by Ramona Gray
Daisy stared at her and Lusa ate another bite of her sandwich before saying, “You okay?”
“This is… I mean, it’s fascinating.”
“It isn’t anything you can’t find out by Googling,” Lusa said. “Although with your fear of us, you probably avoid anything to do with us at all. Except for working with us… which, hey, I’ve wanted to ask this forever but why are you working with an office full of shifters when you’re so terrified of us?”
“An immersion thing,” Daisy said. “My therapist suggested it.”
“Makes sense. Although, a few of us had a bet going in the office the first month you worked here about when you would have a panic attack and sprint out of the office and never return,” Lusa said.
Daisy laughed because really, it was funny when you thought about it. She sipped some water and took a small bite of her sandwich. “It’s helped a certain amount, and I think spending time with Cooper will help too. But I can’t… I mean, having sex with him is too much immersion. Forgetting that he’s my boss and it’s inappropriate, I don’t think I’ll ever be over my fear enough to be, um, intimate with a shifter.”
“That’s fair.” Lusa smiled at her. “But you have come a long way in only three months. Hell, you never smell afraid when we have lunch together now, and only smell slightly terrified when Boone and the others come near you.”
Daisy made a face and Lusa’s smile widened. “That was meant to be encouraging. You really are doing better and I’m proud of you, girl.”
“Thanks, Lusa. I’m glad we’re friends.”
“Me too.”
There was some awkward silence before Lusa said, “I’m really sorry about what I said about fucking Cooper. That was totally over the line.”
“No, it’s fine,” Daisy said. “I’m not sleeping with him, but, like I said, I am spending more time with him to try and, uh, help him.”
“Well, it’s working,” Lusa said. “Honestly, I was super worried about him last week, all of us were. He was,” she paused, “not good. The change in him has been so dramatic that it’s why I thought you were sleeping with him, even though I know how terrified you are of shifters. I figured you had to be giving it to him on the regular for his lion to calm down so quickly.”
She winced and tossed the crusts of her sandwich into the garbage. “Christ, I am batting a thousand today. Sorry to be so crude.”
“It’s okay,” Daisy said. “I think letting him mark me helps his lion too so maybe that’s why he’s better?”
“Oh, for sure, it does. Our cats fucking live to mark our mates. It’s ridiculous. Honestly, this whole mate thing is kind of ridiculous, but what are you going to do, you know? Our cat falls for someone and that’s it… we’re gonzo for them.”
“So, do you mate for life then?” Daisy said.
“Some do,” Lusa said. “But our cats can fall out of love with their mates, just like humans do. Shifters can and do get divorces.”
“Oh,” Daisy said. “What happens if you’re, um, cat falls for someone but you don’t?”
“Doesn’t happen,” Lusa said. “Our human side is always, at the very least, attracted to the human or shifter our cat is hot for. It doesn’t take long before we fall as hard for the person as our cat has. And it works the opposite way too. I can be super attracted to someone that my cat only finds a little attractive, but her feelings can intensify to match mine as she gets to know the guy better.”
“Holy crap,” Daisy said. “It’s like you have a whole second personality.”
Lusa laughed. “Not quite, and the relationship between our human side and our cat side is hard to explain to humans but trust me… most of the time we are in complete harmony.”
“But if you’re not…”
“It’s bad if we’re not. Go insane bad if we’re not,” Lusa said. “Coop’s lion is super powerful which is why the madness was happening so quickly.”
Her expression turned serious. “I know I’m making light of it, but what you’re doing for Cooper is incredibly kind and generous. Coop is a great boss and an amazing person. Watching him descend into madness was terrifying for all of us. Thank you for working through your fear to help him. Even spending extra time will help him until he can find another woman that he and his cat find attractive. With any luck, he’ll convince his cat that she’s mate material and you’ll be off the hook.”
“Right,” Daisy said. Her stomach was churning, and she reminded herself it was completely ridiculous to be jealous of some unknown woman who may or may not become Cooper’s mate. It shouldn’t and didn’t bother her to think about Cooper calling someone else his ‘little mate’ in that deep sexy voice of his, or of him marking another woman instead of her. That was the end goal, right? For him to find his actual mate.
