"That, too. You're as tough as an egg dropped from a ten-story building. Really hard to rescue. Gets annoying."
"I didn't ask for this!" Her face burned at his bluntness. She was frustrated to feel more tears rise. "I'm tired of all this shit. I have no say in anything, and in the end, we're all screwed! Go back to killing things, Rhyn." She turned her back to him, hoping he'd fly off in his pterodactyl form or disappear into the depths of the forest as a jaguar.
She felt his warmth at her back instead. He draped his arms around her and pulled her against him, resting his chin on her head. She wiped her face, afraid to let herself feel pleasure in the warm body pressed against hers on such a cold night. Every time he touched her, her resolve melted. He smelled of his own musk and darkness, an alluring mix that made her blood burn.
She missed him. The sense of yearning was deep. She barely knew the man at her back, but she'd felt his absence even during the few hours in the day they weren't together. Gabriel's words and her nightmare haunted her, reminded her she couldn't let herself fall in love with him now.
"Rhyn …" She trailed off, not at all sure what she wanted to say. "Do you ever think we're better off not being together?"
"No," he said, though he shifted behind her. "Do you?" "Yeah, sometimes."
"I think we make a good pair." "Why?" she asked.
"No one else could put up with either of us."
She wanted to be offended by his comment but suspected he spoke the truth. "We will make things work," he said.
"I really don't know, Rhyn."
"It doesn't matter what you think. You're already mine."
She forced herself to pull away from him. "I want to like you, Rhyn, I really do, but sometimes I don't think you know how bad things are."
"You more than like me, but you're too scared to admit it. Say whatever you want, Katie, but this is happening."
"Now you'll tell me you know how I feel because you read my mind." She leveled a glare on him.
"If I feel like it, I see every thought that crosses your mind. Like Kris saying he'd break the mating bond between us. Kris can't do it, by the way. You're stuck with me."