AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He stood right in front of me with all that bare flesh and said, “Touch me.”
“I’m not playing this game.” I crossed my arms and took a step back. This wasn’t something I was going to risk, not with him. Not with anyone I didn’t want to kill.
He grabbed my hands and put them flat on his chest.
I tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let me, wrapping his arms around my back so that my hands were planted on him.
“Please, you have to stop.” He was immovable, and panic was choking me. “You have to stop.” I shoved, but he wouldn’t budge. The man was crazy, and it was going to get him killed. I waited for the worst to come, a knot in my throat and tears threatening.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said softly, looking at me as I fixated on his chest.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I said, waiting for his flesh to change.
“I’m not afraid.” He wasn’t budging.
I looked up at him, my voice cracking as I said, “You don’t understand. What you saw? What I did to those men? I didn’ttryto do that. It just happened. I don’t have control of it.” I tried to shift my forearms, but it was impossible with how close he held me to him.
“You’re not going to hurt me,” he said, completely confident. “That’s not who you are.”
“You are so damned stubborn. What if I get mad? I don’t have control of it.” I could feel my heart pounding now, and what if that was enough to trigger it?
“You know I’m not going to let you leave this pack now that you committed, right?” he said, smiling down at me, as calm as could be. “You’re trying to make me mad, but I’m not going to let you. It’s not going to work.”
They’d all been right. He was crazy. Utterly, completely crazy.
“You agreed to be my mate. I gave you an out. You didn’t take it. You’re mine now.”
Those words had the exact opposite effect of what he was trying for. They didn’t anger me. They made me want to sink into him. I was his, at least as far as the packs were concerned, and it sounded as if he believed it too.
That made him mine. My pulse was growing more erratic, but it had nothing to do with fear now.
He started to caress my lower back, gliding his other hand upward until he cupped the back of my head. I shuddered, my breathing shallow, as my eyes locked with his.
He dipped his head closer to mine. It started out slow, his lips grazing mine, a feathering—a simple tasting, as if he were getting the feel of how we felt against each other’s flesh. It was such a simple moment, and it took less than a second for my entire body to feel like it was on fire.
I arched into him, wrapping my arms around his neck, pulling him closer.
Something happened, clicked into place between us, and it was like the earth shifted beneath us. His controlled movements turned raw, and something savage inside of me answered.
One arm wrapped around my waist and I was suddenly under him, splayed out on the bed.
The satellite phone rang on the table right beside us, its harsh beeps breaking us apart like a blast. We appraised each other as if we’d just met as the ring filled the silence caused by the shock.
I’d had boyfriends. Plenty of kisses. I’d never had such an explosion of intensity as I’d experienced with him.
The phone continued to ring.
“I’ve got to get that,” he said, and for once he looked as unsettled as I was.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“What?”Kicks answered the phone while I stood there, still reeling from a kiss. That was all it had been, and I was rocked. No, that might not even be accurate. Bouldered? Mountained?
“Why?” He spoke the word the way I’d call someone a jerk. That was my first hint it wasn’t someone he liked. The fact that they hadn’t called the room phone meant it wasn’t anyone from his pack, most likely, unless they were calling from Arkansas. I had a strong hunch it was from somewhere much closer.
The amount of disgust in his voice pointed to one of two likely people.
There was a long pause while I waited for more hints.
