Serengeti Sunrise - By Vivi Andrews Page 0,33

did.

Strangely, the more time he’d given her, the more certain he’d become that he didn’t need any more. The more she’d resisted, the faster he’d adjusted. He would never find anyone else who suited him the way Zoe did. It was her or no one, and now that he’d been with her, no one wasn’t an option anymore.

But her rigid silence in the passenger seat couldn’t be classified as encouraging.

They’d been replacing and updating the electronic monitors at the perimeter for the last four hours, and other than instructions, she hadn’t said more than two words to him.

With only three more points to work, he realized he was running out of time when she’d be forced to be in his presence. He’d already wasted hours he could have been pleading his case. Whatever the hell his case was.

Tyler cleared his throat as he pulled up next to a fencepost that concealed motion sensors and a tiny infrared camera. “Zoe—”

She was out of the truck, the door slamming on her name. Tyler scrambled out after her and circled the bed. He scanned the horizon for threats automatically, even as he tried to figure out some way to convince her being his mate wouldn’t be too horrible.

His lion insisted he dominate her. His human side urged him to reason with her. But on one thing the man and lion were in perfect accord. Zoe was his. Which made his priorities clear. Keep her safe, no matter what.

Which would have been easier if she wouldn’t insist on throwing herself toward every hint of danger just to prove she could.

“Zoe,” he began again, trying to make his voice sound reasonable rather than frustrated. “Would it really be so terrible to be my mate? You know you can always depend on me to watch your back.”

“What about your back?” she asked without looking up from the tiny device she was fiddling with on the post. Her tone was hard and ruthless. “Do I get to watch it?”

Tyler hesitated, knowing his instinctive response of hell no wasn’t going to get him the reaction he wanted. “If it were necessary to have someone watch my back…”

Zoe’s head snapped up and her eyes narrowed at the evasion. “Bullshit. If I tried to do anything to defend you, you’d probably tie me to your bed for a week.”

Tyler couldn’t deny the idea held some appeal.

“If I were to mate with some lion—if, mind you—it would have to go both ways. Equals.”

“It does go both ways.” He protected her body, and she protected his heart. If anything happened to her…

“God, Tyler, you are such a crappy liar.”

He flinched, feeling his future with Zoe slipping away at the distance in her voice. “You have to understand—”

“Oh I get it. The idea of me being hurt makes you feel sick and you’re convinced the only thing that will keep me safe is you standing there ready to take any bullet aimed at me.”

His breath left him. “Yes. That’s it.”

“Did you ever stop to think that I feel exactly the same way? That your complete lack of trust in my ability to watch your back is as frustrating as it is insulting? How would you feel if I left you chained to the stove while I went waltzing off into God-knows-what? I’m not asking you to stop protecting me, Tyler. I know that would go against every alpha instinct you have. I’m just asking you to let me protect you. We have to be equals in this or I’m going to end up trying to kill you someday—and it’ll be self-defense because you couldn’t stop smothering me. I’m not like Ava. If you want to date some delicate flower, you need to look elsewhere.”

He didn’t want to look elsewhere. He wanted Zoe because of her strength, the fight that was a part of her down to her soul, but he’d been denying her that part. He’d admired her fierceness, her power as a lioness, but then he’d tried to bind her spirit.

And he didn’t know how not to. If her definition of compromise put her in danger, he didn’t think he could do it.

She must have read the truth on his face. Her hands fisted, her expression locking down to a flat, emotionless mask that looked so wrong on her expressive face.

“It isn’t going to work,” she said softly. “We have to end this now, before things get any more complicated.”

“No.” The word sprang out of him with the same force as his