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And now, tonight, I was finally going to cross the line and join the rest of the world who had sex. If Tom was being real about what he’d said earlier and if all went well, we’d be doing it more than once.
If it went well.
I knew the mechanics, and I wanted him so much, but a man who looked like him must have a ton of experience, and I had none. If he was disappointed, I’d want to die. My image in the mirror stared back at me, nearly frozen in terror. We’d had such a nice breakfast and early evening. The hike was wonderful, and the man could kiss.
I had to make it through without his knowing of my lack of experience at least until it was too late to stop. Until the deal was done, so to speak. I’d balked at going swimming and told myself that nudity was less intimate than a bikini. But that was all big talk. In a moment, I’d be naked with all my flaws exposed, and he probably was flawless. Why had I let him come home with me?
“You can tell him you changed your mind and he should go home now,” I told my reflection. “And that will be all right.” But of course, it would be anything but. I’d already agreed to sleep with him, and I needed his warm skin against mine like I needed my next breath. My reflection could keep her thoughts to herself because I knew exactly what I was going to do. I opened the door, headed for my bedroom where I’d learn just how necessary experience was.
But when I arrived, it was to find the man I had planned to have passionate and fulfilling sex with standing with one leg out my window and the other still inside. “Close and lock the window after me,” he bit out. “And then go into your closet and stay there. No questions. I’ll tell you everything when I get back.”
“What…yes?”
“Yes.”
He waited for me to reach his side then bent down and brushed his lips over mine. “Do not come out until I get back and come for you. It’s important.”
I nodded, thousands of questions spilling through my mind but somehow still agreeing. And he was gone. I heard scuffling and shouts and hurried to lock the window. It wasn’t until I was in the closet, holding the door closed as if someone would try to open it from without, that I realized there was something very different about this man. Not just the fact that he was tall and handsome and gentlemanly. No, it was the way he took over, not just now but even by the canal when he’d pulled me behind him. And never in my adult life had I allowed someone to boss me in this way. That was a level of trust I gave up when my mother disappeared.
Marva took me in and technically was my foster mother with legal authority, but she never exercised it. That was one of the reasons I loved her so. She recognized the broken teenager who came to live in her home. She provided me with food and clothing, a comfortable bedroom, and a job. She didn’t make me work for my keep. I needed to work, and she refused to take a penny of my earnings back even when the county stopped the checks when I aged out of the system. I still had almost all of that money and a good percentage of what I’d earned since. One day, I’d move somewhere far away from here. Far from the memories.
But what about Tom? We’d just met, but I already knew I had to see how far this could go. I didn’t love him, of course, not in one day. That would be ridiculous, but there was something… And I wasn’t leaving town until I learned what there could be between us. It had been too long since there had been someone who I could call mine. Since Mom. My throat grew tight at the thought.
Marva was special to me. But I’d had too thick a wall of pain for even her kindness to break through all the way. When I got out of this closet, I needed to check on her and see how she was doing. I had called her around one and she said she was feeling much better, but I worried anyway.
I’d call her now, but I hadn’t been holding my phone when I ran for the closet. And I still didn’t know why. But even through the closed door, I could hear crashing around outside. Something was going on, and I was torn between rushing out there to help and recognizing that the strong, competent man who had asked me to hide probably didn’t need my assistance. My hand twisted the knob, almost of its own volition, although that was silly. I was turning it. I wasn’t staying in here another minute. The closet wasn’t much protection anyway, and I had to see what was going on.
Chapter Twelve
Tom
By the time I was out the window, I was no longer facing a two-legged opponent. No, I was facing a gray-muzzled-but-still-muscled alpha mountain lion. But this cougar was not exactly the same as those I knew. He had the markings of shifters from the area near Turkey and the Caucasus mountain range. I’d never met one but had heard enough from my abuelo to recognize the difference. A certain scruffiness, as he’d described it in the most disparaging way. A creature to be disparaged, unlike the natural cats of that region who had only recently begun to show up again.
He went so far as to blame the shifters for some of the others’ disappearance, their “bad behavior” leading the humans to go to great lengths to wipe them out. And of course, the ones they killed were rarely the ones who caused the trouble.
This cat’s eyes held dark hatred as they fixed on me, although I couldn’t say why. He didn’t even know me. But if I didn’t change quickly, my human form would be torn to shreds and unable to do a thing to help my mate who, if she obeyed and I had no reason to be sure she had, was hiding in a very insecure closet. It was the best I had to give her, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
In the seconds it took me to think that, he was in motion, racing toward me, but before I could complete my shift, he was around me and diving for the window. He didn’t want me; he wanted the daughter of the prince royal. And he wanted her dead. My first assignment would be going south quickly if I didn’t do something now.
A half shift was new to me. I’d heard of them but never seen one so wasn’t even sure it was possible until my cat made it happen. With claws and teeth and everything from the waist up in full cat mode and everything below in human mode, I stumbled after him, hoping I’d know how to drive this crazy body or my lion would because nothing was working in the way it usually would.
You drive your part.
I had no idea my lion even knew the word drive. Except he’d just heard it from me, but it sounded like a plan, Disjointed and awkward at first, we followed the other lion and got to him just as his four paws left the path in his leap for the windowsill and ripped him back down, claws scraping the side of the house. We landed in the dirt, and he went right for my vulnerable human legs with his back paws, shredding my pants and socks and spearing my calves, sending blood spurting into the dirt. I fought back, but if it continued, he’d have me immobilized and at his mercy in under a minute. I had to change, and like this half shift, I had never been forced to shift in battle. It was always before.
But as I concentrated and struggled, my lion shoved me back and made it happen. My clothes were in pieces all around the yard, and my full lion reared up to face the enemy. We went down, rolling over and over, biting and clawing anywhere we could. My legs had stopped bleeding when the shift healed them, but new wounds, deeper and more damaging, replaced them.
Of course, it wasn’t one-sided. The other lion was older but still in his prime and clearly had a lot of experience, but my brief stint in special forces had given me skills as well. The paranormal unit, a very hush-hush group of fighters, made use of all our unique skills before it was shut down by a political action taken by haters.
But my opponent had skills, too, and my confidence in my abilities to keep Emmalise safe wavered when he pinned me down and opened his jaws wide over my throat.
Chapter Thirteen
Emmalise
I couldn’t wait any longer to find out what was going on. It sounded like someone was being attacked by a wild animal and after I crawled across the floor and rose on my knees to peek over the windowsill, what I saw put my earlier hallucination to shame. I dropped down and rubbed my eyes then rose up and looked again. I must have fallen asleep and was dreaming or maybe I’d hit my head in the closet.
Because the cougar that moved past the diner would be a rarity but possible. The sight directly under my window had to be a fever dream. Not one but two mountain lions—or perhaps it would be better to call them one and a half? One was grizzled and muscular, but all cat from start to finish. The other was some sort of creature of nightmares. The top half was a younger and leaner version of the other lion, but from the middle of the body, things went a whole different direction. Pants that had been clawed or otherwise torn fluttered in the light breeze where they weren’t stuck to the thing’s legs by blood. If it continued to pour out the way it was, soon, whatever it was would be empty of vital fluids. And there was nothing I could do about it, even when I realized that the bloody shoes were the same brand of athletic shoes Tom wore.
