by M. L. Briers
And didn’t he look as pleased as punch with this little traitorous turn of events!
“Looks like you’ll be in need of somewhere to stay.” Ash folded those big old arms of his across the wide expanse of his chest and Scarlett frowned hard, her eyes flicked about her in the hopes of finding a solution to her dilemma.
Ohhhh, poop!
She didn’t make a sound – she didn’t even look at him again. She guessed if she dug her heels in for long enough and whimpered on the doorstep like a stray dog then Gemma would eventually let her in… But that would mean she’d lost, and one thing she didn’t like to do was lose… face…
“I get the bed and you get the floor.” She snapped out, and then frowned harder as a thought hit her mind… “You do have a bed, right?”
“Of course I have a damn bed…” He growled, dropping his arms and pointing in the direction of his cabin. “What do you take me for…?” He grumbled as she set one foot in front of the other and started off away from her turncoat friends…
One little impromptu avalanche and I get thrown to the damn bears… wait til I get hold of those two! She grumbled with every step.
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“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Scarlett’s tone of voice made Ash halt in his tracks.
His hands were frozen at the waistband of his jeans, and his eyes flicked around the room as if he was looking for someone else that she was talking to…
“Getting ready for bed.” Ash offered back, unsure if he’d actually heard her right. He was getting undressed, it was kind of self-explanatory.
“Bed?” She asked, raising those perfectly arched eyebrows of hers and regarding him with contempt.
“Getting ready for the sofa.” He offered back with a smug quirk to his lips and she snorted again. Well, he’d thought it was funny.
“Do you have to do it naked?” Her hands went to her hips and he knew that trouble was brewing. He decided to face it head on.
“That’s how I roll.”
“And yet, you’re not in this cabin alone tonight, are you?”
“Unfortunately, no.” He bit out.
He knew that she was still smarting from finding out that she was a mate, and he knew that he was supposed to cut her some slack, but the whole shrew routine was finally getting to him. He wanted a mate, not a mother.
Scarlett snapped her head back on her neck and scowled at him.
“Well, if that’s how you feel…”
CHAPTER TEN
~
“It’s not and you know it.” Ash scowled back.
“And yet the words came out of your mouth.” She tossed back.
“Because…” He bit down on his annoyance.
How the heck could he woo her if all they did was fight?
No, he would be the bigger man, even if this witch was a damn tomboy of epic proportions.
“I’m an idiot.” Ash growled.
When the animal groaned Ash told himself if was for the better good – like wooing her. Now his bear wanted to take itself off outside and headbutt a tree, but whatever wooed his mate was worth suffering… he guessed.
“You got that right.” Scarlett muttered, dropping her hands to her sides, somewhat deflated, and he inwardly let out the breath that he’d been holding.
It seemed that another fight had been postponed, and yet, somewhere deep within him he knew it was only a matter of time before they were banging heads once more – hopefully not in the literal sense.
His mate was mean. Feisty, and he thought that she could give him a run for his money in a lot of ways, and if he was a betting man – then he’d bet that she was all hot and sexy fire in the bedroom…
Damn, but he wanted to find out.
Scarlett lifted her hand and flicked her fingers at his hands. They were still holding the waistband of his jeans. Ash sighed…
“There is no way in hell that I can sleep in my jeans.” He grumbled.
It was the truth. His hard length felt as if it was being strangled by the fabric and it wanted out.
It wanted freedom.
It wanted her.
“Consider it a punishment.” Her eyes were alive with amusement.
“And what did I do now to earn your wrath?” He grumbled.
“Isn’t just being you enough?” She babied him and he couldn’t help the dark scowl that took his forehead.
“You have an attitude problem, don’t you?” He tossed back, folding his arms across his chest and eyeing her.
“Says the shifter.” She snorted back.
“At least I’m trying here.” Ash tossed up his shoulders and she bit off a chuckle.
“Why am I supposed to be trying?” Scarlett turned towards the bed and yanked back the covers.
“I suppose you’re not. I suppose you can just go back to your wonderful life of witch-i-dom and forget that I ever existed. That you had the love of your life right there in the palm of your hand and you walked away.” Ash growled at the thought of it.
Losing his mate – the mate that he didn’t want – would be bad. He could feel the way that his bear was getting attached to her. He could feel the pull that she had on him, and he knew that if she left…
Damn, he didn’t want to think about it.
“That’s so not…” She shook her head.
Blackmail and guilt, she told herself, that’s all it was. It’s what he was using to try to get her to feel sorry for him, for herself – should she dare to deny fate’s evil plan for her…
Well, if fate strolled up to her right that minute then she’d have no qualms about headbutting that bitch either.
“Cool?” He eyed her. “Yeah, well neither is making me sleep in my damn jeans.” He grumbled.
Then he reached for his shirt and whipped it off over his head before she could deny him that pleasure either. His eyes caught sight of her – and she was starring – starring a lot.
