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with a leather interior. She wanted to drool. Such horsepower!
    “That’s Rafe’s,” Alexa told her.
    “A birthday gift from your mate?” Jessica asked.
    “No, Rafe has plenty of money of his own. And the red truck is Rafe’s, too. And the motorcycle.”
    “Must be nice to have money.”
    Alexa’s smile wobbled. “It is. All those years we were with our former pack and I never had a decent meal because the alpha liked to ration food. I never want to go there again.”
    Guilt pinched her. Alexa knew hunger and want. She hugged her friend and whispered, “I’m so glad you found him and he loves you.”
    Still, she wished for something pretty, something shiny and rich for herself.
    Then she remembered.
    The belt.
    Alexa shaded her eyes and peered into the distance. “Dad’s returning from his ride with Mom and Daniel. Stay here, I’ll bring them over.”
    Tempted to sit on the hood of Alexa’s gleaming new car, she sat on a bench beneath a shady oak tree. Raphael followed.
    He parked a lean hip against the tree’s trunk and folded his muscular arms. In his red flannel shirt, with the sleeves rolled up to display tanned forearms, and faded jeans with scuffed Western boots, he looked like an ordinary cowboy. But there was nothing ordinary about this Lupine.
    Curls the color of blackest night spilled down to his collar. His strong jaw was covered by a close-trimmed beard, and a crisp mustache framed a mouth far too sensual for a man. But there was nothing sensual about the sharp, angular features of his face nor the darkness of those brown eyes.
    Those eyes seemed ageless, and ancient pain lurked in their depths as he gazed down at her.
    Jessica studied the acres of green pasture, the gleaming buildings, and thought about the expensive motor cars parked in the garage. “It must be nice to be wealthy,” she mused.
    “There are worse things than having no money,” he said quietly.
    “Easy to say when you have plenty of it.”
    “I’d trade all the money in the world to regain what I’ve lost.”
    He looked dark and dangerous and yet he had an air of vulnerability.
    “What did you lose?”
    Raphael shook his head. “Another time, little one. Perhaps one night I will share that information.”
    “You don’t believe in sharing during the day?”
    His gaze became hooded. “With you, I would much rather share…things…at night.”
    Jessica felt her entire body flare with heat. Every time he gazed at her with those bedroom eyes, she felt a jolt of sensual awareness.
    Her Lupine nature, with all its raging hormones and sexual need, howled for release.
    But his seductive gaze wasn’t centered on her face now. He stared at her curls.
    “What’s wrong? Never seen a redhead before?”
    “Not of that color. I have met some red wolf Lupines, but their coloring is darker.” Raphael left the tree, approached her. Before she could squeak a protest, he wrapped a strand of her hair around his index finger.
    “It is like living flame that does not burn. But do you burn, Jessica? Burn with the desire all our kind possesses?”
    Dry-mouthed, she struggled for a comeback. Think, think! No way could she allow this silver-tongued devil wolf to best her.
    “Right now I burn with a tremendous desire.” Jessica tugged her hair away from his loose grasp. “A desire for you to stop touching me.”
    He arched a brow. “That is not touching you, little one. When I touch you, you will know it, and be unable to resist.”
    “Arrogant ass!”
    Raphael gave a charming smile. “My ass is not typically arrogant. J.J. says my mouth is much more so. I open it and suddenly all kinds of arrogance flies out, like bats from a cave.”
    She struggled not to laugh. Raphael was confident and sophisticated, but he had a sarcasm she could appreciate, and share. No one in her family understood her mouth, either.
    Don’t let your guard down around him. He wants something.
    Startled by the sudden thought, she shrugged it off. Men in