To Eternity by Daisy Banks Page B

this. You have to make me your mate, not your wife, not your live-in lover, but your mate.”
    He reached for her, put his arms about her and pulled her up from the warmth so she straddled his thighs. She closed her eyes as he took her mouth with his. He kissed her until she whimpered.
    â€œYes.”
    His thought powered through her, melted her bones and she relaxed against him. Desire smoldered in her skin, so her nipples hardened in anticipation of his caresses. She moved her mouth from his. “Then do it, Magnus. Please, I’ll beg if I must. Do it. Make me your mate.”
    â€œNot yet.” He moved her to lie over him in the water. “I know you think you are certain this is what you want, but I need you to have more time to think about all the possibilities, the dangers, the way of life you’d have to accept.”
    She sighed. Some, though not all of the pain, eased from her heart.
    â€œForgive me?” he asked. “I swear I’ll not be so thoughtless again.”
    Everything she’d told herself in the woods, all the tears, the hurt, and the determination to do whatever she must to keep him, swept through her. His reasoning caught at her heart.
    He tightened his embrace about her until she gave a small squeak.
    â€œI’ll not let you go unless you truly wish to leave. I will know if such bitterness is to be mine, Sian. I want you to stay so very much. Everything is right with you.” He found her lips with his and kissed her until the water around them matched their body heat.
    â€œI’ll take you to bed now and show you how much you mean to me until dawn.” He rose from the tub with her in his arms.
    â€œYou’d best tell the staff we won’t be down for dinner,” she murmured.
    â€œYou can telephone down to them while I dry you off in front of the hearth.” His dark gaze held hers, full of promises to make her stomach roll with desire.
    God help her, wolf curse or not, she loved him.

Chapter 6
    Hunched from the pain, and clumsy in his efforts to open the door, Franklyn Gorsewell dropped the keys. He stooped in a welter of agony. He grunted like a hog as he fumbled around the moss-coated plant container beside the front step to find them. At last, the chilly metal met his fingers and he opened the door into his ground floor apartment. After kicking the pile of mail and assorted junk publications aside, he went down the short hallway. The fine hairs on the back of his neck rose as he walked into his darkened sitting room .
    The place stank .
    The unmistakable scent of urine, mixed with the metallic smell of blood, blended with a savage animal musk. The odor sent a shiver down his spine.
    He flipped on the light. The arcing splatter of blood up the walls had spurted from an artery to create a huge pointillist curve on the ceiling. The boarded up window relieved the rusty brown pattern. Thank God, the neighbor found him when she did. The patio window glass had shattered the night of the attack. A welter of lethal shards still lay where they’d fallen, some stained with his blood. Many sat end up, buried in the thick carpet.
    He’d bled so much, he should be dead.
    The wide patch of dried blood appeared so much worse than he’d imagined. No wonder the ambulance crew and the doctors in the emergency room thought he could lose his arm from the horrific injuries.
    A fresh memory of the creature with its snarling jaws tormented him. Instinctively, he drew back from the pain of its bite. He forced himself to look at the room. No monstrous beast salivated with hate in its eyes. He set his bag down by the door, as far from the glass fragments on the carpet as he could. No one would believe the truth if he tried to explain. It was better the medical staff had recorded that the glass caused his wounds.
    His recovery, remarkable in itself, had given the medical team so much to ponder. The causes had faded from their interest, but he’d known.