Her Mane Man (Online Shifter Dating Agency Romance)

by Sasha Winter

  “Oh, she’s going to be winking those eyelashes at me all day,” she grumbled to herself, without knowing that Marcus had come to the bedroom door.

  “I thought I heard you stirring,” he announced, making her jump. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

  “Erm…no, it’s fine,” she replied, trying to focus on him while dreading what she looked like. I probably look like a hungover Gorgon, she thought, judging by the few errant strands of wildly messy curls falling in her face as she spoke.

  “Don’t worry, it’s only seven o’clock,” he said. “I’m just about to bring up some breakfast. How do you take your coffee?”

  “Milk, no sugar. And thanks,” she replied.

  He nodded and left, and Ashley lay down again with a sigh. “Clearly you army boys are too used to getting up early,” she then reflected, speaking out loud to herself which served to help her ignore the pounding in her head. “And you can obviously take your alcohol much better than me too. How else are you looking all bright and breezy after drinking all those shots and being turfed out of your own bed?”

  “You talking to me or Max?” Marcus called from somewhere in the house.

  Ashley clamped a hand over her mouth for a second, and her cheeks burned with embarrassment. She hadn’t realized she was talking so loudly.

  “Er…just talking to Max,” she called back. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

  “No, no. Stay right there,” he told her. “I’ll bring it to you.”

  She didn’t need any persuading to stay still—attempting to pass out once again—but sooner than she expected, Marcus was back with a breakfast tray that was far more impressive than she deserved. As well as coffee, there was toast, bacon and even scrambled eggs.

  “Breakfast in bed!” she exclaimed. “I’ve heard of such things. Marcus, this is so sweet, but you really didn’t have to.”

  “It’s no problem,” he replied.

  Once she was just about able to sit up, which wasn’t a graceful procedure, Marcus held out the coffee to her, saying: “Here, have a sip of this first. It might revive you. Max, come off, boy. Give her some room.”

  Max gave Ashley a hopeful look as if to ask for some bacon, and she smiled and shook her head. “I’m quite sure you’ve already been fed, boy,” she said.

  Knowing he was defeated, Max obeyed Marcus’s command, and suddenly the bed became far more spacious, allowing Ashley to prop up the cushions so she could sit and eat.

  “I um…I really hope I didn’t embarrass myself last night?” she said before taking his advice and sipping the coffee.

  “Not at all,” he assured her. “How’s your head?”

  “A bit better now I’ve sat up,” she reflected. “Though I was afraid it would be worse. Coffee’s never tasted so good, I think its aroma is therapeutic in itself.”

  “Good to know,” he said, then paused before saying, “I didn’t notice that before; is that a birthmark?”

  “Oh,” she replied, realizing one of her straps was halfway down her shoulder. “Yes, that’s my star birthmark. It’s very strange. Unique, my mom used to insist; ‘a tiny star I’ve brought with me from heaven,’ she’d say.”

  “Do you er…happen to know anyone else with a similar one?” he asked.

  “I’ve never heard of it happening before,” she replied. “Lots of bananas and oranges, but if anyone else has a star they certainly aren’t common.”

  “Oh. Well, the thing is,” he replied. “I um…I think you might be my mysterious online match.”

  “Your what?”

  As Ashley chewed on her first round of toast, Marcus took his phone out of his jeans pocket, unfolded it and placed it on the duvet for her to see. If the toast and the coffee didn’t smell and taste so good there and then, Ashley would genuinely have thought she was having a dream—or a nightmare more likely—because there was a scantily clad woman on the screen who was acting very unladylike in taking the snap. Showing off what sexy pics of women he owned would definitely not have been the ‘done’ thing in most circumstances, but even though her vision was still slightly blurry, it was quite clear why Marcus was showing her this one. Right at the top of the picture, just before it cut off, was the same unique star they had just been talking about.

  If it was a divine gift, then she had to ask whether heaven was really on her side.

  “Ashley….you’re Ash84, aren’t you?” he asked.

  “Oh no,” she said, mortified and unable to look up at him. “No, no, no…”

  Sitting up a moment beforehand had been a tender procedure, but the shame that hit home caused her to undo all that work, sinking her back down into the duvet where she could hide her head from the world. With a hangover it was going to be a long day anyway, but it looked like she had timed her woozy head just in time for everything else to backfire as well. Marcus was Marc from PurrfectMatch….so not only had she gone home with a client the night before, she’d also been flirting with him online for some time now, and she’d sent him risqué pictures.

  She sighed as a blush crept into her cheeks. Well, I guess I’m no longer a consummate professional…

  Chapter 9

  Seeing Ashley turn scarlet and disappear from view under the duvet like that answered all the questions Marcus needed. The coincidence was bizarre, but clearly it was his therapist who had sent him the sexy pic, and he was not the only one to have done something inappropriate all along.

  “You know, I think it’s fairly impressive of me to spot that,” he said, trying to lighten the mood. “Given how men’s minds are supposed to work. Stereotypically I mean—there’s an awful lot there to be distracted by.”

  A few more muffled ‘no’ sounds were Ashley’s only response to this observation.

