He saw her staring and smiled knowingly. Then he ducked into the room across the hallway. When he emerged, he wore jeans and a black T-shirt. The magnificent view had vanished.

Disappointed, Sam pulled up the covers, then scolded herself for feeling disappointed.

Then again, she was female and what female with a heartbeat wouldn't find Darius devastating?

"Good. You're finally awake. How are you feeling?"

"Like an eighteen-wheeler ran over my head and backed up again," she admitted.

He sat down beside her and felt her forehead. The gesture was soothing against her chilled skin. "No fever. The drugs didn't make you sick."

She pressed a finger against her throbbing temple. "What happened? We didn't..."

Another blush heated her face. Darius gave a crooked smile. "No, darling. When we make love, I want you fully conscious and when you wake up in my bed after, you won't have a stitch of clothing on. I didn't tempt fate. Slept on the chair. When I slept. Damn hard to do with your scent in my nostrils, making my wolf come out."

Glancing at the chair, and the claw marks on the wall, she suddenly understood. "Rough night?"

His jaw went tight. "Very rough. Good thing I have an account here. The hotel manager will let me stay again as long as I pay for damages."

She frowned and pressed two fingers against her right temple. "I passed out?"

"At the club. I brought you back here and put you in bed." Anger darkened his face. "It's as if someone spiked your drink."

Fresh fear curled through her. "Who would do that?"

"Usually men do it to women they want to fuck without the woman's consent."

The vulgarity and his harsh expression sent another chill racing down her spine. "But I didn't even take a sip of water at Jones. Did I?"

Two lines formed between his dark, silky brows. "No. But the drink Todd tossed in your face had something in it. I could smell it."

"What was it?"

"I don't know. I called in a favor and sent the handkerchief you used to a friend's lab for testing. When did you start feeling bad?"

"A short while after we left the restaurant. I felt woozy, but thought it was all the drama."

Darius frowned. "The liquor was drugged with something, and it got into your system. He probably intended to use it on the woman he was talking with, and ended up throwing it at you. Stay here a minute. I need to warn his alpha. If this asshole is trying to molest Skin females, Simon will put a stop to it."

Taking his cell phone off the nightstand, he went into the dressing room. When he returned, pocketing the cell, concern showed on his expression. "You're very pale. I can order breakfast, but you might not tolerate it well."

She put a shaky hand to her forehead. "Oh, I can tolerate a lot of things, it seems. I get a drink tossed into my face by a rude wolf, dance with a sly snake and pass out in your arms in public. And I wake up in your bed in my underwear and I'm still as celibate as a nun."

She bit her lip and felt the color flood her face. A gleam lit his eyes. "Darling, when you're feeling better, I'll help you change that last part."

A pleasant throbbing started between her legs. Sex with Darius would probably feel incredible. Regular human, vanilla sex in the missionary position where he gazed into her eyes.

And it would break her heart to look at him and see in his eyes that she was the same as any other woman he'd bedded. She needed passion and fire, but tenderness and something deeper and richer. Too much had happened to risk her heart.

Changing the subject, she asked him for her clothing.

"In a minute." He gave her a searching look that could coax state secrets from a CIA spy. "Tell me how long it's been since you shifted."

Samantha bit her lip, knowing the question wasn't as innocent as it seemed. "A while."

"How long?"

Avoiding his gaze, she shrugged. "A year."

"One year?!"

"Or five. Six, maybe seven years."

Silence fell. She stole a glance at him, saw a muscle in his firm jaw jump. "No wonder all your senses have shut down. You've penned up your wolf."

"It wasn't exactly as if she howled to get out," she said dryly. "And I saw no need to jump at the full moon and streak down the street in a fur coat. Living in the city has kept me away from Lupines and OtherWorlders."

"No, it hasn't. They've been around you; you just couldn't detect them."

Samantha bristled at the criticism. "So what if I couldn't? I like living and working in Skin." And here in the city, she could hide from his father's wrath.

"And living in Skin has made you susceptible to hidden dangers." He calmed his voice. "Tell me more about this Todd. Had you ever met before the blind date?"

"Never. He was supposed to meet me at the restaurant." Samantha swallowed her pride. "I was at the table when he came inside, saw me and insulted me. He called me fat."

Embarrassed, she shut up. She'd endured enough humiliation.

Darius touched her cheek, his expression softening. "You're not fat, Sam. You're a perfect Lupine female. It was something else."

"Maybe he didn't like my dress," she joked.

