~
“Because…?” Jenny asked.
“Because…”
Bailey rolled her over onto her back on the grass. He found her hands with his and laced their fingers together – pressing her hands back against the ground.
Trapped beneath him – caged with his body, his power, his strength, and he saw from the way that her eyes flared and her breathing changed that she liked that a lot…
“I know for a fact that when I taste your blood for the very first time; I’m going to want more than a sip, and I’m going to have my cock buried so deep inside of you that you’re going to come around me again and again…”
“Now who’s teasing…?” she giggled.
“It doesn’t have to be a tease – you just need to say the word and I’ll take you home with me, and forever can start right then…” he said and she blinked, drank in the oxygen all around her, and he knew that she really was giving that serious consideration. “But not before you are well and truly ready to be mine.”
“You mean be a vampire?”
“Not so much, no. We have time for that,” he assured her. “But once I’ve taken you to bed, made love to you, done all of those debauched things that most people only read about in books – I’m never going to let you out of my arms again.”
“Not even to pee?” She grinned, but he could see the way that his words had affected her.
Her cheeks were flushed, and he could scent her arousal in the air, so much so that his cock was twitching like it wanted inside of her that very second.
“Until you become a vampire – I can’t risk you getting hurt…”
“And peeing is a deadly sport…?” She shot back, playfully.
“You could fall off the toilet seat and damage yourself.”
He’d play her game, for now. He’d said his piece and he knew that she’d heard him loud and clear.
She just needed a little time to mull it over.
~
~
~
Cooper watched from the other side of the tree line. He’d been watching since they first arrived, waiting for his chance…
He hadn’t expected to find her living in the middle of nowhere with Jenny and two men…
He felt the heat of anger on the boil inside of him. She always seemed to manage to do that – twist his insides with her ways and games.
Well, he wasn’t playing this time.
This time he’d make her see sense and she’d go home with him, be his forever, or he’d make sure that she died where she denied him…
He thought that she’d been different.
She wasn’t like her friend, out for a good time at everyone else’s expense, but he’d been wrong.
She’d played games with him and then when it had come time to pay the piper, she’d rejected his advances and given him no option but to take matters into his own hands…
Then she’d lied to the police, twisted it all up, and somehow made it sound like what had happened was his fault …
Like he was the bad guy.
She needed to pay for that, and she would.
He’d have to teach her a lesson – then he’d give her the opportunity to see it as they really were – she was his, and if he couldn’t have her then no man would.
~
~
~
“What are you doing?” Bonnie planted her feet, covered her eyes from the glare of the sun, and looked up the ladder to where Karl was standing – tossing bits and bobs down from the guttering.
“Stopping you from doing something stupid…” he offered back over his shoulder, and for one long moment, Bonnie was speechless.
“Nice to know that you think of me as stupid…” she muttered.
She looked anywhere but at him, because looking up the ladder at those muscled thighs and his taut backside, not to mention the way that the muscles in his back and arms moved under the shirt that was being tightly pulled over his upper body – kind of made her want to keep looking, and maybe a little touching too, and boy would that send him the wrong signals.
“You were hanging from your fingertips from the roof – not exactly the smartest move anyone has ever made.” He chuckled to himself and tossed out a clump of moss.
“Yeah, well, we can’t all be Einstein, now can we?” She folded her arms and chewed an imaginary wasp.
She’d messed up in climbing the ladder, and she knew she had, but the ground had given way beneath her, maybe not where he had put his damn ladder...
She also knew that she wasn’t about to do it again – at least, not unless she was certain the ladder was on stable ground. But above all, she didn’t really need it pointed out to her that she’d made a mistake.
Karl shot a look down at her over his shoulder and his bear groaned within him. He’d done it again – made her put up her defences – and she looked pretty miffed with him…
Mine… His bear growled – hammering home the point that he’d messed up.
“Ok, now – don’t get all salty and…”
“Salty?” Her chin went down and her eyes widened.
“Sulky?” He offered, and his bear growled once more.
“Oh boy, you’ve lived alone for too long…” she said, dropping her arms to her sides, turning about face, and stalking off to … somewhere that he wasn’t.
He was doing a nice thing – she knew that – but still, it felt as if he was trying to save her from herself – like she needed saving – she didn’t – at least, she didn’t think that she did…
But, in truth, she didn’t rightly know exactly what it was that she was feeling as confusion and apprehension about him met excitement and attraction head on.
Bonnie heard the unmistakable thud of heavy feet chasing down the metal rungs of the ladder, and then he was following on behind her, and she grimaced.
Am I in the wrong?
Why am I asking myself that?
Why am I second guessing myself?
I never used to do that.
He basically called me stupid – and salty – and sulky …
Which … all three might have been right, sort of, but is he really supposed to point that out?
Hi, I’m your mate … you’re stupid, and I’m a male chauvinist Genius who wants to save you from yourself…
Sounds familiar…
“Bonnie…” Karl’s hand wrapped around her upper arm and she jumped in fright.
She hadn’t been expecting it. She wrenched her arm away from his hold and turned to face him…
He could scent the fear in the air that came from her, and his bear reacted to it – the prickle of fur beneath his skin kicking his backside into gear, and setting off that protection gene within him once more.
But there was no one to fight for her, except himself…
“Whoa…” he held his hands up against his chest and stepped back away from her.
She was breathing hard and her jaw was moving, but no words came from her lips … It took her a long moment to get a hold of herself and realise that he wasn’t a threat…
“I…” She tried to shake that fight or flight feeling away on a small shake of her head.
Now I do feel stupid.
Stupid and irrational…
Maiden in distress here…
Nutjob here…
Am I ever going to feel normal again?
“I didn’t mean to scare you…” Karl growled low in his chest. He berated himself for not thinking about what she’d been through…