  “I didn’t get round to recognizing the background, though,” he went on, “but I see now that’s the door to your office, isn’t it? And seeing as I got this the evening after our first physio session, I’m wondering was this before or after my little embarrassment?”

  “Does it make any difference?”

  “Well, that depends. You see, if it was after I can let it flatter my ego a bit; I might have been influential in putting you in a naughty mood. On the other hand, if it was before, it sort of gets me off the hook.”

  “How’s that?” she asked, partially emerging from the covers with an arched eyebrow.

  “Well it means you were in a lustful mood before I got there and my manly instincts were just picking up on the general atmosphere. Men’s instincts are far more sophisticated than a girl like you probably realizes, you know?”

  She let out a muffled giggle. “Marcus,” she replied, “if I wasn’t so mortified that really would be the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “Don’t be mortified,” he reassured her with a grin. “This hardly equals my moment for sheer embarrassment.”

  “What do you mean? What happened to you was by accident; I did mine on purpose.”

  “Exactly! How is that embarrassing? It’s not as if you’re… no, I won’t go there.”

  “Obviously we’re both coming at this from a very different perspective.”

  “So it seems.”

  “Hang on a minute,” Ashley suddenly said, yanking the bedsheet all the way off her face in order to study him. “You’re a lion shifter?”

  “Oh yeah—sorry I hadn’t mentioned it.”

  “You told me you had a mane of hair.”

  “Ashley, for an army guy, believe me…this is as good as being a hippy.’

  “I can’t say I agree.”

  “Is that why you like lion shifters? Because our hair grows so quickly?” he asked with another teasing grin.

  “No, of course not. But there is something… majestic about it,” she replied, pulling a sad face in that he was managing to extract more embarrassing information out of her.

  Marcus couldn’t help but chuckle. Finally he thought his shame about the erection might leave, or at least become something
he could laugh about as well.

  “I’ve really messed up, haven’t I?” Ashley then said.

  “Why? What are you talking about?”

  “Marcus, you probably don’t see me in this way now, after all this,” she replied, “but I have always been a consummate professional. I haven’t slipped up until now.”

  “In what way have you slipped up?”

  “I shouldn’t be getting involved with patients and I certainly shouldn’t be sending them naughty photos of myself. I should be struck off.”

  “That’s nonsense.”

  “I sent that from my office and, even worse, you turned out to be my next patient.’

  “You didn’t know that. Anyone’s entitled to use that site and physiotherapists are allowed to go looking for partners as much as any other person. Unless you live by some monastic code I haven’t heard about.”

  “There’s more, though,” she groaned.

  “How do you mean?”

  “I’m afraid I don’t really know all about last night,” she confessed. “I’m sorry to ask but…did we sleep together?”

  “I slept on the couch.”

  “So we didn’t, erm…?”

  “Ashley, you’re fully dressed. I like to be a gentleman, but even I really wouldn’t have bothered putting all your clothes back on afterwards.”

  “I wondered if I had put them back on to stay warm,” she replied.

  “No, you were fast asleep when I carried you through the door. All I did was take your shoes off—that was erotic enough in itself,” he said in a joking tone.

  After all her serious faces, it was good to see Ashley manage a smile at last.

  “Well I think you are a real gentleman, Marcus,” she told him. “And a very gentle soul, for that matter, despite being a soldier… and a lion.”

  Her compliments were sincere, but Marcus thought he spotted sadness on her face anyway. Something was troubling her.

  “You okay?” he asked. “I don’t want you worrying about this. Your job is only to worry about my knee, remember?”

  “I’m fine, I guess,” she replied. “I’m sure I’ll be able to laugh a bit more when I’m less hungover.”

  He nodded. “So…the pic was before I got there, huh?”

  “I got carried away with the whole online thing. I’ve never done it before, and I certainly don’t make a habit of the selfie taking. I’d just had a bad phone call from my ex and the thought occurred to me to do something he wouldn’t like.”

  “I suspect he’d quite like this,” Marcus replied, picking up his phone and admiring the picture again.

  “Not like that. Anyway, stop staring at it—that’s for when I’m not around only.”

  “So what do you want me to do with the two foot printed copy I ordered?” he said in a teasing voice.

  She laughed. “Let me finish my breakfast, you,” she replied, looking at him from under her eyelashes.

  Despite ordering him away, Ashley then decided to follow and join him in the kitchen, where she finished her toast and scrambled eggs with the help of a delighted Max. Through the window she saw that there was a clear blue sky outside and it looked like being a glorious day. She mentioned that the thought of being shut up in her office with a headache from the night before was a distressing one, but when Marcus heard she didn’t have a client until eleven, he suggested she not worry about getting there on time and come with him for a walk instead.

  “The park near here is beautiful this time of year,” he said.

  “I’m sure it is, but…I don’t know if I should,” she said, her uncertainty evident in her tone.

  “You’ll get to know Max better,” Marcus replied with a wink, although he was really hoping she would continue to find his company pleasant when sober as well.

  She smiled. “How can I say no to that? A walk in the park, on a day like today with a clear blue sky overhead, sounds like a mighty fine offer.”

