Shivers ran through her body as he touched her, his hand possessing her as it moved back up, squeezing her elbow, his fingers circling her arm. She let herself drift away from him as his hand moved down to her side. He pulled her back toward him, and she gasped as his strong arm circled her waist and brought her close. She didn't have to kick to stay afloat any longer—his arm held her up as he hugged her to his body. His lips grazed her forehead in the slightest kiss, so slight that she thought she might have imagined it. Her heart swelled.
"You are lovely," he said.
"Thank you," Julia said, her face turning hot.
"Thank you for jumping in to save me."
"So I passed the test?" she asked softly. Her heart was racing. What did he think about her? His body was pressed against hers, and it made her melt, but she knew that he could feel her now. She didn't know if he would like what he felt.
"With flying colors," he said, smiling. "In fact, you might care about me too much."
Her eyebrows knitted into a frown, and a sharp pain lanced her heart. Did he mean that he didn't care about her as much as she cared about him? Now that he had touched her, now that he knew what her body looked like, he was pulling away. It was the same as it had been with every guy she'd ever cared about. There was no way he would want her. How could she have been so daft? He was so handsome, tall and muscular. What would he want with a dumpy short girl with frizzed hair? She choked back tears.
He shook his head, as though he could sense her worry.
"I didn't mean—"
"I know," she said. "I mean, I shouldn't... I'm not right for you..."
"It's not that," he said. "Whatever you're thinking, it's not that." He bent his head so that his forehead was pressed against hers, their noses touching slightly at the tip. "God, Julia, you're the most amazing person I've ever met."
Julia swallowed hard. His arm was still holding her tightly, and she couldn't get away. She placed a hand on his chest, her palm pressing his body back. She couldn't breathe. If only he would let her go.
"You don't have to—it's okay if you don't want me anymore. I understand." She didn't want him to be kind to her out of guilt. If he didn't want her, he just had to say so. Rejection was something she understood how to deal with. She didn't need his pity; she could survive without it.
"You don't understand."
"If you don't want me—"
"Julia, I don't just want you. I need you."
Julia lifted her head up in shock. It was a good thing that Damien had a hold of her around the waist; she had forgotten how to swim, and as he pressed his lips against hers, she forgot how to breathe.
The cold water swirled around them but all Julia knew was heat. Damien's touch was demanding, burning her through and through. His fingers gripped her hip and pulled her insistently toward him as he deepened the kiss. Fire licked through every nerve in her body so that not even the coolness of the lake could ease her wanting. The hard muscles of his chest were slick under her palms.
Their limbs intertwined as the kiss went on, and Damien's fingers ran through her hair. Without thinking, her legs wrapped around his waist, and she could feel him hard against her. It was the first time she'd ever wanted something so fully, so completely. When Damien pulled away and broke the kiss, their air between them seemed to crackle with energy, as though their attraction had an electrical power to it.
"Damien," she said. His eyes sparked with a fiery expression, and for a brief moment she thought that he was looking at her, could see her.
"I have to tell you something," he said. "Something about me. It's important."
"What?" She searched his eyes as though she would be able to find the answers there.
"It's just that...I don't know if you'll be able to understand." His voice broke, and Julia's heart swelled with sympathy. Whatever it was, he seemed to truly be hurt by it.
"Let's sit back up on the dock," she said, trying to lighten the mood. "I don't want to drown you before you can tell me whatever it is you have to tell me."
"Sure," he said, and before she could start to swim to shore he had grasped the wooden pillar and swung himself up onto the planks of the dock. He sat on the edge of the dock and reached a hand down.
"I'll swim around," Julia said, not wanting to pull him back in accidentally.
"Take my hand," Damien said, extending his arm farther.
Hesitantly, Julia reached up. His large hand grasped her around the wrist, and as he pulled her out of the water his other arm came down and scooped her up under the other arm. With an almost superhuman strength, he lifted her up as easily as if she weighed a hundred pounds and set her gently to sit on the dock next to him.
They sat dripping on the wood planks, the sun warm overhead. Julia's nerves were as frazzled as her hair. What could he possibly have to say to her? Damien leaned his head back to sun his upturned face. His dark hair stuck to his cheeks and his eyes were closed, but the seams of his scars shone brightly in the sunlight, and he sat up, clasping his hands in front of him.
"I haven't been honest with you," Damien said. Julia's heart sank.
"What do you mean?" she asked. She tried but could not keep her voice from quaking. She pulled her knees up onto the dock and hugged them tightly.
"There's something about me, a genetic condition," Damien said. He stammered as he spoke, a strange contrast to the easy confidence that he had shown all along. "Not many people have it, and it’s...it’s serious."
