Read Online Force of Nature by Kathi S. Barton - Free Book Online Page A

she couldn’t believe it either. He wanted to hug her for seeing his side. As far as he could see things, CJ was the one putting up the barrier.
    “Can you open those eight cans of green beans for me? I need to get them on before too much longer. You guys seem to like them when they simmer all day.” She turned away, but he thought he saw her frown. “There’s also some ham in the bottom of the icebox. Could you cut some up for spices, please?”
    “Then she told me that I could stay the night, but there was no way we’re having unprotected sex. I told her that it doesn’t matter about any diseases, that I couldn’t catch anything from her, and she threw me out.”
    When the pan dropped to the floor, he turned to look at his mother. She looked…well, she looked mad. He picked up the pan and set it on the counter. He didn’t want her upset so he patted her on the back. “It’s okay, Mom. I set her right. She knows now that—”
    “You idiot. I’ve never been so…what the hell were you thinking to say that…Austin Force, I’m ashamed of you. Get out of my kitchen.” When he stepped back from her, she came at him with a spoon. “You treated that poor girl like she was a common…a common trollop, and then you come here and brag to me about it? Why if you were not my son, I’d…well, I’d take you to the wood shed. Of all the…did you think maybe that she thought you’d have the diseases?”

    “Why on earth would she think that about me? Wolves can’t catch things like that.” The spoon hit him in the forehead before he finished the sentence. “What the hell was that for?” He’d seen that look in her eye before. It said, “you’d be better off trying to figure it out for yourself rather than me have to explain how stupid you are.” He tried to think, but he couldn’t get past the pain between his eyes.
    “She thinks you should have been more concerned about her feelings than how all this affects you.” Austin turned toward his brother Dallas. “You’re a dolt and it’s a small wonder CJ
    didn’t bust you in the head too.”
    Austin glared at his brother. “And I suppose you could have done better? Just what would you have done differently?”
    Dallas poured himself some coffee before sitting down. “I would have gone out and bought the damned condoms and been in her bed right now rather than standing in the kitchen with my mom and brother. You can bet I’d be wooing her, not insulting her about her lack of morals.”
    “I most certainly did not say a damned word about her morals. I simply told her that I couldn’t catch whatever diseases she thought to be protecting me from by insisting I needed condoms.”
    Dallas grinned as he said, “And wait for it...”
    It took Austin several seconds before it finally hit him. “Fuck. I told her she was carrying diseases. That is not what I meant.” He started pacing. “She knew it too. She’s just trying to throw me off my game by—”
    The spoon hit his head this time. He started to glare at his mom and had second thoughts.
    She could be a bit…mean when the mood struck her. Instead, he glared at his laughing brother.
    “You know,” Dallas said as he stood up. “I think I’ll go and visit CJ. I’m betting she’ll be a bit sweeter to someone who doesn’t treat her like she’s some hooker on the street corner.”
    “You go near my mate and I’ll tear you apart.” The words were out before he could stop them, the meaning of them not lost on Austin. “I don’t want her, but it seems I’m stuck with her.
    She’s mine.”
    He knew in that moment that she was his no matter what he did to prevent it. He may have screwed things up with her, he may even have deserved his mother hitting him in the head, but there was no way his brother was touching his mate. Not so long as he had breath in his body.
    “Then she is your mate?” Dallas looked at him hard. “Then, brother dear, what the fuck are you doing here?”
    He didn’t