Free Shifter’s Surrender by Jennifer Dellerman

overhear such a private conversation. She shut Dean’s office door and then leaned back against it, for support. “I knew you were in the kitchen at Dolen’s yesterday.”
    A muscle bunched in Dean’s jaw and Kaylie now noticed the death grip he had on the plastic ruler he held in his hands. “Your point.”
    Once again she cleared her throat. “I said what I did to try and get a reaction out of you.” There. Done and over.
    The ruler snapped in half. “Which part, Kaylie? The better orgasms or the ‘substitute’?”
    Kaylie looked away, scratching a nonexistent itch over her lip. “Both actually.”
    The sound of his chair hitting a wall forced her eyes back to Dean. He stood still behind his desk, his chest rising and lowering with every deep breath. Heat tingled through her veins. God how she wanted to run her hands over those muscles. To press her lips against his bare skin and taste his flesh. All her girl parts answered with a resounding “yes!”. She would have taken a step away, to gain some distance from the force of her attraction, but her back was already against the door.
    “So now that I’ve apologized. And as I know I’m a mate you don’t want,” boy did that admission hurt, “I’ll leave you alone.”
    Despite the protests of her body, she turned away. Before she could open the door, hands pressed into the wood on either side of her shoulders. “I don’t think so.”
    Though Dean wasn’t touching her, he was so close that she could feel the heat radiating from his body. The urge to lean back against his length was so acute her body actually shuddered as she forced herself to remain still. “What?” Her voice trembled with excitement, and not a little apprehension.
    His lips were at her ear, his voice low and husky. Each breath, whispered over her sensitive flesh, raised goose bumps. “Yes, you are my mate, but you’re wrong that I don’t want you.” He closed the distance between their bodies, and she could feel the hard ridge of his cock pressing insistently on her ass. His heartbeat pounded at her back, so hard she could feel it as if it were her own. More heat flared within her until she felt scorched.
    “I want you so much I ache. I want to touch you everywhere.” His tongue was a warm, wet seduction at the fluttering pulse on her throat. “To take you over and over again until we’re both so used up we can’t move.”
    Sounded good to Kaylie. Really good. Where did she sign up?
    “But I can’t claim you as my own, Kaylie.”
    Her eyes flew open. When had she closed them? “I don’t understand.” She turned her head to see his face. His own eyes were closed, his features sharp, as if he were in exquisite pain. She twisted around to get a better look.
    The strong lines of his throat moved as he swallowed. Then he slowly opened his eyes, desire and agony apparent in their glittering depths. “I can give you what you need, but I can’t give you what you want.”
    “And just what is that?”
    His face hardened. “I can give you release but I can’t give you my affection.”
    When Kaylie comprehended what Dean meant, she narrowed her eyes in fury. “Are you trying to tell me that I’m good enough to fuck but not good enough to date?”
    When he didn’t deny her words she ducked under his arm, her movements jerky and uncontrolled. “That’s a horrible thing to say.”
    “Nevertheless, it’s true. I don’t have what it takes to be a proper mate.” Something clawed long and slow into wood, possibly to drown out his muttered, “And if you truly knew me, you wouldn’t want me even if I did.”
    Some of her anger dimmed as she caught his words. Arms crossed over her heaving chest, she wracked her brains. So, Dean was confident enough in his sexual abilities but not in his emotional ones. It brought back her sister’s words from yesterday; Tess’s theory that Dean had a past that was the source of his regrets. Regrets that were enough to purposely shove aside any