~

 

“That really wasn’t my fault…” Jamie said as he gave her something of a helpless grin, a small shrug of very broad shoulders, and a sexy wink with his right eye…

She didn’t look impressed.

“Don’t flirt with me – trust me when I say – I’m not your type,” Fallon offered back with a little bit of a death glare, and a whole lot of attitude as she snatched her body, and the metal rod, upright, and started back towards the car.

“How do I know that unless I try?” He offered with a teasing boyish smile, but that was no boy – that was definitely all man – a sexy, hot, shifter man that was the equivalent of playing with fire, and she didn’t want to get burned.

Jamie folded his thick muscles arms across his broad chest and regarded her with his best smile. She might not have looked impressed before, but he had charm, and he could always win over the ladies…

“Why would you try when you’ll lose?”

“It’s not the winning, although, that’s good too, but the taking part in a challenge and other things that can be fulfilling,” he lied.

He was a beta, a man, and a shifter, and a challenge meant winning at all costs. He’d spent his entire life living by that code, so why would he stop now?

She groaned inwardly at the thought that she’d just waved a red rag in front of a bullish man, and she hoped that it didn’t mean what she thought it might – game on.

Challenge accepted.

Wolf on the damn prowl…

“Knowing when to cut your losses and get out of my face is good too, don’t you think?” Fallon tossed back at him.

The man had puppy dog eyes, but that didn’t mean that he was cute and cuddly. She knew the wolf inside the man was deadly, but she had a way of handling deadly things, because those things had been there her whole life, and she was still around – that had to mean that she was doing something right.

But puppy dog eyes or not - she wasn’t planning on adopting any strays. Especially one’s that looked like him…

“Yeah,” he mulled that one over. “But…”

“No buts.” Fallon cut him off right there at the knees. She didn’t want to play anymore.

He would definitely be one heck of a complication that her life could not afford – Even if that one night might have been a damn good time had by the both of them…

Jamie grinned, and he offered her his best side while he did it. Then he gave her the drop dead sexy smile that he wielded with the ladies to stunning effect.

Panties dropped and women swooned, but again she didn’t look overly impressed.

“Don’t sile at me like that.” She tossed back. “I have a heart that’s encased in ice, and trust me when I say that you can’t bring enough heat to melt it, even a little.”

“Another challenge…” Jamie’s grin widened to full effect, and she had to admit, even if only to herself, that it was damned hard to pull her eyes from that sexy beaming smile of his…

She groaned inwardly. If everything that she said was going to be taken as a challenge by the man then she just needed to stop talking and start fixing her car.

“I have a car to kill – you might want to step back…”

She wielded the metal bar over her shoulder as she stalked back towards the vehicle.

Jamie was at her side in a heartbeat. He reached for the wrench, and the brush of his fingers against hers made Fallon pull back and shoot him a look that said she was fit to kill …

But that wasn’t his biggest problem …

Oh no – from the electric tingles that emanated from the skin to skin contact that ran over his hand, up his arm, and spread fast over the rest of his body – making every muscle clench, every inch of him hard, including his length that became instantly strangled within his jeans … he knew that he had way bigger problems than a witch trying to kill him…

Mine…

Jamie tried his damnedest to swallow down his heart when it got lodged within his throat.

His beast clawed its way towards the surface and he managed to hold onto it just below his skin, but he was almost certain that he could feel the prickle of his wolf’s fur along with those damn tingles…

Mine…

His beast asserted itself again. The wolf wasn’t best pleased that the man hadn’t stated their claim on her…

Jamie’s world spun around inside of his mind. There was so much to consider and yet nothing that was tangible, nothing that he could actually put his finger on – only the fact that now that he knew her, his life would never be the same again.

He mourned that thought…

Mine…!

Oh, boy did his wolf want out, and yet, the man himself considered turning tail and running in the opposite direction from where she was – running and never stopping … and he’d never ran away from anything in his life – except his alpha brother, Nathan, when the man got good a moody, but only because he liked his butt without the deep claw and fang wounds gouged into it…

Mine ….

Mine …

Mine!

Yeah! Jamie growled back at the wolf within…

I get it!

Ours.

Mine!

Bite the hell out of me and hold your damn horses while I think…!

“I’ve got this…” Fallon said, eyeing him as he stood there immobile with his hand on the metal, and his eyes narrowing on her by the second.

She wasn’t sure what his problem was – what she’d done, but he had a stupid look on his face – like he was constipated, but expecting touchdown at some time soon. That look was mixed with disbelief, and a big dollop of suspicion and surprise…

She could understand all of those feelings if the man had eaten a big old bowl of bran that morning, but otherwise, she wasn’t entirely sure what his problem was…

“I…ve…mmm … your….” He sounded like his battery was low and someone needed to wind up his manual key … it was both annoying and frustrating…

“Just spit it out…” Fallon hissed back.

She didn’t have time for stupid – if she wanted stupid then she could get that anywhere, anywhere but not there, because she wanted to get right away from there…

Mine …

Mine …

Mine …

Mine …

Mine…

“Mine!” He growled out. “Damn it to hell! Mine! Mine! Mine! – There – I said it – Mine, are you happy?” Jamie growled as he took a small step back and waved his hands around in the air like he was trying to swat a hive full of bees…

“Nope… not really…” Fallon bit out as she watched the idiot at work doing more stupid stuff than she either cared or needed to witness…

Jamie dropped his hands to his sides and took a long step towards her, and Fallon wrenched her head back on her neck, and leaned her upper body back away from him …

Whatever he had, she didn’t want to catch it…

“Mine…” he growled; leaning his head in and practically touching her nose with his…

“You want the damn tyre thingy that much – take it…”

She tossed the metal bar at him, but his reaction time failed him, and he tried to snatch it up and missed…

It hit his toes a second or two later, and she saw that pain register on his face, as his eyes widened, then narrowed to little slits, and then widened again…

Jamie yelped at the same time as he growled, and she was kind of impressed that the man could multitask …

Then he lifted his foot, grabbed at it with one large hand, and tried to squeeze and rub through the toecap of his trainer, all the while; bouncing up and down like some sexy hot version of Tigger…

“Are you kidding me…?” He growled and grumbled, and yet he still bounced on one foot. “Why would you throw that at me?” He berated her on a constant growl…

“You seemed to really want it,” she shrugged, “how was I to know you were all butterfingers?”

“Butter…” he growled long and hard as he dropped his foot to the ground and tried that stomping out the pain thing that men did when the stupidity took them over… “What makes you think I wanted it?” he ground out between clenched teeth.

The stomping wasn’t really helping, except to make the pain shoot up his leg, and yet he didn’t stop…

“Well…” She sounded slightly exasperated by his behaviour. “ You said; m….ine…”

That word finally registered within her mind – pushing everything else that was tossing and turning in there aside, and she stretched her head forward on her neck, and tried to swallow down the lump that had formed within her throat…

“O.” She said.

“Exactly.”

Jamie nodded as he watched her eyes widen and her mouth fall open. Then there was a long wheeze as her breath escaped her lungs, before something invisible must have slapped her on the back of the head, because she blinked once, gasp in a breath, snapped her jaws together, and practically tossed her body backwards away from him…

“Oh nooooo!” she shook her head fast in denial… “Nope, that is soooooo not happening here, shifter man…”