Wild Invitation

split-second of eye contact. “Chief’s with the healer—he twisted his ankle this morning. Said to tell you he’ll get in touch later today.”
    “No problem,” Indigo said in a distracted tone. “Those are some gorgeous flowers on your desk.”
    “Yes. From Cooper,” Grace admitted, knowing the gossip would reach the Sierra Nevada den by the end of the day anyway.
    She’d underestimated the speed of the pack grapevine.
    “I figured.” An open grin. “So…why do you look mortified?” Her tone cooled. “You don’t share his interest?”
    “Of course I do.” Until her entire body ached for his touch. “God, what red-blooded woman would turn away from a man like Cooper?”
    Indigo laughed. “Sorry about that,” she said a little sheepishly. “I know it’s none of my business, but he’s my friend. I’d hate for him to be hurt.” A pause before she added, “I can see he’s made a good choice—you’re smart, sexy…and without a doubt want to jump his bones.”
    Grace groaned at the sly tease. “Everyone is going to be watching us now.”
    She was right. And that was before Cooper stole her away for lunch since he had to be on night shift on a perimeter section and wouldn’t see her for dinner. “Did you like the flowers?” he asked, bracing his arm above her head on the tree trunk on which she leaned.
    He looked so pleased with himself that she felt a surge of wild affection. “Yes.” And because there was no pain in his eyes today, she didn’t bring up the worry that continued to simmer in her at whatever it was that was hurting him. Instead, she petted him with her words, her hands. “I’ll miss you tonight.”
    “Tomorrow, you’re all mine.” The rough promise melted her bones.
    Of course, her family wasn’t so excited about the news of her relationship with Cooper. The only way Grace kept them from coming down to meddle in the situation was to threaten to never return home for a visit again. When she finally got off the comm with them, she fell into bed, her wolf exhausted by the aggression.

Chapter 9
    TORMENTED BY EROTIC dreams in which she indulged in the most delicious of sins with Cooper, Grace came into her office the next day to find it filled with balloons and her workmates hanging around with huge grins on their faces.
    The part of her that had been forced into rebellion in an effort to fight her family’s overprotectiveness thought she should be annoyed at the way Cooper was accelerating things, but she looked beyond that, to the core of who she was and knew she was charmed. This male, her wolf said, knew how to make his woman feel good.
    The truth was, she didn’t need the reins of their courtship, wouldn’t be comfortable with them. And while it occasionally made her blush, she could deal with the pack’s good-natured and gentle teasing. Of course, Cooper had to keep ratcheting it up a notch—boxes of fine chocolates delivered to her home and office, an honest-to-God gorilla love-gram that had her entire crew in hysterics…and gifts far more private.
    Like the exotic perfume he insisted on dabbing on her wrists himself after making her a home-cooked dinner, and the midnight blue silk sheets she found on her bed one day when she went home midmorning to pick up something she’d forgotten. Her breath caught, her fingers unable to resist touching the exquisite fabric, her mind supplying her with vivid images of what Cooper would look like sprawled on those sheets, all darkly bronzed skin and heavy muscle.
    Her fingers curled into her palms, a needy whimper escaping her lips. Because in one area, Cooper wasn’t pushing, the skin privileges they shared limited to long, lazy kisses that hadaddicted both sides of her nature. She knew it was on purpose, that he was seducing her one small, luscious bite at a time, taking care not to set off her wolf’s survival instincts as he had that night in her bedroom, but she ached, sexual frustration a slow burning ember in her gut.
    Until when Cooper tracked her down that afternoon, she said, “You’re driving me insane.”
    He went motionless where he’d taken a seat in the access corridor beside her crouching form. “Want me to stop?”
    No!
“I…” And because he mattered, because she never wanted him to think he couldn’t be who he was with her, she found the courage to say, “I like it when you’re bad.”
    He reached out to run his hand over her thigh and the embers glowed a deep, hot red. “You have no