~

 

Isla felt the hot hand on her backside as she tried to wrench her body up into the back of the truck, and her mind froze in shock, but her witchy powers cut in a moment later and she knew that hand belonged to a damn shifter.

Oh, he is so going to be pulling back a stump.

Three legged wolf coming right up!

“Let me help you,” Lucas said.

The beta’s deep, sexy tones seemed to flow over her body, in through her ears and smacked her subconscious mind upside the head.

Isla was normally guarded against any show of her magic in public, but she wasn’t about to stand for that from a man she hadn’t even been introduced to, let alone a wolf with more paws than an octopus, and bad manners to boot.

She forced her magic out of her body and heard him grunt in pain as a rather hard blast, akin to an electric shock, shot through him.

Half up, and half down; she scrambled backward out of the truck and onto her bare feet on the grass, having kicked off her shoes before she’d attempted the climb.

“That’s a little like overkill,” Lucas ground out.

The man was still feeling the side effects of her magic, but it was wearing off.

“Touch my backside, prepare to be witch slapped.”

Isla tossed her hands onto her hips and scowled up at the behemoth, and he had the audacity to be scowling right back.

“I was helping…”

“Yourself…”

“Not true.”

“So true. The truest.”

“You looked a little stuck.”

“So you thought you’d cop a feel?”

“That’s not what that was…” Lucas grumbled back.

“Oh, please,” she groaned and eyed him with a whole heap of suspicion and accusation.

“Ok, fine. I apologize – if that’s how that might have come across to your sensitive, feminist…”

“Feminist? You’d better just stop right there before you give me cause to zap you again.” She warned him on hushed tones, and she would too if he gave her cause.

That and more besides.

“You’re a witch, and witches like to inflict pain…”

“Ok.” She shrugged and zapped him once more. It wasn’t as jaw-grindingly painful the second time, but he was sure the hairs still stood up all over his skin. “Ask, and ye shall receive.”

“A kiss,” he said, still biting down on the sting in his tail.

Mine… His beast liked the way that his mind was working, even with the pain.

“You asked for a miracle.”

“It’s just a kiss.”

“But, look who it is that I have to kiss.” She shrugged again.

“Am I that bad?”

“I’d rather kiss a toad.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes!” she cut him off before he could throw his pitch.

Lucas considered the way that she’d slammed the proverbial door right in his face – it reminded him of the way that she’d slammed the pod door on him the night before.

Tactics needed to change. That he knew, but how did you go about wooing a witch?

He took one long step towards her, slapped a hand down on each of her curvy hips, and swung her up into the truck before she could even think of zapping him again.

“Have it your way then,” he offered.

“Be still my heart,” Ida chuckled as she stalked towards the truck.

Lucas turned to look down on the rather short and dumpy church lady. Her eyes were sparkling with mischief.

“Would you like me to swing you up there?” Lucas teased and got more robust chuckles for his efforts.

At least someone liked him.

“Maybe thirty years ago,” Ida offered back.

“You’re as young as the man that tickles your fancy,” Lucas grinned, and Ida placed a hand on her matronly breasts.

“If only that were true,” she muttered.

Lucas opened his mouth to speak, but Isla had already launched a sack full of toys at his head – he caught it with his face, and his arm came up and grabbed it in response.

“For you,” Lucas offered the sack to the woman, and she happily took it, grinning between the mates as she turned and walked away, happily chuckling to herself.

“Muppet,” Isla bit out.

She started yanking sacks from the pile and tossing them towards the open door so that they were more easily accessible. At least that was what she told herself.

In truth, her subconscious mind might just have been trying to build a barricade.

“Someone has a very deep jealous streak,” Lucas said from just over her right shoulder and practically against her ear.

It had taken him just a moment to jump into the truck and to position himself right behind her – not that she’d noticed – she’d been too busy taking out her annoyance on the sacks of toys.

That deep voice, the heat from his body, and the small space in the back of the truck that she’d found herself in with him – all of those things she did notice, as her shields warned her of his closeness once more.

Stealthy, speedy, little – big – eejit!

Never turn your back on a wolf!

Smart move, Isla… she berated herself.

Why not just go find that vampire and open a vein?

Geez, I’m an eejit!

No, he’s an eejit!

Dear Goddess, we’re well suited in the eejit department!

Pair of flaming eejits.

“Get over yourself,” Isla hissed back, turning towards him and thrusting a sack against his hard chest.

“You don’t have to be jealous, sweetheart. I’m yours.” He gave her a wolfish grin, the likes of which she’d never seen before.

Isla’s stomach flip-flopped, heat rushed through her body, and her mind seemed to like the imagery that popped into her brain.

Holy poop of the poop-i-ness!

“It’s like fishing for Salmon and finding a piranha,” she grumbled back, twisting her face in disgust – even if disgust wasn’t the depth of emotion that was rolling through her body.

The man hadn’t exactly hit every branch on the ugly tree. Maybe not even one of them.

His body was sculpted beneath his snug clothing, and the sight of it made her heart flutter every time that she saw one of those big muscles flex beneath his tanned skin.

He had a smile that warmed her in places that she’d rather not be warmed, and she bemoaned and begrudged it in equal measure.

“Imagine how I feel, my mate is a witch,” he leaned in slightly and whispered back.

Isla screwed up her face and gasped back at him in disbelief.

“It’s at least comforting to know that you have a death wish. It’ll make life with you so much shorter,” She bit out.

“Which says to me that you’re already contemplating mating with me,” he grinned again.

Smug little word twisting… She grumbled.

Lucas tossed down the bag and leaned his upper torso towards her even more, and there was something of a smug smile on his face that she felt the urge to thump away.

She might only have had a little fist, and it might run the risk of getting damaged in the process, but she swung it anyway.

Lucas saw that fist coming a mile away. His reaction time would have served him better if that fist had come out of nowhere, but he’d seen her intention from the moment the thought had crossed her mind.

By the time that it took her to act on her impulse; he already caught her little fist inside his large hand before it got anywhere near his face, and saved her from the pain that she would have inflicted upon herself by thumping it against his hard head.

Then he used her own momentum and lack of balance against her, and spun her body around on the balls of her naked feet, yanking her back up against his hard chest, and wrapping her inside the safety and security of his arms.

By the time that she’d figured out what had happened; she was trapped, caged within his arms. The feel of his body heat seeped into her like she’d wrapped herself in a comfy blanket, and it took her a moment of sheer amazement to realize that was how she actually felt. Safe and secure, and so very, very warm and cozy…

That’s not good!

How am I supposed to fend him off when my whole being is welcoming him in?

Fate’s bad. Evil and bad, and so damn devious.

I hate fate.

I hate shifters and the supernatural.

Oh, wait… I am the supernatural.

I hate his kind of supernatural.

I hate men.

Men suck.

He sucks.

“Tell me this doesn’t feel good to you.” He took great pleasure in whispering his words against her ear.

Isla squirmed inside at just how damn sexy his voice sounded. How damn sexy his body felt against hers.

Oh, how she hated that feeling, and yet, she loved it at the same time.

“Let go of me before I take your manhood and pin it to one of those dart boards for people to aim at and win a cuddly bloody toy.” She hissed back.

“That didn’t sound like a denial to me,” he teased.

The sound of his deep chuckles sent her mind into a tailspin.

She liked that too – much to her sheer annoyance.

Now she was really out for blood because it was the only way that she could see to defend herself from his lecherous ways.