The Jaguar's Mate (Shifters-Match.com Book 3)

by April Zyon

  “Well, good for you. The most that I can look forward to is having everyone in my class graduating to seventh grade and not being held behind.” She liked watching him as he moved and really looked forward to seeing him working on the wood. “So, do you really work without your shirt? Doesn’t that get bothersome with the wood shavings and all of that?”

  “I usually pull it off at some point in the day. Normally when I’m hauling things around. That’s the real sweaty work. Sitting and doing fine work or getting things pieced together, not so much. It’s pretty rare to get much in the way of shavings on myself unless I blow off a piece the wrong way. I will say I’ve likely eaten a small tree by this point in my career from getting a faceful or two now and again. I think of it as a high fiber diet.”

  She laughed at that and smiled. “Well, as long as you aren’t growing trees out of your ass I think that you will be perfectly fine. Seriously, what you do is amazing. I also, and don’t judge me on this…” She hesitated and watched him watching her with rapt attention. “I really like that your hands are rough. Your hands are strong and every inch of you is hard.”

  “The military helped get me into shape, and working with the wood did the rest. Remember you are allowed to touch whenever you have the urge. As long as I don’t have anything sharp in my hands or am carrying anything weighing more than I do. Empty hands you are welcome to do whatever you’d like to me. Preferably often but I’ll let you decide.”

  “We will see what happens.” Oh she would touch him, that much was certain. She would touch him, run her fingers over his back, and simply enjoy watching him work. “Tell me about your time in the military? What branch did you serve in?” She wanted to learn all she could about him.

  “I was in the army. After boot I didn’t know what I wanted to do but found the military police to be interesting. Did that for my tour and decided against reenlisting. A buddy who worked in the motor pool used to talk about his dad’s shop. They make custom cabinetry for kitchens and bathrooms. Anyway, he taught me a few things to help me pass the downtime we had and I liked it. When we got out, he got me an apprenticeship with his father while I took some courses to learn more about all the things you don’t realize you need to know when working with wood. Once his dad deemed that he’d taught me all he could I came back home to Shifter Falls and opened up a shop. Originally the plan was to make small- to medium-sized pieces for people to buy and take home with them. Then someone asked if I could make them a table, and it went from there.”

  “Your profile says that you are the same age as I am, so that’s a lot of living in ten years. Christ, all that I can say is I finished my degree online and ran from town to town until I landed here. This has been really the first home I’ve had in forever if you want to be honest.” She was impressed with what he had done. It meant that he was driven, and that fast her mind turned to dirtier thoughts of what that driven nature had done for him.

  “I really want to know what you’re thinking right now. Your eyes glazed over. I can even see the pulse in your throat doing the tango.” Leaning in closer, he lowered his voice to a pitch that had her curling her toes up. “Tell me what you’re thinking about, Quinn?”

  “Oh, just thinking of what else your driven nature has taught you. Sexually.” She felt her heart racing. Her cheeks burned, and she licked her lips because they suddenly felt dry. “It’s bad of me, I know, but I can’t seem to stop picturing having you showing me just how good you are with your hands and this is our first flipping date. Well, second now that it’s the second day, but you know what I mean.”

  For a split second he looked shocked. Then his expression changed to something darker and more sensual. His voice dropped impossibly lower and softened. “I’m always focused on the task before me, no matter what it is. I give one hundred percent all the time, every time.”

  She shivered, feeling the chill from her toes to her hair. “Oh,” was all she could say because in truth all she wanted to do was crawl into his lap and find out just exactly what he meant by that. “Gracious. So this is our second date. Is it too forward of me to ask you to show me tonight just what you mean?”

  “I don’t think it’s forward at all. You are a woman who knows her own mind, wants, and desires. Why don’t we get through today first before we get to tonight? No need to get too far ahead of ourselves, now is there? You could decide you want a night alone after coming to work with me today. My office manager claims I’m a snarling beast on a good day.”

  “I hardly see you being a snarling beast, Piran. At least not to me. I don’t think you would with me because you wouldn’t want to have to make it up to me later, admit it,” she said with a wink. “Although you do remind me of an animal, crouching and waiting to attack.”

  “I don’t know about that. I hear makeup sex is pretty fabulous. Though now you have me curious as to what sort of animal you see me as.”

  “A cat of some kind. I can see you lazing around and just waiting for your prey to come into view. You are patient and that’s why I think of the cat, but then when you move quickly it’s you and your long muscles that make me envision a large cat jumping. Not a lion but something else, even a jaguar. They are sleek and black and beautiful creatures that are cunning and deadly. While you aren’t four of those five things, you still make me think of one. Weird, I know.”

  “Not weird at all,” he said. Piran was staring at her in a way that had her now wondering what was going through his head. Then he looked to the clock she had on the wall and lightly patted her leg. “We need to get a move on, sweetheart. I have carving that has to be done today so that I can get started on the staining tomorrow. Go get dressed in comfortable clothing you won’t mind getting dusty. Sadly, it’s inevitable around my shop. You’ll bring home little bits of dust even being out in the office area.”

