“Water?” Maria asked.

“Swimming hole.” Ellison winked at her. “Come on.”

Granger shouldered the shotgun. “You kids enjoy yourselves, now.”

Maria gave Granger a polite smile as Ellison led her past him. “It is nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Granger said.

Ellison led Maria into the trees, pushing aside branches for her, taking her down a steep hill. At the bottom, a wide pond, formed by a rivulet snaking from the main river, spread like a sheet of silver, sparkling under the sun.

The banks of the small lake ran up into the trees, and clumps of bluebonnets spread across every open, sunny space. Birds skimmed across the far side of the water, a wading bird turning its head to watch them approach.

Maria, having grown up in arid lands, always marveled that water could simply be. The life water gave—the birds, trees, wildflowers, tall grasses—constantly amazed her. The heat and humidity under the trees had perspiration dripping down her face, but she looked around with wonder.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“Don’t really know. I found this place when I was running as wolf one day. Granger tried to shoot me, I dodged the blast and knocked him down, and we became friends. He knows I need the space to run sometimes, and he keeps people away when I do. He’s a good guy.”

Maria thought about Granger’s tattoos, which Spike had taught her about this past year. She suspected Granger had gotten some of them in prison, but she said nothing.

“It’s a beautiful place.”

“Sure is.” Ellison hung his hat on the limb of a bush that stuck out from the trees. He unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged it off, hanging it next to the hat. “Don’t always see the bluebonnets either. You need the right amount of rain, the right amount of sunshine. We got lucky.”

He wore a tight black T-shirt, which he also shucked, then he got out of his boots. Sunlight touched the liquid warmth of his skin and the butter-colored highlights in his hair.

“You joining me?” he asked. “I’m not swimming alone.”

“Swim? In there?”

Flashes came to Maria of herself as a tiny child, her grandparents taking her to a lake in the mountains, beautiful and cool. She’d splashed around and played, while they spread a picnic lunch of all her favorite foods. Maria had thought she’d never be happier in her life. Come to think of it, she never had been.

Ellison unhooked his belt buckle and skimmed the belt from his jeans. “I don’t see you getting undressed.”

Maria swallowed. “You’re going to swim in there naked?”

“Sure. Get my clothes wet if I don’t.”

“There will be snakes.” The lake in the mountains had been home to plenty of snakes, and so had the warehouse, but Maria had learned at an early age how to avoid them.

“Probably. I’ll scare them away.”

Ellison unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans and pulled them off, hanging them carefully next to his shirts. His loose boxers came off right after that.

Maria sucked in a breath. She’d seen plenty of Shifters naked, including Ellison—they saw no shame in it, and after shifting, they took their time sliding back into clothes, as though forgetting they needed to. Shifters were casual about nudity, and Maria had stopped noticing them a long time ago.

But Ellison was difficult not to notice. His body had been touched by God, sculpted muscle under skin that moved with liquid grace. The silver and black Collar around his neck only drew attention to the bareness of the rest of his body.

He folded his arms and watched her, all that rippling strength becoming still, waiting. Ellison was a being of sunlight and shadow, but with a hint of the moon in his gray eyes.

Maria wanted to look her fill, to feast her senses on his beauty. She couldn’t not look at his cock, hanging thick and full between his legs, dark blond hair at its base.

“Ungh” was the only thing that came out of her mouth.

“Come on,” Ellison said. “I’m getting hot standing here.”

Maria’s face heated. He wanted her to strip as naked as he was and then jump into the water with him. A slow smile spread over his face, and her body flushed as hot as her cheeks.

Bareness to her meant vulnerability, fear. She hesitated, heart pounding.

“I told you,” Ellison said. “I’m teaching you to live life.” He came out of his watchful stance and stepped to her, his body filling her world. “Every bit of it, sucking up every drop.”

His hand went to the top of her shirt and undid the two small buttons there. Polite of him, because he could have just yanked the shirt off over her head. And he did, but at least he unbuttoned it so the shirt with its pretty design didn’t tear.

Maria stood in her lacy bra that Andrea had bought for her, hugging her arms across her chest. Her low-riding jeans suddenly felt too low.

Ellison came closer. The heat from his body touched her like sunshine. He smelled of musk and dust, sweat and warmth. He slid his hands to her waist and popped open the button of her jeans.

A shiver began deep inside her. Fire rose in Maria’s body, slowly surging until it blotted out fear, panic, shame. Need eased through her, tangled with warmth and desire.

Ellison’s fingers brushed her abdomen as he felt for the zipper. He tugged it down, more touches to her skin. At the same time, he leaned down and kissed her.

A slow kiss, no more frenzy. Ellison’s mouth was all that was good, his lips easing hers open. His tongue slid inside, a flicker, as he skimmed his hands up her back to open her thin bra.