~

   

It was safe to say that the alpha wasn’t playing fair.

Vanessa guessed after what she’d done with her magic that she deserved it, but in her mind, that wasn’t the point.

Not only had he shocked her with a kiss, but he’d also tipped her backward and shocked the heck out her with that one as well. The man thought he was in a damn black and white movie and he was the hero. Not in her book.

But as her world tipped, so she’d gasped in surprise, and he’d used that to his advantage and had deepened the kiss.

And what a kiss it was.

Vanessa felt as if she’d never been kissed in her life before – which was absurd, because she could list the names of all the boys, and men, that she’d kissed to date on the one hand – except him – she’d not really been introduced.

And now he was kissing her like a man on a mission to prove something, to himself, to her.

To make her swoon – and there was swooning!

The man was also sex on a damn stick – also unfair, but there was little that she could do about that either. But that kiss, boy, did it set her toes curling, her womb jumping in delight, and her breasts heaving like some romance novel chick.

“Whoa!” Faith chuckled.

Even through the rushing of blood and the pounding of her heart in her ears, Vanessa heard her friend’s word, and it stomped on her very last nerve.

She placed her palms against the hard muscles of his chest and pushed.

Something inside of her said not to do it, and yet she did it.

Something told her to enjoy it, enjoy the kiss, enjoy the moment, and yet; she couldn’t give herself over to that moment completely. There was another part of her that wanted to stomp on the man from a great height, for which she’d need a ladder.

Vanessa squirmed against his body as she tried to break free. The hard muscles of his chest weren't the only thing that tempted her to stay put; there was something long, thick, and mighty hard that was pressing against her stomach as well – and that was even more of a temptation to her brain and her body that she could have done without.

“Geez, let the woman up for air, already,” Clive chuckled.

Ryan’s body was on full steam ahead at just the taste of her tongue against his, and even if he couldn’t scent her – every inch of him had come alive and assured him that she was his mate.

Mine…

His beast wholeheartedly agreed.

That was all that Ryan needed to release her lips and stare down into her hooded eyes as she snapped her lids open and stared at him for a long moment like she’d been hit over the head with something heavy.

“Mine…” Ryan growled out, and boy did he love saying that after the roadblocks that the wicked witch had thrown up in his way.

“The hell you say,” Vanessa squirmed some more the moment that the realization took her that she was done for. “Mate my…”

“I don’t think you want to finish that sentence, not if you really think about what you’re offering,” Clive chuckled.

Vanessa squealed with annoyance as she managed to get some of the alpha’s taut skin between her finger and thumb, and pinched him as hard as she could with a little magic to back it up, of course.

“Yeow-ouch!” Ryan yelped, and it was his brothers turn to snigger. Both of them sounded like Mutley, the cartoon dog.

“Aww, someone get a boo-boo?” Vanessa babied him, and the alpha wolf inside of him growled in annoyance.

“That’s so not funny,” Ryan said, tilting her back onto her feet again as he grumbled.

“I so don’t care,” Vanessa hissed back, finally able to slap at him until he let go of her.

Then she took a step back and gave herself some much-needed breathing space.

“Fix my nose,” Ryan growled.

“Break it more like,” Vanessa hissed, folding her arms just under her breasts and finally giving her nun’s outfit some shape around her body.

Ryan’s eyes dropped down to her breasts, and she gasped.

“You stared at my boobs!” She bit out in disbelief.

“You offered them up, but…” He said, lifting his forefinger to silence her protests, “It’s not like I can see anything under the sack, now is it?”

“What is the world coming to when a nun gets kissed in a bar and some big lug stares at her breasts?” Clive said, stirring the pot rather nicely.

“Exactly,” Vanessa agreed like she’d been vindicated.

“She’s not a nun,” Ryan growled back in disbelief.

“She’s dressed like one,” Clive tossed back.

“Still … not a damn nun!” Ryan growled louder.

“Damn and nun in the same sentence? I guess that’s contempt right there,” Vanessa berated him.

“Oh for the love of…” Ryan tossed up a hand and rolled his eyes back in his head.

“Taking the Lord’s name in vain!” Vanessa gasped.

“Seriously?” Ryan blurted out.

“Are you saying you weren’t?” Vanessa twisted her head on her neck and gave him a sideways glare.

“I…” Ryan was getting to the point where he was more than confused and a whole lot frustrated – and his blood pressure was rising faster than when he’d kissed her.

“There you go then!” Vanessa tossed up a hand back at him. “Shame on you!”

“Someone punch me so I know I’m not dreaming!” Ryan bit out – and a fist came flying out of nowhere and landed squarely on his jaw.

Ryan’s feet never left the spot that he’d been standing in. His head did move on his neck, but he dropped his chin towards his chest and slowly turned his eyes towards his brother.

Jason looked both amused, and a little worried.

“You did ask,” the beta said.

“Didn’t I just,” Ryan bit back, and the sound of his mate’s chuckle made him growl all the harder.

“Wow, you really are the village idiot,” Jeannie shook her head at her mate, and he scowled back at her.

“And you’re mean, but I don’t point that out, do I?” Jason grumbled and watched as his mate’s eyebrows lifted slowly towards her hairline.

“You just did, Einstein,” she offered back.

“Well, three mates for three shifter brothers – what fun we’re going to have tonight!” Clive said, clapping his hands together and rubbing them like he was cold.

“Define … we.” Ryan growled back.

He thought that he’d given enough of a damn floor to those present, especially the vampire, and he wasn’t about to add to that spectacle by wooing his mate in the man’s presence.

“Ooooh, no,” Clive shook his head. “I’m not missing out on the festivities, on the wooing, on the pure torture of you three finding your mates. I’m coming home with you.”

“Define home,” Vanessa scowled.

“Pack land,” Clive shot back with glee.

“Pack land!” Jeannie scowled at the man.

“No way, no how, no chance in bloody hell!” Faith bit out.

“Such language from a nun!” Clive bit out.

“You can stop using that old cliché, and you can take your words and shove them up your…”

“Faith,” Vanessa warned.

“What?” Faith snapped back.

“Ah, nothing, go ahead,” Vanessa waved an absent hand in the air.

She was done with the whole damn thing.

She was a mate.

A mate to an alpha.

What more could go wrong?

Faith let fly with a whole bunch of curse words – right up to the point where a big, tall, muscle bound shifter, walked in through the front door, took one look at the nun spouting obscenities, and turned on his heels and walked back out again.

“I guess the party’s off,” Clive said with a shrug. “Thanks to Little Miss Potty Mouth.”