Shifter Romance: Werewolf Shifter Romance: Problem Child (Wolf Shifter Romance Baby Romance Shapeshifter Romance) (Alpha Romance Short Stories Romance Shifter Romance) by Terry Jade Read Free Book Online

him.
    This was crazy though, right?
    In that instant, she didn’t know what had happened, but she was halfway across the room, by the coffee table, standing next to him, taking his hand and holding it tenderly.
    And then he turned and kissed her, with an intensity she hadn’t been expecting and a sweetness she would never forget. The desire that she felt literally exploded all over her body right there and then. Madly, passionately and deeply she was kissing him all over like it was some kind of disease and he was the only cure.
    His hand caressed her down to her brassiere and gently unhooked it. They were kissing furiously, angrily and she didn’t know how to make it stop. They didn’t want to make it stop.
    But as suddenly as it had started it did do. He broke off abruptly, with a look of slight guilt in his eyes.
    “I should let you, er…rest”
    Then he disappeared out the room somewhere, leaving her sitting partly undressed on his couch sipping a brandy that had appeared from out of nowhere.
    When he came back it was with two bowls full of something hot and steaming. She thought she smelt vegetables and meat.
    They ate in an uncomfortable silence, although the stew was good.
    As she chewed and digested, Catharina’s mind wandered to what had just happened in the ditch and what was real and what was fantasy. It was getting blurred.
    But whatever creature it was that she had thought she had seen, she did not think it was any sort of cat, no matter how wild.
    “You should get some sleep; the roads might be passable tomorrow.” Heath said, by way of trying to excuse himself.
    “I’m Catharina by the way. Catharina Morgan” She said suddenly. It was about someone said something sensible.
    “I’m Jack. Jack Heath, but everyone calls me Heath.” He said, and very formally they shook hands, like polite acquaintances at a frosty dinner party reception.
    “Goodnight Catharina.” He said the armor in his dark eyes had come down hard again and now there was no chink of light into what machinations his heart might be. Then she watched as he headed up some steps – that weren’t much more than a ladder really – to a hidden upstairs where she supposed his bedroom was.
    “Goodnight Heath.”
    No whatever it had been was more like a bear.
    *****

The embers burnt low in the hearth and flickered like blades about the room. Catharina had slept soundly for many hours but was suddenly and urgently awake and in desperate need of a pee.
    In the dark she stumbled about, banging into things and stubbing her bastard bloody toe on everything and anything. With more than a shiver of nerves she steeled herself and finding the flashlight that he had left for her, picked her way delicately up the ladder to where she hoped the bathroom might be.
    On the way back down she thought she heard the sound of an engine revving. And a headlight filled the room with momentary light. But it wasn’t a car, it was a bike.
    That’s funny, she thought, there didn’t seem to be any other house around here for miles, so natural curiosity got the eventual better of her fear and she grabbed her shawl and stupid heels and headed for the door.
    She stood and watched, the bright silver moon presiding over the crisp ice of the Yorkshire night – all the mist had now lifted and it was an extremely cold night.
    Nothing to see here and silly of her to be standing about catching a chill in this temperature. Catharina was just about to open the door when another sound stopped her dead. It was like some sort of a growl.
    Unable to see anything, she clutched the side of the cottage and peered around. There were scraping noises coming from along the road. Then another sound, but more muted this time and more like a moan. She was still not sure if it was human or an animal but it was incredibly eerie.
    Of course there were bound to be things roaming the moors at this time of night – like a dog perhaps – did cats growl? The sound came again. Catharina