Beast Denied by Faye Avalon Page A

you can be so reasonable about it.”
    Right then, she looked ready to do battle on his behalf. The idea pleased him, made his insides—and other parts—heat up. Nothing sexier than a woman in full-out fury mode, especially when that ferocity was aimed to work in his defense.
    He had to milk it for all it was worth, not that he intended traveling further down the pity-party route.
    “I’m good,” he assured her. “Got all my essential parts in working order. Luckily, the world won’t be denied a horde of future little Galloways pounding across the moor.”
    When her shoulders went back and she swallowed, he gave himself a mental slap for making light of her concerns. “Anyway, now I’ve told you my darkest secrets, how about telling me what made you move to London? I thought you had your mind set on going to university in Plymouth.”
    To keep the question, and mood, easy and relaxed and not have her clam right up on him, which she looked set to do, he picked up their cups and walked toward the kitchen for refills.
    Glancing back, he saw her gaze drop down again, her fingers clasped in her lap. For a moment, he thought he’d have to repeat himself, but she drew in a breath and straightened up. “My aunt offered me the chance to live with her. Moving to London was too exciting to decline. I thought it would be good to defer my studies for a while to take that opportunity.”
    Pouring coffee, he kept his tone light. “And you decided to stay?”
    “By then, I’d made friends and decided to pursue a full-out medical career instead of pharmacology. It made sense to stay put. I always planned on coming home,” she said absently, smiling when he placed the cup on the table in front of her. “I wanted to serve the pack and be of use to the community in general. After my mum died, then Gran, I didn’t want to leave my grandfather on his own.”
    He’d thought she might come home to stay when her father passed away three years back. But apart from a flying visit to attend the funeral, she’d stayed away from the moor.
    He took his seat again. “You miss London?”
    She thought for a moment, considering. “Sometimes. I miss the anonymity of it. Here, everyone knows your business. In London, nobody really cared.”
    “Some people would find that lonely.”
    She almost smiled at him. “Some people, meaning you?”
    “I like solitude on occasions like the next man, but there’s a limit.”
    “You always were a people person.” Now she did smile, her eyes gleaming in the soft lighting. His pulse sped up, his cock hardening so that he wanted to move, to ease the pressure. But he wasn’t about to break the moment.
    They stared at each other for long seconds, during which he fought to stop from grabbing her and wrestling her down onto the sofa.
    When her phone beeped, he had to bite his tongue to stop from cursing out loud.
    She checked and started to get to her feet. “Duty calls.”
    “Why don’t you come back when you’re finished? Let me feed you.”
    “Thanks, but—”
    “You’re a practical woman,” he reasoned. “I’ll bet you just hate food going to waste.”
    “I do. But I can’t come back. There’s no telling how long I’ll be, and things usually pick up as the night draws on.”
    Part of him wanted to press, but he wasn’t about to push this truce they’d been building back even a few steps. So he held her coat, unable to resist leaning forward to sniff her hair and the delicate skin of her neck. Floral and citrus and something uniquely her.
    Draping the scarf around her neck, she turned back to him. “You’ll let me know if you find out anything more?”
    To stop himself touching her, he pushed his fisted hands into his trouser pockets. “Yeah. I’ll let you know.”
    He walked her out, held her car door open. “Stay warm. And remember what I said. Anything out of the ordinary, you give me a call.”
    She smiled. The girl’s smile had made his legs tremble. The woman’s cut them