Free Bite (Bloodlines Book 1) by Crissy Smith Page B

be very imaginable payback?”
    “You were safe the minute I walked into the bar last night and saw you,” he confessed. “Your partner is not.”
    “He’s just doing what his uncle’s asked,” Dakota pointed out.
    Kieran tsked her. “Nope. You can’t take sides or I won’t be able to guarantee your safety.”
    “Safety?” she asked. “I really like my partner and don’t want to break in a new one. Do not kill him.”
    He sighed. “Fine, I won’t kill him.”
    If Kieran didn’t sound so serious, she would be amused. As it was she was a little frightened for what Dean had gotten himself into. “You promise?” she pressed.
    “Yes,” he replied. He skimmed his hands up to cup her breasts and began to knead. That was one way to change the subject.
    Dakota dropped her head back against his solid chest and arched her back so that she was pressing into his touch. Her nipples hardened as her breath sped up. The electric current that she’d felt the night before was still there, but now instead of being surprised she just enjoyed it.
    “Kieran,” she murmured. “We really should talk.”
    He groaned and the vibration against her back tickled some. “I just agreed not to kill your partner. I also promise not to maim him or take him out of duty. There, nothing else to talk about!” He ended with scraping his teeth on her ear.
    Dakota moaned and had to fight herself from giving in. “That is not what I meant. We can’t just jump straight into bed this time.”
    “Why not?” he asked.
    She frowned and turned around. “Seriously?” Didn’t he wonder where this was going between the two of them?
    “What?” he asked as he ran his hand through his hair. It surprised her when he took a step back from her. Like he hadn’t just been seconds from dragging her off to bed or taking her right there on the floor.
    “How do you do that?” she asked before she downed the rest of her wine. She stalked over to the table before she picked up the bottle, refilling her glass.
    “What are you talking about?” He sounded frustrated, and since he was showing some sort of emotion, she relaxed some. If he argued and fought, then he was invested.
    “How do you turn it off and on like that?” she asked. “Is it because I’m a shifter?”
    “Don’t.” He pointed his finger. “I’m trying not to think about the fact that you’re a shifter.”
    Bottle in one hand and glass in the other Dakota froze. “You want to repeat that?” she asked in warning.
    Kieran strode across the living area then back to her. “I didn’t mean it that way,” he finally said after a few tense moments.
    “I think you did,” she said. Dakota set the wine and glass down. Why did that hurt so much? She barely knew Kieran but hadn’t she been thinking long term? Just earlier she’d been prepared to fight for him but if he couldn’t ever accept her jaguar, what could she do? She was part shifter—that was just who and what she was. “I’ve been telling myself that I could convince you that I’m not like whoever hurt you in the past. You just need time to see me as a person first.”
    “I do,” he told her.
    They were only about ten feet away from each other but it felt like so much more. “No,” she said. “You’re lying to yourself. Because you don’t see me as a person first—you only see me as a person. You’re ignoring the biggest part of me.”
    “Being a shifter isn’t the biggest part of you,” he argued.
    “Yes, it is,” she said. “It’s my work, my friends and family, and what I am on the inside. I love my jaguar. I love to shift. And I won’t stop even for you.”
    “I’m not asking you to,” Kieran said.
    “Not yet,” she said, her heart breaking a little. “Eventually you’d see me shift. And that would be the reminder that sends you running.”
    “I don’t run,” he told her.
    Dakota pressed her lips together. She stared at him, having to fight herself from going to him. Kieran solved the