"I guess we could sleep here. By the fire. It would probably be warmer." Her gaze shifted from the flames to him.
The look in her eyes said she'd be safer curling up next to the fire. Less intimate than sleeping with him in her bed. Yet there was a hint of something else. Desire to be with him? But she seemed to be waiting for him to make a decision. Which couldn't help but please him. His sister was so testy of late, seeing a female bow to his leadership was much appreciated.
Sister? Where the hell had that memory come from? He tried to dredge up more, but came up blank.
"Don't you think?" Tessa asked, when he didn't respond.
Jarring him back to the situation at hand, he rubbed his right arm, the muscle caught in a spasm. He should have said she was right, sleeping by the fire was a good choice. Safer for both of them. But his animal needs were getting the best of him. He took another deep breath of her scent, sweet and musky. He wanted her, no matter how much he tried to persuade himself it would be a mistake.
"That would be fine," he said slowly, his gaze never leaving hers, all the while judging her reaction. "But already I'm stiffening up pretty badly. Maybe I will take something for the aches and pains."
He wasn't lying, but normally he would suffer rather than let a woman know how he felt.
Tessa's face grew shadowed, and she hurried to take the plates. "Oh, oh, of course. You must be feeling awful."
She rushed into the kitchen, and he almost felt guilty. But he liked her maternal instincts, and no matter how much he knew he should shove his baser needs aside, he wanted to share the bed with Tessa. She was a grown woman after all, and he, a grown... well, man of sorts.
He glanced at the living room window, the curtains drawn.
Had the gray been watching them when they climbed to the house from the beach? The sleet was coming down hard, cleansing the air. He couldn't have smelled him if the lupus garou was being careful. Not a true alpha male then. If he had been one, the wolf would have made his presence known, indicated up front that he had laid claim to the woman. As a beta, the wolf would have rolled in her sheets before he saw Tessa hauling an injured gray up the hill. The lupus garou must have observed them, hiding in the trees, loathing him.
If the thief got anywhere near the house, he would regret it. But even a beta lupus garou could be a dangerous proposition for a lone human female.
Tessa returned with a glass of water and a couple of white pills. "This should help. I'll be right back." She whipped around and headed for the kitchen, then banged inside the cabinets.
He took the medicine, finished off the water, and rose from the floor. Not meaning to, he groaned, and she caught him in the act.
Her brows furrowed deeper as she tightened her hold on a stainless steel saucepan. "You're really hurting, aren't you? Why don't you lie down on the floor next to the fire, and I'll rub some liniment into your muscles. I'll warm this water over the fire, and you can wash the saltwater off your skin. When the electricity's back on, you can shower properly."
He meant to conceal his satisfied expression, for her sake, but he couldn't help it. She was eating right out of his hands.
She twisted her mouth and set the pot on the fire. "I'll be back."
After watching her walk down the hall to the bathroom, and seeing nothing amiss, he returned to the living room, stripped out of her brother's sweats and reclined on his stomach on the carpeting next to the fire. He rested his head on his arms, but even that movement sent a streak of screaming pain from his arms to his back.
Tessa stepped into the room and he heard her intake of breath. Her eyes grew big and her lips parted, but she had already seen him nude.
"I hope that stuff works." He attempted looking as innocent as an alpha gray pack leader could manage who was already fully aroused, his voice way too husky.
"Uhm, you're awfully cut up. Let me get some antibacterial cream, too." She set the tube of liniment next to the fire and left. Down the hall, she rummaged around in some drawers.
She returned posthaste, carrying a handful of creams, his salvation. In anticipation, he relaxed his stiff muscles.
After leaving the creams on the coffee table, she knelt beside him and dipped a washcloth in the water. She slid the hot wet cloth over his shoulders, her touch gentle, and he gave a raspy sigh. "Got hot fast."
"Too warm?"
"No, feels just right."
"The faucet still had some hot water. The pipes would be cold and it takes forever for the bathroom water to heat even on a warm day, but you might be able to take a fast lukewarm shower."
He needed a cold one to keep his libido in check with the woman touching him so tenderly. "This is fine." Better than fine.
She washed his right shoulder and arm and before he could grow chilled, she patted the skin dry with a towel. He closed his eyes and enjoyed her ministrations. No one had ever treated him with so much kindness that he could recall. Hell, his sister would have shoved him in a tub of cold water, not wanting him to soil the sheets with the odor from the sea.
Again, an elusive memory of his sister. But he couldn't dredge up anything further.
Tessa probably couldn't smell the fishy odor on his skin like his kind could, but the scent was pretty pungent. He felt like he had been dropped in a vat of freshly caught fish off the coast. Not that it bothered him. Getting skunked was about the worst odor any wolf would have to contend with. Although he had been a pup when it happened, too curious for his own good, his parents wouldn't let him inside the house for days. Thankfully, the weather had been mild and the moon out so he remained a wolf the whole time, foraging in the forest, no chores to do.
Again, a memory. But even so, he couldn't recall what had happened to his parents or anything else about the incident.
After Tessa washed his neck, she left. Hating to admit it, he wanted in the worst way to drag her back, beg her to finish, then make love to her. He opened a sleepy eye, wondering what she was up to.
With a slight blush to her cheeks, she stood over him holding the afghan. "You must be cold." Before he could tell her she was heating him up just fine, she covered the lower part of his body with the soft blanket, and then started to wash his back, her touch methodical and soothing. "You sure took a beating."
She might have talked further, but he couldn't be sure. His thoughts had drifted to his current predicament and how he'd gotten here. If he had a sister, were they in a pack? He had to be the leader. He couldn't imagine serving in any other role. But what of his people? Were they from this area?
The lupus garou skulking around Tessa's place didn't remind him of anyone he knew. And then another concern: if his pack thought he was dead, one of the emergent alphas--if there were any--would try to take over. Well, he would remedy that when he got back.
"I had a premonition something bad was going to happen," Tessa was saying.
He opened his eyes, turned his head, and stared at her.
"Oh, I'm not psychic or anything. I just have these--bad impressions sometimes. Anyway," she said, scooting the afghan down to the tip of his spine, "sometimes I feel like something is wrong. When my parents died, I felt that way. Before they arrested Michael, it hit me again. Now tonight. I just couldn't pinpoint the feeling, but I couldn't squash the sensation of being watched."