Read Online Purrfect Protector by SA Welsh - Free Book Online Page A

fill, then I’ll take you on a run in the woods. I guarantee you’ll work it off.” Aleksi didn’t mention that shifters ran much faster and had greater stamina so he could go all day—all night too—but under different circumstances. When he was finished with Kale, the man would be a sweaty mess.
    Mmm. Kale all nice and sweaty, body strained from exhaustion and endorphins. Now that’s a nice mental image.
    “Really? I’ve never gotten into running. Didn’t see the point unless you were running away from something.”
    “I could always chase you.” He threw it out there as a joke, but the immediate burst of excitement coming off Kale surprised him. Interesting.
    He narrowed his eyes and took a deliberate deep breath, letting Kale know he was scenting him. The guy blushed a delightful pink. Aleksi was about to blow off the joke in case Kale spooked but again, the man surprised him. He really should remember that Kale wasn’t a normal human.
    “Umm. Sure?”
     
    * * * *
     
    Kale stopped running as he got back to the house. He bent over, bracing his hands on his knees, and tried to drag in enough air to get his lungs to stop his body screaming for oxygen. Sweat trickled into his eyes. “I…hate…you,” he wheezed.
    “Hey, I gave you to choice of going easy.” Aleksi, the evil, sadistic shifter, jogged up to him, barely out of breath.
    “And you made it clear you would be bored to tears with that option,” Kale shot back, wishing he’d gone with the easy option. He’d wanted to impress Aleksi, but now he wanted to collapse in to a weeping ball of ouch.
    Aleksi’s feet came into his view. “Come on. Let’s get you into a warm bath.”
    Kale let himself be led and didn’t resist when the shifter wrapped an arm around his waist as they walked the short distance to the house together. He couldn’t even enjoy it. By the time they reached the door, Kale was sweating even more as parts of his body started to freeze up from the sudden shock of overuse.
    Aleksi pulled him inside, but before they got to the stairs, Kale’s knees stopped cooperating and he had to shout. “Stop. I can’t. Just let me sit for a minute.”
    “You need to soak your muscles or they’ll lock.”
    He knew he had pushed himself too far. And the effort to impress Aleksi had completely backfired. His humiliation was complete as the bigger man scooped him up off the floor into solid, unyielding arms.
    “Don’t look like that. I can’t believe you ran so far. Why didn’t you say you were struggling?”
    This close, and with his face level with Aleksi’s chin, he couldn’t hide what he was feeling from him, so he ducked his head and refused to meet the man’s eyes. What had he been thinking? Even if he hadn’t almost keeled over, the man just wasn’t interested. Aleksi had been all but unaffected by him and had made it clear that the fact that Kale was a model didn’t impress him one bit.
     
    * * * *
     
    Kale still hadn’t managed to shake the unfamiliar feeling of shyness for Aleksi as, several minutes later, the shifter helped him sink into a hot, vanilla-scented bubble bath. “Oh man, that’s good.” Kale sank all the way up to his neck and his feet still didn’t touch the end of the tub.
    “Now I have you at my mercy. Tell me truthfully, why you did this to yourself?”
    The relaxing effect of the bath took away some of the sting to his pride, but it added a whole different kind of hurt as Aleksi stripped off his shirt and threw it in the laundry hamper. The shifter perched on the side of the free-standing claw-foot bath. With a thin sheen of sweat covering his chest, Aleksi was stunning. Kale usually liked his men with little or no hair on their chests, but he had to admit the blond curls were tempting. It made him wonder what sort of noises the shifter would make if he tugged on them.
    Thankfully, Aleksi had been generous with the bubble bath and his dick was covered as he came to full arousal. But that