~

Dusty and Paige had stayed back at the house while Kat and Mel had gone to meet the old alpha. Paige’s sisters hadn’t been in love with the idea of leaving her alone with Dusty, but Parker didn’t want his father to get overwhelmed with too many visitors at once in his fragile state.

Paige had to agree and insisted to her siblings that it was fine at the time, but now that she was alone with her mate; she was fast rethinking that rush to judgement on her part.

It wasn’t that she felt threatened, at least, not by conventional thinking anyway. But the man certainly was a dominant presence that, even if she tried really hard – and she had, she couldn’t seem to ignore him if her very life depended on it.

She knew that the mating pull had been working against her since the moment they’d met, or was it all her? That felt like a grey area, and the more time that she spent with him, the greyer it seemed to get.

Six foot odd of pure muscled beefcake wasn’t really anything to be sneezed at. The man was definitely eye candy in anyone’s book, and in her mate-pulled little heart, even more so.

As she exited the bathroom, her second trip to sanctuary since her sisters had left; there he stood in the hallway outside. Mr Sex-on-a-stick was propping up the wall with his shoulder, big muscled arms folded across the expanse of his chest, with a cocky grin on his lips, and a heck of a lot of amusement dancing in his eyes as he stared back at her.

“I didn’t mean to hog the bathroom,” Paige lied.

Of course, she had, it was the only way to escape being alone in a room with him and possibly succumbing to those x-rated thoughts that kept popping up in her mind every time she looked at him. She could try hard to whack those thoughts over the head and send them on their ever-loving way, but they kept coming back like a bad smell.

“It’s not the bathroom I want,” Dusty said.

He seemed so sure of himself that it awakened the mischief within her. How did you put a sexy-as-hell man that you were attracted to like bees to pollen, or everything in the universe into a damn black hole – in his place and keep him at arm’s length?

Especially, when you didn’t think that arm’s length was where you actually wanted him to be. Life sucked.

  “Hmm,” she took her own sweet time to ponder that thought. “You wanna go at it right here?”

“Huh?” Dusty didn’t think he’d heard her right.

Damn his ears and his brain – it was bad enough that it kept getting distracted by thoughts of mating with her – thoughts of what she looked like naked – thoughts of being deep inside of her – but, now it was putting words in her mouth? He needed to get a damn grip.

“Up against the wall?”

Paige reached out and ran her fingertips over the cold paintwork. Damn it, but she was playing a dangerous game because that thought had pinged a naughty and nice brain cell or two in her mind that was now flashing up images of them together, hot and heavy, and she needed to get a grip on that poop before things got out of hand.

It was already quite a few degrees hotter inside her body than it had been earlier, and she didn’t think anyone had turned up the heating. She also didn’t think that melting into a puddle at his feet like an idiot was the way to go either.

Paige was working hard on banishing those erotic thoughts when Dusty decided to close the distance between them. What the hell?

Paige swallowed down hard as she eyed the big beta that was coming right at her. Not only was there a hungry look in his eyes, but there was a deep, hungry growl that was reaching out to her senses even before he did.

It was a split second decision — to zap or not to zap?

Paige really didn’t have the heart to act on that thought of self-preservation. The adrenaline that dumped into her system and the excitement that raced through her overrode everything else.

They say curiosity killed the cat — meow.

Dusty’s hand reached out to her, and his arm snaked around her waist, hot palm pressed against the curve of her spine. His other large hand reached out, palmed her face and curled around the back of her neck, and as he yanked her soft body against his hard one — so his lips came down on hers.

Dusty knew that she’d been messing with him. At first; he’d thought that it was his own brain going haywire, but when she’d added the image of them together up against the damn wall — well, his libido had kicked his backside into gear.

Yes, she’d been messing with him — maybe — but, the need to taste her on his tongue was overwhelming, overriding his sanity, and he’d been propelled into action. Now that he was kissing her he was more than glad he did it.

She was his mate. She was as sexy as hell, smelled like flowers on a sunny day, and tasted like honey on his tongue.

The hell was he going to take her up against the wall — it was a nice thought — and even nicer image playing in his mind, but she was his mate, and he’d woo her properly.

Kissing was wooing, and he had no qualms about that. She’d teased that part of him that couldn’t resist a challenge — she’d invited him to test his luck — and if she slapped him for it afterwards, so be it.

She hadn’t said no, she wasn’t saying stop, and if anything — she was melting in his arms.

Dusty couldn’t say that it wasn’t tempting to take it further — see how far he could go to make her melt — love her like a mate should, but, somewhere in the back of his mind the red flags were going up, and alarm bells were ringing.

Regret was a horrible — terrible thing, and he wouldn’t let her regret a moment of them together.

Dusty was the one with regret as he reined in his emotions, his needs, his wants, his desires, and slowly pulled back from all of those things. He buried his face against her neck, her soft hair, and took her scent.

A moment later and her magic stung his skin like a thousand bees had attacked him all at once.

“Geez — woman!” Dusty grumbled a growl as he dropped his arms from around her, just in case there was worse to come, and he hurt her, and backed away, biting down on what had been a sudden pain and was slowly fading away.

“I was joking!” Paige exclaimed. “Do you not know the damn difference between a joke and come get me?”

“I do now…”

“And you didn’t before?” Paige scowled at him.

It wasn’t all him; she knew that, and sure — there was guilt tapping her on the shoulder and wagging a finger at her — but there was also the guilt of enjoying his hot, demanding kisses so damn much that when he’d pulled away, she’d wanted more.

It had certainly been a dangerous game, and she’d lost, but then he had too because she’d zapped him. None of that had been her intention, but she guessed that you couldn’t mess around with a shifter mate. Lesson learned — the next time that she got the urge to tease him, and there would be a next time – then she knew that she had better mean it.

Paige wanted to take the zap back, after all, it had been her fault, but she didn’t feel the same way about those kisses. She didn’t want to take those back, nope, not for the world.

Her lips still tingled from his passion. Her body still hummed with need, and that was okay with her.

Dusty might have been looking sheepish and thoroughly berated as he fidgeted on his feet, but there was still a small smile that pulled at the corners of his lips. From the look on his face, she guessed that he didn’t regret it either. Zap or no zap.

“I’m male!” Dusty said, finally answering her question, and tossing his hands up as he gave a helpless shrug.

Boy, was he? All male, all sexy as hell, and thankfully — all hers.