Accidentally Yours (Coyote Bluff Series Book 1) (5 page)

“What are you doing in here? Out. Now. You can’t be in here. There is no way I can sleep knowing you’re here.” Her anger was still tempered with a softness he wasn’t used to. She stood in the doorway watching him
, with concern in her eyes. “Titan, out. You can stay in the hallway if you want to be up here, but that’s it.”

Ian plopped his butt on the floor next to her bed, grinning at her, and slowly lowered himself to the floor. He huffed a breath of contentment when his head hit his paws. He turned his head just enough to look up at her. He watched emotions play across her face and found himself hoping she’d allow him to stay right there on her floor.

She muttered to herself and slowly entered the room, watching him warily. Her fear made him want to sneeze. The scent was thick and ugly, but she wasn’t too afraid. He waited her out, watching her move around the room.

“I can’t believe I’m going to do this. Sleeping with a wolf in my bedroom? Really, Cammie, you are so stupid.” She huffed around her room, pacing back and forth at the foot of the bed. Indecision played across her face as she studied him. “Fine. But, you aren’t to hurt me, got it? If you kill me I’m going to be pissed.”

He chuffed low in his chest, a sound he meant to be soothing. She looked at him, startled for a moment, but then laughed. The sound of it washed over him, tickling his spine. She moved to the other side of the bed and he listened to her pull back the covers and drop her robe. He could see it pooled on the floor when he peeked under the frame.

The soft sound of her sliding into bed was erotic enough that he almost shifted. She sighed deeply, humming slightly as she burrowed under the covers. How he wanted to be in there with her. He stopped short.
Oh, you’ve got it bad, pup
.

He settled down, listening to her breathing slow. Once he was healed he wanted to meet Cammie in human form, maybe ask her out on a date. He could actually talk to her then, maybe hold her hand. His mind started playing through possible date locations as he listened to her finally fall asleep. He closed his eyes and grinned to himself. He’d never slept in someone else’s house in wolf form before, but he liked it in her home.

Cammie looked around and marveled at the forest. It was nearly dark. She could barely see the remnants of the pink sunset through the bare limbs. Shadows had formed under the trees and undergrowth, making the edges of the clearing look sinister. The smell of fall permeated the heavy air. She loved the smell of dried leaves. There was something sweet to the scent that tickled her nose and brought her a smile.

She breathed in deeply and closed her eyes. She couldn’t remember what she was doing out there, but it was too nice to worry. She loved nighttime. Loved the quiet, the sense of the world going to sleep. Every breath she took calmed her. She’d felt edgy, anxious a few moment before
, but the night blanketed her in its soft silence.

The sound of something approaching gave her a spike of adrenaline. When she turned to leave she looked down and noticed she was barefooted and wearing her favorite spring dress. The flowing skirt whipped around her legs, caressing her naked skin.
What the hell am I doing outside in this dress and with no shoes?

Her thoughts were fuzzy as she tried to think through that question. It wasn’t like her to go outside without shoes. It should be too cold for her to wear the spaghetti strap dress in fall, but the slight breeze on her shoulders was warm, like a summer night. She turned in time to watch her wolf enter the clearing.

Maybe she’d gone on a walk with him? No, that didn’t feel right. Perhaps she’d chased him out into the woods because he was still hurt. That didn’t really feel right either, but she couldn’t remember how she’d managed to wander so far from her home. Her feet should hurt from the sticks and roots she would have stepped on, but she felt nothing. No pain at all.

He watched her with that predatory stare that sent instinctual fear coursing through her. She was pretty sure he wouldn’t hurt her, but she didn’t want to bank on that thought. He looked better, though.

Her mind glazed over for a moment. It was like thinking through cotton, or a pond of water. Each thought was slow to form, lazily winding through her brain. It would surge and ebb with a pattern she couldn’t grasp. She would be worried about it if she could keep that idea long enough to concentrate on it.

A noise snapped her from her haze. Her wolf had approached her on silent feet. She hadn’t even noticed hi
m coming closer. Cammie shook her head to dispel the muddled feeling but it did nothing but make her dizzy. She should be terrified, at least a little scared perhaps, but nothing changed. She watched the animal take two more steps toward her. His nose pressed against her leg, cold and wet. At least she could feel external things. His fur rubbed against her calf as he sank to the ground.

His movements were fluid. Animal grace made the act almost beautiful to watch. She wondered for a moment why he would be lying at her feet, but a strange sensation started to tickle along her skin
, robbing her of all thoughts. Her eyes widened and she attempted to take a step back from the wolf. Her feet were rooted to the spot. All she could do was gasp as another wave of energy pushed over her skin and every hair on her body stood at attention. The animal made a single whimper before his body started to change.

