A snippet for a Saturday…

By popular request… a tiny little hint of Oliver and Hazel from Calling the Bluff, coming out in January.  (Enjoy, Dayanna!)

Anger returned, but more dangerous was the growing warmth around her, power rising in her tiny body and drawing an answering surge from him. She trembled on the edge of the mating fever, so close it should have taken her by now.

And yet she fought it. Even as she glared up at him, she fought it so hard it had to be hurting her. “Everything went wrong.” Her voice was clipped, edged with that same tense heat. “But it wasn’t him. It’s me. And you.”

Oliver couldn’t deny the role he’d played in her frustration, even if it wasn’t his fault. “You’re going to hurt yourself,” he told her gruffly. “The fever’s nothing to play around with.”

“Play?” Her voice rose. “You think I’m playing? I went there to fuck him and I wanted to. But I can’t give in to the mating without giving in to the wolf, and she almost ripped him apart for touching me.”

“Calm down.” The hair on the back of his neck rose, along with the animal inside him. The wolf stirred, awakened as much by the power rolling off her in waves as by the Siren call of her lust. He needed to get her to safety before the fever took her, but he couldn’t touch her. He knew what would happen the moment he did. “We need to get you somewhere. To Jack’s place.”

“No!” Hazel snatched up her mud-stained skirts and circled around him, her entire body rigid. “I’m not getting near Jack, and I’m not going anywhere with you.”

He followed her. “Like it or not, I’m what you’ve got right now. So you can act like a child, or you can let me get you someplace safe.”

Hazel wheeled so quickly he almost ran into her. “If you think I’m going to let you hand me over to the alpha so he can do his duty by me and break my best friend’s heart, you’re a bigger fool than I thought.”

“That isn’t what I meant,” he protested. “He and Ginny can find a way to help you. He doesn’t have to — it’s not –” He bit off his words with a growl. His hands were starting to itch. “Damnation, if you hadn’t waited so long…”

“Yes, I’m a fool. I’m a stupid, romantic fool.” She turned again, but her body had begun to tremble. “Go away, Oliver. I’m fighting her as hard as I can right now, but it hurts. And it won’t stop until you’re gone.”

“It won’t stop at all now. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” He had no choice, so he reached out and grasped her arm. “Hazel, stop.”

Her skin felt hot under his hand. A noise tore free of her, desperate yearning and need, and her arousal filled his senses. She took a gasping breath as her entire body went tense. “Oliver –” Her voice sounded tiny and maybe even afraid. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Shh.” He didn’t have a clue himself, aside from the obvious, but he drew her back against his chest and tried to soothe her. “Try to relax. You’ve got to — We have to get you somewhere.” There was a fishing cabin on the Lonely River, close to Ginny’s ranch. If he could get Hazel there, maybe he could help her until the fever passed. If not, Ginny and Jack wouldn’t be far away. “Just relax.”

She shivered under his hands even as she rubbed back against him in a way that was anything but innocent. “You don’t have to love me, Oliver, but please… please make it stop hurting.”