“Who are you?” The man only stared at her, and she licked her lips. His soft breath moved over her damp mouth, and she had to lick them again. He continued to stare at her even when he put his hands on her hips. “I want to kiss you.”
“Yes.” He lowered his head to hers, and she felt his breath heat her. His hands tightened on her hips, and she took a step toward him when he pulled her. As soon as their bodies came together, she felt her * heat up, her nipples hardened to the point of pain, and she wanted more of him. As his lips touched hers, Kari tried to think of all the reasons this was a bad idea, but then he pulled back. When he let her go, taking his body and his hands from her, she nearly reached for him to pull him back. But it was the look in his eyes that stopped her.
“I’m not available for anything with you.” It took her mind a few seconds to catch up with what he was saying. And when it did, she felt her temper snap. He thought she wanted a quick fuck from him. She did, but there was no reason for him to be an ass about it. Kari slapped him as hard as she could. But as a big man, the only thing that moved was his head, and that was only slightly. As he turned back to her, she wanted to tell him to fuck off, but she didn’t. To be honest, she was too hurt to do anything more than stare at him as he walked out.
Closing the door behind him, she slid the lock home and leaned heavily against it, and tried to reason with her cat and herself that the man didn’t want her. Neither of them. But the cat wanted him and to be honest, so did Kari. She was moving to the stairwell that led to her apartment when it occurred to her what had just happened.
“No fucking way.” She started to go out and find him again to prove to herself that this wasn’t her mate. No fucking way in hell was that man going to be anything to her. As she stomped up the rest of the stairs, she tried to wash the thought out of her mind with a hundred other details, but the man was all she could think about.
Taking a cold shower—and only because the heat had been turned off two days ago—she went to bed shivering and cold to the bone. The window air conditioner rattled and banged, but she didn’t bother turning it off. She’d be burning up hot in a minute, as her body was always about five hundred degrees warmer than anything else. She lay on her bed, trying to shut her mind down, but the man kept coming back to her. Christ, her mate.
“Now what?” Now what indeed. Kari was afraid that if she tried to contact him he’d turn her down. If everything she’d learned about being a cat—or even half of it—was true, she was in trouble of the worse kind. She lay there tossing and turning for over three hours before she got up to dress. The sooner she made tracks to get out of there, the sooner she could move on with her life. This was just too much.
After packing what she owned, which was very little, she packed up her backpack with her reader and headed out of the building. The suitcase was surprisingly heavy, but everything in it was hers. She thought about leaving the building unlocked for whoever wanted the place, but knew that her prints were everywhere and the last thing she needed was to be thought of as a thief. As she walked along the road to who knew where, she tried to put a plan together that would end all this. The best she could come up with was finding a job and a place to live.
“Best place to start, I suppose.” Hearing a car coming down the road, she actually thought about hiding in the dark trees, but put out her thumb to hitch a ride. She wasn’t worried about anyone hurting her. Fuck, she was a cat and she’d tear them apart if they tried. So when the car slowed, then stopped about ten feet in front of her, she ran to the car, smiling. But the face looking back at her had her backing up. There was no way that she’d ride with this man after what he’d said to her.
“Get in.” She shook her head at Steele, and he barked at her again. “Get in the fucking car so that I don’t have to find your ghost to locate your body in a few weeks.”
“I can take care of myself.” He snorted. “I’m not human, in case you didn’t know. I’m just fine on my own. And if my ghost does come to find you, it’ll probably be to haunt you for the rest of your days.” She thought he said something like that was nothing new but wasn’t sure.
When he put the car in park and got out, every part of her body told her to run, hide, don’t let him catch you, but before she could get her feet to do what she wanted, he’d lifted her up to his body and rocked his cock into her as he slammed his mouth over hers. Kari wrapped her ankles around him as he laid her over the trunk of his car. Finally, her body screamed at her, and her cat was suddenly very happy as well.
~~~