His imagination was suddenly confiscated by a vivid image of him thrusting into her from behind, her ass jiggling with every stroke, one of his hands gripping her hair, making her arch back for him, the other hand digging into her hip, a wicked smile on his face, a look of ecstasy on hers. He blinked hard and adjusted his hardening dick before he got in.
Thankfully, Human Katy, as he was going to call her to remind himself that she wasn’t for him, was searching for a radio station and didn’t notice his boner-adjustment. Hell, he’d gotten hard fast thinking about her naked. He needed to rein it in.
He cleared his throat and sat in the passenger’s seat, closed the door beside him, swallowed down his laughter, and told her, “Take a right on the main road.”
“Yes…siree.” She pursed her lips into a thin line and stared straight ahead. Then put the car into the wrong gear and went backward a few feet before she slammed on the brakes, put it into drive, and headed for the main road.
“It’s a pity,” he said over the elevator music wafting through the radio.
“What’s a pity?”
“That you aren’t a pervert.”
With a gasp, Katy swerved around nothing, straightened the wheel, and then lifted her chin, refusing to look at him. Primly, she said, “I don’t think we should talk anymore, Shifter Boy.”
“Shifter Man,” he corrected her, admiring the red in her cheeks. “And you’re probably right, Human Katy. We shouldn’t be talking.”
Chapter Four
“Cat got your tongue?” she asked over the silly elevator music she’d accidentally chosen.
Kannon looked frightened, all plastered to the seat with his white-knuckled fist clutched on the oh-shit bar.
“You look scared, and I’m not kitten,” she chirped. “Get it? Like I’m not kiddin’ but I said kitten instead.”
“What are you doing?” he gritted out.
“Lion shifter jokes?”
“Please keep your eyes on the road.”
“You’re being such a puss—”
“Enough cat jokes! Pull over!”
Eeeeerrrrrrrrrrrk! Katy pulled to the side, foot as far onto the brake as she could manage, because she was nice, and if he needed to barf or something, she wanted him to be comfortable and not have to do it in the car.
“Do you need me to hold your hair back?” she asked helpfully.
“What?” he barked out, shoving the door open. “No!”
“Fur? Did I say it wrong? Do you want me to hold back your fur?” Why was he marching around the front of the minivan?
The man, who still hadn’t told her his name, yanked the door open and leaned over her.
Oh, this was happening. She was going to be ravaged by a shifter. A hot shifter with dark whiskers, gold eyes, a great smile, and a rockin’ bod, probably had a twelve-pack, just…abs all the way down to his balls…and he smelled like sexy-man cologne and hair. No…fur, she mentally corrected herself because she was all about getting shifter lingo down and—oh!”
Shifter man clicked her seatbelt and pulled her out by her arm, and then as she swayed on her feet, he jammed his finger at the passenger’s seat.
“You’re banished from this seat, lady. You drive like a bat out of hell, and I want to survive the night!”
“So…you don’t have to puke?” she asked in a small voice.
“No! And furthermore, this is a minivan. A. Mini. Van. It has no business going over ninety miles an hour.”
“I would argue that it probably likes going over ninety because no one else has figured out it’s potential, but I believe in it, so—”
“Enough. Human Katy, I’m begging you, get in the damn van so I can get us to where we’re going safely and be done with this night.”
“Oh.” She pouted. “I see. You feel like you can drive better than me.”
“A blind walrus could drive better than you.”
“Okay, that was a little uncalled for and mean, but fine. If it’ll make you feel safer, you can drive.” She marched around the front and muttered, “Controlling.”
“I’m not controlling. I just think survival is awesome,” he called after her. “I can literally hear everything you say.”
“Not everything,” she said under her breath, the words barely, baaaarely a whisper.
“Heard that, too, and yep, I meant I can hear everything.”
She buckled up and crossed her arms over her chest, stared out the window at the dark woods on the side of the road, and promised herself she wouldn’t say a single word for the rest of the trip.
But he was going forty-five miles an hour. She bit her lip. Oh, God, he was slowing down for the curve. No, no, no, everyone knew you sped up for the curve! She narrowed her eyes and held her breath. Don’t. Say it. “Maybe we’ll get there in six hours!” She gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth.
Shifter Man heaved a sigh and shook his head. “I’m going ten over the speed limit. What is wrong with you?”