“See something you like?” Ash grinned.
His words startled her back to the realisation that she’d been interested. Looking. She scolded herself.
“Nice tats.” She muttered as she practically had to rip her gaze away from his rock hard body and the tattoos that covered his upper torso.
She had to wonder, as her eyes had followed the black ink that swirled down below the waistband of his jeans, just how far down he was covered…
That thought sent a myriad of X-rated images through her mind.
Him – naked – the exact same thing that she’d denied him was the thing that made jolts of electrically charged excitement go shooting through her body. Her womb jumped… did a jig… Every inch of her body felt the heat of the fever inside of her…
That was not good.
She turned back towards the bed and took out her anger on the pillows, beating the hell out of them, until he cleared his throat.
“Something wrong?” She shot a look back over her shoulder at him and caught the smirk. “Did they offend you too?”
“Oh why don’t you go and…”
“Careful now.” Ash’s grin widened into a damn sexy smile that was surrounded by dark stubble on his chin that made him look even darker, even sexier.
Mr Bear looked pretty damn good to her eyes already, she didn’t need the added scenery of his hard body on display to go with it. She bit off an internal curse and hopped into the bed.
“Lights!” She bit out.
“And what did your last servant die from?” Ash chuckled as he watched her yank the covers right up to her ears. Like he didn’t have her body memorised already…
“Overwork, so I hold out little hope for you.” She snapped back before flipping over under the covers and putting her back to him.
Ash’s deep chuckle rumbled around the room and reached her ears, and then her womb shortly after.
Fighting the mating pull might just be harder than she’d thought.
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She turned her face into the pillow and gave a soft groan of denial. She was still tired, still wishing for sleep, and yet… she stretched out her hand and her brain snapped into gear as her fingers met the warm, soft skin that shouldn’t have been there…
Shock snapped her awake. There was his frame, just one large blob until her eyes snapped into focus and she saw his beaming smile in the half light emitted by the fire…
Scarlett let out the kind of shriek that rattled his brain and sent him half deaf with pain. A heartbeat later and she’d sent him flying backwards from the bed with a jolt of her magic…
The loud crashing thud of his body meeting furniture, and then the floorboards made her sit bolt upright in bed like a vampire waking from his coffin in some bad black and white horror movie… and she scowled with the wrath of a thousand demons as he righted himself to a sitting position on the floor.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~
Ash huffed out a heavy breath and he scowled back at her.
“O-o-p-s.” Scarlett said with her characteristic dry tone that told him that she knew exactly what she was doing when she’d done it.
“Oops my backside.” Ash growled a little, just enough to make him feel better and to let her know exactly how he felt.
“Stand up then – forward, backsides, I have no preference what I zap.” Scarlett lifted her shoulders and beamed him a smirk.
Ash pulled himself to his feet – standing there half naked in the firelight as her eyes started to wander over the hard muscles of his chest – she couldn’t help but feel regret that she hadn’t taken the time to let her fingertips wander and then blamed her exploration on sleep and confusion…
“I think we need to discuss boundaries with your magic and when not to use it.” Ash growled a little again.
“Hey, you crawled into bed with me. Maybe we should talk personal space boundaries too.” She reminded him.
“I thought you might be cold. It’s what mates do.” Ash scowled back, now he was on the defensive.
He guessed that she was right. He shouldn’t have crawled into bed beside her, but he wasn’t touching – even if he was as tempted as hell…
“Not this mate!” She shot back.
“No, you’re just hogging all the bed.” Ash tossed back.
“Fine. I’ll take the sofa.” She bit out.
“I’m not letting you take the sofa.” He looked at her as if she’d just grown another head.
“Then what’s the problem?” She shot back – and for the life of him – Ash couldn’t quite remember.
He huffed.
“The hell if I know.” He admitted, lifting his hand and running it through his hair, dragging it backwards from his face, and trying to remember where he’d put his brain.
The woman was just so… confusing.
Add to that the fact that he had a very definite itch that needed to be scratched… Damn, his brain was Swiss cheese.
“Oh!” He exclaimed as his brain snapped back into gear. “The problem is zapping me.”
“That’s not a problem for me.” Scarlett smirked. “I can do it again if you’d like me to show you?”
Ash twisted his head on his neck and regarded her with disbelief. He knew that witch mates were the worst kind. A shifter mate was more accepting, but a witch – well, she took a little time to warm up to the idea of happily ever after.
And he would have his happily ever after, damn it. Even if she killed him in the process.
“You and me are going to come to an understanding, and real soon.” He informed her with another huff.
“I thought you said you were going to woo me.” She grinned in pure amusement, especially when he snapped his shoulders back and stuck out his muscled chest with pride – or did he consider that a challenge.
“Oh, I’m gonna woo you, sweetheart. Trust me on that.” Ash nodded as if it was a done and dusted deal.
