by E A Price
She sighed; they would have looked great with her blue dress. Still, they’d probably turn up. She settled on a gold chain and made her way downstairs.
She stopped by her fridge and frowned at the contents. Nope, the grocery fairy still hadn’t turned up. Nor, the cleaning fairy, the fridge reeked. Very, very carefully she pulled out a box of Thai takeout and sniffed. Bleurgh! Her panda growled at her for that.
She threw it and several other varieties of takeout boxes into the bin. For good measure, she gave the fridge a spritz of her perfume. Yep, much better.
Instead of braving the cupboards, she left to collect Carly. She figured she would pick up something on the way to work. She couldn’t imagine Carly objecting to stopping by Hola Sunshine for a breakfast burrito. Ling guessed that, by now, Carly had given up on her diet and was ready to eat some real food.
Ling pulled up to the trailer park and Carly skipped into the car carrying a massive purse.
As she drove, Ling asked if she minded stopping for breakfast.
Carly grinned. “This is perfect, I know just the place, turn left here.”
“Better than Hola Sunshine?”
“Much better.” Carly looked Ling up and down. “You look nice, who are you all gussied up for?”
Ling flushed and concentrated on the road. “No one.”
“Ummm hmmm. I’ll bet it’s for Logan – he’s sexy, right?”
The panda let out a tiny snarl. “It’s not Logan; it’s Marc…”
“Marcus?! Were you going to say Marcus?”
Ling attempted nonchalance. “So what if I was?”
“He’s a snake!” Carly cried in alarm. “And he’s old and weird.”
“He is not old or weird! I’ll admit he isn’t an arrogant, violent and uncouth wolf shifter, but not all of us can be so lucky!”
Carly crossed her arms and stared out the window, sullenly. “I’m sorry, okay; I didn’t realize how much you liked him. Forgive me?”
Ling pursed her lips but soon softened. “It’s fine; I didn’t realize how much I liked him either. And I’m sorry about what I said about Jackson. Forgive me?”
Carly snickered. “Sure, it’s all true anyway – I call him those things all the time.”
Ling smirked; apparently love wasn’t blind. She cut her gaze to her best friend who was eyeing her again. “What?”
“Don’t you have any flat shoes with you?”
Ling’s brow creased both in curiosity and worry. “No, why?”
“No reason; turn right here, and pull over.”
Ling duly did and frowned when she saw they were parked outside a seafood restaurant called The Happy Clam. “I don’t think this place is even open yet.”
Carly shrugged and got out the car, dragging her purse. “Let’s just take a look.”
Reluctantly, Ling followed. Something was going on; she just wasn’t sure what yet. But at least it couldn’t be any worse than her surprise 21st birthday party. Carly was supposed to get her to the venue, but got mixed up, and they ended up at a gentleman’s club, the patrons were very handsy…
Carly motioned for her to follow as she strode into the restaurant. It was empty, but there seemed to be music coming from the kitchen. Quietly, Carly reached into her purse and pulled out a pair of handcuffs, some mace and a stun gun.
Oh, crap! Carly was here to collect a bounty, and had dragged an unwitting Ling with her. Her little beast whined.
Ling grabbed her friend. “What the hell?” she whispered. “Why didn’t you tell me this is what you wanted to do?”
Carly blinked at her. “Would you have come if I did?”
“Of course not!” she hissed.
“Then you just answered your own question. Now, pipe down while I scope the place out.”
No way was Ling staying there. “I’m gonna wait in the car.”
Carly gave her a pleading look. “No! I need you; I can’t do this on my own.”
Ling groaned. She didn’t want to stick around, but she didn’t want to leave her friend there either. “Why isn’t Jackson here helping you?”
Carly scowled. “Because he wouldn’t let me help, he’d do it all himself and hog all the glory.”
“Glory? What freaking glory? We should leave.” Ling took her hand and tried to pull her to the exit, but Carly wouldn’t budge.
