Tempting the Fire by Sydney Croft Page A

changing into a chupacabra.
    How much he knew—remembered—that was another story.
    We don’t know this for sure, but in his book, Grady says that chupacabras appear to mate for life, so if he’s bonded with you …
    If he’d bonded with her and she left him … My God.
    She needed to focus on the mission. Keeping Chance calm. Let Sela figure out what the hell they would do next. “Are you in pain?” she asked, ignoring what he’d said about her being afraid.
    He shook his head slowly. “Whatever was happening, it’s better now. Since you walked in.” He paused. “What the hell happened, Marlena?”
    “You don’t remember?”
    “Bits and pieces. Like a dream.” He made a noise in his chest, something like a purr, but as his expression hardened, it turned into a growl. “Or a nightmare.” He shoved himself onto one elbow. “What did I do? And why do I want you so much?”
    When she didn’t answer, because how was she supposed to say that he’d jumped on her, screwed her and then shifted into a beast, he gripped her hand tighter.
    “We were talking—”
    “I remember that,” he broke in. “Get to the part where … I think we fucked.”
    “We did. And then Shep came in, and you went crazy.”
    “Why?” he said quietly, his voice low and deadly. “What did they do to me? What did you do to me?”
    “You think I did something to you?”
    “Why else would I act like that? I’m not in the habit of fucking strange women or attacking people at random.”
    “Go to hell.” She shoved away from him. “I’m not in the habit of fucking strangers either, and how conveniently you forget that I was chained to a damned 63

    bed, while you were loose.” She was supposed to be keeping him calm, but fuck that. Since the moment she and Sela had been captured, she’d lost all control, and it was time to take some back.
    THERE WAS SOMETHING MARLENA WASN’T TELLING HIM. H
    ELL, there was something they were all keeping from him—Chance could see it in their eyes. The careful way they moved around him. The way they hustled Marlena in to him when he’d demanded her, even though he was a fucking prisoner.
    He didn’t know much, only that his aches and pains went away and all he wanted to do was be with her.
    They had to have drugged him. This was a trick.
    She wasn’t acting like this was a trick, though, and what had she said about being chained to a bed?
    His mind worked furiously, trying to scrape together memories that were way too fluid. It was like trying to ladle soup with a slotted spoon.
    He remembered needing her like he needed air. He’d had to mate with her, make her his no matter what …
    No matter what. Mate. So … animalistic.
    His gut turned over as fresh memories slapped his brain. Even if these people had drugged him with some sort of crazy libido drug, Marlena hadn’t been part of it. He remembered the terror on her face when he … Oh, Jesus.
    His hands shook as he scrubbed them over his face as if that would scrub away the reality of what had happened. “Shit,” he breathed. “God, Marlena, I’m sorry.” Sorry? That was lame. And if her glare was any indication, she thought so too.
    “You’d better be sorry for accusing me of drugging you or some shit,” she snapped, and then softened her tone. “But don’t be sorry about the rest.”
    He blinked at that. “I attacked you. I remember—”
    “I didn’t fight you, did I?”
    His fists clenched, the way they had around her wrists as he held her for his thrusts. A wave of both heat and nausea rolled over him. “I didn’t give you much choice.”
    “I could have screamed.”
    True. He hadn’t gagged her or anything. Excellent. Good to know some measure of civility had tempered the caveman instincts. “Why did you let me do that to you?”
    Marlena rolled her bottom lip between her teeth, drawing his attention to her mouth. If she’d just move closer … “I don’t know.”
    “Maybe they drugged you too.”
    “We