NocC 013 - Katie Reus - Protector's Mate - Harlequin 2012-04 Read Online Free Page A

off all contact with him. He hadn’t been willing to risk it. Not when she’d started opening up to him.
    Before he heard her, he scented her descending the stairs. Something sweet, exotic and vanilla tickled his nose as she entered the brightly lit kitchen.
    She’d twisted her damp hair into some sort of knot above her neck and her flawless skin glowed from being freshly scrubbed. Those electric blue eyes of hers regarded him carefully. Against her tanned skin they were piercing. His gaze trailed down to where she clutched her towel tighter against her chest and all he could think about was pulling it off her and seeing what he’d missed earlier. The thought of what color her nipples would be had kept him awake at night.
    She loudly cleared her throat. “Can I have my clothes?”
    Jerking his head to meet her gaze, he nodded at the backpack lying open on the kitchen island. “In the bag.” He had to stop staring like a pervert if he didn’t want to freak her out. Though he was tempted to hand them to her, he didn’t trust himself to get so close to her when she was practically naked. The urge to touch her was overwhelming and his inner wolf was clawing at the surface. He turned toward the stainless steel refrigerator and pulled it open. “Are you hungry?”
    “No, I ate on the plane, but a drink would be nice, thank you.” He could hear her moving around behind him.
    A gentleman would let her get dressed with some sense of privacy. He was barely civilized, however. As he turned around she was tugging on a slim-fitting pair of pants. Before she pulled them fully up, he got an eyeful of more than he bargained for.
    She’d already put her sweater on so he missed seeing her breasts but he got the perfect view of her lower body. Her slim waist flared into surprisingly curvy hips. He barely bit back a growl as he watched the material slide up her legs. She’d been hiding a lot under those baggy cargo pants. And the soft thatch of perfectly trimmed dark hair covering her mound made him inwardly groan. Knowing she wouldn’t be wearing anything underneath her clothes had him breaking out into a sweat. When his gaze finally trailed back up to her face, her cheeks were tinged crimson.
    “Do you have no manners?” she snapped, but he didn’t miss the burst of desire that rolled off her.
    He fought a smile. “Not generally.”
    “Well…where’s my drink?” The haughty way she asked sent a jolt of awareness to his cock.
    He knew she was trying to cover her embarrassment. “We’ve got beer, wine, orange juice—”
    “Wine is perfect,” she muttered as she took a seat on one of the high-backed chairs at the center island.
    “What made you decide to finally come back to Alabama?” He tried to keep his question casual.
    She bit her bottom lip and he could tell she was weighing her answer. Finally she shrugged but he didn’t miss the flash of pain in her eyes. “My contract was over so I had to go somewhere. It’s the only home I’ve ever known and I still have a few human friends here from school. Mainly I…didn’t know where else to go.”
    Her soft-spoken declaration touched something deep inside him. A place he’d forgotten existed. For the past three hundred years he’d been part of Knox’s pack but even for the two hundred before that, he’d always had his brothers. After their parents had died, the four of them had stuck together until joining with Knox. They were all alpha in nature but none of them were true Alphas and they’d been lucky enough to find a good leader. Bottom line, they’d always belonged somewhere.
    He knew enough about Felicia’s history to understand that she didn’t have anyone. Not truly. Lamont’s pack had taken her in when she was a cub because she’d had nowhere to go. Didn’t even know who her parents were. Finally he decided to ask the question that had been weighing on him for years. “Why didn’t you call me two years ago instead of leaving the country?” His