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gun-toting strangers before.
    “Trust me.” He reached to grab her hand, tugging her until she was pressed against the solid strength of his chest. “Can you do that?”
    “I don’t know,” she admitted with a stark honesty.
    Without warning he swooped down to capture her lips in a kiss that jolted through her with blistering pleasure. Sage gasped, her mouth instinctively parting beneath the enticing demand of his tongue.
    Good lord.
    Who knew a mere kiss could feel like she was being struck by lightning?
    She shivered, her fingers clutching his T-shirt as he spoke against her tingling lips.
    “Come with me, sweetheart,” he urged.
    “Fine,” she grudgingly agreed, allowing him to tug her out of the room and toward the side door in the kitchen. “But I don’t like this.”
    Keeping her hand tightly clenched in his, Lian steered her toward a small opening he’d obviously cut into the hedge surrounding her house. Then, keeping in the shadows, he moved along the dirt path at a swift pace.
    Sage remained silent, periodically glancing over her shoulder to make sure they weren’t being followed.
    There was something distinctly unnerving in the thought that there was a very real possibility of being shot in the back.
    But after running for over a mile, her thoughts altered their focus from flying bullets to the growing ache in her side.
    She was a researcher, not a marathon runner.
    About to inform her companion she couldn’t jog all the way to the Wildlands, Sage was caught off guard when Lian tugged her around a thicket of trees where a car had been parked.
    No. Not just a car.
    This was a sleek work of art.
    “What is it?” she breathed in awe.
    Lian ran a hand over the streamlined roof, a strange smile curving his lips.
    “A Lamborghini Gallardo.”
    Sage didn’t know much about cars, but she sensed the white automobile with black accents was worth a rather large fortune.
    “It’s yours?”
    The sinful smile widened as Lian opened the passenger door so she could slide onto the butter-soft leather seat.
    “Actually it belongs to Jean-Baptiste,” he explained as he took his place behind the steering wheel, revving the powerful motor to life. “He’s going to shit when he finds out that I borrowed it.”
    Despite the fear that continued to pound through her, she couldn’t help but laugh.
    The man was impossible, but he was so boyishly charismatic that she couldn’t be mad.
    “Borrowing implies that there was mutual consent,” she informed him.
    He stomped on the gas. “It was an emergency,” he countered, taking obvious pleasure in flying down the road at a speed that made her hair stand on end. “And it was just sitting in the garage, begging to be taken. How could I resist?”
    She shook her head. She’d bet her rare Kish tablet that this man had never heard the word ‘no’ before.
    “Are you an only child?” she abruptly demanded.
    “Nope. I have three older sisters.”
    “That explains it.”
    He sent her a quick glance. “Explains what?”
    “Your assumption you should always get your own way.”
    He chuckled, his attention thankfully returning to the road. “What about you? Are you an only child?”
    She turned her head to study the scenery that passed them in a dizzying blur.
    “Yes, but I wasn’t spoiled.”
    “Why not?”
    She hunched a shoulder, her stomach cramping at the unpleasant memories of her childhood.
    “My father was rarely home and my mother washed her hands of me when I refused to embrace my gifts,” she confessed.
    “What about your extended family?” He was forced to slow as they hit the interstate. The morning traffic wasn’t heavy, but she was certain the last thing Lian wanted was to be stopped by a cop. “Your grandparents and aunts and uncles?”
    “I never met them.”
    She sensed his astonishment. Not surprising. From what she’d learned of the Pantera, they were a tightly knit community that put an emphasis on the pack.
    “Never?”
    “My father