~

 

“I’m not a fish. I don’t jump at the sight of bait or a hook…” Sarah informed him.

“Is that like; if that’s a line I’m not biting?” Nathan grinned.

“I like my version better,” Sarah tossed back.

“You are one of a kind … mate…”

Nathan moved a step closer and Sarah debated whether holding her ground was the way to go, especially when his presence was doing a number on her shields, and her body – or certain parts of it…

Mine… His wolf reminded him…

Nathan leaned his upper body towards her and she leaned backwards – not far enough to tip over, but far enough that she could keep eye contact with him, and still stand her ground, whilst also keeping a little distance between them…

“I just want to scent you,” Nathan assured her and watched the way that her eyes slowly narrowed on him…

“You want me to allow myself to be sniffed…?”

“Like a flower…” he offered back.

One side of his mouth travelled upwards in a wolfish smile, and his dark eyes shone with hunger…

“Again with the bait and hooks…”

“I’m not a fisherman – I’m a hunter by nature…”

“Predator.”

“Yes…”

“Saw the movie…”

“If you’re into aliens, you’re out of luck. I’m all man right now…”

Yes – you are… she thought. Momentary caught in those mesmerizingly sexy eyes of his she hated herself for allowing it…

I must look like a doe caught in the headlights …

The man certainly has a magnetic personality … animal magnetism of the best kind … or the worst.

I can’t be sure which yet…

There’s definitely something about him that catches my attention and holds it … probably the mating pull … and those eyes.

Muscles – in abundance.

Sexy wolf shifter – very dangerous to be around … so let’s not be around him…

“I gotta go…”

Sarah started to be back off. It didn’t feel so much like giving ground anymore – just the need to save herself – from herself, and maybe a little from him, because he was one sexy man, and she was floundering in a sea of uncertainty about how long she could actually refrain from touching…

“Don’t leave on my account…” he teased – that smile of his got a whole lot sexier as his eyes shone with amusement… “I just wanna a little sniff…”

“Yes, but sniffing leads to touching, and touching leads to …” she was building up an image within her own mind that she needed to quash… “Other stuff…”

“And other stuff is bad?” His eyebrows danced like they were squaring up for a fight… it was cute… and she thought that she might just have lost her mind.

Cute? How can anything on an alpha wolf shifter be … cute?

Sexy – check. Double and triple locked in check … but cute?

I’ve done gone and lost my mind … and I’m gonna need to find it again real soon…

“Really, really, really bad…” Sarah said, still backing away from him towards the doorway…

The only trouble was that he was following her now, step for step, inch for inch. She might have been moving across the room, but she wasn’t moving away from him.

“How could it be so bad when we are made for each other? Literally.” He asked.

Sarah didn’t really have an answer for him because her brain wasn’t really fully focused on the question at hand. Sure, she could have thought about it a little harder, but most of her mind was taken up with the fact that he was walking with her, matching her steps, and looking every inch the predator that she’d said he was, and even that was damned sexy.

“I’ll figure that out and let you know…”

She got through the doorway, realised that she was in the hall, and lifted her hand to call on her magic and flick the door shut right in his face…

There was the sound of a dull thud, and she had to presume that some part of him had hit the door, or the door had hit him – either way; she grimaced a little.

Then there was the sound of a low, deep rumble of a growl that made her heart flutter and her insides thump … or maybe it was the other way around, but she couldn’t be sure, because she was trying to shake off that hold that his eyes had on her, and was trying to decide in which direction she should take off and seek sanctuary from him…

Sarah heard the thump of his hand against the handle and her eyes snapped down to see it move. She panicked on a rush of self-preservation and hit out with her magic – sending a spark of something through the handle and subsequently through him…

She heard the deep yelp on the other side of that wooden barrier that was bitten off a moment later, and grimaced once more, but there was no time to be apologetic or even remorseful … her panties were already having a hard time of it, and if she wanted them to stay firmly in place then … needs must…

“Stick like glue … open for another, but not for you…” she muttered as she sent her magic out to the inanimate object that didn’t require her to worry about payback, and secured the door in place…

A couple of thuds later – the constant movement of the door handle, and one heck of a growl from the other side, and she grinned happily…

Sarah turned on her heels and strolled away, feeling suddenly better with herself, with trapping him inside of the room, and with making him have to go to all the trouble of walking around the house to get back in … and for life in general.

She’d got her reprieve, but for how long?

 

~

~

~

 

Angela eyed Dorothy as the woman sat in the wicker chair in front of the vast array of panelled windows in the sun room. She felt the same tapping of her conscience then as she had the moment that Lark had verbally claimed her as his mate.

It wasn’t right.

She didn’t want a mate, nor did she feel that she needed one, and yet something of a spark of life had switched on inside Dorothy the moment that she’d encountered Lark … and she felt bad that it had died just as quickly.

“Maybe this adventure was a bad idea…” Angela said, kicking her own backside into gear and fighting against her guilt.

Dorothy turned at the sight of her friend’s voice and put the book that she was holding, but not reading, down onto her lap…

“Where’s that hot stud of a mate of yours?” Dorothy asked, peering around Angela towards the doorway.

“He’s busy holding his crown jewels,” Angela said as she huffed down into the chair opposite Dorothy to the sound of the woman’s gentle giggles. They sounded like a ray of sunshine of a storm day.

“That’s like cutting your nose off to spite your face, isn’t it?”

“Not for me it’s not,” Angela offered back, with a slight sneer of disbelief that her friend would even think that.

“You better get to the mating part sooner rather than later – you’re not getting any younger,” Dorothy wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and Angela’s disbelief turned to mortification…

“What is it with you and sex…?” she whispered the last word.

“Did nobody ever explain that it’s the meaning of life to you?” Dorothy looked a little more taken back.

“N-o … it’s not,” Angela gave an adamant shake of her head.

“Then I hate to tell you this, Angela, but you weren’t doing it right,” Dorothy assured her.