“I am running away from my problems like a kid with a knapsack tied to a stick. I haven’t seen my best friend in ages, and I have to meet up with her for the first time tomorrow and I’m nervous because she has this perfect life! Like…I floundered for the past five years with a guy who rejected me in a billion different ways, and while I was spinning my wheels with someone who didn’t deserve my time, she got married and had triplets! She quit her job to stay at home and raise her kids, has a loving husband who does like…the sweetest things for her all the time, and I work at a garage applying car wraps, waiting on some half-interested half-wit named Dayton to text me after four days of silent treatment. I talk too much, I’m addicted to hoarding lingerie, I eat way too many potato chips, I don’t call my mother enough, I’m scared of horror movies, I own more hoodies than there are days of the week, I’m C-minus at cleaning bathrooms, I order egg rolls from the Chinese food restaurant down the street when I’m stressed—and I mean only egg rolls—I collect shot glasses but I don’t take shots because I’m a chronic lightweight, I’ve wanted a puppy my whole life but I’m afraid I won’t be good enough to give a puppy a happy home. Currently, I refuse to turn my cell phone on because my old life will leak into my vacation, I apparently drive too fast according to you, and I put this trip on a credit card that I just paid off.” She inhaled deeply and blew it out. “There’s like forty more things that are wrong with me, but I think that’s good for a start.”
Shifter Man blinked hard and shook his head at the highway snail-rolling by under the tires. “I meant, I’m going ten miles over the speed limit. What’s wrong with you? Not, what’s actually wrong with you.”
“Oh.”
“But that bit about the lingerie hoarding is interesting. Keep that shit up. And your friend has triplets. She ain’t got anything together. She’s probably run ragged by now and needs you just as much as you need her. And fuck that half-wit who you’re running from. You’ll pay off your credit card again, everyone deserves a break from real-life, and egg rolls are delicious.”
“So delicious,” she whispered. Okay, he’d actually listened to her. That was…surprising. “I guess driving slow isn’t so bad,” she conceded, staring at the pretty forest that wasn’t blurring by too fast anymore. “It’s really quite beautiful here.”
Shifter Man smiled. “Sometimes the prettiest things can be the most dangerous.”
She didn’t understand what he meant by that, or what the golden-eyed look he cast her meant, but right as she was about to ask, he pulled off on the shoulder of the road and parked the minivan.
“Well, Human Katy, it’s been real interesting meeting you.”
“Thank you, I think. Is this where you live? Just on the side of the road?”
Shifter Man chuckled. “No, my Pride’s territory is up about a mile. It’s best if I walk from here.”
“Best for who?”
“For you.” The seriousness that swirled in his eyes electrified the fine hairs on her forearms.
“Oh, okay.” A little unsteady, she unbuckled, pulled out her cell phone, a pad of paper she stole from a hotel, and a pen and got out of the minivan. The ding, ding, ding of the seatbelt signal was loud as it echoed through the quiet woods that surrounded them.
As she came to a halt in front of him in the illumination of the high beams, she squeezed her eyes closed so she wouldn’t chicken out as she asked something silly. “Can I have your autograph and take a picture with you? I always dreamed of meeting a shifter. I thought you would be scary, but you’re mostly not.”
His dark eyebrows drew down. “You don’t think I’m scary?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Intimidating, but not scary.”
She turned on her phone as he scribbled onto the pad of paper. And then hands shaking, she lifted up the phone to take a selfie of them. Only her phone started going crazy as message after message popped up from Dayton.
Where are you.
Nita said you left?
I need to talk to you.
I miss you.
I’m ready to try again. Sarah meant nothing.
Katy?
Katy don’t ignore me. I’m telling you I’m finally ready.
Call me back as soon as you can.
Every text was a new blow. Why? Because she knew she would get lonely and weak eventually. Maybe not today or tomorrow. Maybe not next week. But she would give into him like she always did and go for another round of feeling like not-enough.
With each text, her hand dropped lower and lower, and shame tinted her cheeks. Shame that this Shifter Man could see how weak she was.
“Is that what you’re running from?” Shifter Man asked, but his voice was different. It was more of a growl than a man’s voice.
She shrugged and tried to force a smile, but her dumb lip trembled. Weak. And now her eyes were burning, and she couldn’t do this. Her voice cracked on the words, “I should go. It was really nice meeting you, Shifter Man.”