Jacks, Marcy - Eli's Reluctant Mate [DeWitt's Pack 5] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) by Marcy Jacks (best ereader under 100 .txt) 📗

“Look, I get that my eyes mean something to your people, but I’m

not some…I’m not going to just sit here and let you claim dibs on me  like I'm a frickin’ toy for you to grab.”

Eli wanted to grab him, all right. He wanted to grab him and shake  him. “You don’t understand. When I say you’re my mate, I’m not  saying it because I looked at your eyes and decided it. I’m saying it  because it was decided for me. For us. We’re each other’s perfect fit.”

Supposed to be at any rate. This conversation felt anything but  perfect at the moment.

Chris was giving him a calculated look. “Like, soul mates or  something?”

“If that’s how it’ll make it easier for you to see it, then yes.”

“I’m not gay,” Chris said.

Eli didn’t believe that for a second. He heard the way Chris’s  heart had sped up when they were back in his motel room and Eli was  walking around naked. His blood had heated, his heart had pounded,  and his breathing had ever so slightly picked up. That wasn’t the  reaction that came from simply being embarrassed at having a naked  man in your presence. Not even the most prudish of men could say  that.

“How would you know?” Eli said.

“How would I―? How would I know if I’m gay? Because I

would know!”

“Uh-huh, have you ever kissed a man? Fucked one?”

Eli’s Reluctant Mate                       47

Chris’s face bloomed a bright red before the most ferocious snarl marred his perfect face. “That’s not your business.”

That’s right. Get angry with me. Get your blood pumping again.  “I’ll take it that means yes. So what’s your story? Religious? Daddy doesn’t approve of homosexuality, so you had to hide it?”

“Shut up!”

“Maybe you’re just afraid of being labelled. That’s okay. Nothing to be ashamed of. I’ve known a lot of guys who―”

Chris rushed forward and shoved him. “I said shut up!” Chris had probably put as much of his strength as he was able to into that push, but Eli barely fell back a step. “You don’t know anything about me!”

“I know you’re either lying about being gay because you’re ashamed of it, or you’re bisexual and just like to pretend that those drunken nights in college didn’t mean anything.”

Chris looked ready to punch him. He raised his fist to do it, which was trembling in anger.

He lifted his fist up above his head like a girl. Had no one ever taught him how to fight?

“You know, if you want to punch me and make it count, you should lower your arm.”

Chris blinked at him, some of his anger being replaced by confusion, but only some. “What?”

“Your fist,” Eli pointed at it. “Lower it, lock your wrist, and put your knuckles out. Throw all your weight into the swing and you’ll get a stronger impact.”

Chris lowered his fist, apparently deciding that Eli was making fun of him. “Fuck you.”

He tried to turn around and storm off, but Eli grabbed him, swung him around and planted a kiss on him.

Chris fought him, but it was weak at best. Eli held them tightly together, keeping his hand behind Chris’s head, holding their mouths together.

He’d hoped that Chris would eventually…he didn’t know, melt

48                          Marcy Jacks

into it, or something. But Chris kept right on fighting him.

He put his hands into Eli’s hair and yanked. Eli moaned. The pain

seemed to heighten the delicious sense of having his tongue in Chris’s

mouth, of having their bodies pressed so closely together.

Chris got hard, and Eli felt his erection pushing against his own  groin.

Finally! Yes! There it was. He’d hoped that kissing him would  bring out Chris’s inner instincts to mate. Eli pushed him down into the  soft moss, and as much as he enjoyed Chris’s hands in his hair, it was  beginning to hurt.

He pried the fingers out of his hair before pulling Chris’s hands  above his head, holding them down, exposing the smaller man to him.  He dove down and kissed him again, enjoying the way that Chris  squirmed in pleasure beneath him, and Eli rocked their hips together.

He groaned, luxuriating in the keening noises Chris made, and he  did it again, pulling back briefly to get a look at his mate beneath him.  There was  lust in Chris’ s eyes as he looked up at him, and Eli smiled

and kissed him again.

That felt so fucking good. His mate, he was finally claiming his

mate.

Eli put his hand under Chris’s shirt, feeling his chest, his beautiful chest. He needed to get this annoying thing off of him.

He pulled his mouth away and released Chris’s hands so that he could work on the buttons of the shirt. Clothing here was easily ruined and sometimes difficult to come by, considering how often a werewolf destroyed their clothes. Eli wanted to make sure Chris would have something to wear after this.

But Chris’s hands came back down, and they pushed at Eli’s stumbling fingers as he attempted to gently get the shirt off.

“Wait. Stop it. Stop!” he yelled.

It was then that he’d finally gotten Eli’s attention, and Eli froze up at the fear he saw in Chris’s eyes.

Chris shook his head. “Don’t do this. Please…”

Eli’s Reluctant Mate                       49

Begging. Chris was actually begging Eli to stop, as though he were afraid that he had no choice in this matter, that Eli would take

that away from him.

It occurred to Eli, in the worst sort of earth-shattering clarity, that

Chris really didn’t want him. Eli had thought…he’d been so

sure…but he was wrong, and now he ’d scared the hell out of his mate,

and destroyed any chance he ever had of being with him.

“I

–I’m sorry, I―”

He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know how he could have  been so mistaken. He lifted himself off of Chris and was crushed by  the way the other man scrambled out from under him.

“Chris, I―”

Chris punched him. Cracked him right in the nose, and though  Chris yanked his hand back and cried out from the pain of what he’d done,