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The driver carried their bags into the house, then left them alone. Jason led Kelsey inside, his tensionlevel dropping as soon as he inhaled the fresh mountain air.

“This is stunning, Jason. I love the wood floors and the simplicity of the décor. I’m not one for elaborate

furniture or having a lot of ‘stuff’ clutter a room.”

She noticed. He didn’t like things ornate or busy, although a lot of women he knew would want toredecorate. “I’m glad you like it. Would you like a drink?”

“Love one.”

He led her into the kitchen and opened a bottle of champagne. “Would you like to sit in the hot tub andwatch the stars come out?”

Taking a sip, she said, “Okay. Let me unpack and get my suit on.”

“You don’t need a swimsuit to get in the hot tub with me. I’ve seen you naked already.”

She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it and nodded. “Okay. Let me go put on acover-up for when we get out.”

He grinned and directed her to the master bedroom where he’d had the driver put their luggage. Mightas well not give her ideas that she’d be sleeping anywhere this weekend other than with him.

He set the champagne in an ice bucket next to the hot tub, then brought out a bowl of strawberries. Thestaff did a great job getting everything ready at the spur of the moment, then discreetly disappearing. Ofcourse, he paid them quite well to do so.

After stripping, he slipped into the tub, the steam rising off water that was set at a perfect temperature tocounteract the chill in the air tonight.

The slight breeze brought the earthy, woodland scent to him. The urge to shift and run into the woodsnearly overpowered him. To smell the fresh pine needles, dig into the soft earth and run as far as hewanted to. That was one of the reasons he loved it here. He had privacy to be himself.

Well, normally he would. But not right now. He forced away his primal needs, knowing he couldn’t

change right now. Not with Kelsey here. That would have to wait until he figured out a way to break the news to her. He wondered how she’d react, since he knew basically nothing about her. He’d had Brandon run a background check on her. Twenty-five. Daughter of the owner of
 
The Oracle
. Mother died when she was three. No brothers, sisters or other relatives. Journalism degree. Worked at the newspaper since she was a teen.

Nothing in her background clouded his desire for her. Except maybe the journalism part. He couldn’tvery well prevent her from doing her job, but he could hope that when she found out about him, she’dkeep his secret.

His career depended on it.

He heard Kelsey’s footsteps on the wood deck and turned. She wore a thick robe that covered herupper thighs, but gave him a glimpse of long, slender legs. The robe had parted, a tantalizing peek at hergenerous cleavage his reward.

“Water feels great. Come on in.”

She walked toward him and sat on the edge, trailing her fingertips along the surface of the water. “It’scold outside.”

“It’s hot in here.”

She seemed reluctant to move.

“I won’t bite.” Well, he would, but not ‘til later.

“I’m having second thoughts about all this, Jason.”

His heart dropped to his feet. “About getting in the hot tub, or about something else?”

“About all of this. You and me. This is all happening so quickly. Why am I here with you?”

“Because you said yes when I asked you to come up here.” He felt her hesitation, knew that she was

troubled about something.

“I know what I said. But why did you ask? You could bring any one of a thousand women up here.

Beautiful women.”

“I did ask a beautiful woman to come up here with me. And she said yes. Now get in the hot tub.”

A sparkle glinted in her eyes and her cheeks tinged pink, as they seemed to always do when she wasembarrassed. Did she not know how stunning she was? A full, curvy body and long legs, she was theepitome of perfect woman in his eyes.

Scooting her legs over the edge of the tub, she dipped them in, then untied the robe and let it fall to thefloor of the deck before sliding quickly into the water. He’d caught only a glimpse of her body.

She sat across from him on the other bench. “Come over here, Kelsey.”

“I’m fine right here.”

She was shy! But why? After what they’d shared last night, she’d have no reason to be coy with him.

But uncertainty filled her. He sensed every one of her conflicting emotions.

“You stay there, then.” He stood and grabbed their glasses of champagne, handing one to her, then grabbed the bowl of strawberries and sat next to her. Before she could say a word, he grabbed a strawberry and popped it into her open mouth.

She bit down and chewed. He watched the way she licked her lips. After taking a sip of champagne andswallowing, she said, “That’s good.”

Indeed it was. Jason knew that any movement of her lips was going to forever give him a raging hard-on.

“Does kind of explode in your mouth, doesn’t it?”

She arched a brow. “Yes, as a matter of fact it does. Very sweet, too, and the champagne gives it anadded tanginess. Here, you try.” She slipped one into his mouth and he closed his lips over her fingers,tasting her along with the strawberry.

They spent a few minutes feeding each other. Soon, they’d polished off the bowl and the bottle, then laidtheir heads back and looked up at the sky.

The three-quarter moon pulled at him, making his blood turn hot, his skin tingle with anticipation and hiscock hard as the trunk of the woodland trees. In a couple days, the moon would be full and he’d have toannounce his mate to his pack. He didn’t have nearly enough time.

“Tell me about your job,” he asked, wanting nothing more than to sink his cock into Kelsey’s tight heat

right now, but afraid she’d think all he wanted from her was sex.

“It’s all I’ve ever known, and everything that I love. My dad used to bring me to
 
The Oracle
 
offices when I was little. By the time I started school I was already making up stories in my head. When I learned to write, I kept a journal. My dad tells me I was always interviewing someone, and I was pretty darn good at it, even when I was six.”

“Your father thinks very highly of you. That’s admirable.”

“Thanks. I think pretty highly of him, too. He’s been my inspiration, always after me to seek the truth and not be afraid to tell the world about it. That as long as it was true and could be backed up with evidence, then it was our obligation to report it.”

