Free The Awakening: Britton (Entangled Covet) by Abby Niles Page B

and
    tugged her forward.
    “B-Britton?” Her voice shook as she slowly leaned away.
    Ignoring her protest, he brought her closer, sliding his arm around her waist…testing, waiting for the
    inevitable revulsion to hit. But as he hugged her tight to his chest, he felt nothing negative, just her very
    womanly body pressed against his. He squeezed her once, chuckling into her neck before releasing her.
    She stared up at him as if he’d lost his mind. Hell, maybe he had.
    “What was that ?”
    His lips twisted into a half smile and he shrugged. “I think you’re growing on me.”
    Chapter Five
    Why wouldn’t it fade?
    Val trudged through the forest, unnerved by the physical warmth that still lingered on the front of her
    body where she’d pressed up against Britton—even an hour later. It had stuck around as a constant
    reminder that, though she’d been shocked snotless, she’d enjoyed being held by him. And that unnerved
    her even more than the tingling heat sizzling on her torso.
    I think you’re growing on me.
    She snorted. Yeah. Like a fungus, maybe.
    Ugh. Was it possible that she and Britton had settled the past with that apology? Other than that difficult
    moment last night, and him snapping over her moaning about the coffee this morning, things between them
    had been…nice.
    Comfortable.
    Dare she even say she liked this Britton?
    He smiled easily, and was compassionate and even thoughtful. Three things she hadn’t believed him
    capable of before now. Not with her at least.
    To make matters worse, he’d given her the smile—the arrogant tilting-up-of-one-corner-of-his-mouth
    smirk that made women forget their first name.
    Directed. At. Her .
    And now she understood all too well why women reacted the way they did. She’d been completely
    tongue-tied. In a dazed stupor. Where she could only focus on those cranked-up lips and wish they were
    plastered all over hers.
    How could lips wreak such havoc on her senses?
    Yeah, the man was drop-dead gorgeous. She’d never denied that. She might not have liked him, but she
    wasn’t blind. However, it’d always been easy to keep any body-betraying attraction in check, because
    eventually he’d open his mouth and that attraction turned into a block of ice. But now, if he was nice like
    this all the time with her, how was she supposed to keep from turning into every other woman who panted
    after the damn man?
    She’d be lost.
    No . They had a relationship based around insults and anger. Of course there was a little confusion and
    necessary adjustments as they veered toward a more friendly association. Whatever was going on with her
    body now was just pure bewilderment. In her head and heart, she knew Britton was a womanizing cad.
    It was just taking her body a little longer to remember that.
    Determined to forget the man, she started to climb up a steep incline, following Charlie’s scent. Halfway
    up, the thick layer of leaves under her boot shifted and she slipped, stumbling to her knees. She grabbed
    hold of an oak sapling to stop from doing a complete face-plant. Dea , she hated nature.
    Huffing, she pulled herself up. She needed to pay more attention to where she was stepping, and less on
    the devilish Britton Townsend, or she risked careering down one of the steep hills and killing herself.
    When she crested the steep cliff, she looked down. Yeah, falling would be bad. The distance to the
    bottom seemed like miles. She felt tiny in comparison. Hell, she felt tiny with only the towering trees
    surrounding her. There was nothing out here but trees and bushes. And Dea knew what kind of creatures…
    sensing her, growing agitated at her presence. She yanked her gun from its holster and checked the
    magazine, already knowing it was fully loaded, but it comforted her to check anyway. It was times like this
    it sucked being a half shifter. If she was going to piss off the animals in the wild because of her shifter
    scent, it would at least be nice to have a beast to