April 05th, 2013

Excerpt:

Jake focused to control his bear and was startled when his watch went off to tell him time was up. Heading back to the front of the room, he boomed out, “Attention. Everyone come back. Before you go, I’m going to test four of you.”

 He pointed to a blonde in the front row, another blonde in the back row, and then a brunette in the middle. Jake searched around for his last victim, only to notice the little redhead sneaking to the door and slowly opening it. “The last lovely lady that will get to demonstrate what she has learned tonight is…the little redhead trying to sneak out the door.” He grinned as he watched the woman in question freeze, turn slowly around, and glare at him.

“I’m sure there are plenty of eager women in here willing to show you how well they have been taught. I’m just not one of them.” She looked around the room, coming to a stop on another redhead. “What about that pretty redhead over there with the shortest shorts I have seen, or in front, the woman with black skintight jeans?” She pointed to each of these women as she babbled on.

Jake saw Zack had moved towards her and was only a row away.

“I’m sure I will get a chance for those women to demonstrate another time, but today I have chosen you.”

He bit his tongue to stop the chuckle as she groaned, stomped her foot, and turned a death stare at Zack, who now stood next to her.

Jake smiled as she marched towards him mumbling. “Fine, I’ll show you what I learned. Then you can shove your ‘little redhead’ comment up your arse.”

Zack followed behind her and coughed to cover his laugh. Once she joined the other girls reluctantly, he started, leaving her to last.

After going through the other three women very easily, showing them better ways and answering questions, it was his little redhead’s turn. He paused at that thought, as he watched her storm up to him with a sweet grin on her face. He knew that grin from his sisters and cousins. That was the grin all men should be terrified of, but on her it just made him look forward to the lesson she was about to learn.

His bear growled, and his heart beat faster in shock when she got closer and her smell hit him. Now that she was away from all the other smells of sweat or perfume-covered females, her true fragrance was more pronounced. Honey and strawberries smothered his senses, telling him that she was special.

 Her smile grew the closer she got, and he looked down into sparking eyes that seemed to hold all the secrets he searched for. A growl slipped from him when Zack come up beside him and patted him on the back.

“I’ll take this, coz.”

“No, this should be fun.” Jake forgot about everyone else in the room and focused on the woman in front of him, who he now knew was his mate. “Turn around and walk away from me.”

He watched her spin and slowly walk away. Coming up behind her, he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into his body. She stomped on his foot and elbowed his stomach with surprising force.

Grunting, Jake moved back a step but still held her as he spun her around and gathered her body to his. She gave a whine of frustration, brought her knee up, and hit her target. He groaned and let her go.

She winced. “I shouldn’t have done that, but no one calls me a little redhead.”

Not caring where he was any more, he grabbed her and lost his balance. They slid to the floor in a tangle.

A frustrated squeal left her as she landed on top of him. She whacked his chest. “You idiot, I said I was sorry.”

He looked into flashing dark brown eyes and took a deep a breath in of her honey-and-strawberry scent. “No, you didn’t apologize.”

She rolled her eyes at him and huffed. “Well, I’m not going to now.”

She pushed at his chest.

“What’s your name, Little Red?”

“None of your business. Now let me go.” She wriggled around in his arms, rubbing herself against him.

“Little Red, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

She stopped her wiggling and gasped. He smiled as her eyes drew up to his when she noticed the bulge in his pants was growing bigger and bigger. “I’m going to get up. Stay where you are, please. These pants are too small for what I have now.”

She pushed at his chest. “And that’s my problem because…”

He raised his eyebrow and cleared his throat. “Really, you want me to answer that in front of everyone.”

She let out a groan and shook her head. After sitting up, he stood with his mate in his arms and looked around the almost empty room. He turned to Zack who stared at him with a glare that made him glad looks couldn’t kill.

“You can let go of my mate now, Jake. I took over while you pawed her. You’re lucky there were twenty-something women in here because if there hadn’t been, you would be dead, favorite cousin or not.”

Jake looked down at the bewildered look on Little Red’s face as he took a deep breath of her scent and listened to his bear. Mate. Take. Yummy. Eat her. Take her home. Mine. Mine. No mistaking that she was his mate. “You must be mistaken, Zack, because she is my mate.”

Zack stalked toward him and gave a bitter laugh. “This sucks. Fate is fucking with our family because I’m one hundred percent sure she’s mine.”