She was in a lot better state than he was.

Shadoe’s return was shredding his equanimity. Shopping for dinner ingredients seemed absurd, considering the violent need tensing every muscle in his body. Here, finally, was the one woman who made him hunger and crave and feel as no other could. The one woman capable of making him acutely aware of every second of his two hundred years of celibacy… and he couldn’t have her. Not yet.

“Notoriety leads to unwanted attention,” he explained with studious evenness.

Which was why he avoided going out in public when Shadoe wasn’t with him. He did so now because it served a variety of purposes-it continued his campaign to appear unfazed by the morning’s attack, it established normalcy and intimacy with Lindsay, and it gave her the opportunity to select the ingredients she preferred.

She glanced at the lycans who stood on either end of the produce section. “Dangerous attention? Your bullet catchers are pretty big guys.”

“Sometimes. Nothing for you to worry about. I’ll keep you safe.”

“If I scared easily”-Lindsay picked up a sweet potato and dropped it into a plastic produce bag-“I wouldn’t have left the airport in a strange city with a guy I don’t know.”

She knew him, even if she didn’t realize why or how. It was obvious she relied on her gut instincts more than black-and-white reasoning, and that intuition was filling in the blanks on his behalf. She’d taken one look at him and set her sights. No hesitation. Just a straight-up, in-your-face I want you look that had volleyed the ball into his court with a rapid-fire salvo.

Lindsay gestured at the nearly overflowing handbasket he was carrying. “I’m looking forward to watching you cook all this and seeing if I can pick up a few tips on how to prepare tempura, which is one of my favorite dishes.”