He cut a curve around a tree, and we leaned into it. I squeezed him tighter, refusing to scream, but my heart was galloping. It was a real rush. He laughed again, and I knew it was because he lives for danger. He isn’t afraid of anything.
He swung the bike around and skidded to a stop at the edge of a cliff that would have scared the hell out of me if I’d seen it coming—but with my face pressed to his back, all I’d seen were the tall trees rushing by.
He turned off the engine and everything went quiet. I needed to pop my ears, so I slid off the back of the bike, not expecting my legs to feel like jelly after the ride. I stumbled back and almost fell but came to an abrupt halt when Rafe grabbed my arm. I hadn’t seen him move. That, too, was a result of the initial change: a swiftness that was beyond human. Bringing his arms around me, he tucked me in against his chest, supporting me. I knew I should have pushed him back, should have welcomed falling to the ground. I knew standing so near to him was wrong, but he felt so good, so strong. Why did this feel so different from when Connor held me? Connor was a Dark Guardian. He wasn’t someone to be messed with. But I felt so safe with Rafe holding me, as though nothing could ever hurt me.
“Just give your legs a minute to adjust,” Rafe said quietly, and I heard him inhaling my scent. Smell is one of a Shifter’s most powerful senses. We aren’t into perfumes or artificial fragrances. Pheromones, the very essence of a person, appeal to us.
“Why aren’t your legs unsteady?” I asked, wondering why I sounded breathless when I hadn’t been running. Being near him made it difficult to breathe, no doubt adding to my sudden embarrassing inability to stay upright.
“Because I’m used to riding.”
I could smell his earthy scent. It was richer, more powerful than anything that could be bought in a store. He was wearing a T-shirt that clung to him like a second skin, and I could feel the comforting warmth of his body seeping through it. Even though today the sun had warmed Earth longer than on any other day of the year, here in the forest near the Canadian border, the night was cool.
I wanted to stay nestled against him all night, but there were too many reasons why I shouldn’t. Or maybe there was just one powerful reason: Connor. I could never cheat on him, and I fought to convince myself that being here with Rafe now wasn’t a betrayal. I hadn’t done anything to be ashamed of. Where was the harm in simply riding a bike, even if it was with a hot guy who had visited my dream last night? I couldn’t control my dreams, could I?
“I’m okay now,” I said, pushing against him just a little.
I felt his reluctance to let me go as his arms slowly eased away from me. Suddenly I feared that I was on far more dangerous ground than I’d realized. Maybe to Rafe I wasn’t just a convenient solution to a boring night.
Skirting around him, I walked carefully and slowly to the edge of the cliff, testing the ground with my toe to make sure it was firm before I gave it my full weight. I’d grown up near these woods. They’d been my playground. I was comfortable in them. Looking down, I saw only the black abyss, but I knew trees and shrubbery followed the steep slope down into a valley. Only the stars served to delineate the ground from the night sky, which was so vast that I felt incredibly small.
On silent feet, Rafe came to stand beside me. “Guess it’s too late to make a wish on the first star,” he said quietly, but his deep voice still carried on the light breeze that was stirring my hair.
“The first one came out hours ago.”
“Which one do you think it was?”
Rafe was a warrior, a protector, a Dark Guardian. He didn’t strike me as someone who believed in the whimsy of wishing on stars. But still, I pointed upward. “That one right there, near the tail of the Big Dipper.”
“That’ll do. I wish—”
Quickly, I pressed my fingertips to his warm lips. “If you say it aloud, it won’t come true.”
“Since it involves you, it won’t come true anyway, unless you know what it is.”
Not for the first time, I regretted leaving the festivities, regretted that I’d put myself in this position. I loved to be adventuresome, but I was moving out of my comfort zone now. We were traveling into unexplored territory that was both thrilling and terrifying.
“You shouldn’t say anything that you might regret,” I warned him.
“I spend a lot of time thinking about kissing you.”
Not exactly what I wanted to hear. Oh, who am I kidding? Every girl wants to believe that a great guy thinks about kissing her. The problem was that now I knew I had to deal with it.
“You shouldn’t,” I insisted sternly, trying to stay in control of this situation when I felt it slipping away from me.
“I shouldn’t want you for my mate either, but I do.”
The shock of his somber confession left me light-headed. Yes, we’d stared at each other from time to time, but he’d never truly indicated that he saw me as anything other than part of the pack. I felt as though the ground was shifting beneath me.
“What about the girl whose name is tattooed on your shoulder?” The Celtic symbol is always intricate and unreadable, decipherable only by the male until he shares it with the female.
“God, Lindsey, you have to know by now….”
I felt as though all the air had been sucked right out of me. “It’s my name? Why would you do that? You knew Connor and I…that we were…why would you choose me?”
“Because you’re the one I want.”
His voice held such surety—no doubts whatsoever. How could he be so convinced?
“You don’t…you can’t mean it. Come on, Rafe, you know I’m with Connor.”
“Why? Because you’ve always been with him? What if he’s not the right one? What if he’s not your true mate?”
It made me angry to hear him voice the doubts I’d been having lately. “That’s not fair, Rafe. Why tell me this now? Why not last year before Connor declared me as his mate?”
“Because I didn’t know last year that I would feel this way. The first time I saw you after I came back from college I felt as though a tree had fallen on me. I’ve tried to fight this…attraction. You have to believe that. But it’s just growing stronger.”
I was unsettled. I couldn’t think. I didn’t know what to say.