Kieran -
The moment her fingers touched mine, I knew I was lost.
Her pulse fluttered against my skin like a caged bird—quick, delicate, utterly alive in a way that made my wolf surge forward with predatory hunger. Twenty-seven years of isolation, of careful control, of denying myself even the simplest human contact, and now she was here. Real. Warm. Mine.
Control, I reminded myself desperately. She's frightened enough without sensing what you really are.
But control felt like a foreign concept with her hand in mine. Her skin was softer than silk, warmer than I'd expected, and carried that intoxicating scent that had been driving me to distraction for weeks. Up close, with nothing but a few inches of air between us, the effect was overwhelming.
Rose and rain and something that's purely
