"His kisses tasted like fire and surrender, his body like sin wrapped in skin yet even as I burned, I held the line, because loving him meant protecting him… even from me."
An hour later, the cabin was drowning in heat, the air thick with pheromones so potent they pressed against my skin like invisible hands. Every inhale dragged Elias deeper into my vanilla smoke and something rarer, wilder, sharper than my self-control could tolerate. Elias lay sprawled on the bed, bare skin glowing under the slant of moonlight. His body glistened faintly with sweat, muscles taut, chest rising and falling in shallow pulls. The sheet barely clung to him, caught at his waist like an afterthought, exposing the smooth plane of his stomach, the dip of his hipbones that begged the eye and the mouth to lower. His wolf was close, restless, and it showed in the way his golden eyes flickered under the half-lidded haze of heat.
