Carnal Secrets by Suzanne Wright Page A

himself. So can you, but you’re stuck with me—you know this already.”
    Sighing, Nick shook his head. “I told you, you don’t owe me anything.” As usual, Derren ignored Nick’s grumbling. “How did you find me anyway? I would have noticed if you had been following me.”
    “I stayed with Jon long enough to be sure the pack didn’t give him any problems. As I’m sure you already know, he’s doing fine, and he’s been accepted. Though everyone misses you, they understand why you had to leave. As soon as I heard you’d located your mate, I tracked you down using the info you gave Jon this morning. I only got here about ten minutes ago. It must piss you off to know that you’ve been driving from state to state and she was only five hours away from your home.”
    It did. But something else pissed him off more. “It’s not going to be easy to get her to leave with me.”
    Derren’s expression was sympathetic. “You already knew that. Maybe if you told her everything—and I mean everything— it might help her understand.”
    “You’re right. But there’s a problem with that.”
    “Which is?”
    “Shaya has a big heart, and she’d immediately feel sorry for me. I don’t want her to give me a chance because she feels bad for me.”
    “You want to earn her trust.”
    Nick nodded. “And that may take a while.” As a particularly sharp, agonizing pain sliced through his head, he winced.
    “Headaches getting more frequent?”
    The truth was that the headaches had started again two months ago and had very gradually increased in frequency and intensity until he often had one or two each day. Yes, chronic headaches had been a major problem when his cognitive functions first began to degenerate, but that didn’t mean that the same thing was happening again. Headaches could be caused by plenty of things—stress, exhaustion, and emotional tension. There was no denying there had been plenty of that in his life lately. Plus, his father had suffered from chronic headaches most of his adult life; it could be hereditary. “It doesn’t have to mean anything.”
    “Of course it doesn’t. As long as it’s only headaches we’re talking about. If the memory lapses, muscle tremors, or periods of mental disorientation come back, you can’t ignore it.”
    “I won’t.” But he refused to let fear keep him away from Shaya ever again. So unless the other symptoms returned, he wouldn’t allow himself to even speculate if the headaches were anything to be worried about. Unlocking the door to his motor home, Nick said, “I need painkillers and sleep. You need to go home. Once again, I’m firing you.”
    Derren gave him a curt nod. “If that’s what you want.”
    What Nick wanted was Shaya. But he fully understood that the process of winning her trust would be gradual. She was upset, confused, and angry—and justifiably so. He knew he was going to need to be patient, understanding, and sensitive. Patient he could do—he was more patient than most. Understanding and sensitive…He wasn’t much good at that stuff, never had been, so this would be new territory.
    He’d have to resist kissing her again. He wouldn’t stop touching her altogether—he needed her comfortable with and used to his touch. But if he laid another heavy kiss on her, she might think he was trying to use their attraction against her to persuade her. Being that they were mates and the urges were so strong, it probably wouldn’t be hard to seduce her. But he didn’t want that to be why she came to him. He wanted it to be about more than the physical side of things. Unfortunately, resisting her was going to be hard as all shit since he was literally hardwired—body, mind, heart, and soul—to want her.
    Groveling wouldn’t do him any good—not that he knew how to grovel anyway—because the last thing Shaya would ever be attracted to or respect was someone worthy of pity. His and his wolf’s pride would balk at it anyway. There was