A soft glow erupted from his skin, filling the small clearing with an eerie light. The body that lay at her feet contorted and changed so quickly that it probably only took three heartbeats, but it felt like an eternity. Fur shortened, pulled back into his skin. Fore and hind legs changed, lengthened, morphed into human appendages. His muzzle slowly pulled back into his face. The transformation left a naked human male laying at her feet, huffing great breaths into his lungs.

“What the fuck?” She breathed the words, unaware she’d said them out loud until the man’s head whipped around.

Beautiful grey eyes gleamed from under dark lashes. His mouth was inches from her ankle. She could feel his warm breath skating over her skin. She hastily stepped back from him, trying not to stare. How could she not? She’d just watched her wolf morph into a wonderfully built man. The animal was majestic in his power and predatory grace, but the man was gorgeous in a purely male way.

Even lying on the ground, huddled in on himself, he was massive. A wide back showed off sculpted muscles that tapered to a very trim waist. Shaggy blond hair hid his face, falling around his neck. The little that she could see of his face was masculine, hard planed, scruffy with a day’s worth of beard. She tried to keep from checking out his ass. He was already such an eyeful that she was afraid to check out the butt. If it was as manly as the rest, she was in serious trouble.

Her eyes moved over his body against her wishes. Of course, his ass was perfect. She loved men’s butts, and his was one of the best she’d ogled. She checked the corner of her mouth to make sure she hadn’t drooled a little.
Wow, you could sink your teeth in that ass
.

A manly snort stopped her mouth-watering perusal. She looked away from his wonderful posterior and caught the laughter in his eyes. His bangs still covered most of his face, but those eyes shined from under the wisps of hair. She felt a blush creep over her cheeks. She must’ve muttered out loud again.
Crap
.

His muscles bunched just before he stood. He was immense when standing. Cammie was barely over five feet tall, but he towered over her. She stumbled back a few feet, putting space between her and the giant of a
god weaving drunken-like in front of her. When he turned to face her the breath in her chest caught.
Holy mother of all that’s holy
. He was stunning. His chest went on for miles, covered sparingly with a spattering of blond curls.

She forced her eyes to remain above his bellybutton but they so wanted to see what else he had. While she’d looked him over their surroundings had melted away, leaving him the only thing she concentrated on. Slowly the silence in the woods pushed into her mind. She glanced around and noticed that nothing had changed. The level of light was the same, the slight breeze carried the same smells and warmth to her. She couldn’t hear another single thing. No birds chirping their last song of the night, no airplanes buzzed overhead, no cars moved anywhere, not even the sound of cows braying at the farm down the road. It hadn’t seemed strange to her before, but now that she was thinking about the lack of environmental sounds fear edged into her mind. Not only was she in a weird part of the woods, but now she was faced with a mountain of a man that had once been her wolf.

“Cammie, please don’t get scared. I can’t hurt you. It’s just a dream.” The male’s voice was so deep the words were almost a growl. She stumbled back another step. He knew her name. Fear slid through her mind. What she wouldn’t give for a weapon. Even if he was harmless and this was a dream, something to defend herself with would be useful. She felt a tingling in her hand and looked down to find her .22 hanging from her palm. She nearly dropped it in surprise. She glanced up at the male and found him grinning.

“Huh. Weirdest dream I’ve had in a while.” She rubbed her arm with her empty hand, trying to get the hairs to
lie down. She looked around the clearing, refusing to eye the man-candy standing, unabashedly naked, in front of her. She could still feel the warmth of her blush on her cheeks. “So, you’re what I conjure up after having a wolf in my house and after reading all the shifter romance novels?”

The grin that spread across his face was enough to steal her breath away. She could feel her body temperature rising just from that look. The sinfully wicked glint in his hooded eyes had her legs melting. “You read romance novels? Are they full of naughty things?”

He moved toward her with such animalistic power she barely kept herself upright. Every feminine cell in her body wanted to swoon and be caught in his masculine embrace. She could see the muscles moving under his skin, rippling as he stalked her. His shoulders moved to counterbalance each step, causing the muscles across his chest and down his stomach to bunch. She still refused to look down farther though. Silly of her, really, seeing this was her dream and all.

His chuckle brought her eyes back to his face. His whisper moved across the small space separating them. “Do you dream about having sensual experiences often, Cammie?”

The way he said her name was like a caress. He rolled the M’s around in his mouth before the sounds left his lips. Perhaps it was the slight purr he added to them that made it sound so sensual. She shook her head, afraid she was falling into the mental cotton again.