  “Give me fifteen minutes and I’ll be ready. Do I need to bring anything else with me other than a change of clothes for after our day in your shop? And will you let me help you? Even if it’s just cleaning up behind you?” Because she would be bored silly if she didn’t have anything to do all day long.

  “Nope, just your smiling self is all you’ll need. We will have to make a stop by my place to grab a few things, but we’ll do it after work and maybe pick up something from the diner so neither of us has to cook.”

  “Sure. As long as you don’t mind me being in your home, that is.” She wasn’t the safest person to be around and they both knew it.

  “I don’t mind at all. I like the idea of you in my space, but that could be my caveman side speaking out. It’s nothing super fancy, but it is home. You’ll see it for yourself, so I won’t try to oversell it or anything. I will say that I did pick up the other morning before leaving for work, so you don’t need to fear finding socks in weird places. No underwear, though, since I don’t bother wearing it.” He got to his feet and tugged her up before leaving her thinking about his last words while he headed off to change for the day.

  “Holy shit.” She fanned her face, then headed off so that she could also dress, after a very cold shower.

  Chapter Seven

  Piran disarmed the security system for the office area and waved Quinn inside. After locking the door behind them he went to disarm the security on the shop itself. He had two systems for a specific reason, mainly because of the value in wood he had in the back plus the thousands upon thousands of dollars’ worth of tools. Piran might live in a small town, but when it came to his livelihood he didn’t trust a single person, except maybe Quinn. She was rather special and unique, though.

  He showed her the staff room that held a small fridge, microwave, and table. Through it was the staff-only bathroom and showers. The other door went into the shop so he didn’t track shavings over the glossy wood floors in the office area. “That there is the computer server slash storage slash filing slash junk room. It’s very multipurpose. And this here is the shop.” Pushing open the door, he let her go through ahead of him. Instantl
y the aroma of different woods hit him in the olfactories, and beneath that were scents belonging to stains and the various varnishes he used.

  A light hand to her back guided her to a shelf where he uncovered the piece that now belonged to her. “There’s your cat,” he said, setting the sheet aside. Piran stepped back to watch her while she got her first up close look at it. It was roughly twenty inches long, twelve wide, and maybe ten high. The sculpture was incredibly detailed and had taken him forever to get just right. When she ran a finger down the back of the cat, he felt as if she were touching him.

  “He’s beautiful,” she whispered in awe. “So smooth and sleek. It’s incredible that you did this with your own hands.” She turned to him, and her smile had his breath catching in his throat. “One day I would love to see a jaguar. Maybe you can take me to the zoo where you saw this one?”

  Yeah, right. That sucker had not been in any zoo. “Absolutely,” he told her. He’d better damn well explain a few things to her before she finally insisted on seeing the beast. Somehow he didn’t think his buddy Hank would be quite on board. Or Hank’s mate either. “Let me show you what I’m working on right now,” he said. He covered up the jaguar again, then led her to the headboard, where he still had a few finishing touches to carve out on the deer-at-the-pond scene. He gave her the photo so she knew what he was working from to create the three-dimensional image.

  “Piran.” He heard the awe in her voice as she walked to the headboard and touched it. “This is, I’ve never seen anything so incredible before in my life. Well, aside from the jaguar that you just gave me.” She stroked her fingers over the image on the headboard. “Whoever ordered this is going to be very, very lucky. I hope that they haven’t given you all sorts of hell since you’ve started this for them.”

  “No, these guys have been pretty awesome. I sent them a shot of it the other night to let them know where I was at, and I’ll send one before I do the staining. This couple has been super easy to work with and pretty much the best clients on record. We only had one sort of meltdown in the beginning, when she couldn’t find the photo she actually wanted and was freaking out because she thought she’d have to settle on something else. Her husband stepped up and managed to find another copy of the picture. Pretty sure he’s been duly rewarded for being best husband ever, to quote her.”

  “That’s too funny. I really don’t want to know just how she repaid him for finding that image.” She was chuckling but moved back out of his way, staring down at the photograph for a moment. “This is a pretty fabulous picture. I wonder where it was taken at.”

  “I think she said it was on a friend’s property, long lens. The guy’s apparently a wildlife photographer and normally does shoots in Africa and the like. She said the image spoke to her and he let her buy the rights to it fully, meaning she can use it however she wants. Her husband mentioned they have it in a large print over their fireplace in the living room. It’s a really tranquil image. If you stare at it long enough, you can almost hear the leaves rustling and the water lapping at the shore line from the light breeze.”

  “I could imagine. They are very lucky. Not only for this image but because they have you creating this for them. I can see this being an heirloom piece, something they can pass down to their children and their children’s children and so on. Do you burn your logo on the back or somewhere so that everyone knows where it was created?”

  He nodded and moved to a different, completed piece only needing one last finishing coat before being shipped and pointed at the back. “I have a brand that I use to burn it into the wood. It heats up to something absurd, but the end result is that it pretty much burns through the entire section of wood. Not quite, but close. I have to be careful to leave it on long enough not to be on the surface where it can be sanded off but not so long I set the piece on fire. That took some trial and error on throwaways for a while when I first got it. Different wood reacts to the heat differently. It’s pretty fascinating, actually.”