“You okay?” Lusa said. “You look kind of pissed.”
“Yeah. I,” she took a deep breath and decided to say it, “I’m worried that me spending more time with Cooper will actually do more harm than good. Assuming we get along okay, won’t it just make his cat more, uh, attracted to me? Make him think I’m his mate even more than he already does?”
Lusa shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. You won’t be sleeping with Cooper so if he can find another woman to sleep with, that might transfer his cat’s, uh, affections, over to her. I know it sounds fucked up, but our cat sides are controlled by base urges. Eating, fucking, procreating, and protecting their mate and cubs are really all they think about it. So, if Cooper finds another woman to have sex with and it’s good between them, then the chances of his cat seeing that woman as his mate are really high.”
“Oh,” Daisy said. “Well, that’s, uh, good. I think the other guys have a plan to help Cooper meet someone else.”
“Yeah, they do,” Lusa said. “Boone told me that if you didn’t sleep with Cooper, they had a potential woman lined up who knew the score and was happy to try and help.”
“Do you know -”
Chase stuck his head into the lunchroom. “Hey, sorry to interrupt, but David Landon is on the line and -”
Lusa sighed. “God help me. He’s a nice guy but the questions… we’re installing the system tomorrow morning and I hope like hell he’s not there. It’ll take twice as long.”
She tossed her lunch trash in the can and smiled at Chase. “Give me two minutes to get back to my desk and then transfer the call, would you, Chase?”
“He’s not asking for you,” Chase said. “He’s asking for Daisy.”
* * *
“You seriously convinced her to live with you?” Grayson twisted in the passenger seat of the SUV and stared at Cooper like he was some sort of dark wizard. “How the fuck did you do that?”
“I told you, her building is condemned and she’s short on cash.” Cooper pulled out of the parking lot and headed for the freeway.
“Yeah, but she doesn’t have any friends she can stay with?” Grayson said.
Cooper shrugged, his face flushing when Wes spoke from the back seat. “Did you give her a choice?”
“Yes… mostly.”
“What does that mean?” Grayson said.
“It means I told her she was staying with me but if it was too much for her, we’d find somewhere else. I had to do something. She was gonna quit and move back to Connecticut. I can’t live in fucking Connecticut, Gray. Do you know how goddamn cold it gets there?”
Coop didn’t miss the alarmed look that Gray gave Wes in the back seat. He merged onto the freeway. “I’m not trying to freak you out.”
“Well, you are,” Gray said. “I know we said it would be good to have Daisy spend more time with you but this… this isn’t good, buddy. If she’s living with you, sleeping down the damn hall from you, it’s only going to make things worse when she won’t sleep with you. Tell him, Wes.”
“Gray’s right, Cooper,” Wes said. “Think about how pissed your lion will be when Daisy is sleeping in your house and you won’t mate with her.”
“Look, it probably
won’t work anyway, and I’ll have to rent her an apartment or something.
Gray’s eyebrows almost disappeared into his hairline. “Now you’re going to rent her an apartment? You suddenly win the lottery or get an inheritance you didn’t mention?”
Cooper just snorted before flicking on the turn signal to merge off the freeway.
“Where are you doing?” Grayson said.
“Back to the office,” Cooper said.
“Not so fast. We have a dinner meeting with Roger Standen about security for his work trip. Did you forget?”
“Shit,” Cooper said. “I did.” He flicked off his turn signal. “I’ll drop you guys off at the restaurant and then come back after I drive Daisy home from the office.”
“It’s a forty minute drive to the office from the restaurant and with rush hour traffic, it’ll take you closer to an hour and a half,” Grayson said. “The meeting will be over by the time you get back.”
“Daisy doesn’t have a car, and I’m not letting her take public transportation,” Cooper said. “She’s little and any asshole could hurt her.”
“No shifter will go near her,” Grayson said. “Not with the way she smells like you.”
