Three Shifters for Sarah (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Dani April

  Chapter Eleven

  It was past eight by the time TJ climbed out of Sarah’s uncomfortable little bed. He hadn’t slept this late in years. Sarah was still curled up in a peaceful sleep beneath the comforter next to him. After giving her a gentle kiss on the forehead, and making certain not to wake her, he pulled on his pants and went out to the kitchen area in search of coffee.

  The city seemed to be waking up to a bright sunny summer Saturday morning, though it was hard to see anything save for the shadows of the building next door out the single window in the apartment unit.

  A quiet rummage through the cupboards brought TJ to the coffee he craved, and he placed a pot of water on a burner to boil.

  Yesterday had been almost entirely wonderful from the time he got to spend with Sarah, to their long talk, and the sex which had been the hottest ever. However, the conclusions they’d reached in the night left him feeling hollow and empty inside.

  TJ wasn’t the type of man to give up, never had been, and no one was going to start accusing him of being a quitter now. Back home on the Circle T when a bronco needed breaking in on the range, he would ride that bad boy as far and long as was needed until it would yield to the inevitable. In a way he supposed that type of blind determination was what was needed with Sarah now. The only problem was TJ was a big tough cowboy, and he never worried the bronco could hurt him any. But Sarah could easily break his heart.

  So as not to wake her, he removed the coffeepot before the boiling whistle sounded and poured the steaming water into his cup. TJ had been as quiet as a mouse and was hoping Sarah could get another hour’s sleep in before her day began. But even before he got the coffee cup to his lips a buzzer alert went off in the tiny apartment room.

  Certain it would awaken Sarah, TJ cursed the offending sound and went to go look for its source. It was coming from an intercom by the front door, and although TJ had no experience with living in a building like this, he got a pretty good idea that Sarah had a visitor downstairs to see her.

  The contraption was more complicated than the harness of a show horse, but after pushing three or four buttons on the thing he finally got a green light that told him to talk into the microphone. He wasn’t sure if he should answer it or not. But a quick check behind him at the hideaway showed Sarah was still out cold and the buzzer had only barely caused her to stir.

  “Hello?” TJ answered. “This is Sarah Winter’s apartment.”

  “I thought I might find you here.” It was Lance on the other side of that intercom, his voice was gruff, and TJ knew immediately he was in a bad mood and probably a hair trigger away from trouble. “You’ve got some explaining to do, kid.”

  “Lance?” TJ was caught completely off guard. “I must say I’m a tad surprised to find you up here in New York with me.”

  “You’re not the only one who can be irresponsible and chase halfway across the country looking for their mate.” Lance was in no mood to hear any explanations from his younger brother. “Haul ass down here now!”

  TJ thought about arguing. He didn’t want to leave Sarah when he hadn’t yet finished what he had set out to start with her. But if she woke up to a shouting match between him and Lance that wouldn’t help matters any, so he decided discretion was the better part of valor in this instance.

  “Give me a minute to get dressed and I’ll be down.”

  TJ quickly finished dressing, halting only to give Sarah one last loving kiss. He softly closed the front door behind him. It didn’t lock, but he figured he could take care of that after he dealt with Lance.

  About three minutes later, after he had rode down on the elevator, he stepped out the front door into the morning sunshine to find Lance waiting on the front step for him with a scowl etched across his face.

  “How have things been going with her?” Lance asked him, some of the bite seeming to leave his voice at the mere mention of their would-be mate.

  “Wonderful and lousy at the same time.” TJ shrugged, not knowing what more he could say, and feeling bad he didn’t have better news to report.

  “Ryan already forgave you for running off and disobeying his order.”

  “I figured he would.”

  “You know I didn’t come all this way just to talk to you.”

  TJ looked up at the ninth floor of the building where Sarah’s apartment was, and he smiled. He had just put two and two together and realized why Lance was here. “You old dog you. You came here for the same reason I did. You want a shot at her, too.”

  “I wouldn’t mind.”

  TJ clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t mess this up for us,” he told him in all seriousness.

  “Hey, if you haven’t scared her away by this time, I figure nothing will.”

  “Treat her good.”

  “You know I will.”

  TJ didn’t want to leave, but he was a shape-shifter and he understood pack dynamics. Lance was also slated to be Sarah’s mate, and he needed to have his own time alone with her. That was the way of things with their kind, and it served them well. If Lance was able to score with Sarah and get her to see how fulfilling their lives together could be, then he would be as happy as if he himself had accomplished the same task.

  “Her door’s open,” he told Lance as he walked away.

  TJ adjusted his Stetson low on his brow and headed down the street in search of a cab that would take him back to his hotel room and a comfortable bed to sleep in.

  * * * *

  Lance entered Sarah’s apartment through the unlocked front door. By nature he was a cautious man and not the type to sneak into a woman’s apartment unannounced. He was breaking all the rules for Sarah and because she was a human he knew he had very little chance of succeeding in making her his mate. Yet after the magnificent week he had spent with her on the Circle T, he was left with no choice but to try.

