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.No boards creaked or groaned when she walked.She checked the bedroom next to the one she’d been sleeping in and didn’t find him.She checked the other rooms upstairs as well with no luck.He said he’d be in one of the other beds, but he wasn’t.So then, where was he?“I’m downstairs, Ruby.”And how had he known what she was thinking? She looked over the railing and sure enough, she could make out the shadowed outline of his body and see the flames from the fireplace flickering over his skin.“Why are you down there?”“Why are you awake?”“I asked first.”He was shirtless and barefoot.His amazing hair was pulled back off his shoulders, and he was the most beautiful man.His voice was tight, strained and she knew what that meant, had heard it before.Last night after he’d made her come on his tongue and earlier before he showed her where the shower was.“Can I come down or should I just stay up here?”He tilted his head back to look up in her direction.She had the distinct feeling he could see her clearly, could probably even hear her breathing.His all-knowing eyes took in everything about her and her flannels provided not a bit of protection from his probing gaze.“Depends.”Damn cryptic answer.Fine.She’d just go on downstairs, one step at a time until she was standing at the couch facing him on the other end.“What can I do?”She knew it was all about her, or rather all her fault that he was this brooding mess.And that’s what he was doing.Brooding, staring moodily into the fire, not even looking at her when she was standing less than five feet away.“You can strip and crawl into my lap.” He slowly lifted his gaze to rake her body, leaving a trail hotter than any fire ever could.“You can unzip my jeans and suck my cock into your mouth.” Snap pulled, zipper down, echoing loud in the silence.“You can admit you want me just as fucking much as I want you, that you want my mouth between your thighs just like last night.” Jeans off, naked man crossing the distance to where she stood immobile, speechless, completely hungry for every word, every vision his words painted.“You can bend over the arm of the couch and scream when I thrust forward.You can ease this pain I’m in, but…” He gripped the back of her head in such a tender, gentle grip which, given his words, should have not been possible.He should have been rough, harsh in his hold on her.“But if you aren’t going to do any of those things, you can march yourself right up those stairs and back into the bedroom.You can lock the door and not come down until the sun is high in the sky.I can’t not take you, Ruby.I can’t fight it anymore.I can’t be good natured and understanding and most of all patient, when I know you want me too.”So, he was giving her the option of retreat, of barricading herself behind walls to protect herself.“Why didn’t you come to the bed?”“I was trying to respect your confusion, give you the space you seem to have needed after seeing everyone, including my parents.Every mile closer we got to Melanie, the more closed up you became.I was trying to respect that, Ruby.But then when you blurted out that you couldn’t move here, well, I wasn’t sure what else to do beyond letting you have some time to think.Too much has happened in too short a time, and I couldn’t force something else on you.I couldn’t force me on you.”And he was glorious naked.As beautiful as he’d been in her hotel room, he was equally so here in his home, in the buff in front of the fireplace giving her all the reasons she needed to go back to bed alone.They were in the wilds of Alaska, far away from anything she knew to be true about her life.He was right about her wanting him.He was right about her being confused.He was right about everything he’d said and by the look on his face, sort of sad, sort of resigned, he thought she was going to make a run for it.“I forced myself on you last night, remember? I begged you to help me.”“That wasn’t force, Ruby.That was beautiful.”“Was it?”“Yes.”“I’m going back upstairs.”His hands dropped from her hair as though she’d burned him and he stepped back, those same hands fisted at his sides.“Probably for the best.”Ruby reached out and took him by the wrist, tugged.“And you’re coming with me.”“Ruby…”There was warning in that tone as he said her name.She ignored it.“C’mon, Carson.I’m ready to use my tongue now.” His intake of breath at the reminder of their earlier conversation made her smile.Two could play the teasing game.Two could play the I-want-you game.She let go of him and ran up the stairs as fast as her short, fleshy legs could take her.She could be full of sass.She knew she could.She just needed the right kind of man to use it on and right then, the right man was Carson.Not to mention, he was the only man around.But that wasn’t the point.All the other stuff aside, like the mate, fate and living in the middle of nowhere USA stuff, he was the only man she’d ever felt so entirely comfortable with that she could tease and speak her confusion and fear to.It didn’t take long before he was up the stairs behind her.She was lifted off her feet and flung over his shoulder as though she weighed nothing.“Carson put me down.You’re not a cave man.”He dumped her on the bed, and she bounced, her breasts jiggling, her flannel shirt riding up her belly.“No, but I’m part animal.”The way he said it, all sexy and dark like, made her shiver.Oh yeah, he was part animal.She couldn’t forget that, wouldn’t forget that.If she were honest with herself, that knowledge played a large role in her curious fascination with him.There was also a part of her that wanted to protect him.He was wild, raw edged, and yet tender, caring, refined.She couldn’t see him get hurt, couldn’t take him away from the elements he thrived on and the Alaskan wilderness where he fit.She could enjoy him though.Enjoy his body, his attention, his heat.She could figure out what to do about everything after…“You’re overdressed, Ruby,” he stated gruffly, pulling at her pajama bottoms.They were free of her legs and tossed on the end of the bed.The buttons on her shirt were soon free of their loops and the material spread open over her chest.“Do you have any idea how hard it was for me last night not to take you? How hard it was not to roll you under me and fuck you?”“No.” And she didn’t.She’d never encountered a man like him, someone so primal, so earthy.The men she dated, when she dated, they were polished, college educated, upscale.Carson was different, and the way he fit with her, or maybe it was the way she felt with him, made it easier [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]