His emotions beat in his chest. Adrenaline. Lust. Longing. All of it flowed on a current of hot blood through his veins. It more than flowed. It pounded.
With his wide field of vision, Mitch became aware that conversations had stopped and whispers had started. Low murmurs from behind tented fingers. He heard strange words. Words that should never apply to him. Words that were all wrong for him. He heard things like "mating fever," and "his beast."
"Now," he said, his voice stern. Demanding. His tone brooked no argument. Tu should have picked up on the urgency in his voice. She should have heeded his insistent tone. She should have obeyed him.
She did not.
"Can't," she said, flippantly. "I'm busy."
Mitch's hands balled into fists at his sides. He crossed his arms over his chest and turned away from them. The couple. His woman, his agitated mind now accepted, and the asshole encroaching on his territory.
His mate, as Auntie Greene had just told him in their private conversation. The woman had insisted she had the gift of second sight, and she knew Mitch and Tu were meant to be...or so she said
"No," he'd told Auntie. "You are mistaken. Tu is a nice girl who should be with someone close to her own age. A nice guy. I have nothing to offer her."
Auntie had just looked at him, a faint smile ghosting her lips. When she smiled, the apples of her cheeks popped, just like Tu's. The high cheekbones must run in the family.
"She's not a girl," Auntie had told him. "She's a woman, she's in love with you, and she's your mate."
He'd shaken his head at Auntie, denying her read of the situation. Tu could certainly do way better than someone who was too old for her, too cranky for her.
Now this woman, who was all wrong for him, was nonetheless turning him inside out. Disrupting his life. Disrupting his heart.
His hands clenched and relaxed at his sides. The party, which had slowed, came to a grinding halt. A hush fell over the room. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the many bugging eyes of partygoers, focused on him, Tu, and Bobby. Heads craned subtly to peer at the proceedings.
Mitch suddenly knew what to do.
He took one huge stride forward, grabbed Tu by the arm, and pulled her to her feet.
"Excuse you!" she sputtered in protest.
Mitch ignored her noise making, as well as her flailing limbs, which thrashed ineffectually. He tossed her over his shoulder and carried her out of the back of the house via the kitchen door, slamming it behind him. All the sounds of merry making faded into the background as he marched the few yards to Tu's cottage. He tried the door and found it locked.
Incredulous, he set her on her feet roughly and steadied her when she rocked and seemed close to losing her footing.
"You lock your doors?" he bellowed. "You live in the middle of fucking nowhere. Your nearest neighbor is your sister. Who's going to fucking rob you?"
Tu seethed in silence. She glared at him, arms folded over her chest defiantly.
He grabbed her right hand and before she could say peep about it, pressed her thumb to the biometric lock. The light illuminating the door lock went from red to green before the door snicked open. Mitch picked Tu up again, this time with his hands under her armpits, and lifted her over the threshold. Tu glared at him some more, and combined this with sputtering outrage at his high-handedness. She simmered with anger. He slammed the door behind him with a foot and set her on her feet again.
He decided to say something to her that was true, but that would also send her around the bend.
"You are cute when you're angry," he told her, leaning against the kitchen counter and crossing his feet at the ankles. Her eyes bugged with astonishment, and her mouth fell open.
"You asshole!" she screamed before she launched herself at him, flailing at him with her cute little fists. "I can't stand you!"
Her body trembled against his, her anger and frustration palpable. He put his giant hands around her, holding her close, letting her get her anger out.
"Who do you think you are?" she wailed. She slammed her hands on his chest, pushing at him. Her shoulders shook, and he saw that she was crying.
Mitch had no answer for her, he had no fucking idea what he was doing. One moment, he was all ready to speak to her and her new beau. He'd even rehearsed in his mind what he would say, because he and Tu were no more than friends. They were in each other's mutual friend zones, and he had been firmly committed to this approach. It had even been his idea. He stroked her hair as she cried and mumbled into his chest.