“Humans can’t smell it,” Cooper said.
“Cooper, you can’t keep blowing off meetings to -”
“The safety of my mate is more important than a fucking meeting,” Cooper growled. His hands clenched around the steering wheel and he gave his best friend a quick, but he hoped effective, glare. “Don’t you dare try and tell me it isn’t.”
Wes leaned forward, his phone in his hand. “I asked Eleanor to pick her up.”
“Your driver?” Gray said.
“She’s not my driver,” Wes said. “She’s a driver. But she’s used to picking me up at the office around this time, so she might have an open spot.”
His phone dinged and he nodded. “She does. Problem solved, Cooper. Eleanor will give Daisy a ride to your place from the office.”
“Is she a safe driver?” Cooper said.
“Oh my God, Coop,” Grayson said.
Cooper handed him his cell phone. “Text Daisy and let her know that Eleanor will be picking her up after work and driving her home. Tell her Eleanor is a human,” he glanced at Wes who nodded in confirmation, “and not to worry about the cost, I’m paying for it.”
* * *
“Hey, you’re Daisy?” The young and perky brunette sitting behind the wheel of the black Camry was not at all what Daisy expected.
“Yes, um, you’re Eleanor?”
The woman laughed. “Sure am. Let me guess – you were expecting a little old lady driver, right?”
Daisy grinned as she clicked her seatbelt in place. “Maybe.”
Eleanor twisted in the seat to look at Daisy, hooking one slender arm over the head rest. “My mom named me after her favourite aunt. Her favourite dead aunt.”
She rolled her pretty brown eyes before smiling at Daisy. “Honestly, most of my friends call me El. Unless my mom is around. She gives them shit if they shorten it.”
“Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Eleanor. Thank you for the ride home.” Daisy flushed. She was acting like Eleanor was doing her a favour instead of doing her job.
“Don’t mention it. I’m normally here every day picking up Wes anyway, so it was no problem.”
“You drive Wes home?” Daisy said.
“Yeah, he doesn’t drive. You didn’t know that?” Eleanor checked her mirrors before pulling out into the traffic. With rush hour, it was slow going, and she glanced at Daisy in the rear-view mirror as they inched along. “You work with him, right?”
“I do, but Wes doesn’t really…”
“Talk?” Eleanor said.
“Exactly.”
“Well, at least it’s not only me. I’ve been driving him to and from work for over a year and swear to God, he’s said less than five sentences to me. The most I’ve heard him talk was when he got a phone call on the way to work one day.”
Daisy laughed. “That sounds like Wes.”
Eleanor glanced at her in the rear-view mirror again, her cheeks a little too red, her eyes a little too bright. “He seems like a good guy though.”
“He is,” Daisy agreed. “He, uh, he cares a lot about his friends.”
“Yeah, I’m not surprised. He’s a tiger shifter, is that right?”
“Lion,” Daisy said.
“Oh. I figured it had to be one or the other. He’s so big. Anyway, I’m glad to hear that he is a good guy. I mean, I figured he was… he’s a fantastic tipper.”
“You really drive him to work and home every day?” Daisy said.
“I really do.” Eleanor turned left and then slammed her hand down on her horn when a woman in a red Mercedes cut her off. “C’mon, lady! I’m driving here!”
She smiled at Daisy. “Sorry.”
“No problem. Do you know why Wes doesn’t drive?”
Eleanor shook her head. “Not a clue. He doesn’t do small talk, remember? I was hoping you might know.”
“I wonder what he does when he has to go to client meetings on his own,” Daisy said.
Eleanor stepped on the gas and zoomed through a yellow light. “Oh, I drive him to those too. Some days he books me for the entire day and I drive him to different meetings and stuff. He’s definitely my best customer.”
“Sounds like it,” Daisy said with a small grin.
There was silence for a few minutes before Eleanor said, “I’ve even driven him to some personal stuff as well. Like bars and shit. Kind of weird that he doesn’t get his girlfriend to drive him.”
