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Sitting on one of the couches, head lolled back against the top of the cushion, Ferdinand Massaro, her for with cold black eyes She barely breathed, felt her furry legs wobble beneath her, and sat before she collapsed
Silver duct tape covering his le, Ferdinand looked as though his neck had been broken She blinked away tears The roohts on in the recessed fixtures, yet she could see the man’s hefty size, over six feet tall andhis chest, and hairy legs He was naked Had he raped her before he wasstill pained her where she’d been bitten, and she wondered if he’d… The notion was too unreal to believe, but what if he’d shape-shifted into a wolf, then bit her and, after that, shifted back into a human for ape, she felt chilled all over despite her olf’s fur coat, her brain fuzzy froht have been infected with some weird virus, and the man who undoubtedly had done it to Ferdinand had been murdered Then Ferdinand himself had met his fate
I’m not about to live alone like this, Ferdinand had said Like this, like sohtet her rapid breathing under control and atte so she could think et out of here--now The realization didn’tthat she was a wolf, consciously sitting in Ferdinand’s living roo his dead body
What if someone called the cops or one of Ferdinand’s et out of there
Hours passed before Alicia finally ed to shift back to her human self and dress She left Ferdinand’s townhouse and walked forever until she could call a taxi far fro up her car near the townhouse where Mario had been rabbed her, she returned to her hotel on the outskirts of Denver She intended to get soet as far away fro of what she had becoe to shape-shift again--especially if she wasn’t hidden from the eyes of the world if it happened once more
Scared, exhausted, and unsure of what to do, she stripped off her clothes, showered, and pulled on a slinky black nightgown covered in pink and yelloers She collapsed in the hotel-roo to push all the worries out of her brain until she could thinkAnd make so in the hotel bed, Alicia finally closed her eyes, unsure whether she would wake again in the forave a soft snort of disbelief and halfondered if Ferdinand’s blows to her head twice in one night were ed her with so like LSD That in the ain be clear and she would realize it had all been a really bizarre nightination Except that it had see was certain: Ferdinand was dead
With all those thoughts running through her tired mind, she finally succumbed to sleep and dreamed like she’d never dreaht, the bed covered in an orange floral spread, and prints on the walls of floral bouquets, Alicia dressed in a satiny black nightgown touching her ankles, with a slit up the side and spaghetti straps that bared her shoulders as she headed from the bathroo rooht her eye
She turned To her astonishment, Jake Silver stalked toward her, naked, his lean ht of the rooreedy way She knew as soon as she saw hi with him But sohiuely wondered why he was here How he had found her And why he had no clothes
She didn’t care and stretched her arms up to take hold of him To embrace him To make love to him She wanted him with a passion that she couldn’t quell
His kiss on herin the s outward as his hands cupped her face, holding her just the way he wanted her The pressure on her lips increased until she openly invited hiue into herher as if he’d lost her forever and had once again found her He pulled her into his hard eht as his mouth kissed the top of her head, his arms encircled her back as if they were two lovers reunited
The faether As if they were bound to each other in so was terribly a with her She couldn’t… be with Jake Because… because…
No matter how hard she tried to think, she couldn’t come up with the reason His hands brushed down her naked back, his ue on her throat, and then his lips took in a nipple, licking and sucking, and she squeezed his broad back andup with heat Delicious, sexy heat And the realization dawned that he wasn’t upset with her for leaving him without a word