Page 61 of Colton’s Mate

Colt’s mind was utterly blown.

If he hadn’t been in love with Callie before, he was now. Turtle porn. 70s fuck-me music. Thong sexy dances. It was like he’d died and gone to heaven.

“Woman, you have no idea what you do to me,” he said, stroking her hair back from her face.

“Well, to be fair, the last few minutes gave me some idea.”

He smiled, watching her storm-eyes. They were mostly blue now. That meant happy. He liked making her happy.

“Nope,” he said. “You still have no idea.”

“You going to tell me?”

She was running her fingers through the back of his hair. He loved that. Did she know he loved that?

He shook his head. His heart felt full, and he didn’t have the words. Except three little ones, and she didn’t want to hear those ones because they were taking it slow. Slow-ish, anyway. “Not right now,” he said. “I’m working up to it.”

She looked at him quizzically, but then dropped a soft kiss on his lips. “Okay.” Mmmm. Callie lips. He would never, ever get enough of them.

“So,” she said. “What do you think of Horney and Tiger Slut as role models now?”

He grinned at her. “I think I made an excellent choice.”

“Me, too.”

Chapter 25

For Colt, the next two weeks were possibly the best and worst of his life so far.

The best: Callie. Working with her on the bar plans, taking her ideas and putting them into practical drawings and strategies, watching her face and how happy she got as her dream became more and more of a reality.

Teaching her fight techniques, along with Kitty, so she’d feel confident that she could protect and defend herself.

Making love to her, sleeping all tangled up with her in his bed or hers. Seeing her having traditional Sunday morning breakfast with the crew, as if she were one of them already.

Except, that part had ended in a massive brawl, with Jason getting bloodied up and Colt and Remy both ending up almost getting stuck between their two animals.

Again.

Which was the ‘worst’ part of ‘best and worst.’

Brandon had told Colt that Callie was uninvited to crew events until they all had their damn shit straight. Which could be never.

At least he hadn’t hurt Callie’s feelings by saying it in front of her, but that only meant Colt had to tell her. She said she understood, but he could tell her lynx felt unwanted. Something that had happened too often in her life.

The problem was, Colt was still trying to take it slow, but his leopard wanted to bound right in and pounce on her and bond.

While his owl was still talking about tearing out her innards—and he wasn’t sure it was kidding. Fucking psychopath. It was getting so bad that several times he’d had to leave Callie suddenly before things got out of control.

While they were working on bar plans. While they were eating dinner. In the middle of the night.

Remy was having the same problem. It was getting so bad that Brandon was making noises about talking to Tristan Barnes and the Al-Maddeiri dragons, who had mind powers and had dealt with out-of-control psycho animals in the past.

Better still, they lived in a weird magical pocket of time/space in between worlds, so they wouldn’t have to report any of this shit to the Shifter Council.

The worst ‘worst’ thing was, he still didn’t know what Callie really wanted. He knew she cared about him, but that didn’t mean she’d feel a true mate bond.

Or want one. She thought of it as confining, restricting her freedom just like the men in her life had always done.