Page 31 of Wolf's Redemption

“Oh, but I can.”

Her eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”

He chuckled, kneeling before her. “It is very tempting,petite cracheuse de feu.”

Even now, despite her anger, his raspy voice sent delicious shivers down her spine. That he’d most likely screamed himself hoarse in that dungeon should bother her. Arouse her sympathy, not her body. But Lord help her, she was all but melting into her knickers like a hot puddle of lava. His nostrils quivered, and a muscle ticked in his jaw.

He leaned in and brushed a hand against her cheek. Their gazes met, and for the life of her, she could not look away. A strong musky scent enveloped them.

“Why do you call me that?” She couldn’t help the breathless quality of her voice. “What does it mean?”

“Petite cracheuse de feu?”

She nodded.

He swallowed, his Adam’s apple jerking in his throat. “It means little fire breather.”

“Oh.”

She didn’t know whether to be offended or not.

He leaned closer. He was going to kiss her again. Did she want this? Yes. Should she want this? Hell, no.

Abruptly he stood and disappeared from her line of sight, behind the tree. Bek leaned back against the rough bark andclosed her eyes. Hadn’t she vowed not to let him touch her again? She’d come so close to throwing all her promises to herself out the window. She thumped her head against the tree trunk.

Shit.

She couldn’t afford to get caught up with this guy. It was a slippery slope to a hell she’d already visited. Every morning she’d woken up on the wrong side of the prison bars, the memory of Spider’s betrayal had fueled her determination to never go down that path again. Burned it into the fabric of her soul so she’d never again repeat her mistake. Or so she’d thought.

Chapter Fourteen

The moment the rope around her waist loosened, Bek was on her feet and slipping from its loops. As tempted as she was to kick his taut ass as he squatted to assemble sticks into the makings of a small fire, she kept her distance. Distance was good. It kept her away from temptation. The last twelve hours had proved her willpower was sadly lacking when it came to men. Especially highly sexed men with a dark edge to them. Ulrik had that in spades.

Muscles flexed across his broad shoulders as his hands worked to create a spark. Bek curled her fingers into fists by her side, resisting the powerful urge to touch, to caress. She turned her back to him and unstoppered the wineskin. She needed fortification. Lots of it.

She took a sip and the sweet liquid slid easily down her throat. And another sip, then a big gulp. How much of this would she need to be pleasantly buzzed enough to drown out the urging of her lady parts that were all for a little fling in the forest? A quick shag on the carpet of pine needles beneath her feet? She took another swig. Then another.

By the time she’d turned around, confident she had herself under control, Ulrik had the fire lit, his knife in hand, and was skinning and gutting the hares. She seated herself across the fire from him and watched him work, those long fingers of his deftly wielding the knife as he prepared the hares for cooking.

She raised the wineskin to her lips, blocking her view of him.

What the actual fuck? A man gutting an animal is sexy?What iswrongwith me?

She needed to put on her big girl panties and behave like a responsible adult. That giving in to her libido would feel good was never in doubt, but that he would be good for her was. Nope. This guy was getting nowhere near her knickers. By design or by default.Hell to the no.She’d keep her wayward desires under control. This time, she would look out for herself.

“So, do you have a plan?” She stoppered the wineskin and set it aside. “Or are we just going to wander aimlessly around in the forest for a while avoiding people, villages and wolves?”

He glanced up at her as he built a makeshift spit over the fire. “I will find my lord. There is a woman in the forest, east of the keep, who may know where he is.”

“We’re going east?”

He set a hare on the spit and the flames flickered over the carcass. “No.”

“You’re going east, and I’m going…home?”

“No. We are heading north, then turning northeast. Then we will make for the…woman in the woods. I will not be responsible for leading Lothair to my lord.”

She’d noticed the pause, the hesitation before he said the word ‘woman’. An ex-lover? As intriguing as it would be to meet her, hiking through the forest and sleeping in the dirt for however long it took to get there wasn’t in her game plan.

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