He just held her. In the long list of bizarre things he had done for, with, and to this woman, what he'd just done really took the cake. To have carried her off like a caveman, in front of a houseful of people, must have been mortifying for Tu. He couldn’t have helped himself if he tried.
Although, according to Auntie, he and Tu might be the only people in Perdition who were unaware of the fact they were meant to be.
"You think the whole town hasn't seen how you pine for her?" Auntie had said. "Your little tryst in the warehouse of the Foundlings Thrift Store was heard by everyone on that side of town. You know this is a shifter town."
Mitch knew, because he avoided town for that reason. "Why couldn't you just leave me alone?" Tu wailed, still pushing against his chest. "Why do you keep saying you don't want me, then somehow you're always around?"
After his chat with Auntie and the events that followed, he started to believe in his ties to this woman. They shared an emotional tether. He felt helpless in the face of the bizarre attraction he had for her. Completely fucking helpless. Even under these fraught circumstances, his cock swelled in his jeans with his desire for her.
"I just saw you with that guy, and something snapped," he said, thinking of how the entire world receded when he'd seen Bobby Lopez with Tu. Not just with her. Touching her. Looking meaningfully into her eyes.
"I don't even know him all that well," she sniffled against his chest. "He's a friend."
"He's the right kind of man for you," Mitch said, his gut clenching. He swallowed the dry lump in his throat. A better man would let her go, let her be with someone appropriate.
Tu burst into sobs. "I don't want him, I want you."
His heart swelled with painful emotion. He held his past in his arms, and he found it impossible to let go. She pushed against his chest, and this time, he let her put distance between them. Her eyes were red and fresh tears welled in her eyes. "Don't you have anything to say?"
What could he say? Nothing that would fix their predicament. He licked his lips and gave her a regretful frown. This woman had brought him to his knees.
He opened his mouth to remind her of their agreement. To remind her that she belonged with someone her own age, someone who could be a part of town life without reservation, someone who got along with others. To tell her that he cared about her, and that's why she needed to find someone else.
Instead, Mitch once again said the wrong thing.
"I love you," he told her.
Tu looked shocked. She blinked at him, furrowing her brow, and opening and closing her mouth. Mitch's heart banged in his chest so hard and fast that he felt dizzy. He leaned heavily against the counter.
"Wha—what did you just say?" Tu whispered.
Oh, shit. What did he just say? He hadn’t meant to say that. But oddly enough, professing his feelings made him feel stronger, rather than vulnerable. So, he let more words tumble from his lips.
"I said I love you," he said, blinking with the realization, wonder in his voice.
“I love your preposterous name, Petunia. I love how terrible you are at cooking. I love your stupid Christmas tree earrings, your beautiful ass, the way you put people at ease, that sounds you make when you cum.”
He watched Tu’s expressions change from moment to moment, from registering outrage, then sentimentality, then befuddlement. His profession of love came out as a confused jumbled, a word salad, because apparently, love made you stupid like that.
&n
bsp; "That's why I can't stay away from you. I...have a need to protect you."
"You do?" Tu had stopped crying. She stared at him curiously, sniffling occasionally.
"At night, I drive as close as I can to your cottage without being detected," he admitted. "It's just something minotaurs do for the people most dear to them. I park my Suburban at a safe distance away, then I walk the rest of the way to your cottage, so I can make sure you're okay."
And...to make sure she doesn't have any overnight guests.
Tu blinked at Mitch. "Isn't that kind of stalkerish?"
He couldn't deny her this point. "It's very stalkerish," he said easily.
"Then I don't understand why you keep pushing me away?" she asked, looking completely confused.
"It's because I do love you that I think you should be with someone who is a better match to you," he said, his heart squeezing painfully with every word. His breath was shallow and labored, and he felt like he would soon throw up. "You need someone who's nice, like you. Someone your own age, who can be your lover."
"But I already have a lover," she said, her eyes pleading. "Just be my lover. Lose control with me. You'll see how easy it is to be with me."
