Don't do it, he told himself.  Don't indulge.  She does not understand what she does, perhaps not even its effect on a man.
    But her lips were so close, her scent was so intriguing, and he had only to reach out a little, turn his head just so.
    No, he mustn't do it.  He mustn't.
    Yet, he wondered if he would be quite male if he did not.  Slowly, he turned his head.
    And as his lips came in contact with hers, he thought his body might burst apart from all the energy that flooded through him.  Suddenly a simple touching of lips to lips was not enough.  His hands came up to frame her face, and his mouth slanted hungrily over hers, tasting, licking, kissing, not once, not twice, but over and over again.
    He felt her cheeks, running his fingers gently down to her neck, over her shoulders.  Her skin was an added inducement, he thought, for it was soft as a doe's, and all at once he yearned to feel every part of her.
    But it was too much for him.  He felt too much, he desired too much, and the craving tore at him.
    Barely able to contain this woman's effect on him, he broke off the kiss.  He knew he must put a stop to this immediately, or he would have to take back everything they had thus far discussed.
    Unable to set her away from him completely, he pulled her into his embrace and hugged her, much as he had been dreaming of hugging her all evening.  Her head fitted perfectly into the crook of his neck, he noted, as though she were made exactly for him.
    And he couldn't help but whisper in her ear, "Perhaps now it not the time to tell you that I desire you, and have done so from the moment I first saw you.  It is this that I fight."
    "Yes," she said as softly as he.  "Perhaps now is not the time."
    He set her away from him, running his fingers down the smoothness of her cheek to her neck, on down toward her chest.  He said,  "But we should not do anything further.  You know this.  I know this.  We must not.  You do agree?"
    Again, she nodded.  "I know.  And yes, I agree.  After all, our time together will be short."
    However, no sooner had the words been spoken than they rushed into one another's arms...
 

The Spirit of  the Wolf

by Karen Kay

Copyright © 2005 by Karen Kay Elstner