ALIEN SHIFTER ROMANCE: Alien Tigers - The Complete Series (Alien Invasion Abduction Shapeshifter Romance) (Paranormal Science Fiction Fantasy Anthologies & Short reads)

by Tanya Jolie

  “What can I do for you, Lars?” she asked.

  “You can stay away from Mike O’Riley. He’s the owner of the newspaper. He’s probably only sniffing around you to see if he can get information on what happened to Moya.”

  His telling her what to do annoyed her, and she pushed the iron across the sheet with enough force to move the material and put another wrinkle in it. “Darn it!”

  After dipping her fingers into a nearby bowl of water, she splashed some water on the wrinkle and worked the iron over it more slowly.

  “What do you want from me, Lars?” she asked, irritated by his presence. “I saw him at Elise’s wedding, and he asked me to join him for dinner. I was being nice to a new person in town. It was as simple as that.”

  “If you’re so enamored with him …”

  “What’s enamored?”

  “You like him.”

  “Not like you mean,” she declared. “Yes, I like him. I think he’s a nice man, but that’s it.”

  “Only because you want me,” Lars shot back. “You have since Elise introduced us. I could always tell by the way you looked at me. You still have that look in your eyes.”

  More furious with herself for not hiding her interest better than she was with him for knowing, she slammed the flat iron onto the cast iron stove. The loud clang reverberated through the building.

  “If you only came here to tell me what to do, you can leave right now.”

  “Not until I’ve had my say.”

  “You’ve said enough!” she shouted. “Now get out.”

  “I won’t leave until …”

  She grabbed a hot iron and shook at him. “You’ll leave now—before I trow dis across the room at you.”

  “You wouldn’t.”

  “I vould,” she declared as she pulled her arm back. “And you know I’m a good pitcher.”

  “All right,” he said, backing up to the door. “But this conversation isn’t over.”

  “Ja, it is. Go!”

  Lars sprinted from the building, leaving the door open behind him.

  “Jag ska berätta vad jag vet, din jävel,” she said in her native language as she returned to her ironing.

  “What does that mean?” Mike asked.

  I should tell what I know, you bastard, Stina thought. But aloud she said, “It was nothing. I was just ranting.”

  “Well, remind me never to make you mad at me,” he said with a grin, “because I wouldn’t be able to understand what you tell me. For all I know, you could be cussing me out.”

  Returning to her work, Stina asked, “How long have you been there?”

  “Not long enough to know what you were arguing about, but long enough to know that your accent gets stronger the angrier you get.”

  “That’s because I don’t pay attention to how I pronounce things when I’m angry.”

  “Mind if I sit and wait for you to finish the bedding? I told Johnson that I would bring it back for him while I was out.”

  Stina told him to make himself comfortable, and he explained that he had been kicked out of the newspaper office because the workers came and decided he was doing the walls all wrong. Since he had nothing to do, he had decided to run this errand for the hotel and restaurant owner.

  With Mike there chatting about how he wasn’t at all sure that the owner was actually that, Stina’s work went faster. She listened to him tell her how he wondered if the owner of the town actually owned the hotel and restaurant. Occasionally, Stina contributed to the conversation, but mostly Mike just had a conversation with himself.

  From everything she’d seen, he and Bridget were both talkers, and she absently wondered how they ever carried on a conversation with each other. Were his parents both talkers, too?

  With the bedding finished, she handed the bundle of linens to Mike and thanked him for being there. Now she didn’t have to feel guilty if she didn’t deliver them when Mr. Johnson didn’t pick them up.

  The next day, Mike returned and waited in line while Stina tagged pillow cases of laundry so she would know which bag belonged to whom. When he got to her small counter, he set his own pillow case on it.

  “Good morning, Miss Benson,” he said with a smile. “Do you have time for a new customer?”

  “It’s Bengtson,” she corrected.

  With a mischievous grin, he winked at her. “I know it’s Bengtson. I was just giving you a hard time. Seriously, though, do you have time to do my laundry?”