She didn't wait for him to respond. She slid her arms around him, holding him close and breathing in his scent. She started mumbling against his chest. "You have a way of making things more complicated than they need to be. Don't worry about anything else but being with me here and now."
His hands splayed over her back, and he pulled her into his body. The last time he had been in her cottage, his mind kept wandering to the fantasy of making love to her. Now he had an opportunity to make the fantasy come true. His cock thumped against the crotch of his jeans, and he shifted on his feet to relieve some of the pressure.
It would be so easy to take her in his arms and show her just how much he loved her.
"Just say you'll make love to me," she said. He heard her desire in her voice. He could no longer deny her.
Instead of trying any longer, he swept her in his arms and carried her to her bedroom where a brass bed awaited them. How long had it been since they'd been together? A week? It had been the longest week of his life. A week that felt like a year.
Mitch set Tu on her feet, then they were tearing at their clothes, peeling off the sweaters Mitch only now noticed were identical.
"Why are you wearing my sweater?" he asked her, wondering about the bizarre coincidence.
"You sure this is yours? I don't think it would fit you," she asked, tossing her own dinosaur sweater aside. She let out a watery laugh before lying back and shucking her jeans off her hips. One pant leg caught on her ankle, and Tu didn’t have a chance to completely disrobe before he was on her, shirt off and stripped to his boxer-briefs, covering her with his huge body.
He parted her thighs and bracketed her legs around his waist. This first time together after a week apart would be going to be rough, hard, and frenzied. He didn't warn her because he knew that's how his girl liked it.
His girl.
Tu, fast and nimble, had already removed her underwear, though the tiny scrap of lace was bunched up around the pant leg she had not yet managed to remove. The scent of her womanhood beckoned, and he knew she was wet and ready. He entered her to the hilt without preamble, and they both sucked in a harsh breath at the contact. Braced on his forearms, awash in Tu’s body, Mitch set a brutal, desperate pace.
"Ahhhh!" she screamed in ecstasy.
"That's right, baby, scream," he rasped in her ear. "Let everyone know who you belong to."
His primal, caveman brain wanted everyone to hear her scream. He wanted everyone to hear him claim her. It wasn’t rational. It wasn’t nice. It wasn’t something he could stop.
"You! I belong to you!" she shrieked.
"That's right," he said. "This is my pussy. These are my tits."
"Fuck me!" she screamed, her voice ragged and throaty.
"I am fucking you," he told her, relishing the sensation of her body, sweet, hot, and wet, closing all around his manhood, telling him he had a home inside her. "I'm fucking you, I'm fucking you, I love you."
He pinned her to the mattress with his body, caging her within his arms as he muttered filthy words, curses, and professions of love into her ear.
"God, I'm coming," she shrieked as her body shook and trembled.
He took this as a cue to let go, to let his body, his primal beast, have free reign with this woman, who through some beautiful miracle found something in him to love.
He pumped into her without any finesse, his mind unfocused, his strokes wild and erratic. Every movement of his body a claim on her. He knew he was being irrational. He knew he had no right to claim her. He knew other men had more to offer her.
But for the moment, none of it mattered. For the moment, she belonged to him, and he didn't care about anything else but being inside her, possessing her, feeling safe exposing his beast to her.
He finished with a roar, grunting out his pleasure, his body going stiff as he came in long, satisfying pulses.
He collapsed onto his back, pulling her with him. She sprawled over him as they both drifted back to earth. As he caught his breath, he stroked her skin, her braids, as their breaths mingled.
He felt so content, he didn’t want loathe to leave. As their heated bodies cooled, his head began to clear. Fundamentally, he was still the wrong man for her, and what they'd just done didn't change that. While his mind knew this to be the right thing to do, his body and his heart were not on board.
And as for his beast...his beast didn't want to let her go. Her body splayed, limp and relaxed, on top of him. His hand skimmed over her skin, and he cleared his throat.