The truth. When he told her about himself, it would be true. When she watched him transform, it wouldbe evidence. Would she tell the world about him, about his family?

Why couldn’t he have chosen someone outside of politics or journalism as his mate? Why did it have tobe so instinctual? It wasn’t like he could change his mind about Kelsey. The moment he’d met her themagic had caught hold of him and held, and he knew she was the one. He could no more turn his backon his need for her than he could cut off his own limb.

But he might very well be destroying himself by revealing who and what he was.

“What if you had a friend or relative with a secret, and that secret, while newsworthy, could also

devastate their very lives? Because it was true and you had evidence to that fact, would you write about

it?”

She sat up and looked at him, curiosity filling her green eyes. “Are you telling me you have a secret?”

Chapter Five

Kelsey wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer, but Jason’s thinly veiled “what if” told her he washiding something. Although she loved her work, sometimes she wished she wasn’t a journalist, that shewasn’t so consumed with getting a story that it overrode everything else in her life. This was one of thosetimes.

“Me? No. I don’t have any secrets to tell.”

He was lying. She knew it, felt it, sensed that he wanted to tell her, but didn’t trust her.

“Then why did you ask?”

He shrugged. “Curious, I guess. Must be difficult to know where to draw the line between what’snewsworthy and what’s just plain gossip.”

His statement rankled her. “I don’t gossip. Everything I print is based on solid evidence.”

“Which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the public’s right to know.”

She’d had that argument with critics of the press for years. “I guess it depends on what the public thinksthey should know.”

“I just think there are too many important things that could be printed. Unfortunately, the press

oftentimes think that someone’s personal life is more interesting than the good work they do.”

Which led her to believe there was something in his personal life he didn’t want anyone to know about.

And he didn’t trust her enough to reveal any of his secrets to her.

Not that she blamed him, but then again, her word was on the line. Her personal interest in him warredwith the side of her that smelled a scoop. But a promise was a promise. “I gave you my word thatwhatever happens this weekend is off the record. If you have something to say, then say it and I won’tput it in print.”

He smiled and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “If I have something to tell you, I will. But right now Iwant to enjoy the night with you.”

The reporter in her wanted to press him for details, to finagle a way to get him to spill whatever secretshe held. The woman in her wanted to kick that reporter’s ass right off the property so she could enjoybeing with Jason.

Just once she wished she could turn the internal demons off. Couldn’t she do that for one weekend?

Simply enjoy being a woman in the company of a man who clearly desired her?

Jason moved to the other bench across the spa, pulling her along so that she faced away from him. He

sat her between his legs and wrapped his arms around her middle.

“I like sitting here and looking at the lake. You can see the moon reflected in the water,” he said.

She nodded, trying to focus on the clear lake in front of her, but her body was more tuned in to thebrush of his arms along the underside of her breasts. “It’s lovely.”

Nuzzling her neck, he licked her gently. “Yes, you are.”

Her nipples hardened and puckered as she shivered under his hot tongue. When he lightly nibbled hershoulder, she shuddered her next breath. His cock rose and pressed against her buttocks, hard, urgent ashe rocked gently against her. She swallowed and licked her lips, feeling every movement he made as if itwere the first time a man had touched her.

“Your body entices me, Kelsey. Soft skin, perfectly formed breasts and hips that make me want to dig

my fingers into that sweet flesh while I pump my cock hard and furious inside you.”

His words made her dizzy, his sensual teasing making her pussy quake with need for him. She movedher hands over his thighs, the crisp hairs there tickling her palms.

But there was so much more of him she wanted to touch, to taste. It might be her only chance to get thisclose to a man who so obviously hit all the right buttons for her, and she didn’t want to regret a lostopportunity. Shifting to face him, she pressed her lips against his, tasting the sweetness of strawberries onhis tongue. She entwined her tongue around his and suckled it, rewarded with his groan.

In turn, he gave her a passion-filled kiss that curled her toes, moving his hands over her breasts to gentlypluck at her nipples. She whimpered as the sensation shot straight to her cunt.

She slipped off his lap and knelt on the floor of the hot tub, resting her hands on his outstretched legs.

His thick cock was outlined in the water below, and she wanted to taste him. “Stand up, Jason.”

He looked at her, his eyes dark as the woodland forests, but did as she asked, rising out of the water tostand in front of her.

Perfect. His cock stood inches from her mouth. She tilted her head back to make sure he was watchingher. He smiled down at her, his eyes half closed, and watched as she enveloped his shaft between herlips.

“Christ, Kelsey, that’s good.” His hips jutted forward as he fed her his thick cock inch by inch. She

wound her tongue around the head and licked the salty fluid from the tip, then drew him in deeper.

Cradling his balls in her hands, she massaged them lightly, pumping her mouth over his shaft and drawinghim nearly out of her mouth, only to greedily suck him inside again. She laved every ridge of his shaft,enjoying the taste of him as much as she’d enjoyed the strawberries he’d fed her earlier.

A sense of power overcame her. She controlled him right now, with every swipe of her tongue, everysuckle of her mouth, she was in charge of his pleasure. He rewarded her with his sharp intake of breathand the whispered words that told her he enjoyed what she was doing to him.

“Enough,” he finally said, his voice husky and ragged. “I have to fuck you.”

She smiled up at him. “Later.”

He shook his head and dragged her to a standing position. “No. Now!” Without waiting for herresponse, her turned her around, pushed her toward the opposite bench. She reached for the edge of thehot tub, Jason positioning the front of his thighs against the back of hers. He nestled his cock near hersex, pushed her forward so her ass was up in the air, and slipped his hand between her legs, parting herfolds and sinking two fingers inside her.