Alyssa Franklin was tough, even if she didn’t have the total confidence yet to realize that fact.
Suddenly she jumped up and backed away from the couch, her chest heaving. Michael was left almost cold where she’d been touching him. He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees to catch his own breath and keep his mate from noticing the effects of that kiss between his legs.
He didn’t want to scare her. He wanted to pull her in at her own pace … as long as it didn’t take too long. He didn’t know how long he could keep himself from taking her.
“Wow,” she finally muttered. “Yeah, that’s how I remembered it. Only better.”
Michael chuckled and looked up at her. “Much better.” He pushed off his knees and stood. “And I can’t wait to do it again.” Instead of stalking her like his dick demanded, Michael circled the couch and leaned against the back. He could look her in the eye from that position while not scaring her to death with the bulge in his jeans.
“God.” Alyssa started to pace. “What about…?”
She didn’t need to say it. He could tell her mind had gone to the other wolf she’d met—no, not met, smelled—last week. Michael gripped the back of the sofa and tried to put on a smile. “Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it, okay? It’s been what … four days? And no sign of the guy?”
Alyssa nibbled that lower lip again and nodded. “But I can’t deny it happened, Michael. And I can’t…”
She didn’t finish, but he got the picture. She couldn’t let him claim her until she knew for sure the other man was fictitious.
Lord, please. Whatever caused that guy to run, please feed him some more of it. The only thing Michael could think of that would be worse than sharing his mate with another man would be sharing her with a stranger.
Unlike his brothers, Michael had never shared any woman. The thought had never appealed to him.
“Listen, just relax. I’m not an ogre, and I won’t force you to do something you aren’t ready for. Let’s just take this one day at a time and get to know each other, okay?”
And while we’re at it, I’ll pray my dick doesn’t fall off waiting.
Alyssa nodded. She did that a lot, the nonverbal commitment.
Michael wasn’t an ass. He meant what he’d said about not pushing her, but when he did finally get her to consent to the mating, he’d demand a lot more from her in the bedroom than silent compliance.
He might not be into ménages, but his dominant nature was something he did share with his brothers. Sure, it had been a few years, but he’d had enough experience with women before Alyssa came into the picture to know his tastes. He just hoped his mate would understand his needs in that area and defer to his judgment where sex was concerned.
A car pulled up outside, the tires rolling across the gravel to announce the arrival of some family member.
Michael glanced outside to see his mom returning from her afternoon at Tessa’s. His mother approached the back of the house with leaden feet, and Michael smiled. She was subtly giving him time lest she find him and Alyssa in a compromising position. As if.
Chapter 4
Tyler fiddled with his cell phone for the twentieth time this afternoon, flipping the gadget over and over in his hand just to occupy his fingers.
He’d nearly paced a hole in the carpet of his bedroom in his parents’ house.
Six days. It had been six days since he’d gotten close enough to Alyssa Franklin to realize she was his mate.
After turning his back on her and sprinting for his rental car, he’d sped away from that rodeo with his tires squealing.
He hoped to God she’d not noticed him, but there was no way to be sure.
Tyler spent the next several hours speeding back to Portland to catch a flight back to Oklahoma. During the long wait in the airport, he convinced himself leaving was the right thing to do.
Alyssa was settled, happy. No, she wasn’t mated. But her life there was better than any life with his pack. Before he’d even gotten close enough to her to catch her scent, he’d known he wouldn’t rat her out to Fredrick Wells and cause her to be dragged back to Oklahoma kicking and screaming to mate with a man against her will.
After he’d realized what she was to him, everything had changed. Tyler had pulled over to the side of the road to vomit the meager food he’d eaten that afternoon.
The lies he would have to tell compounded by the minute. Not only was she not mated to Michael Masters, a fact he couldn’t deny, but Tyler’s reasons for not turning her in to Wells now had less to do with just wanting her to be left alone and more to do with his own body’s claim on her.