Free Bound to Moonlight by Nina Croft Page A

huge, but she smiled when she saw him.
    “Hi. Tasha showed me where to find you.” Anya looked from him to Connor. “Are you working?”
    Sebastian forced a smile. “No. Come on in. This is the doctor I was telling you about.”
    He shot Connor a warning look. He didn’t want Anya to know what the doctor had just told him. Not yet, anyway. Connor gave a brief nod of his head.
    Anya stepped into the room and looked from him to Connor, then back to him. “Has he found anything?”
    Her tone was almost blank, but she couldn’t quite hide the hope, and it broke Sebastian’s heart. He kept his smile in place. “Not yet, they’re still working on it. Connor dropped in with some pills that will help for the time being.”
    “Help?”
    “With the pain,” Connor answered. “Does your head hurt at all?”
    “A little.”
    She was staring at the doctor, a strange expression of concentration on her face. Suddenly Sebastian knew what she was doing.
    “Connor, get the hell out of here.”
    Connor looked quickly into his face, and then hurried from the room. Sebastian turned to Anya.
    “You were too late,” she said. “I’d already read him.”
    Pain splintered his heart as a wave of helplessness washed over him. “I’m sorry.”
    She shook her head. “Don’t be. It’s not your fault. I’m just glad I had this time.”
    “We haven’t given up. They’re still looking.”
    She raised an eyebrow in disbelief then shrugged. “Could I have those painkillers?”
    “I’ll get you a glass of water.”
    He watched as she took two of the pills. “Is the pain bad?”
    “Not bad, no. But if I’m going to die, I plan to enjoy my last few hours.” She sipped at the water and watched him over the rim of the glass. “I was thinking about what you said earlier, about not wanting to be alone.”
    “You were?”
    She nodded. “I don’t want to be alone, either.”
    Sebastian took the glass and wrapped his arms around her. He held her tight, as though he could absorb her into his skin, and breathed in the sweet scent of her hair. After a few minutes, she pulled out of his arms and stepped back.
    “I can’t promise you forever,” she said. “But whatever time I have left, is yours.”
    Her words tore at something inside him, and Sebastian threw back his head and howled. He knew he had to pull himself together, but his wolf was clawing to be free. Wolf recognized his mate and wanted to make her his. Sebastian ruthlessly forced him down. He wasn’t ready to make that decision. He would not take that route. Not yet. Not until all else was lost.
    Anya stared at him, her eyes wide, and he knew his own must have changed. She reached out and rested a hand on his arm. “Please, Sebastian, stay with me.”
    He took a deep breath and nodded. “What would you like to do?”
    Her eyes wandered over him, hot and hungry, and a fire stirred to life low in his belly.
    “I want to make love with you,” she said. “Here. Now. ”
    Sebastian glanced around the office and raised an eyebrow, but her words made the flames burn hotter. The need to stake his claim, mark her forever as his, consumed him, as though he could keep her in this life by force of will. A lie, but it hid his despair.
    “I think that could be arranged.”
    And he pulled her back into his arms.
    ***
    Anya could feel the leashed power in the arms wrapped tight around her, the strength held in check, and even through the shield, she sensed his concern, the care he was taking not to let go. She’d seen the wolf in his eyes, but she wasn’t afraid of his wolf, and she didn’t want him to be careful. She didn’t want him to treat her as though she was fragile, as though she might shatter if he kissed her as hard as she wanted to be kissed.
    “I’m not going to break,” she said.
    “I don’t want to hurt you.”
    “You won’t.” She reached up and framed his beautiful face with her fingers, stared into his eyes, human once more. “Make love to me,