Chapter 22

This has to be the craziest thing I've ever done.
Lia repeated it to herself numerous times during the afternoon. She asked him questions about his interest in Romania and the things he'd learned. She did her best to pluck as much information out of him as she could, but he really didn't tell her anything she hadn't learned from her grandparents. At the end of the day, Lia realized she had no more information about Jamie than she'd started out with.
What she did learn as the day grew longer, however, was she was more attracted to Riley Morgan than she had ever been to another man. Just being with him had her nerves sizzling and her pulse doing the jive. She kept picturing him without his clothes, all sleek muscle and hard body. She had known since puberty shifters had extremely strong sex drives. In point of fact, she took certain herbs to help her control it. She wondered if even a massive dose could take the edge off what she was feeling for the very sexy Detective Riley Morgan.
She did not want to admit to herself it was more than that.
Mate!
The word echoed in her head. Was that even possible?
About midafternoon, after they'd driven around Calderwood for a while and he'd talked about his town, Riley took her to get ice cream and they sat in the park eating their cones.
"You know," she said, as they sat on the bench in the fading sun, "I still don't know one more thing now than I did when we started out. Smooth maneuvering, Detective Morgan."
He laughed and, leaning forward, caught a drop of ice cream from her chin. One by one, he licked his fingertips. At the sight, her pussy clenched and moisture flooded her panties.
"Maybe I could maneuver you back to my house." His voice was low and warm, sliding over her. "I could show you some of my books on Romania."
"Is that like showing me your etchings?" She laughed.
"Maybe," he teased.
"I left my car at the library," she reminded him. "And what will we do at your house?"
"We can swing by later and get your car if you promise not to run off," he told her. "And at my house, we can relax with a glass of wine and I can show you some of the books you asked about."
She thought about it for a long moment. Going to his house could be dangerous. Her wolf was roaring inside her to bond with this man, and she wasn't yet sure about the whole situation.
"You've had all afternoon to figure out if I'm dangerous or not," she said. "Are you comfortable enough with me to ask Jamie and Mike over so I can chat with her?"
He draped an arm casually across her shoulders. Heat radiated from it like a furnace, and the pulse in her cunt beat insistently with need. What would it be like to -
Stop! Just stop!
God, she needed to separate her body and her heart from her brain.
"Let's see how things go and take it from there. You good with that?"
Was she? Well, it wasn't exactly as if she was on a time clock here, except for her own. And if Riley could open that door for her....
"Sounds good to me." She grinned and crunched the last bite of her cone.
He cupped her chin and turned her face toward his.
"Hmm. You've got a drop of ice cream on your lips. Hold on."
Before she could realize what he was doing, he'd bent his head and gently pressed his mouth to hers. The instant his lips touched hers, a bolt of lust, heat, and something else blasted through her. The park and everything around them fell away, and all she was conscious of was this man kissing her. More than sex, the contact was an intense connection that bonded them together.
Mate!
God, the word kept popping into her brain, every time he touched her or looked at her in a certain way, or even when the low sound of his voice rumbled through her.
Taking his time, he licked the seam of her lips, corner to corner, before pressing gently so she opened for him. That same gentle tongue was suddenly a burst of flame as he licked everywhere inside. His taste was at once new and exciting as well as familiar, and she couldn't get enough of it. She wanted to cry out in protest when he lifted his head and broke the contact.
He brushed his knuckles lightly down the length of one cheek, a touch so sensual it sent shivers racing through her.
"I think we need to take this somewhere a little more private, Lia. What do you say?"
She couldn't say anything, her brain was so addled by one brief kiss, so she nodded.
"Okay." His slow smile burned through her. "Let's get your car and head for my house. Right now."
Lia had no idea how she managed to drive from the library to Riley's, she was in such a fog of lust. She concentrated on following his car and not losing focus and hitting someone by accident. She was only marginally aware of the neighborhood he led her into, except to notice peripherally it was comprised of older homes on streets lined with mature trees.
She had no idea what she'd expected of his house, but the charming Craftsman bungalow surprised her. The light-beige color enhanced with dark-green trim somehow suited him, as little as she knew of him. He pulled up far enough on the driveway to leave room for Lia then guided her up the wide steps to the front porch. She glanced around as she waited for him to unlock the door, taking note of the glider covered in a dark-green fabric that nearly matched the trim and two Adirondack chairs. She could see Riley sitting out here on a warm evening, maybe with a cold beer, possibly herself curled in his lap on the glider -
Wait. What? Curled on his lap? She wasn't even inside the house yet.
Get a grip, Lia!
But it was really hard to when every fiber of her being was pulled toward the man next to her, inexorably drawn to him. In her entire life, she had never been consumed with such intense feelings, such a sense of both need and belonging. This had to be what her grandmother had told her about, that sense of forever her bunica told her would slam into her without warning.