Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Rockets went off. Colors burst behind her eyes. His hands were in her hair, bunching, fisting, holding her still while he kissed her over and over. Long, drugging kisses that took every sane thought she’d ever had. Kisses that reduced her to incoherence. To confusion.
His kisses alone made it clear her body belonged to him. She forgot where she was. That it was broad daylight and they were out in the open. She would have done anything with him right then because she couldn’t think straight. Only feel. He hadn’t touched her body. He hadn’t done one thing but kiss her, and she was already slick with need. That exquisite tension was already coiling tighter and tighter. Desire built until she was kissing him back, making her own demands, stepping closer, pressing into him to feel that hot, hungry length of him tight against her stomach.
“Baby” – he breathed the endearment – “we have to stop or I won’t be able to.”
He didn’t step away from her but kept his body pressed tightly against hers. She had the feeling he was shielding her from too many interested eyes.
“Who are you, Joshua?” she whispered, because her voice refused to do more than that.
“You know who I am.” He caught her chin. “I’m your man. Your mate. Are we done with the protests, or do I carry you upstairs and convince you a different way?”
“Your arrogance is annoying.”
A small smile played around the edges of his mouth, capturing her heart. “I have reason to feel arrogant now that I’ve got you.”
She shook her head. “You don’t understand. I’m not in a position to have a man. Don’t you think I’d say yes, if I could?”
That small smile was gone instantly. Her heart slammed hard in her chest and then accelerated alarmingly. That hot, gorgeous arrogance was gone, replaced by cool blue-green eyes. The green, turbulent, like a sea – just as cold – the blue like the deep of an iceberg. His features were a mask she couldn’t read, all masculine and scary. He’d gone from warm and sexy to cold and dangerous in the blink of an eye.
She’d been around dangerous men before, but they were out of their league next to Joshua. She tried to take a step back, her hand going protectively to her throat. He caught her arm in a firm grip, looked around him and then started down the path leading under the canopy of trees, away from the house and anyone who might overhear them. She wasn’t certain she wanted to be alone with him.
“You’re scaring me.” Honesty was the best policy. In any case, her leopard could always hear lies, and she presumed his leopard did the same for him.
“You should be scared,” he snapped. “This is bullshit. You have a problem with someone, you need to tell me and tell me now.”
“I don’t know you,” she reiterated, forcing her body to stay still when it was determined to tremble. She had Gatita, and that meant she could protect herself from him, at least long enough to get away. “I can’t just blurt out personal problems when I just met you – if I had any,” she hastily tacked on.
“You didn’t just meet me, and you just confirmed you’re in trouble. You’re mine, Sonia, and I take care of what is mine. I know this is new to you, but you’re a shifter. We live by different rules than the rest of the world. You should know that. You had to have been born into a lair.”
She shook her head. “I don’t even know what that is.”
His gaze narrowed, more focused than ever, if that were possible. His eyes were back to crystal blue, all green gone. She could see the leopard staring at her.
“I want to leave. Right. Now. I want to leave.” She could barely breathe.
“He isn’t going to hurt you. That would be impossible for either of us to do,” Joshua said. “I might be impatient or even angry with you at times, but I would never hurt you.”
The ring of sincerity in his voice calmed her. He couldn’t fake that. She took a deep breath and pulled him down into her lungs. He smelled of the outdoors. All masculine. “I don’t know the first thing about shifters. I didn’t know I was one until my leopard showed herself in an extreme circumstance.” She chose her words very carefully.
“Extreme circumstance?” he repeated.
She nodded. “She saved my life.” She didn’t elaborate. “I came here because she needed a place to run. I needed a place for peace.”
“To hide. You’re hiding.”
“If I’m hiding, you can see that the last thing I would need is the complication of a boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend?” Amusement tinged his voice.
She was mortified. Of course he hadn’t said a word about being her official boyfriend. They were more like… “Okay, fuck buddies,” she snapped. “I don’t have room in my life for you.”