Speed Mating - A Midnight Liaisons Novella by Jessica Sims Read Free Book Online Page B

animal hospital and hope they don't try to put you down? A fucking ambulance? What?" He continued pacing furiously, his hands clenched into fists that were so tight she could see white at his knuckles. "Never, ever fucking do this to me again, do you understand?"
    "I understand," she whispered. God, she felt like a bug. An ant.
    A really, really horny ant.
    She closed her eyes, determined not to stare lasciviously at his naked muscles any longer. It was clear that she and Jayde had been all wrong about this -- Vic was just thinking of her like an alpha thought of everyone in his clan. There was nothing more to it, and she'd embarrassed herself and jeopardized her place in the clan.
    This was officially going down as the worst heat ever. Maybe she'd get lucky and never go into heat ever again.
    "I'm your alpha," he snarled, pushing toward her. "Your safety and well-being are always at the front of my mind. You can't fucking jerk my chain and expect me to come running. Do you understand?"
    "Yes," she said meekly.
    "Look at me, Estrella."
    She squeezed a cautious eye open.
    His jaw was clenched harder than she'd ever seen it, and his eyes were so dark with anger they were almost black. As if to take the edge off of that, snow was falling in big, fat flakes now and dotted his hair and eyebrows.
    "Never do that to me again," he rasped.
    Yeah. She got it. She'd alarmed him. She yanked on the back clasp of her bra, determined to re-snap it, but her fingers were trembling from a mixture of the heat, nerves, and shame, and she couldn't quite do it. She gave up, crossing her arms over her breasts instead. "I'm sorry, Vic. I wasn't trying to scare you. I just wanted..."
    Her voice trailed off with embarrassment. Now was not the time to confess her crush on him.
    "The heat's clearly affecting you," he said after a moment, dark eyes glittering as he studied her face. "I'll forgive this lapse of judgment. It's clear you're desperate right now."
    "Desperate?" She echoed. Did he just call her...desperate? Ouch.
    "Approaching me for your heat. I must be your only option left. I just don't understand why you didn't pick one of the men I brought for you."
    Well, it was a good thing she had no pride left after this debacle. Estrella shook her head, tamping down her own irritation. "Which one? The asshole? Or the chauvinist?"
    His lips twitched with amusement, some of his anger receding. His arms crossed over his chest, echoing her own protective stance. She tried not to notice that he was really, really naked…and that it was incredibly arousing.
    And not just to her, if the wood he was sporting was any indication.
    But he was still talking, still arguing. "So you didn't like Nelson or Montgomery? I admit they're not my favorites, but they're both good candidates for a female in heat. Young, relatively attractive, tiger clan." He shrugged. “What more do you need?”
    "Yeah, well thanks for that stunning criteria list, but I am not having the baby of either of those douchebags, much less sleeping with one of them."
    "What about Cory? He seemed like a nice guy."
    "His last name is Janitor, Vic," she cried plaintively. "If I'm picking men for ridiculous reasons, I don't want my baby to have a toilet bowl last name."
    His brows furrowed. "Ridiculous reasons? Your heat's not ridiculous."
    "But me picking men based on their looks and the fact that they can grow the same kind of tail as you? That's not ridiculous?" She sighed heavily, staring off into the woods. "It doesn't matter. They're not the ones I want."
    "So who do you want?" The question was low, husky.
    The words froze in her mouth. Vic had made it quite obvious that she'd made a bad call in inviting him out here. Like hell she was going to blabber about how much she wanted him. Her mouth remained mutinously shut.
    "It's me, isn't it?"
    Estrella remained silent, but she could feel the blush rising on her face.
    "Fucking hell, Estrella. You're kidding me."
    "I'm sorry that grosses you out,"