A soft stroke along her naked shoulder drew her back from her thoughts. A sizzle of awareness burned along the same path, lighting up her nervous system. She tried to hide the shiver that quaked through her body, but the chuckle that rumbled in his chest told her she didn’t quite do it. She looked up into those eyes and lost herself for a moment. They were like stormy seas or the fog at dawn. They swirled with hidden secrets.

“Do you, Cammie? Do you read those stories and then wish for them in your dreams? Do you hope for a male to take you, make you moan?”

She stepped back. What the hell was she thinking? Dream or no dream, no one was going to fluster her. Shit. She was just like one of those women in the books. Dreamy and confused, soft and helpless. She had enough of that during her waking hours. She didn’t need it in her dreams too.

“That is none of your business. It’s time I turned this dream around. First off, you need clothes. I’m sick of avoiding your cock, which I’m sure would be beautiful and everything, but isn’t something I need to drool over right now.” As she said it, and the thought struck her about clothes, they materialized on his body. She almost laughed at the look that crossed his face. “You thought you were going to get some? Really? It’s my dream, buddy, and right now I’d really like to not think about sex.”

The clothes she’d thought up didn’t do much to hide his body. A tight, white
T-shirt stretched across his chest. She was sure if he flexed his arms the seams would rip. It was tucked into a pair of well used blue jeans that hugged his legs and hips like a second skin. She gave herself permission to ogle his package now that it was covered and boy, she wasn’t disappointed. She hoped the zipper would hold.

“You created me in your dream, changed me from wolf to man, and you don’t want to have sex? What kind of dream is this?” His disgruntled tone pulled a laugh from her.

“Sorry, cowboy, but I’m just not in the mood to have all my fantasies given to me and then wake to find that none of it was real. I’ve had a shitty couple of days and don’t need to add disappointment on top of it all.” She turned and looked around the woods. What was she going to do with Mr. Gorgeous if they weren’t going to do the horizontal bop?

“Ian. My name is Ian.” The softness of the words pulled her focus back to the male. He stood awkwardly
, staring at the ground. Interesting that she’d conjure up a sensitive male although after Ron’s issues maybe it wasn’t so surprising.

“
Well, Ian. Let’s go for a walk. You can tell me about shifting and I can try to figure out which books I’ve borrowed stuff from to create you.” She held out her hand for him, thinking it a gesture of friendship. The moment his palm wrapped around hers, energy moved along her skin. Heat and need flowed from their joined hands to her belly. She swallowed a moan. Didn’t she just decide that they weren’t going to go all sexual?

His hand was warm and calloused as it held hers. Shaking her head at her own inability to control her dream she turned in a small circle. The forest was fairly dense all the way around the clearing
, but there were a couple of trails leading from it. She headed toward one, tugging lightly on his hand. “Come on, we’ll go that way. Who knows how long I get to sleep. Might as well enjoy the night before I’m whipped back to reality, right?

They wandered in silence for a few minutes
. She walked ahead, dragging him along with her. Her body was jolted by little shocks of energy that pulsed along her nerves and collected in her belly. The heat generated was starting to make her uncomfortable, but not in a painful way. She could feel her pussy starting to warm. She tried to pull her hand from his, but he held firm.

When she turned to confront him she found herself pressed against his chest.
It was like colliding with a brick wall. She would have bruised if it hadn’t been a dream. Before she could fall on her ass, he wrapped hard arms around her waist.

“Easy there, hon. You don’t need to fall down and wake yourself up, now do you?” He stroked a hand down her back, stopping perilously close to her ass. If she moved at all she knew that hand would slide the inch or two it needed to and he’d be palming her cheek. Her traitorous body wanted that so badly. She could imagine his palms resting on her ass, warm and heavy.
Pull it together, woman, you’re not having sex in your dreams with hunky Ian. You promised yourself
.

With a huff she backed out of his arms. “Thanks. So, why can I feel some sort of electrical charge when you touch me? I don’t remember that being a part of any of the books I’ve read recently.”

“That, my dear, is one of the telling marks of a potential mate. You can feel my heart beating as an energy pulse. Cool isn’t it? That surprised me when I touched your hand.” He turned and walked a few steps away. Cammie couldn’t keep her eyes from traveling to the denim covered perfection of his ass. His next words brought her eyes back up to his. “When you touched me in wolf form I figured I would sense it if you were a potential mate, but I didn’t feel anything. It might be because I was injured. Who knows. But, young lady, the fact that we both feel it, dream or not, is a pretty good indication that we could be something awesome together.”