~

 

“Jordan…”

“You heard me. Or do you have selected deafness to go along with your obvious need for psychiatric help and your overinflated male misplaced ego?” Jordan bit back.

She wasn’t about to give him another chance to take a shot at her, place a target on her back for his amusement, or listen to another word that he had to say.

Jordan sped up, trying to put some distance between them, and because it made her feel better to believe that her heart was racing and her blood was pumping in her ears because of the exercise she was getting, and not because of him.

“I need to talk to you,” Harvey growled.

He was trying his damnedest not to race towards her. Not to scare her. Not to hit that panic button that he knew some females had within them where he was concerned.

He was big and big equalled scary in some women’s minds. He didn’t know if she was one of those women but he really didn’t want to take the chance.

“Yeah!” Jordan bit of a chuckle of disbelief. “No.”

“It’s important…”

“You mean you forgot to accuse me of something else. First, I’m a groupie, and I want your body. Then not a groupie, but I still want your body out of curiosity. Then I’m a bad parent. And to top it all; I’m keeping you from your work,” Jordan kept walking. “Here’s your chance — go there hell back to work.”

“That’s not it…”

“Wow, not even an apology. Even when you want something from me your overinflated sense of worth keeps you from recognising the fact that you were wrong,” Jordan said, tossing a look back over her shoulder and regretting it the moment that she caught sight of him stalking towards her.

Boy, did he look good? Mr Muscles on parade with a dark look about him that somehow thrilled her.

Harvey was catching up. It wasn’t surprising considering the ground he could cover with those long, muscled legs.

Jordan couldn’t believe that there was a part of her that wanted him to catch up. A part that felt excitement mixed with attraction for him. But that attraction would not see the light of day where he was concerned, because she was done with bad choices.

And boy, would he be a bad choice, or what?

“Would you please just stop for a moment?” Harvey growled.

He was close enough to her now that if he reached out his hand, he’d be able to snag her arm and stop her in her tracks. It wasn’t as if he didn’t want to do that. Hell, even his beast wanted him to do that. But he didn’t want to give her the wrong idea.

“Oh, you threw in a please for my benefit. I’m sure that’s got to hurt.” Jordan tossed back.

“Would you just…?” Harvey bit down on a curse.

He made a move to get in front of her. He blocked her path with his body, and when she tried to sidestep him, he just took a step, left or right, to where he needed to be to make her stop trying to get around him.

“Just give me…”

“Oh, I know what I want to give you, and trust me, you won’t like it,” Jordan bit out as frustration welled inside of her.

“Can you just wait?” Harvey had to bite down on the growl that rumbled through his chest.

She didn’t appear to be spooked by him. There was no look in her eyes like a cornered deer. He guessed that she was just too pissed off at him for that.

Harvey couldn’t blame her. In an attempt to make her go away he’d managed to rile her up pretty damn good. Insult her. Insult her morals. Insult her parenting. He’d been an idiot.

Now, he had to soothe her ruffled feathers, and he had no idea where to start.

“It doesn’t look like I have much of choice, now does it? Not with a man mountain standing in my way.”

Jordan tossed her hands onto her hips and glared up at him with so much fire within her eyes that he couldn’t look anywhere else. She was a sight to behold, not the Mama bear that he’d witnessed earlier, but a five foot four fiery spirit that wanted to knock him down to size. Knock him on his backside and he deserved it.

“I just need to talk to you,” Harvey said as he held his large hands up at his broad chest in mock surrender in the hope that it would placate her. But when she snorted a chuckle of disbelief Harvey knew that it hasn’t worked.

“We did the talking thing; it didn’t work out so well, now I’m doing the leaving thing.” Her voice was dripping with sarcasm and it was mixed with a whole dollop of venom just for him.

“Look, I was trying to get you to leave me alone…”

“Well, it worked. Bye-bye.”

Jordan went to sidestep him but he matched her move, and she pulled up short. She allowed her hands to drop down from her hips as she leaned her upper body in slightly towards him, craned her head forward on her neck, and questioned his sanity with her eyes.

