath and leveled him with a look. “And I like this man, but he doesn’t want to be near me.”
Kade took a long sip of the beer, stalling. “This man…you think he likes you back?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he brings me presents. He thinks about me even when he’s not around me. He makes me things. I don’t need gifts, and I don’t ask for them, but he is thoughtful anyway. He takes care of me in his own way.”
“And this man…you aren’t scared of what his gifts could mean?”
“No. I’m hopeful of what they mean.”
“What do you think they mean?”
“That he likes me the way I like him.”
This girl. God, she had his heart beating against his damn sternum. He’d never liked a girl like this. It was terrifying. For him and for her. He should go.
“I didn’t bring you a present tonight, Trina. Me being here doesn’t mean what you think it does.”
And then he turned and walked away.
****
Ghost.
Kade was a ghost when he wanted to be, coming and going as he pleased, haunting her woods—but enough was enough.
“If you walk away right now, don’t you even think of coming back.”
Kade halted with his broad back to her. Hot man in jeans that rode low on his hips and a white T-shirt that showed off every curve of his back musculature. Didn’t matter how beautiful a body if the mind was poisoned. Didn’t matter how attractive a man if he couldn’t stick around for something as simple as a conversation.
He turned his head, allowing her to see his profile as he slid a narrow-eyed glance at Trina.
“Just so you know,” she murmured, “I don’t care about presents. You could never give me another present as long as you know me, and I would still like you.”
“If I Changed right now, do you know what would happen?”
“Yes,” she answered.
He turned slowly and canted his head to the side. His eyes were almost white and glowing in the moonlight. She should be terrified, but she wasn’t.
“What do you think would happen?”
“Do you remember our time in the jail?”
Silence stretched between them. On and on until she accepted he wouldn’t answer.
“Because I remember,” she murmured. “I think about it all the time. Your wolf was mad. He was crazy. Bloodthirsty. He had no emotion but anger, and that was scary, yes, but for me, that’s not the part that sticks out the most.”
“Which part do you remember the most?”
She put her drink down and stood, then closed the space between them. Breath shaking, she slid her hands up his chest and splayed her fingers, felt the drumming of his heartbeat. And then she whispered, “I think about the man the most. The one who talked to me, felt regret, who clearly accepted his lot in life as a lone wolf. But you’re trying, aren’t you?” Trina looked up into his eyes and searched his face. “You’re trying. You just don’t want to admit it. You want more, so you followed your stepbrothers and got protective. You got loyal to your step-mom, and you’ve stayed close to your dad. You pledged to Ethan’s Clan because you want to learn how to stay steady. And you follow me and bring me presents because you want a better life.” Trina slid one hand up his stone-hard chest to his neck she touched his whiskers. The growl in his throat wasn’t threatening. It was more like the purr in hers. “All of this that you’re doing, it isn’t just hunting for you. It’s signs that you aren’t hopeless, and that gives me hope because you’re making an effort. And you can’t fault a man who keeps making an effort.”
“But you can fault a monster when he fails,” he rumbled, leaning his cheek into her palm. “And failing means I will hurt you. Do you know what the hardest thing is for a man?”
“Hmm?”
“Hurting the people he loves.”
Trina smiled slowly. He hadn’t said the words in order—I love you—but he’d just admitted he did. He loved her. She wasn’t alone in this. “Your wolf could try to hurt me, sure. It’s a risk. But I’ve decided something.”
Kade’s eyes drifted to a flyaway lock of her hair, and then he gently pushed it behind her ear. “What did you decide, pretty kitty?”
“If your wolf hurt me…I would hurt him back, make myself safe, because it’s what you would want. And then I would forgive him, over and over, because I know the man. You’re kind, protective, and thoughtful. The good in you is so much bigger than the bad.”
Kade dragged his fingertips up her arm, trailing fire where he touched her skin. “You really believe that?”
Leaning into his touch, she kissed his palm. “Yes,” she whispered. “I really do.”
Up, up his fingertips went until he gripped the back of her neck. His lips twisted into a feral smile, and her stomach dipped with how sexy he was. Dangerous man who could handle her. She didn’t have to be gentle with him. There wasn’t anything fragile about Kade.
His lips crashed onto hers, and for a moment, she was shocked with the force of it. With the power that vibrated off his body and blew right through her. He wasn’t holding back anymore, and for a second, she was shocked at how much his presence took up every molecule of space. He was Kade. He was the wolf. He was the woods, the stars, the moon, a hurricane. And there was something so addictive about holding the attention of a hurricane. So she threw her arms around his shoulders and held on. The way he kissed her was changing her. She wouldn’t be her old self anymore if she gave into her need for him. She would be different from the inside out, and she had no idea what all that entailed. All she knew was that this wasn’t some lusty night with a man to relieve the pangs of her heat. It was so much more than lust.
She was burning up under his touch. His hands were rough on her hips, her waist, her neck, her shoulders, then gripping the back of her hair, he began pushing her backward as he kissed her into oblivion.
High.
She was high as a kite on whatever he was doing to her body. He dragged her hips against his, and she could feel it there between them. His erection was so hard and thick. She wanted it—no, needed it.
“Kade, please,” she whispered on his lips as he pushed her back against a tree.
“I’ll take care of you,” he promised.