His gaze scanned her face and then dropped, examining the rest of her. All of her. She felt his crawling appraisal like a brand, hot and burning deep. The pressure of his hips against her brought forth a moan far back in her throat. Belatedly, she recalled that more than her shoulder was bared for his inspection. With clumsy hands, she yanked her robe back in place, but not before his gaze burned across her exposed flesh and her treacherous nipple pebbled and hardened, rising in salute to his silent appraisal.

The hard length of his body tightened like a wire behind hers, singeing her through their clothes. A sudden rush of moisture gathered between her legs, so sudden, so immediate, she almost came on the spot.

A telltale hardness swelled against her lower back, prodding insistently. The temptation to turn around and rub against that hardness insinuated itself. Her gaze shot up in the mirror. Twin flags of red stained her cheeks. Mortified at her body’s betrayal, she wiggled free from the hard press of his body and the wedge of counter, taking refuge in the far end of the room. Putting several feet between them, she fought for breath in the charged air.

His scent followed her. Earthy smells. Cedar, pine, and aroused male filled her nostrils. Clearly her imagination worked overtime. No way could she smell him several feet away.

The throbbing ache between her legs alarmed her, but not nearly as much as her longing for him to assuage that ache. Her body had never reacted this way before.

He had to leave. Immediately.

“Get out!” She pointed a shaking finger in the general direction of the front door, her voice shrill and unsteady. “Now,” she hissed.

Their eyes clashed in a battle of wills. At last, Gideon March turned to leave, but not before pausing to say, “I’ll give you some time to think. This is a lot to digest. But this isn’t over. On the next full moon, you will shift. And you will kill. I need your cooperation if I’m going to help you.”

“Go away,” she urged, resisting the impulse to weep from the inexplicable want that burned her blood. “I’m not a—” She couldn’t even utter the word aloud, wouldn’t give it that much power. “I don’t need your help,” she finished.

He nodded slowly, his pale eyes strangely regretful. “Then that’s too bad for you. Because without it, you’re dead.”

Then he was gone.