by Jessica Sims
Neither of which sounded appealing at the moment, or so she told herself.
“Bedtime,” he said cheerfully, and flicked the light-switch off.
She turned around. Thanks to her new tiger-senses, though, she could see almost as well in the dark as she could in the daytime, so turning the lights off didn’t do much except make Adrian’s eyes gleam green. He was also, she noticed, still completely naked. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
He looked surprised. “You want a goodnight kiss?”
“Pajamas! You’re forgetting pajamas!”
Adrian’s eyes reflected the moonlight in a way that made her skin shiver. “I’m a tiger-shifter, girl. We don’t wear ‘jammies’ to bed.”
“Well you should tonight. Especially if you’re having a sleepover.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, drawing attention to the fact that he had insanely sculpted pectorals and that fascinating vee of hard muscle at his hips that bespoke of taut flesh and not a single ounce of fat. “This sounds like a chicken out to me.”
“It’s not a chicken out,” she cried, clenching her fists. “Why do you keep assuming that I’m going to chicken out just because I don’t want to rub up against your junk all night?”
“Because you should know that I’m not going to touch you unless you lose the bet?”
She tapped her foot, trying to decide if this was worth arguing over. Mandy knew that he wouldn’t touch her — Vic’s word was law, and he’d assured her that she was safe with his men. Even Johnny had held off on pressuring her for sex once Vic had laid down the law. And she knew from her last month or so with shifters that they really didn’t see the big deal about nakedness.
But…still.
Adrian rolled his eyes and shrugged, then climbed into bed under the blankets as if she wasn’t there. “Night,” he told her, and closed his eyes.
That decided her. If he was going to act like this was no big deal, then she would, too. She pulled her shoes off and set them next to the bed, then crawled in on the other side, careful to keep the blankets separating them.
“Not going to get naked?” he asked, voice sleepy.
“Screw you.”
“Only if you ask nicely.” To her horror, he threw an arm over her waist and snuggled her body against his.
“Do not touch me!” She pushed at him, furious. “I thought we were just going to sleep!”
“I am,” he said easily, and yawned into her ear. “But I like to sleep with a nice backside up against me, and you’ve got a real nice one.”
“Fuck you,” she said, edging to the far side of the smallish bed and clinging to the edge.
He chuckled, and his low, husky voice thrummed in her ears. “I have a nose, too, you know. I can smell everything you can.” His sexy voice was little more than a whisper. “Some things I can smell even better than you, I imagine. And they smell mighty good.”
Her face burned hot into the darkness. He was referring to her arousal. That dick. She ignored him and closed her eyes, trying to sleep. If she pretended like he wasn’t there, he’d get the picture. Hopefully. It wasn’t easy, but eventually she relaxed and dropped off into an exhausted slumber, her body and mind tired. She always seemed to be fatigued lately, and even the tension in the bed couldn’t keep her from drifting off.
~~ * ~~
Something made Mandy wake up in the middle of the night. She blinked up at the unfamiliar ceiling, wondering what on earth had woken her up. The scent of Adrian was thick in her nostrils, but it was an oddly comforting sort of scent, as was the feel of his warm body against hers. So that wasn’t it.
In the next moment, though, her entire body gave a violent shake. Her skin prickled with awareness, and she felt hot, then cold. Oh…oh no. This felt a bit like a shift. She’d shifted three since being turned, and each experience had been traumatic. Slow, gradual pain had increased and morphed until her skin and bones had followed. This time, it seemed that her innards were the ones trying to make the shift, though. Her ribs cracked as she breathed, and she felt her insides twist painfully.
Shit. Mandy squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating. If she shifted now, their little bet was over. She had to control this. Had to. So she forced herself to breathe slowly and regularly, and kept picturing herself mentally as human, hands clenched. All the while, her innards seemed to tremble, as if waiting for a starting gate that never arrived.
