“Thanks, Josiah.”
He came to a hard, shocked stop at the sound of her voice as he reached the top of the staircase, the sound of his mate’s voice, a hint of laughter in it, affection filling it.
Hell no.
He moved along the hall silently as he watched his mate, who stood in front of the Breed’s bedroom doorway, obviously talking to him.
“Come on, Mica, anything you need, sweetheart, you know that.” She shook her head as another soft laugh both stroked his senses and offended them.
Her scent hadn’t changed. She didn’t smell of Josiah. He hadn’t touched her, he hadn’t kissed her, and the need that he knew was only for him still surrounded her.
As he stalked up the hallway, it wasn’t Mica that realized he was there first; it was Josiah. Mica stepped back, surprise registering on her face as Josiah stepped out in front of her. With no shirt on. His chest, broad, though unlike most Breeds carrying a light sprinkling of dark chest hairs. His jeans rode low on his hips, the belt undone and Navarro knew without checking that he was aroused.
“She didn’t do anything, Navarro.”
Navarro didn’t answer.
Approaching Josiah slowly, his gaze locked on the woman behind him, he came to a stop six feet in front of them, then held out his hand. “Mica.” He spoke her name softly. “Let’s go.”
She moved to step from behind the other Breed when Josiah moved again, blocking her.
“Dammit, Josiah.” In typical Mica fashion she gave him a hard push, surprising him long enough to skip around him before giving Navarro a wary look.
“You don’t have to go with him, Mica,” Josiah promised her as Navarro caught her hand and pulled her close to his side, his arm falling over her shoulders.
Damn, now that felt good. Too damned good.
Gripping her upper arm, he turned and moved back along the wing to the main hall, and from there to the suite they now shared.
He wasn’t going to ask her what the hell she was doing there, no matter how desperately he wanted to ask. Nothing had been going on. Josiah was her friend, and Navarro knew her scents. She had no thought of betrayal, and he’d learned long before the rescues that nothing could change whatever a person decided they wanted the most. If she wanted Josiah, if his arms were the ones she wanted, then it would have been Josiah she would have mated.
That didn’t mean he was going to let it go. He couldn’t let it go.
He could feel the sudden hunger for her as it exploded through his system and sent a part of his control ricocheting through him before it was lost forever.
It was all he could do to maintain the wild, howling part of his psyche. That part of him that he didn’t know, didn’t understand, and hadn’t even been aware he possessed until now.
He pulled her into their suite, closed and locked the door securely behind them.
He stared at her. Just watched her as he released her and she moved across the room before turning to face him.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” He had no idea where those words came from, why he even thought she would need the promise until he watched her swallow tightly, watched as he began unbuttoning his white cotton shirt.
“I never imagined you would.” She was breathing heavy, her face flushed, her golden green eyes filled with trepidation.
“You’re watching me as though you’re expecting me to rip your throat out.” He couldn’t help the rough, rumbled sound of his own voice.
She shook her head, and he swore the soft brush of her hair through the air sent the smell of her arousal rushing through him again. He couldn’t get the scent out of his head. He couldn’t stop what it was doing to him.
His c**k was thick, hard and fully engorged. There was none of the mating sensitivity that he could detect, but the hunger for her, the need for her taste, her touch, was beginning to pound through his system.
She swallowed tightly.
“If you don’t want this, then say so now.” He shrugged the shirt from his shoulders as her eyes widened.
He couldn’t explain the hungers suddenly tearing through him any more than he could explain the dominance he could no longer keep a handle on.
She was his mate. That was all he knew, and he knew it for damned certain. She belonged to him. She had been born to belong to him, to be his mate, to touch him as no other woman ever had or ever could.