"I... have to go," he said. She stiffened in his arms.
"No, you don't," she said. Her breath fanned over his chest when she spoke, and her fingers curled into his chest hairs.
"I'm sorry." He started to lift her off his body and gently roll her off him.
"Don't be sorry." She tangled her legs around his and sat up to look at him. The light from the other room cast a wedge of light on her bedroom floor. The light made a halo around her head and shoulders, but he couldn’t make out her face clearly. At least he couldn’t see the look of pain that would surely be on her face.
"Don't be sorry," she said again, her voice cold. "Don't leave. Just don't leave."
"I am not the right man for you, Tu," he said, the emotion rising in his chest and expanding painfully.
"Why don't you let me decide who is right for me?" she bit out caustically. They’d had the argument so many times already.
She dismounted him, and rolled off the bed, leaving his dick limp and cold against his thigh. "Everyone thinks they know what's best for me," she said bitterly.
"I'm sorry—" he started again.
"Yeah, I'm sure you are," she said. She sat on the edge of the bed and awkwardly finished removing the only pant leg she hadn't had time to take off before.
Mitch let out a long sigh and ran his hand through his hair. He had no idea what to say.
"I can't stand you," Tu said. "I'm going to clean up in the bathroom. Don't be here when I come out."
She made her way to the bathroom in the dark.
There was nothing else to do but leave, so that's what he did. He dressed quickly and left.
Sitting in his truck in front of Tu’s sister's house, he put his head on the steering wheel and wondered how his heart could still be beating, how he could still be alive after walking away from the best thing in his life.
As he drove away, he called Alan Blue for his weekly check-in, needing something to distract himself. He made it to the cabin, finished going through the motions of his call, hung up, and went inside. Most of the time, his home was his sanctuary. Tonight, however, he realized his home only emphasized his loneliness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Hey Sis, It's Christmas
Tu woke the next day with a love hangover.
Mitch had blindsided her when he'd grabbed her and tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She'd used her newly discovered outrage to light into him, to demand answers for his bizarre hot and cold behavior, to tell him for once and for all to stay the fuck away from her.
But, then, he'd said that thing. That thing she never thought he'd say to her. The thing she hadn't thought he could say.
I love you.
When he'd said that, she had been shocked, then elated, then horny. In an instant, she’d wanted him, needed him; she was sure he had made her dreams come true. All the craziness that characterized their relationship had finally sorted itself out.
Only, after they'd come together in passion, after she'd given him everything she had, he had gutted her with more words she hadn’t seen coming.
I have to go.
She knew why he'd said it. She knew he had things to work out for himself. She knew, but being nice to him got her nowhere. She was tired of being understanding. So, she had done what she had never allowed herself to do before.
She'd told him to go. It hurt almost more than she could bear. She couldn’t smooth this over, or fix it with a smile. Eventually, he would come to his senses. She hoped. She didn't know exactly what she would do when he turned up again, groveling, begging her forgiveness. All she knew was that it was time to put herself first.
As she washed the previous night's sheets, Tu heard a knock at the door. Could it be that Mitch had come to his senses already? She tried not to get excited, but when she answered the door, she could not help but feel crestfallen at the sight of her sister standing there, a hard look on her face. She wore jeans, a t-shirt, and a jacket. She looked as if she were going someplace.
"Well, good morning to you too," Jasmine said sarcastically.
Tu sighed and gestured for her sister to enter.
"How are you this fine, fine morning?" Tu asked, sarcasm dripping from her words. "What brings you to my humble abode?"
Jasmine swept into the room and looked around. "Isn't it obvious? I'm here to offer moral support."
"That's nice of you, but I don't think I need it," Tu said drolly. "Our jaunt to Dallas a few days ago gave me moral support in spades. I don’t need another three-day hangover. I am all full up in the moral support department."
Her Mistletoe Minotaur: A BWWM Paranormal Holiday Romance (A Very Alpha Christmas Book 1) Page 17