His eyes widened. "If you wore that ugly black rag you wore to Jones, yeah. But not the polka-dotted dress you wore to the restaurant. It shows a lot of your legs. You have very, very nice legs."

His smile, oh, it was incandescent, and sent a tingle from her head to her toes. The wolf was irresistible to women. Suddenly she remembered the videotapes the detective had filmed. Darius had not been discreet in his sex life. He'd been in an outdoor hot tub at a resort known for hedonism and the Lupine lived up to the establishment's reputation. A hot flush surged through her body as she recalled his muscled shoulders flexing, his lean hips pumping hard as he pushed into his partner, his face taut with strain, his hair damp and curling, the woman moaning as she gripped his back.

Darius was beautiful when he made love. Other women knew the pleasure of stroking those sleek muscles, of tangling their fingers through his ebony curls, or feeling the delicious, erotic intensity of his mouth as he'd kissed their naked bodies.

She'd stared at those tapes a long time, a hot razor slicing her heart, the longing to be that blonde woman on the tape so piercing she hadn't cried.

Samantha had screamed.

This was quite dangerous, being in bed, no, being in his bed, finally in the one place she'd dreamed of all these years. But it was all wrong. The pain of losing him had become a permanent mark on her heart. Samantha valued herself too much to become another woman he screwed, and she wasn't certain he really wanted her, or just wanted sex. Not just vanilla sex, either, but the savage sex he'd require during a mating rite.

Starting to slide out of bed, she stopped, remembering her near nudity. At her fierce blush, he went to the closet and returned with the hotel's courtesy bathrobe. Samantha shrugged into it, wanting to moan at the toasty warmth and the woodsy scent of Darius enveloping her, cedar and freshly fallen rain and a unique, very male musk that made her ache.

Her wolf wagged her tail. Yummy, yummy, let's play.

An equally fierce light ignited his gaze. "I like you in my robe. You look good. You'd look even better out of it, though."

She licked her lips and watched his hungry gaze track each flick of her tongue. Heat spiraled through her, flames of need she wanted to extinguish, now.

"Water?"

Instantly he became all business, fetching her a glass of water.

When she finished and set the glass on the nightstand, Darius kneaded the tension from her shoulders, his hands warm and his touch light but expert.

"I'm sorry that bastard Todd insulted you, but I'm glad he didn't follow through on the date. You were meant to be mine, Sam."

Troubled by the growing feelings of heat as he massaged, she pushed away his hands with a smile to soften the action. "I'm fine. Really. Dealing with Todd types who call me fat is part of the price I pay for being a single girl in the city."

"I should have killed that son of a bitch." He fisted his hands.

"Slow down." She put a hand on his fist, stroked his knuckles just like the old days when Darius' temper soared after a fight with his father, and he felt the urge to shift into wolf. Darius stared at her hand, and she felt his pulse slow. He gently clasped her fingers. Closing his eyes, he rested her palm against his flushed cheek and took a deep breath.

They used to do this in the forest. All those times when they'd been there for each other, each being the other's calming influence and anchor. The connection they shared that ran so deep, she couldn't ever imagine being without him. It hurt to remember, so much that pain tightened her chest, making it difficult to breathe.

"You were my best friend," she whispered. "Until the day you left. I spent so many days and months-years, Darius-waiting for your return. Then, desperate, I searched you out, only to find you had forgotten about me and turned to other women. Why did you have to come back into my life? Why?"

Darius opened his eyes, his gaze a fierce blue. "I never stopped being your best friend, Sam. I've had a lot of females in my bed, many who made offers I did not refuse. But even after I was told you died, I vowed I'd never let anyone get this close to me again. You had that special place in my heart and no one could ever replace you."

Oh, she wanted to believe it. Her pride wounded by last night's incident with Todd, she badly needed to believe it. Samantha rested her cheek against his palm.

His gaze focused on her mouth. Then he bent his head and kissed her, so softly she caught her breath on a sigh. Startled, she wanted to push away, knowing how dangerous this was. But the kiss was so gentle and sweet, it reminded her of the old Darius, the Lupine who'd once tossed an older male across the room for insulting her.

The old Darius who'd risked everything to protect her and cherished her deeply.

Closing her eyes, she moved her mouth against his, pleasure spiking her blood. Darius continued leisurely kissing her, his hand holding her steady. Not grinding his teeth against her mouth, or crudely groping her breasts. She parted her lips and licked his mouth. She heard his breathing intensify, and he thrust his tongue inside her mouth. Samantha squirmed, heat curling through her body, her internal thermostat starting to soar. She never imagined a kiss could feel so delightful, so sensual and arousing. Placing her hands on his broad shoulders, she drew him closer.