A hand reached out and stroked her hair. “Mandy?” Adrian’s voice was soft, sleepy. Soothing. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she whispered, even as sweat broke out on her forehead. Oh, ugh, she wasn’t okay.
“What’s wrong?” His hand continued to smooth her hair, a gentle comfort.
And it was such a nice, unassuming touch that she wanted to burrow into it. To pull her body against his warmth and just ride out the pain, knowing that she was protected and taken care of. But…she couldn’t. Not if she wanted to be in charge of her own life. So she swallowed hard. “Food poisoning, I think,” she lied.
His hand gently stroked her cheek, knuckles grazing her skin. It wasn’t a pushy touch, just one designed to soothe. “Do you need anything?”
“No, I’m okay.” She had almost even convinced herself of that, too. But then her stomach gave a horrible little lurch, and her mouth filled with saliva, and she realized that food poisoning might not have been too far off the mark. Either that, or her refusal to shift was making her stomach protest. Either way, she was going to barf.
She bolted from the bed and headed for the bathroom. Her head barely made it to the bowl before dinner decided to make its presence known for a second time, and she spent the next few minutes puking her guts out. When she finally stopped heaving, she laid her cheek against the cool porcelain, feeling awful and wrung out. Her entire body shuddered as if feverish.
It really, really wanted to shift.
And she really, really didn’t want it to. She closed her eyes and concentrated, willing her body to pay attention to the rules again. To go back to being normal and human.
Something cold pressed against her forehead, and she opened her eyes to see Adrian squat next to her, still naked and tanned and gorgeous, and pressed the bottle of water against her cheek next. “Drink this when you can,” he instructed. “It’ll help settle things.”
She took the bottle from him and offered a weak smile. “Thanks.”
His fingers traced her face again, and he lifted his chin. “Go on, drink.”
Mandy did, and to her surprise, her stomach started to feel almost immediately better. The sweating stopped, and her innards quit shivering. She continued to sip the water for several minutes as Adrian stroked her hair, until she felt good enough to go back to bed. “I think I’m all right now.”
“Here,” he said, offering her his hand. “I’ll help you up.”
She placed her hand in his and uttered a token protest as he went one step further and swung her into his arms, resting her against his chest as he headed back to the bedroom. She could walk herself back to the room…but her body felt wrung out, and it was nice to just relax in his arms and let him handle it. So she burrowed against his chest as he carried her back into the bedroom and gently laid her on her side of the bed.
“How’s the stomach?” he murmured as he took the near-empty water bottle from her fingers.
“Better,” she said softly. “How did you know?”
His mouth twisted into a wry smile. “When I was a boy, I used to get hard at the sight of a girl, and my body thought that was a cue to shift. I learned that drinking ice water was a way to douse things enough to get my body back under control.” Adrian chuckled. “For about five years straight, I carried a water bottle with me everywhere. I was a horny little bastard.”
So…he’d known exactly why she had gotten sick. But she kept up the token protest. “It was food poisoning,” she called after him as he returned to the kitchen. He didn’t say anything else, so she closed her eyes and tucked her hand
under her cheek.
Adrian’s heavier weight got back into bed with her, and then his arm went around her shoulders, dragging her against him. She didn’t protest. She knew the difference between a comforting touch and a skeevy one, and this one was all comfort. A moment before she drifted back to sleep, she realized that in half of a day, Adrian had shown more care and understanding for who she was than Johnny had the entire time she’d known him.
~~ * ~~
As the deliciously sweet female slept, burrowed against him, Adrian realized he’d been handling Mandy all wrong. She didn’t need to be needled into losing control of her beast and then trapped into a situation she didn’t want. If he wanted her, she’d have to come of her own free will.
And that was the thing that had been missing for his soon-to-be mate, he realized. No one gave her a single choice about things. Johnny and the other tiger-shifters had been born into the Merino clan. They’d always known that things eventually rolled up to the alpha and nothing was really, truly their decision.
