Ecstasy Untamed by Pamela Palmer

to find the other woman watching her curiously. But a moment later, Kara stepped over to her and slipped her arm through Faith’s. Together, they turned to watch Hawke pour several glasses as Xavier revealed all of Pink’s lemonade secrets.
    “X? Pink?” Hawke asked. “Lemonade?”
    “Sure!” Xavier replied.
    “No thank you, Hawke.” Pink ambled toward them carrying a large tin and set it on the black granite countertop. As Pink lifted the lid, the smell of freshly baked oatmeal cookies filled the kitchen.
    Kara reached for one and motioned Faith to join her. Hawke slid the glasses toward them, then took one to Xavier.
    “Thanks, Dude!”
    A moment later, Faith felt Hawke once more at her back, brushing her shoulder as he reached for a cookie.
    Kara looked at him with amusement. “Since when did you acquire a sweet tooth?” She glanced at Faith. “When I first got here, all they ate was meat.”
    Hawke turned sideways, leaning against the island only a few inches from Faith’s elbow. He was crowding her, just a little, in a way she suspected was common to shape-shifters since she knew them to be particularly physical creatures. In a way that shot her awareness of him sky-high. She could almost feel the heat from his body.
    “It’s hard not to crave a little sweetness when there’s so much in the room,” Hawke said quietly, a twinkle in his eye.
    Kara laughed.
    Though the words were blatant flattery, Faith sensed sincerity in them. Faith turned to find him watching her with a look in his eyes that made her chest feel suddenly tight, turning her breathing rapid. And shallow.
    She supposed it was a good thing all the Ferals didn’t affect her like this, or she’d never take a full breath again.
    She forced herself to nibble the soft, delicious cookie as she struggled to ignore her body’s inappropriate reaction to the male at her side.
    As Xavier regaled them, in detail, about the food they’d prepared for the reception, they each had several cookies. Finally, Kara glanced at the clock. “I’d better get moving. Are you ready to head back upstairs, Faith?”
    “If you want another cookie first, I’ll show you the way,” Hawke offered.
    Faith looked at him with surprise, and their gazes caught. He wanted her to stay, she’d heard it in his voice and could see it in his eyes. Was he feeling this . . . weirdness . . . between them, too? Not weirdness. Attraction. Those dark eyes watched her in a way that set butterflies to flight in her stomach. And she knew this was a mistake. She could feel the electricity arcing in the air between them.
    She needed to stop this, to leave with Kara and end it now. But staying a few more minutes, enjoying the decadent pleasure of a rare and harmless flirtation, was such a temptation.
    “That works,” Kara said, a smile in her voice. “I’ll see you both soon.”
    Faith pulled her gaze from Hawke’s just as Kara disappeared through the swinging door. Pink and Xavier, too, had wandered away at some point, leaving her alone in the kitchen with Hawke. Maxim would not be happy. And the way her pulse was tripping, she couldn’t really blame him.
    She stepped away, casually circling the island until the wide counter separated her from Hawke, then reached for another cookie. Just one more, then she’d go. “You really don’t eat sweets?”
    As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she remembered the way he’d alluded to her and Kara as “sweets.” Her gaze snapped up to his, heat rising in her cheeks at the weak double entendre. He wouldn’t have caught it, surely.
    The mix of laughter and heat in his eyes told her he had. Most definitely. But to her relief, he acted the gentleman, answering the question she’d intended to ask, not the far more carnal one.
    “None of the current Ferals has much of a sweet tooth, nor have the past couple of Radiants. Kara’s the exception. Skye, too, loves sweets, so Pink bakes on a regular basis for the first time in