  “Pretty cool. I would like to see you do that. Maybe when you finish the headboard, I can watch?” He noticed she was making plans with him, and that made him one happy cat. He was glad she was overlooking the danger to her and instead focusing on making future plans for them.

  “It’ll probably be today, maybe tomorrow. I have to have all the carving done today because staining begins tomorrow. With this piece I’ll be using different stains to give it even more dimension as well as personality. The clients don’t know that, my gift to them for being so easy to work with, but I think they’ll like it. Have you ever done any woodworking?” While they were talking he was gathering the various small chisels he’d need to finish off the piece, along with little scraps of sandpaper in a variety of grits to get rid of any pesky edges he couldn’t quite remove with a chisel.

  “I wouldn’t know what to do with a block of wood if I was given detailed instructions and drawings,” she admitted with a laugh. He could tell that she at least appreciated the woodworking he did. “I love it, though. It impresses me that people can do things like this so easily. Well, maybe easily isn’t the correct word, but you know what I mean.”

  “It’s not all that easy in the beginning, but over time it becomes second nature. You know what woods will work well for the piece in mind, what stains it will and won’t take, and can usually visualize the finished product to some degree in your head. Like anything it takes huge amounts of practice and many fuck ups along the way. Anyway, I should get started or we’ll be here forever. Feel free to poke around and any questions ask loudly and at least twice,” he recommended. Piran knew he tended to lose himself in another world when working and it took a bit to regain his attention.

  “If people come in what do you want me to tell them?”

  “There won’t be anyone in today. I left the sign off. The doors are locked and the exterior system is set. Don’t go opening a door unless you really need to get my attention. If the phone rings and you feel like it, you can talk to folks. Get their details, when they are available for return calls, and let them know that there are no custom consignments for the next little while. They can look on the website for more information to that end. Oh, and if my mother calls, hang up. Just hang up. You do not want to get pulled into a conversation with that woman.”

  “Why is that? I wouldn’t mind talking to her. Anyone really. I’m actually pretty good with people most days.” She was leaning against the counter as she spoke. “And if you don’t mind I will answer some phone calls. I think that if I don’t I will become bored silly and you’ll find me leaning against the wall and drooling while watching you work, and that’s just not a good look on me.”

  He tried to stifle the snicker, but it got loose. “Go right ahead. But about my mother, I’m serious. The woman should have worked for some big agency as an interrogator. You won’t even realize you’re giving her information until she hangs up. By then it’s too late. I figured you might not want to have too many folks knowing what’s going on until this is all settled once more. So if you chat with her, you’ve been warned. Oh, and there are drinks and snacks in the staff fridge and in the cupboards.” Piran tried to think of what else he should tell her, then shrugged. “Come poke me when you get hungry, and we’ll go grab lunch from the diner.”

  “Right, okay, I will do my best not to talk to her. If she were to know what’s going on in my life right now, she would likely tell you to get the hell out and away from me. How will I know that it’s her calling and not a customer, though?”

  “No, she wouldn’t. You’ll know it’s her because the caller ID shows up as Piran’s mommy. She thinks it’s funny and had the phone company set it that way. You can’t miss it, believe me.” Walking toward her, he stopped when he could cup her face carefully between his hands. “I’m only a few feet away if you need me, okay?”

  “Do what you need to do and I will take care of everything else. I promise, it’s all good. I have this. When I get hungry, I’ll call and order pi
zza. Is there anything that you don’t like so that I know?”

  He thought it was odd that she would want pizza for a second day in a row, but he didn’t question it. “I’m good with anything and everything. Never been a picky eater. Only thing I’m allergic to is strawberries. Don’t particularly like turnip but I’ll eat it if it’s cooked in a way I can’t tell. But with pizza toppings I’ll eat anything and everything. As long as there is meat on it, you can throw whatever else you want on, too.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me. About what time is it that you like to eat lunch? Or do you get so wrapped up in your work that you don’t eat until someone forces you to eat?”

  He could feel his cheeks warming up. “Someone usually has to stick it under my nose and poke me a couple times. Otherwise I’ll just keep on working. Can’t help it, I become very focused on the project and lose all track of time. Hell, I had to set six alarms on my phone to ensure I left here last night early enough to shower for our date. Does that tell you anything?”

  “Tells me a lot. Also tells me that you like me, so you were willing to do whatever you had to do in order to make it to our date. That means a hell of a lot to me.” She stroked her fingers over his cheeks. Damn he liked that feeling a hell of a lot. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure that you eat when I get hungry. Now get to it, mister.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” After pressing a light kiss to her lips, Piran had to force his head up, then make his feet move. He let her loose but watched her walk from the workroom out to the front office. Only when she was out of sight did he let out a breath. She was one hell of a woman, but she really needed to stop worrying about him so much. Not that he’d figured out how to tell her that he was more than capable of taking care of himself. And it had nothing to do with his army training.