No matter how carefully she and her proper society friends tried to pretend otherwise, she knew why he looked at her and why she wanted to conceal herself from his gaze. Her skin flushed, color rising from under her collar and sweeping up to the roots of her hair. Her breathing quickened. He could hear the throb of her pulse under the soft flesh of her neck. Her scent had begun a subtle change as her body prepared itself for mating, and his nostrils flared to take in the fragrance of arousal.
She wanted him. And he wanted her. This girl, this haughty, naive woman in her cage of a chair—he wanted her as he had never wanted any woman in his life.
His feet moved of their own accord, carrying him toward her. His hands reached out to touch her, hold her, claim her.
Mine, the wolf howled. Mine.
“Stop,” she whispered. “Morgan. Please.”
He thought he had imagined the plea, but her hands fumbled at her blankets and her eyes begged for mercy. He stopped. Air flooded into his lungs. He shook his head to snap the spider-silk filaments of lust that bound him to Athena, and they released their tenacious grip.
But not entirely. His body still ached and cried out, refusing to be silenced. All he need do was breathe in her scent, and he was caught again. But he had come with a purpose, and he had yet to carry it out.
Niall Munroe had brought him here. He had betrayed Athena—his own, his family, his pack. And Athena was as ignorant of her brother’s deception as she was of the hypocrisy of her society friends.
Morgan had intended to give Athena a chance to fight for herself. Until now, he hadn’t questioned his motives. Physical attraction, the drive to help one of his own kind, dislike of Niall Munroe, pity… it all led to this room and this moment. This undeniable need.
He let out a long breath. “It is time I told you why I came—”
“Just go.” Athena’s blanket was up to her chin, framing her pale face. “If you don’t leave at once, I will be forced to call my maid. It would be better if I did not, for both our sakes.”
He gave his body a final shake and seized the chance for a safer kind of skirmish. “Call your maid, Athena—but I hope that she is a very brave woman. I would not want to frighten her.”
“You enjoy that, don’t you?” The defiant spark returned to her eyes. “You like to intimidate people just because you can. The feelings of others mean nothing to you. I would remove you myself if I were not…” She lifted her chin. “You are no gentleman, Mr. Holt, preying on unprotected women. If you thought—if you ever thought—that I had any interest in you beyond your part in the circus, you were sadly mistaken.”
She had come too close to the truth. Morgan smiled. “Why do you think I am interested? Do you have so many men panting after you, Athena? Do you fight your suitors off with the edge of your tongue, or does your brother do it for you?”
He regretted his cruelty instantly. Her pupils constricted as if he had reached out and shaken her. Then the fierce light in her eyes went out, and she stared down at her hands upon the blanket.
“I have no suitors,” she said. “‘You can see why I do not. I spoke… out of pride. You have a remarkable ability to turn me into a shrew. I forget my manners… I behave quite abominably unlike myself. But you saved my life, and I will not forget that.”
Morgan felt about as tall as Ulysses, and much less honorable. “Athen—”
“No matter why you came, Morgan, it must be obvious that you and I are too different even to speak to each other in a calm and reasonable manner. Let us call a truce, and pretend this misunderstanding never happened.”
Misunderstanding? He would have laughed if he hadn’t become so keenly sensible of her fragility. A single tear would drive him to his knees.