Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 36641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Fiction. The book was pure fiction even if it claimed otherwise. There was no such thing as werewolves. This assignment was making her crazy.
His arm stretched out across the table and for a moment she thought he was going to touch her and, like a fool, was disappointed when his hand grasped the teapot’s handle, and he refilled her mug and then his.
“You can ask me anything, Olivia.”
There were endless questions that ran through her mind, but all were personal and had nothing to do with her assignment or in acquiring a position at the preserve. She wanted to know more about him, but he wasn’t her assignment… werewolves were.
The question she asked wasn’t the one she planned on asking and thought herself foolish when she did. “Do you have any opinions on what a werewolf’s sexual appetite might be like?”
But to her surprise, he answered seriously. “You’re dealing with part human, part wolf. The differences in both would have to be considered. As you know a male wolf courts a female wolf in order to mate and produce a litter of pups. They mate once a year, whereas humans have sex out of desire, need, satisfaction, and many do so quite often and with a variety of partners, not so a wolf. In my experience, most wolves mate for life, though some wolf experts disagree. Those that don’t mate for life are ones that lose their mate and find another, or their mate fails in his or her duties forcing a search for a more suitable one.”
“Much like humans,” Olivia said.
“True, but wolves have a courtship period, humans don’t. They often have sex before even getting to know each other.”
“So, where do you think that leaves werewolves when it comes to sex?” Olivia asked, enjoying the strange though surprisingly informative conversation she was having with him. “Do you think their sexual appetites more resemble humans or wolves?”
“I believe you would need to understand werewolves better to answer that.”
“According to The Allure of Werewolves, a werewolf’s sexual appetite is so insatiable that no one woman could satisfy a werewolf’s need, that the beast in him drives his hunger. It sounds quite ridiculous to even contemplate the sex life of a werewolf when they are nothing more than mythical creatures. It’s all in the imagination.”
“And what does your imagination tell you about a werewolf’s sex life?” Tiernan asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t know how to marry the human and the wolf to create a werewolf’s sexual appetite. Do they mate like wolves or humans? Do they mate only once a year like wolves or do werewolves embrace sex more often like humans? Or are werewolves more hungry or needy for sex than humans? What drives their desire? Do they love? Or is it nothing more than an animalistic need? Questions that can never truly be answered since werewolves don’t exist.”
“So, you will rely on your imagination to write the piece?”
“That and whatever else I can learn from your sizeable collection of books on werewolves. Maybe, also, meeting some of your wolves and thinking of them as werewolves might prove helpful. I would love to meet Laird. He is a handsome and powerful wolf.”
“A good example of a werewolf?”
She smiled. “I believe I could let my imagination run wild and imagine him as a handsome human.”
Tiernan stood and Olivia worried she had somehow offended him, and he was bringing their conversation to a close.
He walked around to stand behind her chair then leaned down over her. Bracing his hands on the table to either side of her, he rubbed his cheek along hers and nuzzled her neck before whispering, “You don’t have to imagine Laird as a human… you’ve already met him as one.”
CHAPTER 4
Olivia sat with her hands hugging her mug not knowing how to respond or what to do. Of course, her body had no trouble responding to the way he nuzzled her neck. A rash of gooseflesh raced over her, prickling her skin and spiking her passion. She had to be as nuts as he was feeling a rush of desire toward a supposed werewolf, though more likely a man who spent so much time with wolves that he believed himself one.
But if he wasn’t a werewolf, how did that black wolf find its way into the castle and her bedroom last night? And how did Tiernan know Laird was there?
Unless…
No. It couldn’t be. Werewolves weren’t real.
He stepped back away from her and walked around the table to return to his seat. “I know this is a lot to comprehend and I cannae help but think you believe me crazy right now. But trust me, I speak the truth.”
“Prove it,” Olivia challenged. “I assume you don’t need a full moon since there wasn’t one last night and you—supposedly—shape-shifted.”
“Nay, werewolves dinnae need full moons to change. We can shift when we please, but trust me, when I tell you that it is not a pleasant sight to witness.”