Tall Dark Handsome Lycan (14 page)

S
am approached the fence around him.  She placed her hands on the top plank and leaned forward, bringing her face closer to it. “Hello, boy,” she murmured gently.  The stallion whinnied as he approached her, lessening the space between them to a couple of feet. Sam wanted to touch him. She placed her foot on the lower plank and raised herself up.

Within seconds, the stallion’s nostrils flared and he rose on his hind legs, thrashing his forelegs mere inches from her startled face.
Stunned, Sam froze at the stallion’s violent display of aggression and the blood drained from her face. Then, almost in slow motion, she saw a thick hoof descend on her. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest as a sickening wave of terror welled in her throat.

A pair of steel bands circled around her waist and pulled
her back so sharply, she cried out.

Leo
growled. “You could have gotten yourself killed, woman.”

His
hands bit into her shoulders as he spun her around to face him. The sound of the stallion still thrashing about in his stall dulled her senses and she gazed, white-faced, at Leo’s thunderous expression, this time the amber in his eyes clearly visible.  She was in such a state of shock she didn’t have time to analyze the odd colour.

“I told you not to go near the stable without me.
I thought I—” He bit back the rest of his words as he gave her face a searching look.

Slowly, his anger dissolved
, his eyes reverting back to black, and concern flooded his drawn-in features. Her knees buckled and he muttered a sharp curse word as he bent and lifted her into his arms. She turned her face into his neck and closed her eyes. She inhaled his musky, outdoorsy scent and without thinking, she brought her arm around his neck, her other hand on his chest. She could feel his strong heart beating and she licked the moisture forming on her upper lip.

Her body
began reacting treacherously as the horror of what had just happened with the stallion disappeared and a more significant development arose. His hands seared her skin through her denim and she became achingly aware of him. She bit back a small whimper, frightened and unsure of what was happening to her.

“It’s
all right, Sam,” Leo murmured deeply, his tone gruff and curiously strained. “You are safe now.”

Was she?
Sam doubted it. Being with Leo, close like this, her breasts crushed against his chest, made her realize how
not safe
she was. The warm pressure of his hand on her back made her senses tingle and she arched her back slightly to put whatever distance she could between them, but all that accomplished was to bring her breasts closer to him and she felt a shudder run through his frame.

Alarmed, she raised her head from his shoulder and
looked at him. His gaze dropped to her lower lip caught between her teeth and he gave her a look that sent an involuntary rush of heat to her face.

“Leo,
please put me down. I’m…I’m fine now.”

Without saying a word, he carried her from the stable.

Sam bristled in his arms. “I said put me down,” she repeated, squirming and wiggling in his arms. “I’m too heavy,” she added inanely because he carried her as though she weighed no more than a sack of feathers.

Leo halted his steps and gave her a hard
look. “You have just had a brush with certain death and you are worried about your weight?  Sam, you never cease to amaze me.”

“I’m happy for you,” she quipped.
“Now put me down.”

“No.”

“This is ridiculous. I’m not a child.  For heaven’s sake, I grew up with horses. I know how temperamental they can be.”

“I said no,” he replied calmly and he continued to carry her into the house through the back door that led to the kitchen.
“And for the record,” he added dryly, “
child
has never crossed my mind about you. Incidentally, you should not have disobeyed my orders.”

Sam
’s mood darkened.  Disobeyed? She gave his stern profile a sharp look. “I only wanted to see them.  I wasn’t going to ride one without your consent.”

Their gaze clashed
and a curious mixture of anger and excitement flowed through her veins. One look from his compelling, dark eyes and she almost forgot her head. Almost, but not quite. She wiggled furiously in his arms. “Will you please put me down?”

Without answering her, Leo strode to the foot of the stairs in the main hall
and paused at the stairs. Her startled gasp was met with a curt, “Do not alarm yourself, Sam. I am taking you into the library, not your bedroom.”

Her face
flamed with embarrassment and she stared at the neat, little nerve pulsating at the base of his throat. “It never crossed my mind.”

Leo carried her
into the library, to the settee, and placed her gently on the soft, floral print before he strode to a bar at the corner of the room and reached for a crystal decanter filled with cloudy liquid. He poured some into a glass and strode toward her.

“Drink this,” he said as he offered her the glass.

“What is it?”

“Something that will make you
feel better.”

“I told you I’m fine.”

“Granted you are not hurt, but your nerves are on edge and this will help calm you down.”

Her nerves were on edge because of him, she thought testily, and took the glass. His fingers brushed hers and she pulled away sharply almost spilling
her drink. Leo gave her a slow, lazy smile as he settled casually on the settee beside her. Sam’s heart beat erratically and with a shaky hand, raised the glass to her mouth, taking a deep gulp.

The drink burned her throat as it went down, like liquid fire, and she sputter
ed and coughed as her eyes pricked with tears.

“What is it?”

“
Ouzo
. It’s a Greek liqueur. I gather you have never tasted it before.”

“No and I don’t care
to again, thank you very much,” she replied tartly. She caught a glimmer of a smile on his face as he took the glass from her hand and placed it on the coffee table before them.

“Now,” he said sombrely, as he brought his dark
gaze back to her face. “Why did you approach Lightning? That was a foolish thing to do after I warned you against it.”

