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Glaring at her aunt, Mere sipped her coffee with furious intent.
“Don’t give me that look,” Nadine said from behind her own mug. “If you had learned the right lesson, you’d have been dating by now, not hooking up with the stranger in town.”
“Auntie…” A warning threaded through the word.
“You are going to hear me out, then I promise to never mention it again.”
Mere drank her coffee and said nothing. Long experience told her Nadine would ignore her objection. At least her aunt was always true to her word. If she got through this lecture, it would be the end of the discussion.
“You learned to distrust. It’s one of the hardest lessons anyone has to learn, and I’m sorry beyond anything you had to learn it the way you did. But what you should have learned is there are people worth trusting. You came home and your mom and dad took you in, gave you the safety you needed. You trusted them. You trusted me. You’ve learned to trust the people at the library. But you haven’t tried to trust anyone outside your little circle.”
She hated how accurate her aunt’s summary was, and hated how the only answer she had at the moment was a glower over the kitchen table. But Nadine was made of sterner stuff than anyone ever gave her credit for. She ignored Mere’s expression and kept going.
“Now, I don’t know if Anders is the right person, but neither will you if you don’t give him a chance. Kicking him out after one night isn’t giving him a chance. And, even more important, it’s not giving you one either. Capiche?”
Mere grunted, and Nadine smiled smugly, taking that as a tick in her win column. Frustration threaded its wiggly wire through her mood. If she could tell Nadine even part of the truth, her aunt would understand. But even that seemed a betrayal of Anders’s trust. And as much as she didn’t trust him yet, she was honored he’d trusted her. She’d go a long way to protect his secret.
“I will take your words under advisement,” she muttered.
Aunt Nadine patted her shoulder and rose to leave. “That’s my girl. And if you change your mind, the Walmart has the best selection of condoms in the county.”
Mere stuck her fingers in her ears and hummed loudly as her aunt marched proudly to her side of the duplex.
10
MELTED BUTTER
True to his word, Anders strolled through the library door right after lunch on Wednesday. God, he’d never looked so good. What was wrong with her?
He moseyed over—it almost had her drooling, the way his muscles shifted under his jeans, reminding her of how they’d felt under her fingers. Dee looked from Mere to Anders and back again, a grin spreading over her face.
“I’ll just…” She disappeared into the stacks with a book cart.
Mere barely heard her, her entire being focused upon Anders, as if he was the center of her universe. Maybe he was, dammit, if only for a little longer, but he didn’t need to know that.
“Good afternoon, Meretta.” His voice curled through her like melted butter, liquid warmth settling low in her belly.
She bit her lip and took a deep breath through her nose, trying to calm the instinct that wanted to grab him by the shirt and kiss his sexy grin right off.
“Hey, Anders,” she muttered, the heat washing up her neck and settling across her cheeks and nose.
The damn grin only widened, as though he could sense exactly how she reacted to him.
“Were you able to look for those documents?” he asked when she said nothing else.
Mere mumbled something about being right back before she scurried off and slipped through the door to the basement. She had, indeed, looked through the old wills and found Mr. Reed’s this morning when it had been slow. Digging further, Mere had also found property deeds and a few blueprints for additions to the house.
All the documents fit easily into a small box, and she emerged triumphant from the basement door a few minutes later. Anders sat at his usual table. Dee still patrolled the stacks, but a volunteer manned the checkout counter. With the self-check computers, though, he was mostly there to fetch her should anyone have issues. It was quiet after lunch and before school let out, the perfect time for the archive librarian to help a patron with complicated historical documents.
Mere took a seat next to Anders, the heat of his body easily traversing the few inches between them and warming her, reminding her of how warm his skin was. Would it be the same in his natural form? How would his scaly skin feel under her fingertips?
He cleared his throat and arched a brow at her, pulling her away from the decidedly erotic and unprofessional thoughts about him. His grin returned, all-knowing and irritating as hell.
“What are you thinking, Meretta?” His voice thrummed a string leading straight to the tightening place deep inside, the one only he could release.
Her voice failed her, and she shook her head. No way was she going to answer that question. He chuckled, which only increased the tension.
“Do you want my help, or do you want to tease me?” Her words were supposed to have a bite, but they came out choked.
