When I’m panting, struggling to keep up this insane pace through the forest, he overtakes me.
I hadn’t realized how much he was holding back. His speed when it comes blindsides me. His strength carries me to the ground, and he keeps me there when I snarl at him to move.
He holds my gaze, not moving.
When he finally lets me up, I shift back and snarl at him. “I can’t believe you?—”
His shift is lightning quick, and he follows it up with a bruising kiss.
With his lips against mine, his large, warm hands cradling my face, he holds me against him and kisses me until I shove him away.
“What was that?” I lick my lips, tasting his kiss and wanting more of it.
“I was wrong.” He takes a step toward me.
I take a step back. “About?”
“What you need.”
“I don’tneedanything.” Distracted, my foot snags on a root, and I yelp as I topple. Aren slides his arm around me, but he lets me fall, his arm taking the brunt of the collision.
And he’s there, pinning me to the ground. I take one look into his eyes and I panic.
“Aren.Move.”
His eyes flick to my mouth. “You want more than to hunt something. You want me.”
“That isn’t true,” I deny.
“You think I can’t tell when my mate wants me?”
I shake my head.
He bridges the distance between our mouths and says against my lips, “I can smell you, Kitty cat. I don’t need to put my nose between your thighs to know you’re ready for me.”
I stare up at him, wanting to deny it. I can open my mouth and lie, but my body is telling him everything he needs to know.
Shifter noses are sharp. Too sharp to hide certain things. Things like arousal.
“Is it really so bad to want me?” His voice is as soft as his touch when he tucks a strand of hair behind my ear.
My breasts are mashed against his chest, and I feel him against my lower belly. He’s getting harder with each passing second, and I want nothing more than to part my thighs and have him sink into me.
“Yes,” I whisper.
He touches his lips to my jaw, and I swallow my moan, then another as he follows it up with a soft kiss on my throat.
“You are my heart, Kitty cat,” he whispers against my neck. “Let me make things right.”
I’m breathing hard, but I still feel like I’m not dragging enough air into my lungs. My hands are gripping his hips, and I’m not sure when it happened. I just know I’m finding it close to impossible to take my hands off him.
He lifts his head and peers down at me. The moonlight spills over us, turning his blond hair platinum and his amber eyes golden.
“Okay, Kat.” He moves off me.
I grab his wrist and yank him back.
I have no idea why I do it. I just can’t let him go.