  “Of course. Do you need it soon?”

  “No. I’m going to buy some of those dungarees the lumberjacks wear and probably a couple of those plaid shirts. They look comfortable. I’ll have clothes for a few days.”

  “Then come back Saturday, and they should be ready.”

  “In time for the barn dance?” he asked with a note of hope in his voice.

  “Plenty of time.”

  “Are you going to the dance?”

  Stina stared up at him. Was he asking her to join him? Or was he just making conversation. Unsure how to answer, she gave her standard reply when a man asked her to a dance. “I don’t know. I usually go to bed early, but sometimes I go to the dances. It all depends on how tired I am.”

  His tone turned downhearted. “Oh. Well, I hope to see you there. I’d better go buy some clothes. Don’t work too hard.”

  And with those words, he left the building.

  Not knowing what to say, she thanked him for his business and stared at his back as she walked out the door. If he had asked her to the dance, she probably would have said yes, but he hadn’t. He’d simply indicated that he would see her. Did he just want to be friends, or did he want something more? She couldn’t tell.

  Chapter 5

  To Stina’s delight, Lars asked her to go with him to the barn dance. At first she agreed, but Friday she began feeling ill. By Saturday morning, she had a fever; and when Lars called for her, she had confined herself to bed. She had no desire to leave the house, let alone go dancing. She suggested that Lars take Karin in her stead, but he declined, saying that Karin was too young for him.

  Elise had moved into Moya’s home, so Stina stayed in her room to keep Karin from getting whatever ailment she had. She certainly didn’t want to pass it onto little Emily through her sister. So, alone in her room and shivering, Stina huddled under her blankets.

  Lars was angry when she told him that she wasn’t going to the dance, but she couldn’t have cared less. Let him be angry. If he couldn’t understand when a woman was sick, she didn’t want him, nor did she need him around her. Let him go find another woman to dance with, maybe even a prostitute to bed. Right now, she was too sick to care about anything.

  The next thing Stina knew, Karin woke her gently.

  “Stina? You have a visitor.”

  “Tell Lars I don’t want to go to the dance,” Stina mumbled, still mostly asleep.

  “The dance is over,” Karin said. “And it isn’t Lars. It’s Mike.”

  “I don’t want him to see me like this.”

  “He knows you’re sick. He just wants to check on you and see if there’s anything he can do for you.”

  “Would you tell him that’s very kind, but I’ll be fine?”

  “I was worried about you, Stina,” he said from the doorway. “I could tell that you were sick when I picked up my clothes today. I wasn’t even surprised when you didn’t come to the barn dance. In fact, that’s why I didn’t even bother to ask if you would be there.”

  Gazing over at him, she motioned for Karin to leave and told Mike, “That’s very kind of you, but I wouldn’t come any farther into the room if I were you. You don’t want my illness. Trust me.”

  “I won’t. I just wanted to check and see how you were doing. Do you think you’ll feel better by Monday?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Then you stay home either way. I can do laundry until you’re on your feet. I’ll take the key with me, and you won’t have to worry about a thing.”

 
Too weak to argue, she said, “Karin will give you the key. Thank you, Mike. I really appreciate this.”

  “It’s not a problem. I don’t have a job quite yet, anyway. You just rest and get healthy again.”

  Mike left the doorway, leaving Stina with her thoughts of how kind he was, how much of a gentleman. He hadn’t complained when she said she didn’t want him in the room, and he hadn’t tried to talk her into something she didn’t want to do. Lars had done both of those things. But had Lars come after the dance to see how she was feeling? No. He cared about what he wanted more than anything else. At this moment, she didn’t like him very much, let alone love him. At this moment, though, she was too sick to make any decisions. In fact, she had just let Mike make them for her.

  After three days she felt well enough to get out of bed for an hour or so at a time. When she hadn’t felt dizzy for a full day, she ventured out of the house to sit on the porch. Even when she was in bed, she could hear Mike’s voice as he checked to see how she was doing after Karin got home from work, but he never bothered her.