“I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you.” Scarlett said. She lifted her hand and motioned at the space between them. “And throw you I did.” She chuckled to herself, but that chuckle died on her lips when he started across the room towards her…
“What are you doing?” She hissed with suspicion.
“Well, baby, you did you say you wanted me to woo you?” He grinned – and boy was it a wolfish one.
The man was a bear, not a damn wolf, he had no right to look at her like that – it was unnerving.
“Nope. I said you said you were gonna woo me.” Scarlett shot back as she scooted over in the bed, dragging the covers with her as she went.
“Let the wooing begin.” He chuckled deep and low in his chest.
Still with that wolfish grin on his face, he put one knee on the mattress and she felt it dip… She tried to move back further, but when his second knee pressed down, she was jolted towards him as the mattress dipped under his weight…
Scarlett’s palms hit the mattress in front of her to stop her face from planting in his damn groin, and her eyes got a good look at that solid ridge in his jeans – she swallowed hard and pushed backwards – her backside shot off the side of the mattress and she shrieked as the gravity took the rest of her down to the floor.
Thud!
Scarlett bit down on every curse word that she’d ever known. Her head snapped back on her neck and her eyes took him in as he stared down at her from the edge of the mattress, and she grumbled a growl of annoyance…
“Oh, but it’s all funny when it’s my butt that gets dumped on the floor.” Ash chuckled.
Scarlett so wanted that to be true. She had the urge to zap him a good one and toss his backside off the damn bed, but he was already reaching down for her, and those large hands looked like they belonged to a giant as they came at her…
“What are you doing?” She tried to push away, but he’d already snagged her under the arms and was lifting up as if she weighed nothing at all…
“Helping…” Ash chuckled, but he wasn’t chuckling when she braced her foot against the mattress and tried to push out of his grip…
“Let go…” She bit out. “I don’t need your help.”
A heartbeat later and Ash felt his balance go. He had two choices. Drop her or crush her…
CHAPTER TWELVE
~
Ash really hoped there was a third choice. He yanked her body towards his at the same time as he pushed off the mattress with his knee and rolled in mid-air.
She shrieked once more as they fell towards the floor. His back and side took most of the impact and she came down heavily over him with a whoosh of breath that left her body, and then a grumbled awareness of what had just happened…
“Are you completely insane?” She grumbled as she tried to pull back away from him, but his brain hadn’t quite figured out that she was safe and that he could let her go, so he held her tightly against his body… “Let me up!” She demanded and followed it up with a few choice curse words that amused him.
The hard jab of her elbow against his ribs made his body convulse in on itself, and he rolled his eyes back in his head at the pain that shot through him, grumbling a growl…
“And don’t you dare growl at me…” Scarlett hissed.
He didn’t have to guess that she was not best pleased, he just had to listen to her tone. She sounded like a rattlesnake on steroids.
“Now that was all you.” Ash ground out, as that bony elbow of hers was really trying to work its way through his ribs and towards his spine as she ground it against him, trying to find purchase to push up and get away.
“Me!” She snorted her contempt for him.
“You kicked off the damn bed. If you’d just
stayed still and let me lift you…” Ash protested.
“Sure. Why didn’t I?” She hissed back, and he finally had a mind to let her go, if only to save his ribs from being broken.
Scarlett scurried to push backwards and sit on her knees. She looked as if she was chewing a wasp, and her eyebrows were practically covering those smoky eyes of hers.
He really wanted to see those eyes shining from beneath him as he took her down his damn length…
“Now don’t go getting all sour faced and moody.” Ash growled out, and her jaw dropped downwards – he guessed he’d said the wrong thing… funny, none of the guys ever complained…
“I’ve got a good mind to fry your backside.” She bit out. Her nose twitched when she was angry. He kind of liked it… he couldn’t help but grin. “Are you laughing at me?” She hissed.
“Kind of, yeah.” Ash started to explain, but she huffed out a breath and started to push up to her feet.
He reached out and snagged her wrist, trying to bring her back down to her knees, but she was halfway up and half way down, and all that he managed to do was to throw her off balance.
Before either of them knew what was happening, she was sprawled back over his chest again…
“Oh for the love of the Goddess – will you just stop touching me!” She growled out.
“Word to the wise…” Ash said, wrapping an arm around her and turning her onto her back on the floor. He kept his weight from her with one elbow against the floorboards, but he still had her caged in beneath him… “If you don’t want me touching you then you’d better stop growling at me.”
Scarlett’s glare could have started a fire. She was miffed – he could see that. But there was also a look on her face that told him something else… she liked being caged in by him.
“I did not and do not growl. I’m a witch, not a shifter…” She growled back, the little rumble of annoyance in her chest made his bear pay attention and his ears prick up – that wasn’t the only thing that was up – his cock had so much blood in it that it ached and his head felt lighter.