Read Online Taken: True Mates Book 2 (BBW Wolf Shifter Romance) (A Craggstone Paranormal Romance) by Olivia Arran - Free Book Online

thrumming through the fragile link.
    He flinched from me, his jaw set. “You just don’t get it — I’m broken. Destroyed, ruined, dangerous — however you want to call it. You can’t fix me. How could you? You are part of the problem!”
    “ Me ?” I whispered.
    “Yeah, you. Don’t talk about fixing me, not when you’ve got some fixing of yourself to do first.” He never raised his voice, keeping it tightly under control.
    He liked to keep everything under control. Including me, I realized with a start. He had neatly put me in a box labeled ‘untouchable’, allowing him to step back and pretend he was being honorable.
    “Yeah, I get it, sugar. Coming through loud and clear…” I whispered, now knowing what I had to do. Step one — fix my little problem of being mated, step two — force Sean to confront his. And, he was going to share with me whatever the hell was up with him. No excuses — even if I had to pin him down and tickle it out of him. I choked back a giggle, finding it hard to imagine in-control-Sean ever allowing something as fun and frivolous as tickling.
    Well, he obviously hadn’t met a real woman on a mission before. Expecting me to lie down, roll over, and do his bidding. Jeez, caveman much?
    “Lisa…” he warned, a ‘man-this-is-too-good-to-be-true-what-the-hell-is-she-playing-at’ expression on his face. My favorite I decided, one he would be wearing often, once we were mated. I smothered another giggle. Time to run rings around my dark-bad-boy-beta, keep him on his toes and guessing. Wear down those impenetrable walls of his.
    “I’m going upstairs. I think I need…” I wracked my brain, “…another shower.” I looked down at his hands that were still wrapped around my ass, cocking an eyebrow in question.
    Flushing, he quickly dropped his hands as though they had been burned.
    I continued, lacing my words with a honeyed drawl, “You might want to knock before you enter — since I’ll be all…naked…wet…slippery…from the shower.”
    ‘Shower’ he mouthed silently with me, his mouth dropping open slightly. He blinked as his eyes lost focus, a shudder rippling through him.
    Gotcha! Score one for the cat. I mentally fist pumped the air, sashaying out of the room, leaving Sean enjoy his daydreams.
    My jaguar roared her approval. Now, to put step one of the plan into action.
     
    ***
    Sean
    She had cast a spell on me, the bewitching feline, with her bedroom voice and knock ‘em dead curves. I was a goner, and I finally had the balls to admit it. I had asked her for a fuck, hoping to rile her enough to spark hate. And there had been a moment, right after her gorgeous eyes had widened in shock, when I thought she could truly see me — the beast trapped inside a man’s body. But when she had stormed over, I could clearly see the lust brimming in her eyes, ready to overflow. That and…something else.
    She crackled with an energy, an acceptance of all that life had to give — the good and the bad. Being with her would be like standing a little too close to the sun, bathing in its warmth and reveling in its life-force, but I would also feel the burn along with the solar flares of passion. She made me wish I were a better man — a man with a choice. With options. But, I had none — they had been taken from me, long ago during my childhood, when I was formed and molded into the man I was today. He had seen to that. My father.
    I unlocked my fingers from their tight clasp on the couch, forcing my hands to unclench their grip on the cushions. There was no use going down this path, reliving old memories. Nothing had changed, everything that had happened had already been and gone. I could only learn from it, use it—
    Shit! How long had she been on her own? I sprinted toward the door. You stupid idiot! I berated myself, promising satisfying variations of self-mutilation if she were—
    I paused, my hand on her door. She was taking a shower. All naked, wet…and slippery. I