Shifters of Silver Peak: Mate For A Month by Georgette St. Clair Page B

endangerment to the attempted kidnapping charges. Ambrose and Marisol had been arrested and charged as accessories.
    She’d also filled out a restraining order against all three of them. She knew this was going to be the talk of their social set tomorrow, and her father would be humiliated and furious. Talk about burning bridges.
    Marcus hadn’t talked to her much as they drove back, but she kept thinking… he came looking for me.
    Why? He had to care, at least a little bit.
    She’d been too rattled from the assault to try to talk about it, or anything else. For once she hadn’t felt like teasing Marcus or trying to draw him out or gossiping about her day.
    When they’d got back to the Silver Peak property, she’d found out that a big, fancy tent had been erected on Marcus’ property so they’d have somewhere to sleep, and everyone had crowded around her and hugged her and threatened to kill Beacham, until she’d burst into tears of stress and relief and gratitude, and Marcus had growled and chased them all off.
    She’d fallen asleep almost immediately afterwards.
    But now she was awake, and looking down at the handsome, sleeping behemoth who’d vowed to protect her no matter what the consequences.
    She blinked in the dark and looked around the tent. It was very homey. There were wooden pallets arranged to make a floor for them, and a big blue rug spread out across the pallets. Marcus had a hand carved nightstand set up next to a futon bed. He’d hung up a string of twinkling crystal lights inside.
    Marcus began moving in his sleep. He groaned. He thrashed on the bed.
    “Marcus. You’re okay,” Eileen said quietly.
    “Don’t touch him!” Marcus shouted. “Take me! Leave him alone! He’s weak, he’s nothing. I’m the one you want!”
    Then he sat bolt upright, panting, staring straight ahead at something that only he could see.
    “Marcus. Baby. You’re safe. I’m here,” Eileen said in low, soothing tones. She reached out and stroked his arm, fingers trailing over his bulging biceps.
    His eyes focused and lit on Eileen.
    “Did I hurt you?” he demanded.
    “Of course not,” she said, keeping her voice calm and steady.
    He was breathing hard.
    “I’ll go sleep outside.” He swung his legs off the side of the bed.
    She felt a clutch of panic squeezing her chest and reached for him, grabbing his arm. “Don’t do that. Don’t leave me.”
    He looked at her for a long moment, and she was afraid he’d go. But then he lay back down next to her and wrapped his arms around her, and she pressed in to his naked body. She could feel his erection pressing against the small of her back, and a slow, warm tide of arousal washed through her body.
    “I don’t want to. I never want to leave you,” he said, his voice hoarse with sorrow. “I want to wrap myself around you and breathe you. I want to look at you all the time. That’s why I’m always running away from you. Because the longer I’m around you, the harder it will be when you finally go.”
    Her breath caught in her throat, and she slid her hand over his and squeezed it.
    “When you go…I’m afraid that’s what will break me,” he said finally.
    She felt her heartbeat quicken. “Maybe I don’t have to go when the month is up. I thought that was what you wanted. But if you wanted me to stay…”
    He squeezed her hand in return. “I want you to stay more than I want air. Or hamburgers,” he added. “And you know how much I love hamburgers.” She blinked back tears at that, she was so touched. If anyone else said it, it would sound ridiculous, but this was Marcus. Honest to a fault and always spoke his mind.
    “Yes. I do know,” she said.
    “But I don’t know what’s happening to me, and I can’t promise anything at all. I might go feral, Eileen. No, you have to know that about me,” he said as she stiffened and drew in a breath of protest. “Pretending it can’t happen won’t make it go away.”
    “What’s giving you these