"What is it?" Julia asked. She swallowed hard. Her grandfather had spent the last few years of his life fighting cancer, and the toll it had taken on Granny Dee was enormous. Julia didn't know if she could let herself fall in love with someone if she knew it would end like that. Fear chilled her heart, and she shivered even in the hot sun.
"I'll show you," Damien said, "but the reason I'm telling you this is because I never thought I would find somebody like you. I've planned my life out according to what I thought was true, and now I don't know what I can do to change it."
"What do you mean?" Julia asked. Goosebumps rose on her skin.
"I'm engaged to someone who has the same condition," Damien said. "We're not in love, but—"
Engaged. Damien kept talking, but Julia could not hear his words. The sound that came out of her was halfway between a cry and a whimper. She scrambled to her feet, trying not to slip on the wet planks of the dock. Engaged. She had to get away. Had to leave. She felt so embarrassed, so taken in.
"Julia, wait, please—"
"No!" No, no, no! The cry that echoed through her mind came out of her as sobs as she gathered her clothes up to her chest. He couldn’t be with her.
"Julia, please let me explain!" Damien stood to face her.
"No, you don't need to explain," Julia said. He was just the same, after all, just the same as all the other guys who thought she would be a quick, easy lay. The guys who just wanted to play with her for a while before going back to someone they could take seriously.
"Julia, please—" he said, reaching out blindly.
"Don't touch me!" she cried out, backing away from him. "Don't—don't ever touch me again!" She turned to flee, wild with the agony of this revelation. How could he have broken her heart so carelessly?
"Don't leave," Damien said. He stumbled after her as she moved away from the lake, back to the trail, trying to put her shoes on without falling over. "Please, let’s talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Julia said. “You came here and flirted with me, kissed me, all while you’re engaged to someone else?”
“It’s just because of my condition—”
“I don’t care about the reason! You’re engaged!” Julia thought of the other woman, the one Damien had probably lied to before coming to spend time at the lake. Her heart broke for both of them.
"I'll call someone to come get you," Julia said, her voice cracking. He seemed so desperate. How could he be so cruel and seem so sincere? She felt as though her emotions, her judgment, had betrayed her just as surely as he had. "Just stay away from me!"
Tears streaming down her face, she turned to the path and screamed.
Standing directly in front of her on the trail, not twenty feet away, was a huge gray wolf.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Damien
Damien felt Julia's heart wrench as much as if it had been his own, and it gutted him. He had to be honest with her; he couldn't sense her feelings without a sense of guilt coming over him every time he remembered Katherine. But it was too much. How could he explain that he was a shifter, that he wasn't supposed to mate with humans. Her pain ripped through him in a black and red agony as she screamed at him to stay away from her, and the air he breathed felt too hot for his lungs, poisonous. His hands shook as she backed away. He could not lose her. Could not lose his mate. She was the one, the true one—
Upwind from the trail and so preoccupied with Julia, he did not smell the wolf until it was already in the open. He heard Julia's scream at the same time he smelled the wolf, and he ran forward without a thought, almost tripping over his own feet as he stepped between Julia and the wolf.
It was a shifter. Even in his human form Damien could smell the distinctive scent, sense the intelligence radiating from the animal. Another pack in these woods? How? Jordan had scouted the entire territory. Then the wolf growled and stepped forward, the sand crunching under its feet.
"Damien, no, get back," Julia whispered, tugging on his arm. He could feel her fear and he tried not to let the terror overwhelm him as he stood there. He could not fight the wolf in human form; it would be suicide.
"Damien, please!" Julia said, and as she touched him he felt a stab of fright go through his heart. The shifter sensed it, too, and growled again.
"Let go," Damien said, shaking her hand off. "Julia, you need to leave."
"No—"
"Leave!" The wolf snarled at the sound of Damien's voice, and he could hear the claws digging into the sand.
"No, no!" Julia sobbed, and Damien turned toward her. He wished he could keep her from seeing, but he had no choice.
"I'm sorry you have to find out like this," he said.
The shift only took a second to happen, but the second felt like an eternity. His energy focused inside, on bringing out the wolf part of his being, Damien let the power take him over. His muscles changed, stretching and contracting, his bones snapping with a crackling sound into the new skeletal configuration. His snout stretched and pushed out his face as fur sprouted through his skin, feeling like a million pinpricks all over his body.
"Another shifter," the wolf growled. "Why are you here?"
As if from a distance, he heard Julia screaming, screaming, oh god he felt her screams shatter through his mind. He fought the terror back, putting up a separation between them. He could still sense her, but as he gained control over his wolf form he was able to distance himself from her emotions. The wolf was in front of him. That was the most important thing.