Carter by Kathi S. Barton Read Free Book Online Page B

him that, but she’d learned a long time ago that her filter didn’t work. And even if it did, she would more than likely ignore it.
    He was standing over her when she opened her eyes. The light was turned on, and she looked at him after blinking the blinding pain out of her sight. Christ, he was gorgeous. She licked her lips when he smiled at her, and when he leaned down to her, she felt his breath on her moist mouth.
    “I want to kiss you. I have since I found you, but thought I should wait until you could kiss me back.” His words, no longer spoken in her mind, warmed her mouth, touched her cheeks. “Can I, Murph? Can I taste your mouth?”
    He didn’t wait for her to answer. She was sure she’d not told him what was going through her mind as he lowered his mouth to hers. Yes , her mind had screamed at her, and when he touched his mouth to hers, Murph felt sparks over her entire body and moaned.
    The kiss was gentle. Hungry but gentle. When he ran his tongue over her lips, seemingly begging for more, she gave it to him. His mouth turned greedy then, his hunger barely held back. When he lifted his head and looked at her, she could see the need in his dark eyes. He touched his fingers through her hair and cupped the back of her head before lowering his head again.
    This kiss was more. More of his mouth, more tongue. He suckled at her tongue and ate at her mouth. When he lifted his head again, he took a step back and she found herself reaching for him. But he only took her hand and didn’t kiss her again.
    “You’re my mate.” It took her a few seconds to register what he’d said. “I thought so when I smelled you on Max, but it wasn’t until I came up here and saw you that I knew for sure. Now I know.”
    “I can’t help you with that.” He only smiled at her. “I don’t know what you think…I can know, but I’m not going to. But you’re insane if you think that since you think I’m your mate that I’m going to become this simpleton that does what you say when you tell me to.”
    “I can protect you, but you’ll have to do what I say. Both of you.” Murph had no idea how he thought he was going to do more than she’d been doing, but he spoke before she could point a few things out to him. “My family are leopards, and not without the means to keep you safe. You’ve met Linyah and the rest of my family. We can help you, but you’re going to have to listen to every word I say from now on.”
    Saying nothing, she turned from him. He was an ass and full of himself. If he thought that she’d been just sitting around waiting for him to come along and rescue her and Max, he was dumber than the people who thought she’d give up without a fight.
    He said her name, and it was at that moment that her son woke. Right away, she could see that there was something between the two of them and it wasn’t good. Great, this would go so much easier if he hadn’t already formed an attachment to the blowhard.
    “How are you?” She told Max she was fine now that he was there. “You scared me. I thought for sure that when that woman came to get me, you were dead and they were trying their tricks again.”
    “No. She’s a nice person who helped us out.” Max looked at Carter then back at her. Smiling, she tried to ask without sounding like she was accusing Carter of anything, “Something happened that I should know about?”
    “His mom slapped me.”
    Murph felt her body tense up. A lot of things could have happened that would make someone slap another person. Calming them. Or simply because Max had said something that might have offended. She’d taught him to say what was on his mind, and sometimes that wasn’t really a good thing.
    “He was mouthing off.” Murph ignored Carter to hear what her son had to say. “He said we were nothing to him and that he was going to take care of the two of you.”
    “Max, honey. I want you to do me a favor.” He nodded, and then he got off the bed. He would be gone