“Okay. Yeah.”
Each rocking movement of his hips took him an increment deeper, her tight walls clenching around him. Rhiannon whimpered in discomfort, but when he tried to withdraw she dug her nails into his ass and wound one leg over his.
He’d never felt anything so overwhelming, so intense, so good in his life.
The sensation in his fingertips increased and his canines sharpened.
Mark her. Mate. Mate. Mate.
He had to claim her now. Make her his. Kit nuzzled the side of her throat, choking on her scent, electrified by the sizzling rope of energy slowing back and forth between them.
No. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. Too young. It wasn’t right.
He panted, his cock inside her, their gazes locked.
Rhiannon rolled her hips, little impatient noises slipping past her lips.
“Stop. Just, hold still for a minute.” Kit retreated, the friction and heat taxing his grip on control. A careful thrust forward, and they moaned in tandem. Another slow withdraw, and he flexed his hips, somehow even deeper this time.
“I can’t—” Rhiannon bit his clavicle.
Orgasm tore through him. Stars burst behind his eyelids and sensation cascaded through every extremity. He crushed her to the blanket, his dick pulsing.
The cougar thrashed for freedom. Claws sprang from his finger tips and his canines fully transformed to their lethal, shifted length. He choked on a growl. Ringing filled his ears.
“Um...that was... did you?” Rhiannon stammered, her scent mixed with his driving him even further into madness.
Panic and adrenalin flooded his system. She was his mate, and she wasn’t safe with him. Not now. The cougar wouldn’t be satisfied unless he bit her.
He had her by the waist, ready to roll her over onto her stomach. Kit clamped his eyes shut and buried his face in his shoulder.
Bad move. She’d left her scent all over him.
“I...I...” He scuttled backward, leapt over the side of the truck, and tore off through the trees.
“Kit? Kit!” Rhiannon shouted. “Christopher. Where are you going?”
All he could do was run, tree branches snapping into his bare flesh, the piercing bite of stones digging into his feet. The cougar raged and shredded him from the inside, trying to force him to transformation for the first time since age twelve.
This wasn’t the right time to claim Rhiannon as his mate, but he knew by running from her this way, he’d never have another chance with her.
Her welfare mattered more than anything, and he wouldn’t take her as his mate when they were both too young. Above all, he had to protect her, even from himself.
A tear dribbled down his cheek and he collapsed to the forest floor, convulsing in agony as he resisted the change. Rhiannon—his mate—was out of his reach forever, but she’d have a chance to find someone else. Someone safe. Human. Someone with discipline.
Kit curled into ball on the forest floor, desperate and determined to stay away from her until he had authority over his cougar.
***
An hour later he hid in the canopy of bushes and foliage surrounding the pick-up where she waited with the blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Tears dripped off her chin.
Kit crouched deep in the subconscious of his animal form, unable to move closer to her and unwilling to leave her alone.
Rhiannon cleared her throat. She talked to herself, sniffling into the blanket. “I will never forgive you for this, Christopher Barrientos. Not ever. I thought you were the one. That we’d be together forever. Turns out you’re exactly like my daddy said you were.”
She hurt everywhere. Her back from the metal bed of the truck, her hips from spreading her legs wide, the swollen, stretched flesh between her legs.
Most of all, her heart. Her spirit. She’d believed she was a shifter’s mate. She’d even convinced herself he loved her just like she did him. Shifters never rejected a mate. They treasured them.
Now she had to go to the hotel and face her parents. Her daddy would be sure to have loads of choice things to say to and about her.
Rhiannon studied the star studded sky. She hadn’t been lying to Kit when she said she’d only applied to college to get away from her daddy. When she’d met him, her whole world spun on its axis and she’d realized she didn’t have to follow a traditional path.
The entire world was out there. She could do anything. Be anything.
Hell, she could get on the bus, go to Vegas, and pick up all the bad boy shifters she wanted. No one to stop her. She’d be a free woman soon.
She could dye her hair purple and dance on a stage. Shake her sexy curves in skimpy outfits.
Someday, Kit would roll into town and he’d see her and he’d remember this night and just what he left behind.
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Chapter Six
Excerpt from “A Genie's Kiss”