“Just give me a minute,” Harvey grumbled.

“I gave you five back there, and you weren’t interested.”

“Well, I’m interested now,” Harvey growled, just a little, just enough to make her narrow her eyes at him.

“Well, now I need to go. Apparently, I’m a bad parent and I should get back to it.” She folded her arms and raised just one eyebrow, challenging him with that look, and making him feel damn stupid.

“I never said you were a bad parent. Hell, you were about to go to war with a bear shifter and a vampire to protect Macy. That’s not bad parenting in my book.” Harvey grumbled a growl within his chest.

“Well, when you drag your damn book out again; I’d advise reading the part that says don’t be an asshole, over and over again until it sticks in your mind.”

“Yeah,” Harvey said wincing at her words as they hit home. “You have to admit — I do it in style.”

“Totally committed.”

Harvey couldn’t help the smile that started on his lips and pulled some of the tension from his face. His beast might still have been clawing within him at their discovery of finding a mate, but the fact that she no longer looked as if she wanted to skin him alive helped him feel a little lighter.

Jordan watched that damn smile of his spread across his face. It was like watching a sunset, spectacular, and she didn’t know why, or how, but it held her transfixed with her mind and body begging for more.

Jordan didn’t believe in love at first sight, but she did believe in lust. When the man was growly and scowling, he was a dark, handsome devil, but when he smiled, well, all damn bets were off.

The trouble was; she’d been down that bad boy road, and for Macy’s sake, she wasn’t about to set another foot in motion on it again.

“Let’s start again,” Harvey said.

He watched as she unfolded her arms and the tension eased in her shoulders. She was no longer trying to kill him with just a look. Instead, she tipped her head slightly to the right just as his beast did when it was curious, and then all that progress was gone as her body snapped back to attention.

“It would be much better if we didn’t. Let’s just call it quits and move on,” Jordan said with a small shrug.

“Yeah, that’s not really going to work for me,” Harvey winced again.

Mine…

It would have been an understatement to say that his bear was not happy. He could feel the prickle of the beast’s fur just beneath his skin. It wanted out. It wanted to know her.

“Well, now here’s the thing, it works just fine for me.”

Jordan had a look about her that Harvey was unsure of. It was a cross between a precocious child and a damn stubborn woman. Neither one of those things he was sure about.

He wasn’t used to dealing with females. Sure, he knew a few shifter women, a few human females in passing, but even then; this was his mate, and he’d certainly never had to deal with one of those before.

“Not for me.”

“Huh?” She twisted her head to the side once more, questioning him, and this time he found it adorable.

“I have a little problem…”

“From where I stand you have several, but none of them are my problem.”

“Now, here’s the thing…”

“Now you have a thing?”

“We — have a thing.” Harvey lifted one large hand and motioned between them to the sound of a snort of a chuckle from his mate.

“Oh, we do not have a thing.” Jordan gave a small shake of her head in order to back up her words as she questioned his sanity once again with just a look.

“Actually we do.”

“No, I’m pretty sure I’d know if we did, and we don’t,” Jordan tossed back with a scowl.

“There’s no sense in arguing about this — trust me, I’m right.”

“Believe me when I say that I mean this from the heart – I’m sure you say that to all the girls.” Jordan was certain that the man didn’t have one un-chauvinistic bone in his body.

“Say what?” Harvey must have missed a step somewhere because he certainly didn’t tell every female that he came across that she was his mate.

“That you’re right,” Jordan offered back with just a little smugness in her tone.

“Well, I’m right about this.”

“Go ahead,” she said and she tossed up a hand towards him. “Let’s hear it.”

Mine…

Harvey wanted to say it. His bear was desperate for him to say it. And yet, now that she’d given him permission to stake his claim on her he felt powerless to act.

Jordan wasn’t a shifter, she was a human, and he couldn’t just blurt it out, could he?

Mine…

What if she had no understanding of mates?

What if she did and then took off like a bat out of hell?

Mine…

What if she just plain laughed in his face?

Mine…

What if he lost her before he even had her?