Page 16 of Mating Season
I didn’t even hear him enter the room. He stalks closer. I turn toward him, my back flattened against the cool metal of the elevator door, praying to melt through to the other side so I can ride the electric box down to the safety of the ground.
“Let me out of here.” I try to sound firm and in control, but it comes out breathy. I feel panicked, like a deer in the middle of a field in the clear sights of a hunter.
“You don’t want to leave.” He slinks closer and that smell… god why does he have to smell so good, and look so good? I try not to stare at his tattoos or his abs or his… anything. But looking into his face isn’t any better. He’s just too overwhelmingly attractive.
“I, I do,” I say weakly as he brushes a strand of hair behind my ear. And just this light touch has me wanting to straddle his leg and grind my pussy hard against it until I come.
No, No! I will not be doing that today.
Orever!
He moves in like he’s going to kiss me, and I come back to my senses. I shove him away, and he takes a step back. But it’s clear he didn’t have to take that step back. He’s stronger than a normal man so my little human push certainly wasn’t going to phase him.
“You lied to me! You said you’d wait as long as it took!”
“And this is how long it takes,” he says.
I shake my head. “You knew this would happen if you got me in a closed space with you for long enough.”
This wasn’t happening back during the full moon in his den. I was attracted, sure, but I’m a heterosexual woman with a pulse. It didn’t seem odd at the time—despite the extreme circumstances. But the more time passes, the more intense his presence is. His smell, his…
He just stands back, studying me. He thankfully hasn’t moved back into my space, but even as I think this, I want him to move back into my space.
“Do I smell like this to you?” I ask.
“I don’t know what I smell like to you so I couldn’t tell you. You smell like citrus and honey to me. And I love those two things. I’m using amazing restraint here, Rosalie.”
I roll my eyes. “Yes, you’re a model citizen drugging and kidnapping me.”
He just shrugs. “It was what had to be done.”
I choose to ignore this rationalization.
“I thought people have rejected their mates.” To me that implied that they actually got away and got to go back to their old lives.
Cooper nods. “Distance will stop this intensity. That’s why you’re in here with me and not out there.” He gestures toward the windows and the big outside world beyond them.
It’s hard to imagine there’s any world outside this space and this man even with the windows and view of the bustling city below to remind me.
He offers me his hand. “Now, come back to your room and eat something. That cover will only keep the food warm for so long.”
I sigh, defeated, but I try one more time anyway. I feel like I need to. Yes, he’s hot, he smells amazing, and this penthouse is incredible, blah blah blah. I’d be crazy to not want to live here, but I don’tknowthis man. Life isn’t a fairy tale or a rom com. A rich and attractive man can abuse you just as easily as a broke and ugly one.
And he’s far too possessive for me to just trust that I’ll be safe in his hands for centuries.
“Just let me go. You’re rich and hot, you can have any woman you want.” I’m not even trying to appeal to his ego. It’s not flattery, just facts.
He smirks. “Except you, apparently.”
11
COOPER
I’m questioning all my decisions right now. I know she wants me. That much is extremely obvious. The scent of her arousal perfumes the air almost as strongly as her growing citrus and honey mating scent. I wasn’t kidding when I said I was using amazing restraint.
She’s stubborn. And ordinarily, I’d like this character trait, but right now she’s just causing herself far more mental anguish than she needs to. Once the mating is complete she’ll understand… everything. Until that time, it’s clear she’s intent on driving both herself and me to the brink of madness.
I don’t know how much longer I can smell that smell without just mounting her. The things I want to do to this woman…
