“Let me give you a ride home,” Tully said.

“Thanks, I’d appreciate that,” Mia replied.

Tonight she wouldn’t chance another late-night stroll that would place her in the path of her own personal Big Bad Wolf. As she walked with Tully to the woman’s beat-up, economy-sized car she felt a sense of relief at the thought her and Galen’s paths wouldn’t cross. They quickly got inside and sat in a comfortable silence the short distance to her studio. Mia thanked her as she got out of the car and had never so sincerely met those two words in her life. As she walked to her front door she felt the anxiety of anticipation settle in, but she wouldn’t let it weigh her down.

Even as she stepped into the familiar confines of her studio, she couldn’t shake the feeling something big was about to occur. It was her lack of sleep, she thought to herself, and her nerves were just tightly wound because she’d deprived her body of the rest it needed. There was a quart of dark chocolate ice cream in the fridge that would help take the edge off.

“This new carelessness is starting to concern me.”

Mia froze at the sharp tone of Galen’s voice. She’d never been the recipient of this type of reprimand, and it stung unpleasantly.

“This is my sanctuary,” she replied with her own sharp tone.

“You know better than most that nothing is ever truly sacred. Even if you have joined the herd, you should never forget what it was like to run with the pack,” he growled, stepping out of the shadows and confronting her.

“I can do whatever I damn well please,” she replied.

He stared at her with those too-intense, sea-green eyes, and she felt as if he were taking her apart layer by layer. The longer he stared, the more her body craved the touch of his hands instead.

“Yes, I guess you can,” he finally said softly.

Mia expelled a sigh of shock. He wasn’t supposed to agree with her. Instead he was supposed to push and prod until she became so angry all she could think about was putting as much distance as she could between them.

“What is it you would do tonight?”

Her bad-boy predator was very clever, she realized. This new capitulation wasn’t something she could ever think of as sincere. He was still plotting and as always when he took away her need for anger, her desire for him had opportunity to flare stronger. Two nights she had tossed and turned as images of denied pleasure flittered through her brain, leaving a physical imprint on her body. It was torture and the temptation of him was far too great for her to ignore. Because he was a clever hunter, she knew it was all part of his grand plan, but she was once a clever hunter herself and knew how to play the game as well.

“It seems I will be damned,” she replied before fisting the front of his shirt in her hand and bringing his mouth down for a hard kiss.

She ran her tongue gingerly along the edges of his sharp teeth and moaned as he pulled her close to his body, so close she could feel the outline of his perfect erection. Feeling him hard and heavy against her was all the signal her body needed, and it softened in anticipation of being filled with him. Mia didn’t have time to think before he roughly lowered her pants and bent her over the back of her couch.

“This won’t change anything.”

He didn’t say it as a question, and she didn’t bother answering because when he surged inside of her there was no need for words. She would falter this time, possibly several times, because the temptation of his pleasure was far stronger than her hunger for easy prey. His sure strokes and nimble fingers that plucked at her sensitive clit surpassed the heady sensation of sinking her teeth into a fresh kill. Her bad-boy predator was wild and uninhibited as he mounted her, driving her higher and higher until she could only find her way down by crashing. But he didn’t stop; instead he pulled quickly out and dropped to his knees, burying his face in her wet center from behind and devouring her with one lick, nip, and suckle at a time. She was careening again towards that highest point, trying to stave off the crash when she realized that because nothing had changed, it meant they would get to do this all over again.