  Little light entered the room because there was only a single window and it faced the brick wall of the building next door. But Lance’s shifter eyes had no trouble with the gloom. The single room of the unit was small, and he had it scoped out in a matter of seconds.

  Pillows were strewn across the floor, and a single-bed size comforter was folded neatly in a corner. The couch appeared like it was cable of being made into a bed but had already been folded back into its daytime shape. However, the room was empty. Sarah was nowhere to be seen inside.

  The shower water running in the bathroom gave her position away. Lance braced himself. He hadn’t seen her in over a week and had no idea what he was going to say now that he was finally here.

  “You left the door of my apartment open,” Sarah called from out of the shower. She obviously still thought she was talking to her lover of the night before. “That may be an okay thing to do in the country, but up here in the city we’ll get robbed if we do that very often.”

  Lance leaned against the disheveled couch, took off his hat, crossed his boots, and waited.

  The bathroom door opened. “Hey, would you like me to make us some breakfast?” Sarah was wearing a towel, her hair was dripping wet, and her body shined.

  Lance stood up straight and gave her a polite nod. Whatever he had been through to get here had all been worth it. She was positively the loveliest vision he had ever seen in his life.

  Sarah looked up and gave a start to see a new man standing in her apartment. For a terrible second Lance thought she might scream. Then she seemed to get it under control and returned his nod of greeting.

  “Where’s TJ?”

  “He went to his hotel.”

  A floundering moment of dead air left them both staring at each other.

  “I apologize. I know I must have startled you.” Lance finally broke the silence.

  “You shape-shifters are really persistent.” Sarah tried to pull up the towel to protect her modesty, but it was going to be hard since it barely fell to her knees.

  “I see TJ told you what we are.”

  “Yeah, we had that discussion last night.”r />
  Lance noticed a bandage on her shoulder for the first time. The white gauze seemed so out of place held next to her soft, wet skin. He knew TJ would have been kind to her last night, but still he worried.

  “What happened to you there, Sarah?” He pointed to her shoulder.

  “A bad-boy shifter mating mark. That’s what happens to a girl when she has sex with a horny werewolf.”

  “Did TJ…”

  “Ryan,” she corrected him. “TJ was pretty upset about it, but he gave me a home remedy, so hopefully it won’t leave a permanent mark.”

  “I’m surprised TJ didn’t try and place his mark on you as well.”

  “He was a gentleman.”

  “Then I must not be a gentleman, Sarah, because I’d like to place my mark right next to that one.”

  Sarah passed him in the small space of the apartment room all the while careful to hold the towel pressed to her body. She opened the one closet she appeared to have and began selecting clothes for the day.

  “Do you mind turning your back while I put my clothes on?”

  “I’m sorry.” Lance bowed his head and was quick to turn around in the other direction and face the gloomy shadows starting to stretch inside from the window. Behind his back he heard the soft, alluring rustle of a woman’s clothes.

  “You know you boys kind of leave a girl at a disadvantage,” Sarah told him as she dressed. To his surprise and profound relief she didn’t really seem to be angry or upset. TJ must have taken good care of her in the night. “I wasn’t expecting to see any of you again. Then TJ shows up outside my work yesterday and I step out of the shower this morning to find you standing in my living room. Is Ryan here as well?”

  “Ryan’s the pack Alpha. With both TJ and me away he can’t leave our land.”

  He heard the whisper of her towel falling away behind him, then the ruffle of more clothes. “I guess I got more than I bargained for on that little vacation of mine,” she commented.

  “I’m sorry. I guess you did.”

  “So Ryan sent his two Betas to come to New York and bring back his woman for him, is that it?”

  “Not at all. His first order after you left was to forbid us to ever pursue you again even though that’s what we wanted more than anything else. TJ defied that order.”

  Sarah gave a laugh. “That sounds like TJ.”

  “I’m sorry we’ve caused so much trouble in your life, Sarah. It is the last thing any of us wanted for you.”

  “You can turn around now.”

  Lance turned, and though the seminude woman he had walked in on was gone, a breathtaking vision stood in her place. She wore denim shorts and a pink pull-over top that hid her bandage. Though her hair was still wet and wild, she was a morning apparition of beauty, and all Lance could do was to think what it might be like to wake up to her every day of his life.

  “Since you’ve come all this way just to see me you might as well stay and have some breakfast,” she told him and was already in the kitchen bringing a carton of eggs out of the refrigerator.

  Lance decided he just might have a chance with her.

  Chapter Twelve

  Two men trying to romance Sarah at the same time was a novel concept after she had spent two years without dating anyone. Of course she’d had the occasional dinner with a male friend, but nothing serious, and most of it depressing. She supposed after her painful experience with her fiancé that she had distaste for the sophistication of city men. Give her rugged cowboys any day, and shivers would run down her spine, and the warm arousal flooding from her belly would make her lose her head.

  These were the reasons she gave herself for having agreed to go out with Lance that Saturday. Lance was attractive. He didn’t smile much, and some women would have considered him too serious. In character the polar opposite of his half-brother, TJ. But he was courteous and graceful to a fault, almost Old World in his outlook on life, and his rough-around-the-edges exterior just accentuated his personality and made him delightful company. In short, she liked spending time with him.

