Ginger stared at him in amazement. Several long seconds ticked by as she tried to process what he was saying.
“Why me?” she asked finally.
“Why? Because you’re beautiful, and smart, and kind, and sexy, and because you give me a hard time when nobody else dares too, and because you’re my fated mate.”
“I…what? You believe in that? In the city, we think that’s kind of a myth.”
“Of course we believe in that,” Loch said. “It’s true. My grandmother was with her fated mate for seventy years until he passed away, God rest his soul. My mother and my father, too. They live north of here; you’ll meet them.”
“But…I just met you.”
“Don’t you feel it too?” He took her hand in his, his eyes pleading. The feeling of his skin brushing against hers set her senses on fire, and she bit her lip, stifling a whimper.#p#分页标题#e#
“I don’t know what I feel. Every time I’m near you, I tingle all over and I can barely concentrate and everything I say sounds stupid and…” she was blushing and staring at the ground.
“Have you ever felt that way about anyone else?”
“Never.”
“Listen, this isn’t the olden days where the Alpha drags his fated mate off to his homestead the second he scents her, and there’s a shotgun marriage on the spot,” Loch assured her. “Although, let me tell you, those marriages always lasted. That’s how my grandfather claimed my grandmother, in fact.”
“What?” Ginger’s eyes widened in surprise.
“This is the 21st century. I get that. We can take all the time you need. And there’ll be courting. Plenty of courting.” His voice dropped to a low growl. “But no other men.”
“And no other women!” she protested, and then wanted to smack herself. Was she agreeing to this? Had she gone completely crazy?
“Of course, no other women.” At her skeptical look he added, “I know my reputation. But I’ve literally never been serious with any other woman before I met you. And I’ve never lied to a woman . All those women that I was with…it was like I was trying to fill a void while I was looking for the one.”
“Oh.” Her eyes were round with wonder.
“Let’s run,” he said.
Chapter Ten
Quickly, they both shed their clothing and shifted.
Ginger’s senses blazed to life, the glorious scents and sounds of the forest swirling around her as they dashed through the woods. She could smell rich loamy earth and the scents of every kind of tree and the berries on bushes, and the sun warmed her fur as she followed Loch.
He weaved through the trees, leaping over bushes and logs, and they ran and ran until they finally came to stop by a stream bed. Loch bent over the bank and dipped his head to drink, and Ginger did too, their long pink tongues curling the ice cold water into their mouths. There they both shifted again, and stood naked on a bed of moss by the running water.
With a growl, Loch swept Ginger into his arms as if she were light as a feather, and then set her down gently on the moss bed. He grabbed her wrists and pinned her arms above her head, sliding on top of her. His muscular body was covered with a sheen of sweat, and he was breathing hard.
“Just so we’re clear…in bed, I’m always the dominant.” His voice rumbled out, deep and sexy.
“I gathered that,” she said, between panting breaths. “I like it.”
He moved down, his lips pressing against hers, nibbling at her lower lip, and she let out a whimper of pleasure. Then his mouth moved on hers, and her lips parted, accepting him. His kiss was hungry and demanding, his tongue probing, exploring.
The weight of his body felt delicious. Everywhere his skin touched hers, she could feel her nerves sizzling. The thickness of his erection pressed between her legs and she moaned and parted her thighs.
He began kissing her neck, nipping at it hard enough to make her gasp with delight, then running his tongue over the tingling skin in long, slow laps.
He moved down to her breasts, kissing them and cupping them in his hands, and then sucked her swollen, sensitive nipple into his mouth and teased it with his teeth.#p#分页标题#e#
“Ohhhhh,” she wailed. “Yesss….like that…” He scraped his teeth across it and she gasped her pleasure. He moved to her other breast, tongue swirling in circles around the pink circle of her aureole, and then closed his mouth around her nipple and sucked hard.
Hot waves of pleasure snaked through her, and she tangled her fingers in his silky curls, caressing him. She could feel the warm rays of the sun beating down on them, and the trilling of birds was like a symphony.