  “Sounds good to me and Max too.”

  ***

  There is something calming about being outside with the early risers; something that washes away the stains of the previous evening and cleanses the soul. Early to rise people are usually calm and inoffensive, secure in the knowledge that they have made an unchallenged claim to the world outside and that, even if those who come later try to take it from them, they saw it first and will remember so when the time comes to closing their eyes on the day.

  Among such people, Ashley found both an inner peace and a cure for her headache. By walking unrushed and to no great purpose, she became unburdened of any of the mistakes that had mortified her upon waking up earlier, helped by the fact that no one looked her way or sought to judge her as she had imagined the world doing. Among the fellow dog walkers, as well as the runners and cyclists who used the morning to pursue physical fitness, she felt solidarity. No one rushed or stressed to lead the way, as they would by the afternoon and evening, providing the perfect tonic for discarding mental junk and getting everything back in focus.

  There was nothing wrong, really. A few weeks previously had seen her waking up scared and wondering if she would get through another day without Vince taking back control. In comparison, her troubles now were light and easily overcome. So she had woken up in another’s bed, and she had taken a naughty snap of herself and then been caught out….so what? These were the kind of mistakes that people all over America were making on a daily basis, because they had the freedom to make mistakes and pick themselves up again. Hindsight showed that she had done well, extricating herself from an unhealthy atmosphere so that she could now make her own choices. This problem of Marcus being her client, for example, was completely hers to decide how to judge. In the past she had avoided the idea of dating anyone she met at work due to ethics codes, but life could be as complicated, or uncomplicated, as she chose from now on.

  It was her right and liberty, and she did not have to be swayed by duty if she decided to be swayed by her heart instead.

  Getting a grip of the situation was still not an easy task, though. There was no way of judging whether Marcus was genuinely interested in her or if he had just been acting the gentleman, and for her part Ashley still felt she needed time to get to know him. But in spite of this, something just seemed to fit. Walking through the park with Max trotting obediently one pace in front of them, Ashley felt comfortable; the kind of comfort that didn’t seem to need working at, but was just there as if it had been all along, only she hadn’t been aware of its existence. In response, she couldn’t help but think about all the days she had sat alone, mentally poring over ways and means to make her relationship with Vince work, believing that love and companionship was something that needed effort and determination.

  What if none of these things were required at all? What if love and affection was just there regardless of how much effort an individual tried to apply?

  It should have felt peculiar, daring to ask such questions and thinking in such a way over a man she still barely knew, but it just felt so agreeable instead. Agreeable if it weren’t for her damn ethics code. There must be a way of stopping me from getting carried away, she thought, but it was still early in the day and she tried to blame some of her feelings on the drinks from the night before. Alcohol could provide a convenient excuse so long as its consumption remained in close proximity.

  What happened after that was another matter…

  There was no reason for rushing towards a conclusion, however. Although stuck in a dilemma, Ashley remained quite at ease. She knew that Marcus was not going to become lost to her and would probably remain on her books for at least a year. Dragging out her decision over such a time period might not be fair on him—if he happened to feel in any way similar—but it gave her a bit of a cushion.

  Also, although she admitted it was presumptuous and a bit unfair on Marcus who could surely get himself a partner if he really wanted one, she got the impression he would not be jumping into someone else’s bed. Without the help of her profes
sion (and the devious actions of her friends), it would have been hard to get to know him. There were issues there other than his knee, and being reserved was not the best way of attracting a woman. Though she didn’t broach the subject of PurrfectMatch, despite the revelation, she recalled he had admitted to hardly using the site and so his efforts there were hardly forward either.

  No doubt she would have to ask him some time, once she had cleared her own head, unless he had the nerve to ask her on a proper date beforehand, but in the meantime there was another point of fascination on which to speak, if he didn’t mind talking on the subject.

  “Do you mind if I ask about you being a lion shifter?” she asked hesitantly.

  “Not at all,” he replied. “I don’t mind talking about being a shifter. I know I didn’t mention it in our sessions, but I’m not one of these people that try to hide it either.”

  “It’s just that I remember you saying online that you don’t shift much. What was it? That you weren’t sure how it benefits society?”

  “I guess,” he said. “We know now it’s evolution, so there’s nothing wrong with it, except for people who like to think like fascists.”

  “The less said about them the better.”

  “Indeed, but the truth remains that the cities we live in and all the technological advances mankind has made have been tailored to suit us in non-shifter forms. Our two-legged territory doesn’t really blend with the wild so well. It tends to be either/or, so we have to make our choice and get on with it.”

  “Could it just be that they—I mean shifters—haven’t figured out their own potential yet?

  “It’s a nice thought, but I still don’t see how we’re going to benefit something like science. When it comes to walking on Mars someday it will be done in human shaped space suits, not cat shaped ones. When we prove another one of Einstein’s theories, it will be with human fingers pressing the buttons. Less and less do I see the need of giving in to animal instincts when the life I lead is a civilized one. It makes giving in to your nature feel like you’re indulging in a hobby, and that’s a little sad.”