“She also hates you.”
I scowl. “What?”
She peers up at me. “Because of what you did. But she thinks you have good mate material in you.”
I preen. “She said that?”
“Only because my sister said she would stab you in the neck if you hurt me again. I think she was trying to defuse the situation because Carlie really would do it.”
I stare down at her, almost afraid to ask, “Is there any member of your family that doesn’t want to kill me?”
She looks away. “I don’t mind you, I guess.”
I smile. “Not that long ago, you were asking me to choose between your front door and being thrown from a twentieth-floor window. Am I making progress?”
“A little,” she concedes.
“Enough that means I won’t get a knee in the balls if I kiss you?”
Her eyes are hooded. “Why would you want to kiss me?”
“Kitty cat, Ialwayswant to kiss you.”
She hesitates. “Justa kiss. No funny business in the forest.”
“But the last time was so much fun,” I say, smiling as I dip my head.
Seconds after my lips touch hers, I stop caring where I am. It has been too fucking long since I had my mate in my arms. I need this like I need to breathe.
The feeling is mutual.
Her arms wind around my shoulders, and I lift her, groaning as my cock sinks between the V of her thighs. She wraps her legs around my waist, and I start backing up to the nearest tree, needing to grind her against something.
“Aren!”
I nearly drop Kat at the sound of Dania’s shout.
Kat unwinds her legs from my waist and hops down, looking away as Dania hurries over, frowning. “Have you seen?—”
“He’s with me, Dania,” Finan calls from the creek.
He’s sitting with Leo, pushing a paper boat into the water. Leo has his big yellow lion next to him and is lying on his stomach, staring at the floating boat with wonder.
“Do you want to join us?” Finan calls back.
“Okay.” Dania smiles at me before heading toward the creek.
When I turn to Kat, she’s walking away, back to the house.
“Kat!” I call after her.
She walks faster.
Before the kiss, I’d have let her go. I’d have told myself that she didn’t want me. To wait for her to come to me when she was ready for more.
But that kiss…
The kiss changes things. If Dania hadn’t come along, I’d have walked Kat into the forest, yanked my pants down, and fucked her against a tree. And she’d have let me.
