~

 

Maggie wasn’t really sure which way was up. Normally, in her experience, when you went to the middle of nowhere you usually came back with nothing. She’d gone to the middle of nowhere in search of Rayner, and she’d found somewhere to live, and apparently, a mate.

She kind of knew what that meant. Roland had kind of filled in some of the blanks, and yet, she felt like there was a ton more stuff that she didn’t understand, and didn’t have a clue to ask about.

Mates. Soul mates. She knew enough to know that a shifter mated for life.

That meant that she was the one. His one.

She was the woman that he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with. Boy, was she not sure how she felt about that.

Talk about speed dating.

It didn’t feel like she had a choice in the matter. Like fate had taken things out of her useless hands and had decided to run her life because she couldn’t. That sounded about right. She certainly wasn’t doing a very good job on her own.

But him? A bear shifter. Wasn’t she supposed to know the rules of the game before she played it?

He was way out of her league. Surely, he got a say in who he spent the rest of his life with?

To be saddled with her — she didn’t think that was fair on him. She didn’t look like one of those bear chasing females with the big breasts, lots of hair and attitude, tossing their hips around as they walked on high heels — no, that certainly wasn’t her. If she tried that then she’d surely face plant the ground.

The man was a sex god. There were no two ways around it. He had the height, those big broad shoulders, and muscles, upon muscles, upon muscles — she almost sighed to herself at the thought of it.

Him — naked. That certainly got her heart pumping, heat circulating around her body, and butterflies dancing in her stomach. She didn’t even want to think about other places that were heating up in her body.

She was a bookworm. She was a mouse. He was a — bear – enough said.

Why the hell would he want to spend the rest of his life her? That was something she couldn’t figure out.

Why wasn’t he running for the hills and never looking back?

“Well, you seem to be mulling something over,” Roland’s deep voice dragged her from her musings and slapped her right back into the real world.

His world.

“Do you have to be with your mate?” Maggie asked, and got a rather strange look back for her trouble.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“Gee, with reasoning like that how could I have any more questions?”

“You’re my mate.” Roland shrugged.

“How do you know you’re even going to like me as a person?” Maggie shot back.

“You’re my mate,” Roland said again.

“But, how do you know that we’re even slightly compatible?” Maggie asked.

“You’re my mate,” Roland said with a shrug of his broad shoulders.

“Could you stop saying that before I pick up a skillet and hit you over the head with it?” Maggie snapped back.

“Rushes to anger — I like that. Means we’re compatible,” Roland said as he folded his large, muscled arms across his broad chest, tipped his head to one side, and offered her a teasing smile.

“Butthead,” Maggie grumbled as she looked anywhere but at him.

“Well, tell me what you want me to say, sweetheart?”

“The truth,” Maggie said as she tossed up her hands in frustration. “Why would a man like you want to be with a woman like me?”

Roland opened his mouth to speak but stopped with a deep frown that slowly turned into a scowl as he considered her words and they truly sunk in.

“What the hell does that mean?” Roland growled back.

“What are you, hard of hearing now?” Maggie snapped.

“After hearing a stupid question like that, I guess I wish I was,” Roland growled. “What the hell are you talking about, woman? You’re as sexy as hell, probably the smartest person I’ve ever met, and you’ve got a mean left knee — what’s not to like?”

“That’s not nice!” Maggie pushed up to her feet.

“What’s not nice?” Roland demanded.

“You don’t have to be like that about it,” Maggie said as she turned toward the kitchen door and started for the exit.

Roland rolled his eyes to the ceiling and pulled them down on the empty doorway in front of him. Women. He couldn’t figure them out.

“How was I being?” Roland demanded as he followed her on her trek toward the front door.

“Humouring me,” Maggie tossed back over her shoulder as she reached out for the door handle, and felt his long fingers wrap around her wrist. A moment later and she found herself spun around to face him.

“Humouring you?” Roland growled. Didn’t the female know just how damn sexy she was?

“Me.”

“Oh, boy — do you have that wrong,” Roland growled again.

“Don’t growl at me just to deflect the damn pity in your voice…”

“And who am I pitying?” Roland demanded as his eyebrows dipped low over his eyes.

“Me — you — us…”

That was as far as Maggie got. Roland yanked her the small distance that remained between them, up against his hard body, and then he brought his lips down on hers.

Maggie thought she’d felt hot before, but heat spread through her body like she was on fire from the inside out.

Roland had only meant to show her just how damn sexy she was and how, given the chance, he’d like to kiss her until she was dizzy with it – and then he found that he couldn’t hold back, not once he actually had her within his arms, and was tasting her lips.

He took the chance that she wouldn’t deliver another knee to his balls, and deepened the kiss.

His mate responded by opening and letting him taste her tongue on his, and he was in damn heaven.