Free Colin: McCullough's Jamboree - Erotic Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance (McCullough's Jamboree Book 1) by Kathi S. Barton

path that she’d been working on.
    “I have the house nearly finished. Thanks so much for looking in on it while I was gone. The furniture in the bedrooms looks good.” She walked a little more, then stopped. Lauren knew she was pushing herself, but she needed to get back to her job. Someplace other than here. As she sat down on the log next to her, Pete came to lay at her feet. “What’s up, big guy? Dad pissy with you again? I told you to back off with the smart mouth shit. He’s not gonna take it like he does with me.”
    Running her hand over his head, she felt him purr. His body leaned heavily into hers, and she had to push him back or be knocked off the log. Before she could tell him to settle down, she was on her back and he was over her. Only it wasn’t Pete, but Colin. The change to human startled a scream from her.
    “I won’t hurt you.” She told him to get off her. “No. I don’t think so. You see, if I get up, I’m going to be exposed to you. Like I’m naked exposed.”
    Her body chilled, then warmed. As he moved, his hardness adjusting to fit over hers better, she felt his cock as it touched the top of her naked thigh. Her shorts, not at all modest anyway, were riding up as he moved again.
    “Stop moving, damn it.” He chuckled at her as he leaned into her throat. Jerking his head up off her, she lifted her head to butt him with it when he moved back, bringing his groin deeper into her pussy. “Let me up, at least, while you find your clothing and get dressed.”
    “I need to talk to you.” She struggled to get out from under him when he stilled her with his hand to her hip. “You keep moving like that and I’m going to come all over you. And that would be such a shame, since I’d like nothing more than to be buried deep inside of you right now.”
    “We’re not having sex.” Her body screamed at her that she was so fucking wrong. He must have thought so too, because he rocked into her again. “Don’t do that, Colin. I don’t even like you.”
    “I know, and that’s my fault too.” He just lay there, his body pinning hers down to the ground, while he looked at her. “I want to talk to you anyway. If I shift and go meet you at your home, will you allow me to talk to you?”
    “I don’t have anything to say to you.” He didn’t move. “Why do you even care? It’s not like we have mated or anything. Your kind can go for years knowing their mate and not going insane when you can’t have her. Not like wolves.”
    “You know a great deal about us. I’m assuming that’s because of who your stepparents are.” She told him they were her parents. “I talked to Peter and Mary this morning. They told me who you were. And why you’re human. I was surprised about that. I just assumed they were humans too. I’m glad that they took you in.”
    Lauren told him to get off her. He moved then, his back to her, while she tried to regain control of her emotions. They’d been a little haywire lately, and she thought it was all because of this man.
    “You had no right to go to them demanding answers.” He told her that he’d not demanded anything. But that he’d been polite. “You don’t know how to be polite. You order people around to your way of thinking, and damn them if they don’t do as the high and mighty McCullough says. What are you doing here anyway?”
    “I came to talk to you. Mostly to beg you to forgive me.” She didn’t say anything. There was nothing to forgive, really. “I’m going to shift and go to get dressed. Can I go to your house?”
    “I have to finish this walk.” He said he’d walk with her. “No. You won’t. I want you to leave me alone. I have to get my body back in shape before they’ll let me rejoin the service. I have nothing here to hold me, and I’m going back.”
    Colin turned and looked at her, then let his cat take him. She sat there for several minutes longer thinking about what the doctor had really told her yesterday, and not what