Secured Heart (Timberon Cat Book 1) by Yvette Hines Page B

the world at his side, marry them, then dump them when they’d outlived their usefulness and he was off to the next perky thing. Coming from a low-income family, she’d snapped onto his bait without caring what her friends said. What Kal had tried to tell her.
“ What?” His eyes widened with shock.
“ That’s right, nosey. I got cold feet. I stood there in my expensive white skirt suit he’d had tailor-made for me. None of my family or friends around, just strangers waiting for their own chance before the judge.”
Kal’s eyes darkened with some emotions.
Too afraid to analyze what he was thinking about her, she continued. “For a few weeks he tried to get me to do it. Hired a wedding planner and was willing to pay for a big event. I-I couldn’t. I chose a date a year out. Stellar got pissed. Next thing I know he tossed me over for some twenty-year-old three months later. He made sure I got a copy of their wedding picture in the mail.” She shifted her gaze past his shoulders, taking in the night lights of Albuquerque, not wanting to see the pity she was sure would be in his eyes. I’d been a fool.
When he didn’t respond, she asked, “What? No ‘I told you so’?”
“ Well, I did.” He teased as he brushed her hair over her shoulder.
Rolling her eyes, she tried not to think about the light shivers racing along her spine at his gentle touch.
“ So, you missed your chance with Stellar. Have you set your mark on Tyler as a husband?”
Shoving hard this time, she stepped away from him and faced the railing. “Stuff it, Kal. You don’t know anything. I’m not some whore for hire.”
“ Not saying you are. Just telling you what it looks like.” He growled low, his lips pressed against her ear.
Why did it matter to him?
Years ago in college, she’d thought she had a chance with him. That Kal may be the one. One night she’d gone to his apartment and had seen a large cat looking like a North American Lynx leap out of his window and head toward the Sandia Mountains. She’d paced his living room waiting for his return. When he did, he explained to her all about his kind and how the Amofeli , shifter cats, mated for life.
She’d wanted to be his soul mate. That wasn’t the case. Even after he’d explained his secret, he still continued with his old ways. In college he’d picked off every easy bimbo and party girl who shook her big breasts in his face.
“ Just leave it alone, Kal.” Her throat tightened with emotion and she took a deep breath to calm herself. Seeing him was bringing up old hurts and pains, most of them she’d brought on herself. Stellar had seen the vulnerability she had because of Kal, the older man had stepped in and given her the attention she craved from someone else. She’d used the business mogul as he had attempted to use her. “You didn’t care enough years ago when I needed a friend and you hopped on the first plane to Afghanistan to make your fortune like so many civilians who wanted big pay.” She glanced at him, then looked away again. “I needed you then and you stayed away for years.”
~YH~
Kal could hear the pain in her voice. He knew back then it had been wrong to leave without talking to her. After college he’d gotten a job with his criminal justice degree, but had heard about the opportunity to work in the Middle East doing base and facility security, earning up to seventy thousand a year. He’d applied, gotten the position and was gone before the ink had dried on his resignation. The mountainous region had allowed his cat a lot of area to play. The stint over in the desert wasn’t easy, was dangerous to say the least, even for him, but he needed something that would keep his mind off the one person he couldn’t have. When he returned, he’d started his security business with Dwayne. Even though his rash decision had paid off, he’d only taken the chance to get out of the city. A city that enjoyed plastering pictures and gossip about Paul Stellar’s