Read Hakan Severin for Free Online Page A

your house that night you realized that I was your mate?” he demanded.
    “I…” She clenched her jaw, blatantly trying to resist his ruthless seduction. “Does it matter?”
    He pulled back, studying her pale face. “Look at me, Payton.”
    There was a long pause as she kept her gaze averted. Then, realizing that he was prepared to wait the rest of the night, she tilted back her head.
    “Fine,” she snapped. “Why were you standing out there?”
    “Because I’d seen you out partying with those young males and I needed to know you made it home safely.”
    She stiffened at his soft words. “I already have a father. I don’t need another one.”
    Hakan gave a sharp bark of laughter. The night he’d returned from his travels to see her surrounded by a group of adolescent males who were all sniffing around her was seared forever in his mind.
    His cat had nearly gone insane with the need to mark her, to prove to everyone that she belonged to him, and that any touching from another male would lead to a slow, painful death.
    “Believe me, my feelings weren’t fatherly.” His voice was harsh. “The minute I caught sight of you dressed in those short-shorts and tank top I knew I had to get away from you.”
    “That’s why you crawled into bed with Jessa?”
    He shook his head, holding her accusing glare. “No, Jessa and I have been friends for a very long time.”
    She studied him for a long moment, clearly finding it hard to believe he hadn’t bedded the beautiful Hunter.
    “Nothing else?”
    His fingers skimmed down to span her narrow waist. He swallowed a low growl of pleasure. She fit so perfect in his hands.
    “She’s like a sister to me,” he said, struggling to concentrate.
    He logically understood the need to convince Payton that he’d merely been protecting her, but his body had waited far too long.
    The need to possess her was a searing fire that threatened to consume him.
    Payton pressed her lips together. “I saw her throw herself into your arms.”
    “She was trying to make her latest boyfriend jealous.” He gave a lift of one shoulder. “It was unfortunate timing. Nothing else.”
    She hesitated, unable to miss the sincerity in his voice. Then slowly her brows drew together as she regarded him with an agonized disbelief.
    “You knew what I believed,” she accused, her voice shaking with a furious distress. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”
    He swallowed a sigh. Damn. He hadn’t actually considered the fact that learning he hadn’t been unfaithful would be as painful as her initial fear he’d taken another female to his bed.
    “Because I no longer had the strength to resist my desire to possess you,” he confessed.
    Her jaw tightened. “I made it humiliatingly clear I wanted to be possessed.”
    “You were too young.” His gaze swept over her heart-shaped face, lingering on the lush curve of her mouth. The thought of those lips on his body had tormented him for two decades. “And still so terrifyingly fragile.”
    “Just because I’m not a monstrous brute like you doesn’t mean I’m weak,” she informed him.
    “I don’t mean size.” His gaze compulsively lowered to her bared breasts, his fingers lightly tracing the curve of her waist. “You were just starting your studies and finding your place with your friends. If I had taken you as my mate you would never have become the female you are today.”
    She grabbed his wrists, but she made no effort to pull away his hands.
    Thank the Goddess.
    It was going to take a long time for him to recover from his horror when he’d heard she was missing. He needed the physical contact to assure his cat she was alive and well.
    “So it was for my own good?” she asked.
    “For both of us,” he insisted. “You might not have noticed, but I can be a little—”
    “Arrogant? Pig-headed? Annoying as hell?” she interrupted with an overly sweet smile.
    “Dominating,” he corrected, his fingers skimming upward. “Even though