But he didn't increase the pace, only kept up those steady, delicious plunges of his tongue. It felt like he licked her from the inside out.

Inside the pretty lace bra, her nipples hardened. The scant clothing she wore seemed too tight, too constrictive. She wanted it off now, nothing but skin between her and Darius. Samantha rubbed herself against him, her hands gripping his shoulders, feeling the flex of muscle beneath the tight T-shirt. She moaned beneath his mouth as he cupped the back of her head and kissed her harder, his mouth aggressive now as he took control.

She let him, feeling a rush of moisture between her legs. Samantha rotated her hips, eager for more, and slid her hands down his back, loving the muscles tensing beneath her exploring fingertips. Groaning, he squeezed her thigh, then ran a hand over the curve of her hip. Samantha climbed into his lap, needing more exquisite friction. Darius positioned her so she rode the ridge of his erection, and she whimpered with need, feeling the hardness slide over her damp center.

This was what she'd wanted all these lonely years, Darius close to her, Darius ready to claim and mate with her. Her wolf clawed eagerly to the surface, nudging her into letting him take her. Now, her wolf insisted. Do it. Let him sink that hardness deep inside your body so we'll bond and never be parted again...this strong, protective male...my mate.

Mate?

She went still as a chill slid down her spine.

Her stomach tightened with apprehension. She knew where this could lead.

Without breaking the kiss, he slid a hand into her bra, his palm warm and rough. Darius teased her nipple with expert little flicks that sent heat curling down to her toes. Moisture soaked her panties. He was good at this, so good, he knew how to arouse a woman...

Because he'd done it how many times before? Dozens?

Panic shoved at the edges of her hazed mind as she pulled his hand away. "No," she whispered.

No, don't stop, her wolf howled.

She opened her eyes.

Darius' eyes glowed amber, signaling the emergence of his wolf, an action triggered by the chase, the need for hunting prey...

Or the need to mate.

She could hear the rapid pounding of his heart, like a hard rapping on a kettle drum. She could feel the coiled tension within him and see the male hunger in his gaze, the fierce intensity of a male who wanted sex.

Not the fierce hunger of a man who wanted only her.

"Let's finish this," he said roughly, his breathing ragged. "Finish what I should have done ten years ago."

Desire evaporated within her as quickly as it had surfaced. Bitter grief surged as hot tears pricked her eyelids. Samantha removed his hand from her breast and climbed off his lap. Ten years was a long time. Too much had happened, too many things to simply forget the pain and grief. The emotional gulf lay between them like a huge chasm no bridge could ever cross.

What assurances did she have of his fidelity? He'd loved many women. Even if he swore up and down a blue streak to be exclusive to her, Darius was a strong Lupine determined to live in a wolf pack. She could never return to the life of a wolf again. Her life was here, blending into the human world. A world that played no part in a brutal mating rite where Lupines turned into wolves as they had sex.

As he leaned forward, as if to draw her back into his arms, she pushed at the solid wall of his chest. "I can't do this now."

Immediately he backed off, his expression turning so tender, it reminded her of the old Darius. Pain wrenched her heart.

"It's okay, sweetheart. I pushed you too fast. There's time enough later."

Not later. Not ever. "There won't be a later, Darius. Because I don't want you in my life, I don't need you as my friend or my lover. Whatever feelings I had for you are gone. And they're never coming back."

Chapter 6.

Samantha had never lied to him.

Except now. She refused to meet his gaze. He cupped her chin and forced her head up. Distrust and a haunting pain flickered in her eyes. Inwardly he winced, knowing his past actions with women had put those emotions there.

"Tell me again you don't want me, Sam." He dropped his hand and placed it over her rapidly beating heart. "Tell me what was between us is dead forever and I'll leave you alone, right now."

Shaking her head, she slid out of his bed. "Where are my clothes? I need to go home and pack. Pack as in luggage. Not Lupine pack, because I hated that life and I'm never going back. It's safer here in Skin."

Alarm prickled his spine. Safer?

"What are you running from, Sam? Why is living in Skin safer?"

"It's nothing," she muttered over her shoulder.

He followed her to the dressing room, watching her slide open the closet door. Every instinct warned him that she was evading the truth, if not outright lying. And this deeply worried him because it meant she was in trouble, but chose not to share it with him.