“No, come one, please. I’ll bet Marcus would be impressed if we got him.”
Ling hesitated. Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea. If she helped catch whoever this guy was, it might convince him of how capable she was, and erase the sushi sweater incident… Her panda yipped at that thought. “I don’t know…”
She froze as she felt a shiver of danger. They both turned to see a six foot five shark shifter staring at them. He had a wide brow; his clothes were splattered with fish guts and his own gut precariously protruded over his straining belt. Oh, yeah, and he just happened to be holding a huge meat cleaver.
“The restaurant is closed. Don’t you think it’s rude to barge your way in here?” he growled at them.
Carly emitted a sound of disgust. “Don’t you think it’s rude to work at a seafood restaurant when you’re a shark? You could be sautéing your relations!”
“Carly!” exclaimed Ling. Yeah, that’s it; make the cleaver-wielding shark shifter mad!
Carly squared her shoulders. “You failed to show up for your court date, so now I need to take you in.”
The shark howled in laughter and wiped a tear from his eye. “You two little girls? You’re kidding, right? What are you really? Strippergrams? Because I wouldn’t say no to seeing you both without your clothes on.”
He licked his lips, and Ling suppressed the urge to vomit. Carly, however, remained firm. “You need to come with us, now.”
He stared at them, nastily. “No.”
“Fine then…”
Carly didn’t finish her sentence. Before she could, the shark let out a roar and charged at them. They each shrieked and ran in different directions. Much to Ling’s horror, he chose to run after her.
She scooted around the restaurant tables as he followed and swiped the cleaver at her. She tripped on a table leg and crashed to the ground.
The shark stood over her with a horrible expression on his face. Ling tensed before she curled herself into a ball and shimmered into her panda. She wriggled out of her dress and scampered away into the kitchen; he bellowed and chased after her.
“I’m coming!” yelled Carly.
The panda flittered around the kitchen, narrowly avoiding the pots and pans being hurled in her direction. Weapon! She needed a weapon!
Carly leapt on the shark’s back, and they started careening around the room. She clutched at his head as he weaved around the room, waving his arms.
The panda got her paws on a rolling pin and shifted back to human. Ling stood stark naked, brandishing it while edging around the struggling duo.
With a triumphant snarl, the shark dislodged Carly from his back. She tumbled to the ground, and the shark turned to Ling, letting out a lascivious growl as his eyes traversed her bare curves.
Oh crap! Ling swung the rolling pin in his direction. Her beast let out a little roar. “Stay back! Or I’ll use this! I mean it!”
He snorted and slithered his way toward Ling.
Carly jumped to her feet and grabbed a pot from the stove. “There’s still time to come quietly.”
“Make me,” he sneered.
Carly threw the contents of the pot at him, and he ducked, and instead, Ling found herself on the receiving end of a pot of gazpacho, which, interestingly, contained sardines.
Ling squealed. “What the hell, Carly?!”
The shark guffawed, and Carly took the opportunity to stun him. He shook slightly, so she did it again, and again, and again. Finally, he slumped to the ground, with drool pooling under his mouth.
Carly panted. “Well, that went better than I expected.”
Ling stared at her incredulously. She opened
her mouth to complain but didn’t see the point. She was naked, shivering, covered in cold, fishy soup and quite annoyed. She looked down at the shark and gave him a small kick for good measure. “What was he arrested for anyway?”
Carly shrugged unconcernedly. “He chased his sous chef around the kitchen with a knife.”
Of course, he did. At least Marcus wasn’t there to see her making a fool of herself, small mercies and all that…
Chapter Nine
Ling self-consciously adjusted her dress. Thankfully, having such a small beast, her dress had stayed in one piece when she shifted. More or less anyway, one strap had been ripped in two. So while her underwear was lost, at least she had her dress. She just wished one side of the dress didn’t keep slipping down, threatening to expose a fleshy breast. She’d spent more than enough time naked that day, thank you very much.
