AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thank you for the invite, but I have plans tonight.”
“A date?” he asked before muttering a curse. “That isn’t any of my business, sorry.”
“It’s not a date,” she said. “I’m having dinner with Daisy, Ryan, and Ryan’s friend, Shay.”
“Oh, that’ll be fun,” he said.
“I hope so. I’m worried that my crush on Ryan will make me super awkward,” she said.
A small grin crossed Boone’s face. “Ryan is cool, and she’s used to people geeking out over her.”
“Well, I’ll do my best to keep the geeking out to a minimum,” Hedra said.
“Good luck.” He gave her another cute grin before bending over and opening the freezer below the fridge to snag a bag of frozen vegetables. She stared at his ass, then hurried out of the kitchen before Boone could smell her lust.
She’d been looking forward to dinner with Ryan and the others all day, so why was she suddenly wishing she could stay home with Boone?
CHAPTER 4
“I can’t believe Oren did that.” Ryan drank another sip of wine before laughing.
“It’s Oren,” Shay said. “Honestly, I would have been more surprised if he hadn’t gotten on stage and danced.”
They both laughed before Ryan grimaced. “Shit. Sorry, Daisy and Hedra. Talking about people you don’t know isn’t cool.”
“It’s fine,” Daisy said. “Your friend Oren sounds like a real character.”
“Oh, he is,” Shay said. “We’ll have to invite him out next time.” She studied Hedra before grinning. “He’ll love you both but be especially smitten with you, Hedra.”
Hedra laughed. “Why?”
“He recognizes a fellow free spirit when he sees one. Or smells one,” Shay said.
Daisy’s phone buzzed, and she glanced at it before texting briefly. “Sorry, that was Eleanor.”
“Everything okay?” Ryan asked.
“Yep. She and Wes are having a wonderful time in Fiji. She wanted to show me a picture of a drink she just ordered. It came in a fish bowl the size of her head,” Daisy said with a grin. She tucked her phone into her pocket. “So, Oren is a shifter?”
“Yes, a leopard shifter,” Shay said. “Shit, sorry, Daisy, I forgot. I won’t invite Oren to our next dinner.”
“Oh, no, it’s fine. I’m better.” Daisy glanced at Hedra. “I, um, had a traumatic experience with shifters as a child, and it left me pretty afraid of them. But Cooper helped me, and now I’m not as afraid.”
She paused. “Although, it also helps that he scent marks me, so most shifters avoid me.”
“Most?” Ryan gave her a teasing grin. “Grayson says you smell so much like Cooper that every shifter in a twenty-foot radius knows you’re his mate and avoids you.”
Daisy blushed prettily. “Cooper can be a bit, um, possessive.”
“I think that’s pretty par for the course with shifters,” Shay said. “At least that’s what any friends who’ve dated shifters tell me.”
“You’ve never dated a shifter?” Hedra asked.
“Nope, I’m a shifter virgin,” Shay said with a grin.
“Something she only admitted recently to me,” Ryan said with a mock scowl at Shay. “She pretended for years that she’d banged plenty of shifters.”
Hedra stared at Shay, who nodded. “Yep, it’s true. I shamelessly lied about it.”
