Page 46 of Ice King

“My bark is worse than my bite, unlike yours.” Her eyes popped open wide as soon as the words slipped from her mouth. As soon as they did, she broke into laughter, the sound sending a series of vibrations through every muscle.

I shifted in my seat uncomfortably, the ache in my loins having nothing to do with the hot and heavy game I’d finished only a couple of hours before. The strange and in some ways unwanted feelings that had been shifting exponentially had been all about her. I took a swig of my drink, allowing her to suffer in her fear she’d somehow insulted me with her comment.

In no way had she meant to do so, but I was ornery enough after the huge win to tease her relentlessly. So I did.

“You really do think shifters are lesser people. Don’t you? I mean, look at you on your high horse, acting all high and mighty. I bet you think you have a magical touch. You know, like a witch. Yeah, little Miss Muffet on her tuffet. Right?”

It was difficult keeping a straight face while tossing out bullshit, but she could take it.

Except when her face fell, her eyes filling with tears, my entire reverie faded, hitting the floor like a rock.

“Whoa. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. In case you haven’t figured it out, I tend to put my foot into my mouth.” What fun was there when she wouldn’t play along?

Damn it. A tear was sliding down her face.

I threw my head back, scrubbing my jaw. Then a dark need to protect her came over me and I reached out without thinking, swiping the single salty bead with my fingertip at the same time she wrapped her fingers around my naked forearm.

Something cataclysmic occurred at the exact same moment. Her face lit up with mischief in beating me at my own game while the touch occurred, yet a tiny, almost inaudible gasp slipped past her full lips.

A magnetic warmth swirled through me, my skin buzzing from the white-hot prickles of heat. Even low-voltage vibrations slammed the length of my spine and I sensed the same reaction within her.

She curled her fingers into a fist yet didn’t pull her arm away even when her laugh faded.

“Gotcha,” she managed.

In deciding to pass off my body’s reaction, I lifted my glass in a toast. “You are evil. Truly an evil woman.”

Shrugging, she pouted on purpose before bringing the rim of her glass to those luscious lips that I’d had the gift of tasting.

What I found so fascinating about that moment was the pit in my stomach was all too familiar, reducing me to the teenager who’d thought he was invincible. The same one who’d also believed that because I was only half human that I could fix any problem tossed my way.

I’d felt something that I’d only heard existed.

Then the amazing period of my life been taken from me because of my carelessness. Damn it. I couldn’t allow that to happen again. Not to Georgia.

Not to myself. I wouldn’t be able to take the emotional crippling all over again.

I leaned back in my seat, forcing myself to look away before I said something I regretted. Like asking her to come home with me. My eyes locked onto the television screen, the replay of the last goal being shown on rewind.

Of course she was watching me, likely confused and upset at my constant mood swings. She didn’t understand that I was doing so for her protection. After the dream I’d experienced, the man depicted nothing more than a possessive beast, the best thing I could do for her was to keep my distance.

“I’m not usually playful. Evidently my skills are sorely lacking.”

In squeezing my eyes shut, I don’t know whether I was trying to block out her beauty or just pretending like I’d done as a child when I didn’t want to face something uncomfortable. I had noidea what to say to her, which was also unusual in that since her arrival, I hadn’t been lacking for words whatsoever.

“Your skills are pretty amazing if you ask me.” I couldn’t seem to keep my eyes off her, appreciating the way she crossed one leg over the other. She was a woman who shouldn’t be nervous in her own skin, yet she was. There was such a vulnerability about her that conflicted with the personality she’d let loose on me.

Plus, I’d seen tremendous hurt in her eyes that I wasn’t the cause of.

“Thanks. I’m glad the game went well.”

“What you said to me and how you handled me was the reason I played so well during the last period.”

Why was it that every time she laughed, my balls tightened? Was I unlike every other red-blooded male when around a stunning female? Hell, no. I wasn’t a priest, her voluptuous body calling to me. When she’d kissed me seconds before I’d gone out on the ice to win the game, I’d felt my wolf closer to the surface than at any time when playing hockey.

He’d been controlled because the beast that had haunted me for years, pushing my personality into someone I didn’t recognize, had been offered a fix. Her.

“I’m glad I could help.”