Free Feral Magnetism by Lacey Savage Page A

run her fingers over his jaw, to kiss those luscious, plump lips. She wanted to hug him, to feel his body molding to hers as they lay together, spent.
    Brad slid out of her first and leapt off the table onto the floor. “Goddess,” he murmured. “Taking that bet was the smartest thing I’ve ever done. Who cares if I didn’t win? If mating with a woman is always like this…”
    His voice faded and died out as blood rushed to Eve’s ears. She only heard one word, over and over in her mind.
    Bet .
    “What…” The words died in her throat, drowned by the sting of tears. She licked her dry lips and tried again. “What bet?”
    J.C. knelt and started to undo the knots holding her ankles to the table. Colors swirled in front of Eve’s eyes, intensifying with every moment that passed while no one said anything.
    “What bet?” she repeated, louder this time.
    “Brad thought you wouldn’t have a threesome,” J.C. said.
    Her right foot was free. She flung it backward, hitting something soft. J.C.’s knee? His thigh? Not his groin. She’d have known. He didn’t make a sound. “So this was all a bet. And you won. How… wonderful for you.”
    Humiliation washed over her and she jerked backward, the rope that still tied her wrists biting into her skin. Heat rushed to her cheeks. She gritted her teeth and swallowed back tears that threatened to spill over her cheeks. Crying in the throes of orgasm was one thing. But crying because of a man… or a werewolf, was another. And it wouldn’t happen. Not here, where they could see. Not anywhere . She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
    No one said a word as J.C. worked at untying the knots. When he slid the last of the rope from her wrist, she jumped off the table and reached for her dress. She slid it over her head, not caring where her thong had fallen.
    Her gaze swept the room, taking in both Brad’s and J.C.’s naked bodies. Their faces were masks, no longer readable. Not that she could trust anything she saw there anyway.
    She bolted for the door.
    “Eve, wait.”
    J.C.’s voice.
    She turned the knob. It wouldn’t budge. The bolt was still drawn across the door. Frantic now, she yanked at it, dug her fingernails under the slab of wood until it gave.
    J.C. leapt after her from across the room, no doubt afraid she’d tell the world about his kind in a rush of vengeance. He knocked over a terra cotta pot sitting on a high shelf as he reached for her. It crashed to the floor, shattering in dozens of dark clay pieces.
    Like her heart.
    She tore her arm out of his grip and rushed outside, gasping in lungfuls of air with every ragged breath.
    He was naked, so she knew he wouldn’t follow, but she refused to take her chances just in case modesty ranked lower on his list of priorities than the secret of his species.
    So she ran.
    Past lovers entwined in passionate embraces. Past the black iron gate and the two men stationed there. Past the main road, past trees, past stumps, past tufts of dead grass and fallen branches, into the heart of the forest bordering the park.
    She ran, ran, ran.

 
     
     
    Chapter Seven
     
    Eve didn’t know when the tears started in earnest. Perhaps it was the moment she left the park behind, the exact second she stepped through the gate and out of J.C.’s world. Or maybe it was when she finally found herself alone. The press of hard, male bodies had surrounded her from all sides inside Hard Delights, and the mere sight of a muscled chest made her breath hitch as she ran for the gate.
    She was glad to be away from them; away from all of them.
    Only a thin sliver of moonlight penetrated the thick foliage of the forest, but it was enough to illuminate a few feet in front of her. Branches snapped beneath her feet as she sprinted between massive pines and sycamores. She hadn’t bothered to stop and lace up her sandals when she’d bolted from the shed, and the soles of her feet had taken a beating as she ran over the rough terrain.
    Her feet