But Mandy was born human. She didn’t grasp answering to someone, even when that someone could protect her. She was making her token struggles – fighting against him, fighting against her shifting, fighting against being dragged into the pack – because no one had stopped to ask her what it was that she wanted.
If he wanted Mandy to be his mate – body and soul – she had to come willingly.
He stroked her soft red hair again, his heart already overflowing with affection for her as she slept, her nose buried against his chest, her smaller form cradled against his. There was a lot at stake, but Mandy was worth the risk. Funny how he was in love with her already, after only one day. Then he amended that thought. It wasn’t just one day.
Adrian had been in love with Mandy the moment Johnny had dragged his newly-bitten human girlfriend in front of the clan, and instead of cowering, she’d raised her tiny chin in defiance.
That was the moment he’d fallen in love.
~~ * ~~
“So,” Adrian asked her over morning coffee. “What do you want to do today?”
Mandy looked over at him in surprise. “What did you say?”
“I said, what do you want to do today?”
A hot flush of pleasure coursed through her. She…actually got to decide what she wanted to do today? No one was going to tell her what she had to do? It seemed like ever since Johnny had bitten her, her life hadn’t been her own. Even when they’d gotten back from Alaska, she was more or less parked in a cabin and told to stay put. “Is this a trick?”
Adrian shook his head, his blue eyes still sleepy. He rubbed his face and picked up his coffee cup again. “I’m off work since we’re on this ‘project’ together.”
“Ah yes, Project Trap-Mandy. I hadn’t forgotten.”
“I just thought maybe you’d have an idea of how you wanted to spend the day,” he said. “I can figure something out—“
“No,” she said quickly. “That’s okay.” Mandy tapped her fingers on her lower lip, thinking. She knew what she wanted to do but wasn’t sure if he’d go for it. Then again, it never hurt to ask. “I’d really like to go by the college and register for classes. If I wait too long, all the good ones are going to be full.”
And she braced herself. She knew Johnny, despite knowing that she was in college when they’d met, had been against her enrolling again. She should want to spend all her time with him, he’d told her after he’d turned her. What a rotten apple he’d turned out to be. And she wasn’t sure how Vic had felt about her going to college, but considering that all his tiger-people lived at the same address, she suspected he wouldn’t be keen on it.
Being a shifter sucked.
But to her surprise, Adrian took another gulp of coffee and set his cup down. “Sounds fine to me.”
“Really? It does?” She scarcely dared to breathe, in case he changed his mind. “You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. Shall we get going?”
“Give me five minutes to get ready,” Mandy told him, excited, and dashed off to the bathroom. She couldn’t stop smiling.
~~ * ~~
An hour later, they were walking toward the campus and Mandy had a course-booklet in hand, circling the classes she wanted as her first picks. They had to go through her advisor first, of course, but she had an idea of what she wanted to take. Adrian was quiet, letting her take the lead, and she felt almost normal back on campus again. Almost normal. There was still a spicy-scented shifter male at her side, and now when she entered the hallways of the building, they smelled like dust and old books and the scent of hundreds of people who’d passed through. It was a little overwhelming for her tiger senses, but Adrian’s hand at the base of her spine kept her steady.
The advisor’s office was busy and so Mandy wrote down her name and student ID number, and then sat down in an empty chair in the waiting room. Adrian sat next to her, and to her surprise, he leaned over and whispered, “So what’s your major?”
“My major?” She blinked at him. “Why?”
He shrugged. “Curious? Can’t I just wonder what it is that makes you tick?”
Well, that made her feel like a jerk. “No one seems to care lately.”
His intense blue-eyed gaze fell on her. “I can’t speak for everyone, but I happen to care.”
Yup, that pretty much made her a jerk. “Sorry,” she said meekly, toying with her phone to avoid eye contact. Not that it mattered. She could smell his scent changing to something slightly more discordant. Was that annoyance?
“Not all of us are like Johnny.”
