Page 200 of Bride of Choice

I opened my mouth to greet her as I moved closer but strong arms came around me, lifting me up as Kooky buried his face in my throat, nipping my skin playfully, mock growling until I was a snort-chortling mess. “No fight. Mess up face,” he laughingly warned, sounding more carefree than I’d ever heard him.

“I’ll mess up your face!” I laughingly threatened.

“No time.” He sighed. “Beat me up later, I get back.”

Setting me on my feet, he grunted when I went to step forward but couldn’t. He’d yet to let go of me.

On my second attempt, I laughed and swatted at the arm wrapped around me, settled across my chest. “Unless you’re going to waddle-walk behind me, monster bait, you’ve gotta let me go.”

His chest rumbled with discontent. Placing a kiss to my throat, he growled out softly, “Never.”

Turning in his arms, I just meant to hug him, respecting his need to go slow. With a deep rumble in his chest, my plan was thwarted, his lips smashing to mine in an unpracticed yet delightful nonetheless kiss.

One kiss turned into two, then three, deepening a little more each time, and then warm hands quickly started roaming, urging me closer to him, pressing me tight up against the thick, fur wrapped steel pole he was sporting.

“Slow. Slow,” he muttered between kisses, grabbing my ass in both hands to try and hoist me up.

“This isn’t slow,” I murmured breathlessly as he began peppering kisses down my jaw, headed for the bite marks he’d left as my mystery mate.

When he didn’t seem to care about going slow at all, I said fuck it and went for broke.

My arms wrapped around his neck, fingers burying into the thick but short mane at the back of his head. I wanted his lips on mine, working us both up so when he decided to re-mark me my mind was so glazed over with lust I didn’t give a single shit.

My brain stalled for a full minute when his grip on me tightened and a deep snarl rumbled up his throat.

My grip on him loosened but the growl remained.

He was in charge, not me.

The second I went lax in his arms, the snarl settled down. His lips were at my throat now, fangs scraping, but I was no longer aroused, as I had been before.

I could be pretty thick sometimes but I wasn’t that fucking stupid. Poking the bear, sure, I did that sometimes. I wasn’t about to kick a bee hive at it and see what happens!

He was just shy of biting down on my old bite marks from him, nipping at my flesh a little too hard, before he paused, inhaled deeply, and completely slammed on the brakes.

Jerking back with a hard grunt, he kept one hand on my ass, my legs loosely wrapped around his hips, my feet crossed at his back helping to keep me in place. Like a switch had been flipped, his blown out pupils quickly went back to normal, until smoky blue-grey peepers were peering down at me, eyeing me cautiously.

Reaching out, I tentatively brushed my fingers along the side of his face, near his temple. “You okay?”

Grunting softly in reply, a bone deep, jarring purr rumbled from him as he leaned into my touch.

“Too fast,” I murmured softly.

His brow pulled into a frown and he gave a sharp nod. The slip of blue-grey peeking from the sliver of a slit he cracked his eye open, eyeing me hungrily, said he’d love nothing more than to continue, but he was jerking, trembling hard to hold back, to fight it.

His mate lust thing didn’t rear its head until I got handsy back, I noted, wondering if it was worth exploring the idea at a later date or maybe I was just reaching for an easy solution.

Lord knows none of my Yeti dating endeavors have been particularly easy going.

“You should probably set me down.” My gaze dragged from him and slipped down towards the ground pointedly.

That snarl was back again, the grip of his hand on my ass tightening.

“Ugh. That’s not filled with jam,” I muttered, wincing and leaning a bit closer to him in the hopes of relieving some of the pressure.

Kooky’s snarl cut off instantly and he quickly set me down.

Not wanting him to think I was rejecting him in any way, shape, or form because I’ve so been there myself— done that, got the t-shirt— totally hate it— zero stars— I took his hand and intertwined our fingers. Smiling up at him, I hoped it conveyed I wasn’t fussed about any of that.

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