  Then there was that kiss they had shared by the waterfall back in Montana. Perhaps it was only the beautiful setting or the fact that she had been relaxed and feeling good from her week of vacation, but it had been one of her most memorable kisses ever and far too short to suit her.

  Back on the Circle T her initial impression was that if she hooked up with any of the cowboys it would be Lance. She enjoyed the fact that she didn’t have to talk a lot with him and could just be quiet and be herself. Personally Sarah always hated a man who talked too much and stoic, brooding Lance was certainly not that man. The two of them seemed in tune with each other, and she felt comfortable with him, almost as if they had been friends for years and not just two weeks.

  Since she had already promised to be his tour guide when they were back in Montana, she had taken him out to see the sights of the town.

  “Over there on the right is Ellis Island.” They were on the Staten Island Ferry and heading into the Upper Bay.

  Lance took it all in with deep thoughts that were hard to know because he didn’t say anything.

  “And coming up ahead is the Statue of Liberty. That and Ground Zero are the two most popular tourist destinations in the city.”

  It was a warm day and the shorts she had worn with just a light jacket thrown on over her shirt to protect her from the wind proved to be perfect attire. She was leaning against the rail of the ferry, and as she saw the city through Lance’s eyes, it was as if she was seeing it again for first time. She had the distinct feeling this was going to be a nice day, one for the books to remember.

  Once Sarah caught Lance looking at her instead of at the sights, his eyes giving her body a thorough inspection. It was the unmistakable look of pure lust. She pulled her jacket a little tighter around her body against the wind and tried to refocus on the tour.

  But she really didn’t mind. Sometimes it was nice to be desired and recently these shape-shifters had been doing an awfully good job of making her feel just that.

  “We’re not sleeping together tonight,” she warned him as they watched the Statue of Liberty pass in the distance.

  “I didn’t say we were,” he protested.

  “No. But I saw you giving me that look.”

  “What look is that?”

  While she was only being half serious in her scolding of him, the no-sex part she was 100 percent honest about. But the always contemplative Lance was regarding her with concern anyway.

  “Forget it.” She laughed. “Just as long as we understand one another.”

  “I think we understand each other very well, Sarah. I think that’s the reason I came to New York to see you, and probably the reason you agreed to go out with me today.”

  “Yeah, I think so, too.” Sarah looked back out at the Upper Bay and enjoyed the wind as it tossed her hair. Lance was so thoughtful and sincere. He was too cerebral for the average cowboy, and she suspected for the average shape-shifter as well. Yet that’s why she liked to spend time with him.

  TJ came unbidden to her mind, and she sighed when she thought about her lover from the night before. “I think it’s just as well you came along this morning when you did,” she told Lance. “TJ and I were going to have to have a painful talk. We’d already said it all last night, and we were just going to have to say it all again this morning. I’d rather not do the whole hearts-and-tears thing if I can avoid it.”

  “He wears his heart on his shirtsleeve.”

  Sarah smiled, thinking of TJ’s handsome face. Then she became sober when she looked at Lance. “But that’s not like us,” she said. “Our past relationships have toughened us up enough to know where we stand with each other.”

  “You’re right, Sarah.” He sounded confident but at the same time sad and resigned to the inevitable. “We both know that three shifters from my rather traditional wolf pack on the Great Plains can never make a future with a modern girl from New York City.”

 
* * * *

  They rode the ferry back to Manhattan. She asked him what he wanted to see, and since half the day was still left, he told her Coney Island would be nice. They caught the train in midtown and about an hour later were walking the boulevards of one of the amusement parks.

  Since it was said this was the birthplace of the hot dog, Sarah bought them each a foot-long number drowned in an assortment of condiments. Lance was a meat lover and devoured his with abandon, bringing a laugh from Sarah at his hearty appetite.

  To Lance everything still looked just as he remembered it here in the playground of the city, and he got a strong sense of déjà vu, never thinking he would traverse the crowded Boardwalk again.

  “They’ve changed all the advertisements,” he commented as he thought over his last experience here.

  “What?” Sarah clearly didn’t know what he was talking about.

  “They’ve changed all the advertisements for the shows and attractions, but everything else has remained the same.”

  “You’ve been here before?”

  “Yes. But it was a long time ago.”

  “Here I thought I was showing you something new.” Sarah sounded disappointed. “I didn’t know you’d ever been to New York before. I thought none of you cowboys ever got off the ranch.”

  He kept his silence as they continued down the Boardwalk, but Sarah gave him a sidelong glance as if she wanted an explanation. At once he realized he had made a mistake in opening the door to this particular line of conversation.

  “It’s a painful memory,” he told her. “I don’t like to talk about it.”

  She surprised him with what she did next. Not demanding any more words from him or further explanation, she simply took his hand in hers and laced fingers with him, and they continued to walk in silence, the serene sound of the crashing surf on the beach only broken occasionally by the sound of playing children.