  One evening she heard two men arguing and got out of bed to see what was happening. The closer she got to the closed front door, the more nervous she became. Lars was arguing with Mike. That couldn’t be good, but she couldn’t intervene, either, for fear of causing harm to Mike. No, she needed to let this be, to let them see their argument to its end. Unless Lars started a fight, she would stay out of it.

  “You need to stay away from my woman,” Lars demanded.

  “Your woman? Stina isn’t your anything. She’s a strong, independent woman who is perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Surely, she’s proven that to you.”

  “I’ve known her a lot longer than you have, and I’m not going to let you walk into town and take her away from me.”

  “I didn’t know that she was committed to you.” Mike’s voice was strong and resolved, not angry like Lars’ voice. “In fact, I didn’t know that she was committed to anybody.”

  “Then you don’t know anything,” Lars declared irately. “You’ve known her for weeks, but I’ve known her for years. She’s lusted after me all that time, too, even though …”

  “Even though what?” Mike asked when Lars’ voice trailed off.

  “Never mind. Just get out of here. Karin’s not going to let either of us see her, anyway.”

  “And if I don’t want to leave? What if I want to hear Karin tell me that I can’t see Stina?”

  “I’ll tear you limb from limb,” Lars warned.

  “I don’t think you could,” Mike replied calmly. “But I’ll leave for now because I don’t want to upset Stina. And I promise I’ll return whenever I want.”

  A bit concerned about Lars’ threat of hurting Mike, Stina crept back to bed. Even though it felt nice to have two men want her again, she didn’t want to see either man get hurt. Back in Bishop Hill, two men had courted her, but she’d wanted neither man. Here in Forestville, she wouldn’t mind having either man. It would be nice to have Lars because he was the man she’d dreamed of for so many years, but Mike was a true gentleman who treated her like a lady, not a possession.

  Settling back into bed, she considered her options. Would Lars have ever offered to take over her work for her? Probably not, but he did have a job of his own. Mike, on the other hand, didn’t have anything else to do. He had time to help her out while his office was being built.

  Back in Bishop Hill, she’d seen and heard a lot about Lars’ conquests. Many of the girls had crushes on him, but she herself loved him. She had no doubt about that. Unfortunately, because he was courting her best friend Elise, she couldn’t pursue Lars. Now that Elise was married, though, she could. And she would as soon as she recovered from this illness.

  Mike was almost the opposite of Lars. He was mild-mannered, where Lars was hot-tempered. She found this funny because she’d always heard that redheads had bad tempers. He was kind and caring, and her heart melted every time she looked into those gorgeous green eyes.

  But Lars was jealous. There was no doubt about it. He didn’t argue with a lot of people, but he got angry when he thought someone else wanted a woman he wanted. She’d witnessed that both in Bishop Hill and here in Forestville. With the information she had, she could marry Lars, too. That was uncertain with Mike. He was a man who would take his time getting to know her, which she liked.

  Somehow, some day, she would need to decide which man she wanted to spend her life with. For now, though, she would enjoy them both.

  Chapter 6

  While the newspaper office was being built, Mike would check in with Stina daily to see if she needed help. If she did, he would ask Bridget to help her because, as he claimed, he didn’t want Lars to get angry with Stina because he was there.

  Stina couldn’t believe how well things were going. Apparently, Mike and Lars had come to an agreement.

  The newspaper office opened to great fanfare. The people in town who were literate or could read English were on hand for the ribbon-cutting. Even some who were illiterate attended because they knew they could have someone tell them what was in the paper. According to Bridget, Mike even planned the event for a Sunday so Stina could attend.

  After his brief speech about how they were there to serve the people of Forestville by giving them a voice and information, as well as giving them access to a telegraph machine, he cut the wide ribbon nailed across the door.