Eleanor was trying to sound casual and doing a really terrible job of it, Daisy decided. Hiding her smile, she said, “Wes doesn’t have a girlfriend.”
“Oh yeah? Boyfriend then?”
“Nope, he’s straight.”
“Cool, cool, cool,” Eleanor said and then cleared her throat. “So, you know he doesn’t have a girlfriend and that’s he’s straight, but not that he doesn’t drive. That’s sort of strange.”
“One of our coworkers, Lusa, was trying to set him up with a friend of hers last month. She talked to me about it. She wouldn’t have set him up if he had a girlfriend.”
“Oh. Did he, uh, like Lusa’s friend?”
“He didn’t go out with her. Wes said thanks but no thanks.”
Eleanor didn’t say anything, but Daisy could almost see the tension ease from her shoulders. Adopting her own casual tone, Daisy said, “Wes is good looking, huh?”
Wes was good looking. Just because his dark eyes and dark hair with the threads of silver at the temples didn’t do anything for Daisy, didn’t make him unattractive. He had a fantastic body, tall and lean with broad shoulders and a narrow waist, and he always had the perfect amount of stubble on his strong jaw. Daisy might be more obsessed with the blond clean-shaven type, but she could see how other women would find Wes attractive.
Eleanor shrugged. “Not bad for an old man.”
Daisy laughed. “He’s not that old. He’s only forty-something. How old are you?”
“Twenty-seven,” Eleanor said. “You?”
“Twenty-six,” Daisy said.
“You ever seen Wes go out with someone our age?” Eleanor said. That false casualness was back in her voice.
“Honestly, I’ve never seen Wes go out with anyone,” Daisy said. “I think Wes is a bit of a loner.”
“Yeah, sounds like it.” Eleanor shrugged but she wasn’t very good at hiding her emotions on her face. Daisy could see the disappointment even in the narrow rear-view mirror.
As if Eleanor suddenly realized what was written across her face, she forced a bright and cheerful smile at Daisy. “So, you originally from California?”
Chapter Twelve
“This is delicious.” Cooper dipped the biscuit into the steaming bowl of chicken stew sitting in front of him. “I didn’t expect you to make dinner but holy shit, I’m fucking glad you did.”
; Daisy laughed and he said, “Sorry about the cursing. I swear a lot and it’s a nasty habit, I know.”
“I don’t care,” Daisy said. “People who swear a lot are more intelligent.”
“So, what you’re saying is I’m a fucking genius?” Cooper said.
Daisy laughed again and his lion purred happily at the sound. Hell, it hadn’t stopped purring since he got home to find Daisy in the kitchen wearing a loose t-shirt and shorts that showed off her pretty pale legs, standing by the stove and stirring a delicious smelling stew.
You should put our cub in her belly, his lion said.
Knock it off, Cooper snapped at him.
His lion retreated with a growl, and Cooper ate a few more bites of stew. If his lion knew that Cooper also wanted Daisy pregnant and barefoot in his kitchen like it was the goddamn 1950s, he’d never stop hounding Cooper to make it happen.
Cooper smiled again at Daisy. “Thank you for making dinner.”
“It wasn’t a problem. But, um, wasn’t your meeting tonight a dinner meeting?” Daisy spooned some stew into her mouth.
“Yeah, I didn’t eat much,” he said. Not exactly the truth, but he had a big appetite and a fast metabolism, always had. But the last couple of weeks he’d been so focused on trying to keep his lion from going insane, that he hadn’t been eating the amount he normally did.
“Okay, well I made enough for lunch leftovers too,” Daisy said. “Are you sure you don’t mind that I used your groceries? The potatoes and turnips and carrots were left over from when I bought you groceries and they were going to go bad soon so -”
“My food is your food,” he said. “Eat whatever you want, whenever you want.”
She scraped the last of the stew out of her bowl and swallowed the final spoonful. God, he loved having Daisy in his house. He selfishly hoped it took her months to find a place to live. Of course, if her new place was as big of a shithole as her last one, he wouldn’t let her leave anyway.