Definitely annoyance. “I know. It’s just that…he was pretty much my only experience, you know? And it wasn’t a great one.”
He nodded, but she still felt guilty. Like she’d judged him unfairly and hurt his feelings somehow. “Biology.”
Adrian raised an eyebrow. His lips twitched. “Really?”
“Really. Though I have to admit my enthusiasm has palled a bit at the moment.”
He chuckled, and the sound was warm and silky against her skin. “I’ll bet.”
She leaned closer to him, interested that his scent seemed to be growing warmer, spicier, as if his happiness had something to do with the delicious smell he exuded. Fascinating. “So, what is it you do again? I’m pretty sure Johnny mentioned what everyone does and I’m pretty sure I didn’t listen.”
Adrian’s smile grew thoughtful. “I help Vic out in the garage. I do a lot of the antique restorations and run the books. You know, family business.” His gaze fixed on her and she could have sworn that there was a look of pride in his eyes. “It’s not the most glamorous job, I admit.”
“But helping out family isn’t a bad thing. It’s kind of noble. Is it what you always wanted to do?”
“Nope. I wanted to go to medical school, but there was never any money for it. So I stayed home and helped family.”
Her heart gave a painful thud. Her own family was in New England, probably busy attending parties or yacht clubs or something. They’d never had a ton of time for her, always shipping her off to one boarding school after another. To say they weren’t close was an understatement. “Your family must be very proud. They’re lucky to have you.”
“Family’s everything to us,” he said in a low voice. He leaned in close, so close that she could feel his warm breath against her skin. “We’re not all bad, you know. Just because being a tiger isn’t the choice you would have made…it doesn’t mean it’s the worst choice ever.”
She gazed up at him, eyes wide. What was he trying to tell her?
A hint of a smile curved his impossibly sexy mouth again, distracting her. “As for me and medical school…it worked out for the best. Did I mention I faint at the sight of blood?”
Mandy’s laughter pealed through the registrar’s office.
~~ * ~~
The rest of the day was wonderful, Mandy thought. She registered for classes and even got into two she’d been hoping for. Once her schedule was so
rted out, Adrian took her out for Greek food and they snacked on gyros and tzatziki sauce while discussing what classes would move her closer to her major in the quickest amount of time. He seemed to think that her going to college was a terrific thing – unlike Johnny – and insisted on paying for classes if she couldn’t swing the tuition. “Education’s important,” was all he’d told her, but it left her mystified nevertheless. She declined the offer of money, but told him she’d take a free ride to classes when she needed one.
From there, they’d spent the afternoon running errands. Mandy bought her textbooks for classes, Adrian had to pick up a part from a specialty dealer across town, and Mandy had accompanied him. They’d passed a farmer’s market and when Mandy pointed out how much she loved fresh peaches, Adrian immediately pulled over and bought her a basketful.
That evening, they ordered pizza and watched television on Adrian’s couch together. It turned out they both liked watching the same kinds of shows – true crimes, forensics, and repeats of Law and Order. She’d spent most of the evening with her feet against his leg, happily munching on triple-meat pizza and eating fresh peaches.
At some point, she’d dozed off on the couch. She woke up back in his bed, under the covers, his back to her. She drifted back to sleep, snuggling a bit closer to him. He smelled really good.
Two hours later, though, her stomach revolted once more, and she spent the rest of the night hugging the toilet. Adrian kept his place at her side, smoothing her hair back and giving her sips of water between puking. And when she was completely wrung out once more, he carried her back to bed.
~~ * ~~
The next morning, Mandy craved sausage. Badly. She got up and headed to Adrian’s fridge, only to growl at the sight. “There’s nothing in here but beer.”
“I eat out,” he told her with a yawn. “Want to go get breakfast?”
Boy, did she. She was ravenous. So she nodded and grabbed his car keys off the counter, tossing them at him. “Come on. I want breakfast as of yesterday.”