Master of Smoke

something profoundly alien in his blue eyes. Abruptly the hostility faded, replaced by a hot male interest. She tugged again, but he dragged her down and breathed in deeply, as if drinking in her scent.
    Just as she drank his. Damn, he smelled good. Pure male musk, tempting despite the sweat, rage, and fear lingering in his scent.
    Eva frowned. There was blood, too, smelling of copper and pain as it rolled from the cuts and scratches marring muscled ribs and brawny arms.
    “It’s you.” His voice was incredibly deep, as dark and soft as black velvet. “At last.”
    “Me?” She swallowed. “What are you talking about?”
    “We have waited for you for so very long,” he rumbled, his gaze searching her face with a passionate intensity she’d never seen in a man’s eyes. “We’ve hungered for your love—for your simple company. And now here you are. At last.”
    As she stared at him in helpless fascination, his nostrils flared and his pupils expanded. With a tug of her wrist, he pulled her right down into a kiss, possessive and deliciously sexy.
    For a minute, she was stunned still. Then arousal hit her in a wave, so incredibly hot, it was all she could do not to skim down her jeans and mount him on the spot.
    Oh, hell, it’s that time of the year, Eva thought, and kissed him back.
    Most of the time, she felt relatively normal. Being a werewolf didn’t give her any desire to kill, and she controlled when and where she fuzzed out; the moon had nothing to do with it. But for one month a year, generally around springtime, Eva’s hormones went nuts. It was like PMS with a nymphomania chaser. She got incredibly bitchy and incredibly horny, all at the same time. Even the skinny geek customers at the shop started looking pretty good, except, given the bitchy thing, they pissed her off.
    In the back of her mind, she’d known she was getting close to That Time for a couple of weeks. Now Tall, Dark, and Naked seemed to have triggered a full-blown attack of raging hormones. Eva dragged her mouth away from his to gasp as a wave of heat rippled over her body from hairline to heels. Desperately, she fought to think. I can’t do this. I don’t even know this guy.
    Having lost access to her mouth, TDN started working on her neck, right under her ear, licking and kissing and—oh, God—biting her pulse with delicious little nips. One hand found her breast, cupping her in long-fingered heat through her Comix Cave T-shirt and Victoria’s Secret bra, thumb flicking back and forth over a hard nipple. Squeeze. Flick.
    Oh, holy God.
    Somebody was making a tiny moaning sound. With a jolt, Eva realized it was her.
    Somebody else was making a low rumbling sound. That was him.
    It wasn’t a growl, but it was loud, coming from deep in his broad chest, a rhythmic in-and-out rumble in time to his breathing. She’d never heard a human make that particular sound before, but something else had ... Wait, the cat she’d had as a teenager.
    TDN was purring.
    People didn’t purr. Books said they did, but humans weren’t capable of making that sound ... and who cared? He had amazing hands. The other one was exploring the curve of her butt through her jeans, squeezing and stroking.
    There was some very good reason she shouldn’t make love to him right now. Damned if she could remember what it was, though. Oh, yeah—White Fang. We really need to ...
    TDN tangled a fist in her hair and dragged her head back down so he could kiss her some more, his mouth surprisingly gentle despite its searing heat.
    With a heroic effort of will, Eva jerked back far enough to talk. “We can’t,” she gasped in desperation against TDN’s hot, soft lips. “We’ve got to get out of here. When that werewolf comes to, he’s gonna eat us. That happened to me once, and believe me, it’s not fun.”
    The purr cut off, and TDN stiffened against her. “You are right. We must leave.”
    “I’ve got a car.” She dragged herself off him despite the protests of her lust-crazed body. “Right over here.”
    “Good.” He rose easily to his feet as she scrambled to hers. “We will go to your home, away from my enemy.”
    “Yeah, I’ve got an apartment a few miles away. We’ll be safe there.”
    He nodded, flicking a long lock of silken black hair over his shoulder. “Yes. Then we can have sex.”
    Eva stopped and stared at him. He was easily six-four or -five and built like an NFL quarterback, all broad shoulders and long legs, power and speed in