Of course, the fact that she was still sticky from the gazpacho didn’t help much. She’d tried to wipe it off as best she could, but she really needed a shower. After the shark went down, she had no choice but to slip on the dress, and grin and bear it until she could get home to her shower.
She’d wanted to go straightaway, but Carly had insisted they take the shark to the cops first. They’d argued, but Carly had won. After all, Ling didn’t really want the shark in her car for longer than necessary. He’d already drooled on her back seat.
The plan was to get the shark to the cops, toot sweet. Then, Carly would call Jackson to collect her; inevitably they would argue and then go home to have make-up sex, while Ling went home and showered.
Ling was actually feeling kind of antsy, and not just because of the struggling shark she and Carly were currently frog-marching into the cop station. This was technically her first full day of work, and she was going to be late. Her panda twittered. What would Marcus say? Would he be annoyed with her? Would he decide she wasn’t worth his time?
She needed to hurry. She needed to get to work as soon as she could, and explain what had happened. And she needed to make it explicitly clear that it was all Carly’s fault.
Ling left Carly to hand the sulky shark over to the cops while she tried to get a little bit more gazpacho out of her hair. She winced as she felt something squishy in her shoe; apparently some of it had made it down there. She sighed. Oh well, they only cost two hundred dollars…
“Ling?”
She tensed as her panda yipped at the tangy scent invading her senses. Right, because destroying her shoes wasn’t bad enough.
Slowly, she turned to find Marcus stood behind her, dressed impeccably in a blue suit. An eyebrow was arched, but otherwise he looked impassive.
“Oh, hey, Marcus. What are you doing here?” She tried to laugh casually, but feared it came out more manic than anything else.
He took a moment to note her bedraggled appearance and frowned slightly. “I just came to put up a bond for someone.” He took a step closer to her. “Are you okay?”
She almost swooned gazing into his electric green eyes. “I’m fine. This morning, Carly…”
Marcus closed his eyes. “Let me guess, she dragged you along to catch one of her skips.”
“How did you know?”
Marcus shook his head. “She did the same thing to my niece a couple of weeks ago. She asked Mia if she wanted to go shopping and took her on a detour to catch a shoe salesman.”
Ling giggled. “Honestly, if I didn’t love Carly so much, I’d kill her.”
Her dress started slipping again, and Marcus carefully reached out and pulled it up again. He left his hand resting on her shoulder, and she felt herself flush with pleasure.
He gave her a half-smile. “So what exactly happened with the bounty?”
Ling rolled her eyes and pressed herself further into his warm touch. Her panda moaned; she was right where she wanted to be. “There’s not much to tell; the shark shifter was trying to cut us up with a meat cleaver, Carly threw a pot of gazpacho at him, he ducked and it landed on me. So while he was laughing himself silly, Carly tasered him.”
Marcus’ face darkened, and his eyes turned to the black of his beast. “Did you say, shark shifter?”
Ling quivered as fear and arousal coursed through her body. Marcus could look downright fierce when he wanted, and that kind of turned her on…
“Yes, it was a little scary, but it turned out okay.” At the time she had just panicked, and hadn’t really considered how much danger she was in. It had hit her afterwards and freaked her out no end. Being around Marcus was actually soothing, even with the look of rage dominating his face.
“You could have been hurt,” he hissed.
Hope kindled inside her. He sounded like he really cared! “But I wasn’t.”
He breathed out but still gazed at her intently.
She felt a surge of excitement and, fortified by her beast, she decided to do something before she lost her courage. “I need to go home and shower, so I’ll be a little late getting to the office…”
He grunted and she continued, “But I was thinking, given that things didn’t go so well last night, that I kind of owe you dinner. Maybe tonight…”
“There you are!” cried Carly walking toward them, a triumphant smile on her face. “I thought you’d…” She trailed off when she saw the look of dismay on Ling’s face and the annoyance on Marcus’. “Everything okay?”
“I have to go,” said Marcus, brusquely. He nodded before striding away with Ling staring after him.
