Wild Invitation

extent of it until tonight. Kisses on the cheek, hugs, whispered congratulations accompanied by thoughtful gifts, they kept coming. Walker had found himself shaking hands with people throughout the night, been hugged by countless children.
    “Are you having fun?” she asked, aware he preferred to stay out of the limelight.
    “I get to celebrate you.” A slow curve of his lips. “It’s a perfect night.”
    “Walker.”
    Bending his head and sliding one hand around her nape, he kissed her slow and with exquisite patience…so long and deep that howls went up around them. But her mate didn’t release her until he was good and ready. Flustered and pleasured, her hands fisted on the fine cotton of his white shirt, she drew in a trembling breath. “Just when I thought I could predict what you’d do next…”
    Walker ran his thumb across her lip, his other hand splayed on her lower back to hold her close. “I love you more than I’ll ever be able to say, ever be able to describe. You’re my starlight on a dark night.”
    Eyes burning at the stark beauty and romance of his declaration, she whispered, “You just did.”
    He went motionless. “Lara, did you hear that?”
    “Yes, of course,” she said, sniffing away the happy tears. “It’s not that noisy.”
    Walker’s lips curved, and then he was grinning in a way he hardly ever did outside the privacy of their home.
Can you hear this, too?
    “Yes, I—” Her eyes went wide as she realized she hadn’t seen his mouth shape the words. “This is impossible.” She knew of two changeling/Psy couples who had a level of true telepathic communication between them, but there were unusual circumstances in both cases. “I don’t have any Psy genes.”
    Walker cupped her face, bending his knees so they were eye to eye. “Yes, but you have an ability that may as well be a Psy one. It makes rational sense that there is a connection, even if changeling healing is no longer recognized as a true psychic gift.”
    Lara tried to think, lost the thread, her mind a place of delirious chaos. “Let’s talk about the logic of it later.” Bubbling with excitement, she was the one who kissed him this time, nipping at his lower lip, suckling the sensual hurt, her wolf all but bursting out of her skin. “Can you hear me, if I think hard?”
    Walker cocked his head, frowned. “No. But it may develop in time.”
    Knowing that the telepathy only went one way for now didn’t diminish her excitement in the least, not when she’d just been given the greatest of gifts, the ability to hear the beautiful things her Walker thought about her. “Talk to me,” she whispered, snuggling close. “I like hearing you inside my mind.”
    His cheeks creased.
Did I tell you how very, very much I like your dress?
    “No.” She linked her hands around his neck, his own on the waist of her flirty red halter-neck dress. “And I didn’t tell you how sexy you look in this suit.” The steel gray was perfect on him. “It makes me want to grip this tie and haul you off to our bedroom.”
    You won’t hear a protest from me.
    Reaching down to fiddle with one of the buttons on his shirt as they continued to sway to the music, she said, “Your starlight?” her voice soft with wonder.
    My everything.

Coming June 2013 from Berkley Sensation!
    The shocking and unmissable 12th novel in
    Nalini Singh’s extraordinary Psy-Changeling series!
    The rules are about to change.