Free Tempting the Tiger by Lacey Thorn

did.”
    “What makes you think I’d run?”
    He chuckled at that. “Everything about you. Unfortunately, I can’t let you go.”
    “Why?” Once again, his claim filled her mind. Mine.
    She saw it in his eyes, in the flash of neon that fought to overpower the natural blue, but he shook it off.
    “I came here searching for answers. Answers I didn’t get.”
    “What you got was almost killed. Was that in your plan?”
    “I was overconfident. My mistake.”
    “I doubt it’s your first, or last.”
    He met her gaze, and she felt a strong desire to comfort him at the sorrow she saw in his eyes. But his next words stopped her cold.
    “Not so bad of a mistake, seeing as it brought me you. And I think you might be what I came here for.”
    “Who, you mean. I’m a person, not a thing.”
    He nodded his head but said nothing, and she felt a chill go down her spine.
    “You’re not going to let me go, are you?”
    He shook his head.
    “I saved you. They would have killed you. My God, they had you close to death…” Her voice trailed off as she really looked at him.
    His face had been swollen all to hell. He’d had cuts and bruises all over him. But now? Other than a slight bit of discoloration here and there, his face was sheer masculine perfection. How had he healed so fast? That wasn’t possible? Was it?
    “Take your shirt off,” she commanded, wanting to see if the wounds she’d seen there had healed as well.
    Reno grinned as he reached for the hem of his shirt. “Change your mind, darling?”
    She snorted and shook her head. “Not likely.”
    He loomed over her now, with a bare chest that had her lungs seizing with a lack of oxygen. Jesus, he was gorgeous. A nice patch of dark hair spread across his torso and trailed down over his abdomen in a downy line that disappeared beneath the snug jeans that hugged the blatant outline of his sex. Oh, he’d be more than a mouthful, and damn if she didn’t want to taste him as much as he’d said he wanted to taste her. She was so close to saying yes to him. So close it scared her just a bit.
    “Like what you see?” He leaned back and spread his arms wide, giving her a better look at his broad chest and taut abdomen.
    He appeared to have a twelve pack! It was a sin for a man to look this good. And she was weak, getting weaker by the minute. She did her best to shake the lustful glaze out of her eyes and really look at him. Once again, nothing but some minor discoloration here and there. A few old wounds that looked as if he’d taken a few bullets. She had one of those herself.
    “You’re healed,” she finally managed to whisper.
    He looked disgruntled at her observation but not surprised. It wasn’t human to heal like that. She’d accused him earlier of being different. The glow around him, the neon eyes, and now the ability to heal quicker than was humanly possible. She’d been told all her life shifters existed. But her family was crazy? Weren’t they?
    His eyes met hers.
    “Who are you?” she asked again, and she wasn’t talking about his name.
    Reno wondered what was going through Amia’s head. She was a Blane, no matter her adamancy that she had no family. She had to have been raised on what shifters were like. Please, God, don’t tell him they just picked people out at random and tortured the fuck out of them just because they thought they might be. Surely the hunters had some guidelines they followed, characteristics they looked for? There must be a hunter handbook like Abby had read about. Whatever it was, Reno needed to know what they were, and Amia was his only source of information now.
    He was twitchy as hell, and he knew why. The spirit inside him was no longer lying dormant. It was awake and ready to take control. He felt it pushing at him every time he looked at her. It wanted the sexy woman badly. Truth was, he did too. But he knew his duty. She was a means to the answers they were desperate to get, and the good of the group came before