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gasped and quickly spun around. Douglas chuckled and continued on
towards the bathroom.

 

*
* *
    Rachel peered out the window, using all her senses to detect
William’s presence. He’d been gone for hours, more hours than a trip to town
should have taken. Though, seeing him shifted and knowing he was a chief, she
wasn’t worried about anything happening to him. She was more worried about
being left alone with Douglas. The man was altogether too sexy for his own
good. As she had listened to the shower, she couldn’t help but imagine beads of
water flowing down that tight flesh, caressing each curve, molding wet rivulets
and trailing down hot crevices.
    If she was going to take a shifter lover, and she wasn’t
convinced she would, she would have to pick the man she’d already slept with. Wouldn’t
she? It’s not like she could have two. Rachel glanced over her shoulder to
where Douglas lounged on the couch, book in one hand, drink in the other. He
pretended not to look at her, but she felt his attention.
    “No one is out there,” Douglas said, not looking up. “I
promise to tell you if anyone comes within a ten-mile radius. You might as well
take a seat.”
    Rachel inched slowly across the room. “I think I need to buy
a television for this place and some DVDs. Aunt Elvie had dial-up internet put
in through the phone line, but it’s impossible to surf the net with dial-up
these days and I canceled the service.”
    “Hmm,” Douglas answered. He flipped a page in his book.
    Rachel sighed, eyeing the room. Things had been so much
different when Elvie was there. Rachel had never noticed the silence of the
woods because there were always people around—telling stories, building metal
sculptures in the yard, painting, writing, shifting, drinking and partying. She
missed the noise, the smell of beer and cooking food. On evenings like this,
someone would have the smoker going outside and the mesquite scent would hang
thick in the air. A wave of sadness washed over her.
    Instantly, Douglas’s book was down by his side and he stood.
“What is it?”
    “What is what?” She tilted her head to the side and listened
to the distance.
    “I felt your sadness. What is it?” He didn’t move.
    “Oh, it’s nothing. I was thinking of the silence.” She
studied her hands. “This house always had so much life. It drained out the day
Elvie died. People tried to stay, but she was the force behind this isolated
world. Without her, it was too depressing, and one by one everyone wandered
away like the wild animals they are. I think that’s why I don’t live out here.
The silence is too much. I can’t stand it beyond a couple days at a time.”
    “Silence or loneliness?” He moved to sit beside her.
    “Sometimes I think they’re one and the same,” she admitted.
    “You don’t have to be lonely. You could be the new life in
this place. It would be what you make of it,” he said. “Shifters would come if
you opened the doors and welcomed them.”
    She looked at him, suddenly realizing how close he sat to
her. “Elvie had a kind of magic I don’t possess. She was a light that drew
people in like a beacon in the night.”
    His hand brushed her thigh, and she felt the tingle of it
all the way up her body. She looked at that hand, watching it draw a slow
circle up her leg, imagining she could feel the scar on his palm through her
clothing. For a long moment, he didn’t answer as his hand made its way
seductively higher. She could smell the unmistakable interest of his desire. It
washed over her, the pheromone nearly undetectable but incredibly potent. His
hand slid over her lap to her hip. Fingers worked over her side, pulling her
gradually closer to him.
    His breath fanned over her cheek and ear. She forced her
eyes away from where he’d touched her leg, away from the tingling nerves that
remained there. She looked at his waist, not surprised to find the thick
arousal pressing from beneath his slacks. She’d seen the