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“That wasn’t your call to make.”
“But I did it anyway.”
“Because you’re a man or because you’re a big bad wolf and whatever else you might be?” She gets in my face. “Why, Nolan?”
“Because I didn’t deserve you. Still don’t. I’m not worthy of being a marshal or your mate when I couldn’t keep you safe.”
“But you love me.” She punctuates each word with a jab of her fingernail into my chest.
The answer explodes out of me. “Yes, damnit.”
Sadie snatches my Stetson off my head, plops it on her own, and shoots me a siren’s smile. “Prove it.”
16
SADIE
Nolan Bankston loves me. Sure, it took maneuvering to get him to admit it, but he did, and he’s mine—at least for the moment. Except I asked him to prove it and now he’s staring at me as if he can’t decide whether to kiss me or try to spank me. I might be up for either, and isn’t that an unexpected surprise? He’s just full of them this evening.
I tip back his hat against the crown of my head, aiming for classic gunslinger swagger despite the fact the thing’s three sizes too big for me. “What’s it gonna be, marshal?”
“You look good in my hat.” His voice comes out rough, sending shivers through me even as I go warm everywhere his gaze lingers. Yet he doesn’t touch me. Why isn’t he touching me?
My confidence wobbles, and I slam my showtime sass into place as much as I would on the roller derby track. “I look good in everything.”
He strokes a hand along my arm, brushing over the goosebumps that prickle my skin. “I bet you look better in nothing.”
Damn him and his sexiness. “Ooh, I walked right into that little trap, didn’t I?”
“No more than you herded me into yours. Well played, princess.” He sugarcoats the nickname so it slides down as smooth as honey.
“If the crown fits.” I straighten his hat, barely keeping it on my head.
Nolan lifts me against him, and the sudden movement has the Stetson toppling off and me wrapping my legs around him. He kisses me, licking and claiming as though he means to devour me, and I let him. Because with him taking the lead, I almost forget I don’t have much experience when he’s so good at it, that he makes me feel like a Nymph’s got nothing on me. I sink my fingers in his hair that the sunset has made look awash in flames and find it silkier than I imagined. It has been over a decade since I felt his other form’s fur against my skin, and then it was as a kid being protected by my own personal guard wolf. I could get used to this. A mate who’s mine forever.
Forever.
A promise I can’t make to a marshal who won’t stay, who’ll leave me to return to Nashville when I’m sworn to serve in Syn City or another deity town as my immortal mothers order. The thought sobers me, and I tear my mouth from his. Immediately, the chill of losing his warmth makes me reconsider. But no, I won’t risk my heart. Not if he won’t choose a mate over the marshals, and in all the secrets he shared, he didn’t mention giving up his badge.
“One night,” I tell him. Any more, and I won’t survive the fallout. One night, and I’ll have a memory to keep forever of the few hours I felt cherished, desired, wanted by the man who won’t listen to his destiny when I can’t walk away from mine. I drop my feet to the ground, putting distance between us. “We can’t have more than one night together.”
He curves those lips that I can still taste on mine into a wolfy grin, and my racing heart sinks. Of course he doesn’t want complications or entanglements. “Oh princess, I’ll enjoy showing you how wrong you are.” Something scarier than the storybook I’m-going-to-eat-you-up villain flashes in his gaze, and I go hot at the thought of him using that wicked mouth of his to show me how very bad he can be. “You should know better than to challenge a wolf like that.”
“What challenge?” I ask. Despite my Fury strength and magical whip, I suddenly feel like the prey to his apex predator, and damn, I shouldn’t like it so much.
He tangles one hand in the hair at the nape of my neck and tugs until I have to tip my head back. There’s no escaping his intense gaze. “I’ll make this so good that you crave forever together.”
I already do. “I won’t,” I lie.
His next kiss gentles, a coaxing torment that leaves me aching for something just out of reach. I chase the thrill, needing another hit of his earlier ferocity, but he refuses to give me anything but this lazy, teasing attention. He sips at my lips as though my mouth’s a treat he intends to enjoy for hours despite the time limit I set upon us.
His deliberate slowness infuriates me. I rock my hips against him, furious that he won’t give me what I need. His heart pounds so hard I can feel it, and I know he must hear mine. His hands roam over my body, but it’s not enough. I’m empty and greedy, and it’s all his fault for leaving me this way.
He drops to his knees on the ground, and I reach to curl my fingers in his shirt to pull him back to me except a swish of fabric brushes against my legs. Color explodes across my vision, golden and brilliant—an amber the color of sunflowers that begins and ends with him.
“Here.” He presses the hem of my skirt into my palms, and cool air hits my thighs that can’t compete with the heat between them.
“What are you—” My question cuts off on a gasp. He slides his hand over the silk of my undies, and pleasure spikes through me.