  Cheers rose from the crowd as Mike and Bridget entered the building. Then Mike turned in the doorway and said, “Please. If anyone wants to see the newspaper office we built for them, come in.”

  A few of the crowd entered the building, such as Elise, Moya, Jared, Emily and Karin, along with several others. Stina waited until no other person filed in and the crowd had dispersed before she entered.

  After passing through a hallway about ten feet long with two openings, each leading to one of the two offices, Stina walked into a large open room with a brilliantly shining counter extending from one side of the inside to the other. Bridget, wearing a heavy black apron, stood by the printing press behind the counter. That must be what she wore when she was actually operating the press. One section of the counter was hinged and standing open to show where Bridget entered and exited the area.

  “What do you think?” Mike asked from behind her.

  “I’m impressed,” she replied, her chest swelling with pride at what he’d accomplished in such a relatively short period of time for his project.

  Behind the counter, Bridget removed her apron and said, “Nobody else is coming in, Mike. I’m going home and start dinner. Should I make enough for you, too?”

  He glanced down at Stina. “Will you join me for dinner at the restaurant again?”

  Stina was hesitant. After Lars’ outburst the last time she ate in public with Mike, did she dare say yes? What the heck! This was a special day for Mike, and he probably wanted to celebrate with a friend for a little while.

  “Sure,” she replied.

  He looked back to Bridget and grinned. “No, thank you. I’m going to be busy tonight.”

  Bridget chuckled as she passed them at the counter. “I’m not surprised. I’ll see you tomorrow, brother.” She glanced over at Stina with a grin. “Have a good evening, you two.”

  “Turn over the closed sign on your way out,” Mike said, “and close the door.”

  Bridget’s laugh flooded Stina’s ears just before she closed the office door.

  Not knowing how to react now that they were completely alone, Stina wandered away from Mike as she slid her hand over the smooth counter surface.

  “I can’t believe how beautiful this counter is,” she said, determined to keep her distance.

  “The wood in this area is beautiful,” he agreed, “but not as beautiful as a certain woman I know.”

  She’d left her hair long that day since she didn’t have to work, and now Mike slipped his fingers into it. Her locks were wavy and a baby-fine blonde, and by the way he caressed
it, she could tell that he liked touching it. Oh, how she loved the way he ran his fingers gently over the waves down her back.

  Mike grasped her shoulders tenderly and turned her to face him. “I want to thank you for agreeing to have dinner with me tonight.”

  She stared up at him, unable to take her gaze from his green eyes. She loved the bright color of them; it was almost as thought she was looking at emeralds.

  Then his hands slipped down her upper arms to her elbows and slid back up again. He repeated this motion several times before he linked his fingers behind her neck and rested his wrists on her shoulders. It was such a seductive move that she couldn’t resist reaching up and gently grasping his forearms. She trailed them up to his elbows. His forearms were more muscular that she would have thought now that she could feel them under his cotton shirt. He worked at banking in New York City; she knew that much. And he did a lot of writing about different things. What could he possibly do to firm up his arms so well?

  “I’m glad you could come today,” Mike said, breaking the silence that Stina suddenly realized had lasted many seconds.

  “I am, too,” she replied, unable to get the volume much higher than a whisper.

  What was blocking her vocal cords, keeping her from speaking louder? Whatever it was had also caused something in her chest to constrict, making it almost impossible to breathe.

  “I wanted you here more than anything,” he admitted as he leaned a little closer. “That’s why I scheduled it to happen on a Sunday. I know it’s the only day you don’t work.”

  His breath was hot against her forehead as he lowered his head. If she weren’t so shy, she could just lean into him and kiss him. That’s really what she wanted right now—a kiss, not talk. She stared up at him, her gaze riveted to his full lips. Then she couldn’t see them anymore because they grazed her forehead. It was just a brush of a kiss, but Stina thought she would melt into a puddle right there in his office.

  Suddenly, he broke away from her and said, “We should probably leave before I do something a gentleman shouldn’t.”