The lightening bolt from her reading! 
She
was the woman she’d seen who would be in danger.  She tried to ignore the tantalizing effect his nearness had on her. “If it’s an apology you’re looking for, I apologise, Leo. I’m sure the last thing you want is an accident. How would you explain that to Toni?”

His face hardened.
“Precisely. I want you returning back home in one piece.”

Sam tensed.
Were they back to square one? Was Leo worried she would complain to Toni about him? Her spirits dropped. After the nice day had yesterday, she thought things were better between them.

“Why do you dislike me, Leo?”
She asked suddenly.

He slid
a sultry look over her flushed features and lower to her breasts as they rose and fell in anticipation to his response.

“Do I?
”  His chiselled lips twisted into a tight smile. “On the contrary. I find you are a very attractive woman, Sam.”

“I thought you said I wasn’t your type?”

“When did I say that?”

“At the airport.”

“As it happens, I find you very attractive and I have wanted to kiss you since we first met.”

“Oh.”
Sam was both warmed and nervous from his admission.  “Well, a…a kiss would serve no purpose.” She rose to put as much distance between them.

Slowly, he rose as well, his expression darkening
. “And the more I get to know you, the more I want to kiss you.” He took a couple of steps and brought himself directly in front of her.

Sam
looked up into his eyes and a myriad of emotions went through her. Confusion, excitement, fright. “Yes, well,” she said, hearing the catch in her voice as she took another nervous step back.  “I’m flattered, but considering I’ll be leaving in a week and a half, sharing a kiss would be useless. Not…not to mention you have a girlfriend.”

He took a step
toward her, his eyes growing darker. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

Sam frowned.
“Katina?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “We see each other from time to time.
That is all.”

He meant they
had sex together from time to time, she thought with an uncharacteristic stab of jealousy. “Oh,” Sam said quietly and dropped her gaze to his black shirtfront. She felt his fingers on her chin as he gently raised her head. Her jitters grew and she delicately cleared her throat as she took a step back, effectively removing her chin from his clasp.

Leo visibly
stiffened. “Why do you always do that?”

“Do what?”

“Pull away.”

“I don’t.”

“You do.” He ran a rough hand through his hair, his expression unfathomable. “What did they do to you?”

“Who?”

“The two men you dated. You mentioned them on the beach, the two men who hurt you.”

Sam drew her shoulders up.
“No one hurt me. I was the one who ended those relationships.”

“Ah yes, because the cards told you to.”

“What’s wrong with that? And what makes you think the reason I don’t want to kiss you has to do with a broken heart?” She drew her arms around her. “I just
don’t
want to kiss you, Leo.”

His lids came down, hooding his expression. “The lady doth protest too much. Perhaps we should put
that to a test?”

S
am blinked. “What do you mean?” She knew full well what he meant.

“Maybe I should kiss you
to see if you respond.”

Sam gasped
. “That has got to be the most ridicu—
Oomph
!”

Her body went still as his lips covered hers.

Leo’s hands crushed her body to his. He kissed her with a passion that chilled and thrilled her at the same time. Sam couldn’t move. She’d been kissed before, but never like this. His mouth was firm and warm as it tantalized and coaxed her lips apart. Her limbs thawed as his hands ran over her back and lower to press her body up against his hard arousal. She whimpered against his mouth and was dangerously close to fainting. Then, without warning, her body reacted to the passionate onslaught of his mouth and she slid her arms up around his wide shoulders up to his head.

Leo groaned against her lips and she opened her mouth.
His tongue meshed and mingled with hers and she clung to him for dear life. She couldn’t seem to get enough of him and she moaned against his mouth.  He groaned from deep within his throat, sounding more animal than human.  An ache mounted in the lower regions of her body as she returned his kiss with a hunger she never knew existed in her. This was where she wanted to be, she thought in a daze. In his arms, close to him, experiencing all these wild emotions. She was losing control and her neat, orderly life unravelled before her eyes, but she didn’t care. She felt whole and safe in his arms. 
One.
That little, three letter word felt right. 
One. 

Sam moaned softly against his mouth as he dug his hands in her riotous mane, bringing her head closer to his.
He groaned again and drew his mouth away from hers, his forehead resting on hers. They were both breathing hard.

“Before this goes any further, we need to talk,” he
said hoarsely. “There is something I need to tell you.”

Sam
was dazed. She didn’t want this moment to end. She wanted the kiss to go on, but something in his tone made her look up into his face.

Was this where she was going to get her heart broken?
Was this where she was going to collapse on the stairs because she was stricken with grief? The reading she had done on him the other night in her room came tumbling back and she tried pushing it at the back of her mind.

“What is it?
”  She asked.

He grimaced and a hint of regret shadowed his dark features.
“I don’t know where to begin.”  He paused deliberately.  “Maria mentioned to me on your first night here you thought you heard a wolf howling outside?”

“Yes,” she said huskily.

“Sam, that was—”

“
Ah, se vrika,
Leo.”

The cold, hard voice made Sam jump out of Leo’s arms.
She spun around and saw a beautiful, dark haired woman wearing a short, pink, strappy dress exposing a lot of cleavage, standing by the door. Her dark, exotic eyes shot daggers at Sam.  It wasn’t the anger the woman was directing at Sam that shocked her.  It was the sound emanating from her throat.  She was growling.