She bit her lip as her panda crumpled. Why was he so mad? What had she done wrong? She’d tried to ask him out on a date, and he’d just completely ignored her. She couldn’t believe she’d actually read him so wrong. Tears started to prickle her eyes.
Carly scowled. “What in tarnation was that about?”
“I have to go,” said Ling abruptly and almost ran away from her.
Carly put her hands on her hips. “Apparently everyone has to go.”
*
Ling once again sifted through her wardrobe, somewhat more dejectedly than she had earlier that day. She didn’t really see much point in trying to impress Marcus if he wasn’t interested.
She pulled out a pink blouse and a black pencil skirt. They’d do.
Her phone trilled, and she was momentarily elated to think it might be Marcus before she remembered his crushing disinterest in her.
She saw the caller ID and answered the phone with a gloomy hello. There really wasn’t much point in sending it to voicemail; this particular caller would just track her down.
“Ling, it’s your mother.”
“I know, mother, as I’ve told you before, I have caller ID.”
Fang clucked her tongue. “And as I have told you before, it is polite to identify yourself on the phone. But I didn’t call regarding phone etiquette; I called to ask about your date last night.”
Oh, right, that! With everything else that had happened, Ling had just about forgotten all about her ghastly date. “Umm, it went okay, I guess…”
She could just about hear her mother pursing her lips. “Don’t you lie to your mother, little panda.”
Ling let out a small groan. No matter how old she was, she could never get away with lying. “Alright, it was terrible. He was slimy, he lied about his age, he tried to grope me, and he told me he still lived with his mother! Who, after listening to him harp on about her, I know far too much about. Do you know she crochets placemats as a hobby? Because I sure do!”
“My goodness! I hope you slapped him for trying to touch you.”
Ling snorted. “Oh yeah, and he said I was too fat for him.”
Fang snarled. “How dare he? You’re curvy and beautiful, my little panda.”
Ling smiled slightly. Her mother might be strict and controlling at times, but she could also be ferociously protective, and never tried to make her feel bad about her weight. Of course, it was Fang’s delicious cooking that had made her this shape. Her father, brother and sister were all on the large side too.
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br /> “Thank you, mother.”
Fang let out a delicate grunt. “When I see his mother, I am going to give her a piece of my mind. She should teach her child better manners.”
“I think it’s probably a bit too late for Howard.” She would guess forty years too late.
“Damian will be much better for you…”
Ling’s blood ran cold. “Wait, what?”
“Damian Chang; his mother and I went to school together. I’m sure he’ll be much better for you.”
Her panda yowled in objection. “I’m not sure…”
“Damian works for Lunar Burger, I believe you once said that you would ‘kill’ for a Lunar burger, didn’t you? I understand he gets free food from there.”
Oooh, hitting her where she eats, that was low! “Ummm…”
“Unless you have something better to do this evening?”
She briefly thought of Marcus and her beast whined. “No, I don’t,” she admitted sadly.
“Excellent, Damian will pick you up at seven.”
Ling groaned while imagining her mother’s triumphant smile. “But, mother…”
“Have fun, little one.” With that, her mother hung up.
Terrific. She sighed and pulled on her clothes. Oh, what the hell! What was one more crappy blind date? It’s not like anyone else was lining up to date her…
Chapter Ten
Marcus listened crossly as Ling told Carly about her date that evening. His snake hissed furiously, urging him to do something. But Marcus held fast.
She’d returned a little while after him, looking absolutely radiant in a snug skirt and almost see-through shirt. She’d seemed a little subdued but otherwise was her naturally charming self. She chatted on and off with Mia and anyone else who happened to pop in and out of the agency. She’d talked about the weather, the latest episode of The Sands of Lunar Beach, where the best place was to get shoes re-heeled and so on.
He knew all this because he’d been ducking in and out of his office all day long ostensibly to get cups of coffee and to look at files. Mia had probably never seen him so much in her life, and shot him surprised looks every time he popped out.