Shifter’s Surrender Read Online Free Page A

her want him more. And here she was obsessing about Dean again when she’d promised herself she’d stop. She shook her head to clear it.
    With her food order finished, Kaylie took her bags, and, with a general good-bye to the diners, she headed out the front door. And nearly slammed right into her obsession.

Chapter Three
    In the split second it must have taken Dean to realize exactly who’d smacked chest first into him, his hands shifted from seizing her bare wrists to grasping her clothed shoulders instead. Kaylie automatically reached up to steady herself, and her hands pressed up against the soft material of the dark green Henley covering his chest. The action caused the two bags of food, now on her elbow, to swing forward and hit Dean square in the groin.
    He let out a pained “oomph” and took two hasty steps back.
    “Oh my God,” Kaylie exclaimed. “I’m so sorry.”
    “You are too dangerous to be let out,” he growled at her, raking her from head to toe in a blatant, heated glance before his normal expression of mild interest slammed into place.
    At the deliberate shift in his emotion, she felt a spurt of anger. If he wouldn’t allow himself to even attempt a more intimate relationship with her, well then, screw him. Yeah. It was contrary to what she thought only minutes before, but she was a female. She was entitled to change her mind.
    “It was an accident you … baboon.”
    He blinked. “Baboon?”
    Yes, the word might seem childish, especially in light of her efforts to drop her juvenile betting ways, but she’d also been trying to minimize her cursing, and curb her temper. Unfortunately, her attempts at a trifecta of virtue had had mixed results, and changed on a daily basis.
    Her lips tightened at the mocking gleam in his eyes. “I’m trying to watch my language.”
    “And that’s the best you can do?”
    With a jerk of her chin and a sparkle of challenge in her own eyes, she blurted out, “How’s ‘coward’ work for you? It’s much more accurate.”
    Muscles tightened in his jaw, those beautiful eyes going steely hard with barely restrained temper, and for the first time that she could recall, he looked every inch the deadly predator he was. Kaylie almost took a step back. Almost.
    “I am not a coward.” His voice had lowered, a low growl.
    Out to prove her point, she took a step toward him, and Dean moved back until he stood at the edge of the concrete walkway at the corner of the building. If she advanced again, he’d be forced to retreat, either around the side of the cafe or off into the dirt lot. While she wouldn’t mind seeing the man who tied her into emotional and physical knots fall on his ass, she paused to continue her verbal attack. “Really? Because from where I’m standing, you’re a coward. You’re too careful not to touch me. Why is it that, Dean? Afraid to start something that’s beyond your control?”
    He didn’t say a word for nearly a minute, just stared into her eyes, his own flashing hot then cold. “It’s … complicated.”
    A mirthless laugh was ripped out of her throat. “How unoriginal. I expected more from you. After all, not every shifter denies his nature.”
    A low growl rumbled in his chest. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    But she’d seen a flash of panic in his eyes, which to her only confirmed a niggling suspicion. It was the male of the species that had the ability to scent out a mate. The female only knew once skin-on-skin contact brought about the mating heat. But Kaylie had never felt this intense physical need for any other man. Maybe it was his bad boy looks, maybe it was the mystery surrounding his past, or maybe, just maybe, it was because of their intense chemistry. Hell, it was no doubt all three. Whatever it was, it drew her to Dean like a rat to a freaking pied piper; she couldn’t ignore it. Knowing he was deliberately denying not only their human physical attraction, but possibly battling his wolf’s