A Stranger’s Touch by Lacey Savage Read Free Book Online Page B

into the sky, and her reflection shimmered back at her from myriad mirrored windows up and down the block.
    Kastor gripped her arm and brought her to a halt. “You do not walk away from me.”
    She shook off his grip and turned, glaring at him. “And you don’t get to be an asshole. Not with me. Touch me again and I’ll scream.” She looked pointedly at the people rushing by them. Even on a Sunday, she could count on New Yorkers to fill the streets.
    He fisted his hands at his sides, his eyes shooting daggers at her. “This is not over.” With a final glare, he turned and disappeared into the crowd.
    Roxi watched him leave. She held her breath until she was sure he’d vanished down the street, probably back into the restaurant so he could finish his meal. He’d been her ride home, but she wasn’t worried. There was a subway station just three blocks down.
    Huddling against the cold, Roxi quickened her steps. She wanted to get back to her warm, cozy apartment and spend the evening watching a girly movie with her roommates while she tried not to think about Donovan.
    You are beautiful.
    Donovan’s words rang in her head, so different from Kastor’s hurtful remarks. He’d called her plain and implied she was fat. There’d been disdain in his gaze when he looked at her, while in Donovan’s eyes she’d seen only desire and the kind of honesty that shook her to the core.
    Five minutes later, she turned from Lexington Avenue onto 41st Street. Lifting her gaze from the slush on the sidewalk, she pinpointed the neon sign lighting the subway station. And beyond it—
    “Donovan.” His name was a mere breath on her lips, and it misted in the frigid air.
    Her pulse picked up speed. She wasn’t even sure it was him. She saw his back, large and broad-shouldered, and she recognized the cut of his dark hair and the lines of his face when he turned his head. But a moment later, the man disappeared behind a set of massive steel doors. Roxi paused to catch her breath.
    The place he’d walked into looked like a dance club of some sort. It had no windows, and the dimly lit sign over the top of the doors read The Wolf’s Den. A smaller sign claimed it was “by invitation only”, which Roxi supposed meant it was an exclusive hotspot, open to celebrities and other important people.
    So the man she’d spotted couldn’t have been Donovan. He was a bodyguard, not a superstar. No way would he get his name on a list to party with New York’s elite.
    Obviously her disastrous date with Kastor was to blame for her mind summoning Donovan on a random street corner. And no wonder. She’d cast him in the role of protector, the kind of man who’d come to her rescue when she needed him. Except this was New York, and more than eight million people lived here. Donovan wasn’t her guardian angel, ready to sweep down and defend her from all manner of evil.
    She shook her head to clear it and promised herself that, for tonight at least, she was done with men.

Chapter Four
     
    Two nights in a row spent at The Wolf’s Den had left Donovan in a worse mood than he’d been when he left Moderne on Saturday. His search for a suitable mate had proven fruitless…again. Then he’d witnessed another triumphant display of mating prowess on the Mating Stage, which hadn’t helped improve his mood. A second solo session in the men’s bathroom sealed the deal, and Donovan left early, heading home with his proverbial tail tucked firmly between his legs.
    In a city of millions, he couldn’t find a single shifter to lure his inner wolf. And yet the moment he pushed through the door into Moderne on Monday, the beast reared. When the first whiff of Roxi’s sweet smell reached his senses, Donovan felt his cock harden. His chest swelled and his heartbeat hammered an insistent rhythm against his rib cage. His wolf howled—a low, grumbling, possessive sound only Donovan could hear.
    Damn the creature. If Donovan didn’t know better, he’d think the