by Celeste Hall
Chapter Ten
Morgan had been right about the food, there were two takeout bags sitting on the counter, both of them full.
After the glimpse she’d had of Leo standing naked in the kitchen the day before, Heidi had obviously been hoping that her friend would not be eating alone. The room was now filled with the appetizing aroma of bacon, sausage and eggs.
Setting the table for two, Morgan reheated the food and waited for Leo to appear. But twenty minutes later, she was still waiting.
“Leo?” She called from the foot of the stairs, but there was no answer.
Concerned, she hurried up to the bedroom. It was empty and so was the bathroom, although the air was still heavy with moisture from his shower.
“Leo, where are you? Are you alright?”
A sickening knot of shame and fear was tying itself around her heart as she crouched to look under the bed, desperately hoping to see a pair of bright emerald eyes glowing back from the shadows.
But there was no sign of man or beast.
At last she checked the bedroom window. It was indeed unlocked, although he’d closed it again behind him. Her feline guardian was gone, almost certainly driven away by her callous rejection of his kiss and refusal for any future relationship.
Devastated, she relocked the window and walked back down the stairs.
She told herself that she had survived just fine before he’d shown up. But the truth was, she’d really enjoyed having him around. Having him hold her all night, she’d realized how much she’d missed by closing herself off from any potential romance.
Leo had made her feel wanted and safe, without forcing her to admit that she might actually need a man in her life.
At least he had gone quickly and quietly, avoiding the pain it would have caused if he’d waited to explain his reasons or point out how her flaws were driving him away.
Walking slowly back into the dining room, she put the extra utensils onto the plate she’d set out for him and carried them into the kitchen. It would be breakfast for one after all, although she wasn’t really feeling hungry any more.
The doorbell interrupted her before she could put the items back into the cupboard and drawers where they belonged. It also made her heart leap up into her throat and her muscles seize as if she were a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck.
I’m okay. Everything is okay. She silently chanted in an attempt to regain her scattered courage. The door is locked. It’s probably just the police checking up on me.
As silent as possible, she crept to the living room window and peeked out.
There was indeed a second vehicle in the driveway, but it wasn’t a patrol car, and it didn’t belong to Heidi or Rachel.
Realizing that she’d left her cell up in the bedroom, she was about to beat a hasty retreat. Then a familiar voice called to her through the door and she hastily flipped open the locks.
“Leo!”
Yanking the door wide, she might have thrown herself into his arms, but this was not the towel clad figure that she’d rebuked only minutes before.
The man standing before her wore clean pressed slacks and a dark gray button up shirt that amplified the brilliant color of his eyes. He wore expensive looking leather shoes and had even taken a moment to shave the bristles from his cheeks and jaw.
Leo had pulled a complete transformation almost as amazing as his ability to shift into a cat.
“You’re… dressed.” She stated lamely, finding herself at a complete loss for understanding how he had pulled off this major miracle. “I thought you were homeless, and didn’t have clothes.”
“You never asked,” he pointed out. “It seems like you’ve been making a lot of assumptions about me, which is why I thought I should formally introduce myself. Hi, my name is Alastair Grady. But you can call me Leo.”
Morgan’s mouth was hanging open and she had to force herself to close it.
“I’m sorry,” she managed, feeling as if that were the most incredible understatement of her entire life.
“Does that mean I can come in?” He prodded with a gentle smile, reminding her that they were still standing on the porch.
“Oh, yeah, of course. I’m sorry.” Wincing at the way those words kept wanting to sneak out, she took a large step backwards so that Leo could pass – trying not to notice how amazing he smelled now that he was freshly showered and suited.
“I warmed up the food that Heidi brought,” she recalled, closing the door behind him. “Would you like some breakfast?”
“Did you save me any bacon?”
“I haven’t eaten yet,” she admitted. “I was waiting for you.”
“Then I would love some breakfast,” he assured her. “And afterwards, I’m taking you to my place. I’d like to spend the rest of the day letting you get to know who I am when I’m not running around on four legs with a tail.”
An hour later they were pulling up to a clean twin home on the other side of the large acreage of forest that backed her old Victorian.
“I chose this area because of the woods,” he explained as he opened the car door and helped her out. “When I feel restless, I spend a lot of time wandering in those trees.”
“As a cat?”
He nodded.
“Yes, as a cat.”
“Why do you turn into a cat? Why not a wolf or something larger?”
He shrugged.
“I guess we’re all what we are born to be. I didn’t choose to be a feline shifter, any more than you chose to be a beautiful woman.”
Morgan blushed and quickly looked away.
“Could everyone in your family turn into a cat?”
“I’m really not sure. But I believe so. Both of my younger sisters were feline. That was how we escaped from foster care.”
Her brows knit as she remembered him telling her that his family were dead. It was probably a sensitive subject, but he had told her that he wanted her to know who he really was.
“Can you talk about it?” She asked, not wanting to push him too hard, but wishing to better understand.
Grief darkened his eyes, but he nodded.
“My parents were killed in a car accident,” he explained. “My sisters and I had been begging them to take us to the county fair. As feline shifters, we were always fascinated by other animals.
“My father had taken off work early. He and my mother were on their way to pick us up from school when a couple of drunks in a pickup truck ran a red light. The policemen who pulled us out of class, explained that our mother was killed instantly and our father died on the way to the hospital. Just like that, we were orphans.”
Morgan could imagine the horror that he and his little sisters must have felt.
“How old were you?”
“I was eleven. My sisters were nine and six.” He told her with a sigh. “It seems like forever ago, but I still remember the look on their faces when child welfare showed up and took them away.”
“You didn’t have any other family? An uncle? A grandparent?”
He shook his head.
“No. And they couldn’t find a foster home willing to take in three older siblings, so we were split up. But I was determined to protect them,” a veil of pure agony crossed his face. “I thought I could be a better parent than anyone that the state placed them with.”
“You were just a little boy,” she soothed.
“Yeah, that’s the problem,” he agreed. “That night we found each other. We may not have a dog’s keen sense of smell, but we can still follow a scent when we need to.
“For the next few months we traveled as cats and lived in abandoned buildings. Then one day there was an accident.” His voice broke a little and she quickly touched her fingertips to his arm.
“You don’t have to tell me,” she whispered. But he shook his head.
“I want you to know. I want you to understand why I won’t let anything bad happen to you,” he growled with a sudden return of strength.
“We were holed up in an old barn for the night, but it was starting to get cold and we couldn’t carry clothes with us as cats. I found some matches and made a little fire using handfuls of dry straw. It burned really fast so I told Amanda, the nine year old, that she needed to keep feeding it or the fire would go out. Then I went to find them some food.”
Morgan was overcome by horror as she realized what must have happened and Leo could see it in her eyes.
“The barn was a tinderbox,” he admitted darkly, “full of musty old hay. By the time I saw the smoke, it was too late.”
“You were too young to understand the danger.”
He gave a slight nod, but she could see that he still blamed himself. It had all happened so many years ago, but the pain from those memories was still fresh. He’d never really healed.
It tore at her heart and made her long for a way to comfort him. But she knew that nothing she said or did could ever make those memories go away.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered and pressed herself into his arms, needing for him to feel how deeply she actually cared. If it were possible, she would have taken all of his pain in herself.
“So am I,” he managed a broken admission against her temple. “But I won’t let it happen again. I won’t let someone I care about be hurt or killed.”
She believed him.