Page 20 of Alpha Rising (Secrets of the Northland Shifters)

“You can’t stop a bullet.”

His eyes snapped open, probably at the memory of his father. “I know that.”

“I didn’t want you to be blindsided if trouble followed me here. I owed you that. Just in case.”

“Can I tell my siblings?” he asked.

My fingertips curled into his arm. “Don’t. I shouldn’t even be telling you.”

“All right. I’ll keep your secret, but I can’t make you any other promises.”

I covered my face with my hands, worrying that I might have made a huge mistake. Reese was an alpha mountain lion shifter, protective by nature and violent by design. What was I doing, thinking I could force him to deny that part of him that made him…him?

Reese pulled my hands away from my face and kissed the knuckles of one hand, then the other. He turned one hand over and kissed my palm, tickling me with his soft beard.

I laughed softly despite myself, and the corners of his eyes crinkled with a roguish smile.

That look he gave me…good lord, it was as potent as everything else about him. I was transfixed, unable to move even if I’d tried.

“Thank you for trusting me, Sarah.”

Just like that, warmth flooded through me, wetting the apex of my thighs. My whole body clenched with longing, and Reese was keenly aware of all of it.

“I think we need another distraction,” he said.

“Distraction?”

“To take our minds off the future.” He placed a line of kisses from the inside of my elbow down to my wrist.

My heart raced. It was crazy how easily he shifted my gears from such ugliness to pure bliss.

Reese grinned knowingly. “I like that. Your scent.”

And when he glanced up at me and our eyes met, his green irises caught fire in the darkness, burning with that supernatural glow.

Another rush of arousal pooled between my legs, and he paused, scenting the air. “You torture me to distraction,” he said, clarifying his earlier statement. “You have since you first stepped off that bus. I was hard as a rock the moment I saw you.”

“The clipboard,” I murmured, remembering.

“You noticed.”

“I noticed the clipboard. I was too nervous to put any meaning to it.”

“Well, now you know. I’m weak when it comes to you. But I’ll be strong against anyone else.”

His hand slipped from my shoulder, down my arm and between my legs. He let out a sigh when he found his target. “I thought so.”

“You thought what? That you could get me wet? That’s easy.”

“Oh? You want me to rise to anactualchallenge?”

“I don’t know. What did you have in mind?”

He pretended as if he were considering his many options, then said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, “I could make you come on demand.”

My throat got thick. He could make me come—andhard—we’d already established that. But on command?

“You don’t believe me?”

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