by Amelia Jade
“Put what on? This?” he asked, lifting the jacket he held in one hand.
“Yeah.”
“Um, I guess I could,” he said. “If it would make you feel better. I’ll be honest… I mainly just wore it so that I didn’t look horrifically out of place.”
“You don’t feel cold even in this?” She was surprised; the weather was well below freezing and although she knew that shifters didn’t feel cold the same, tonight was cold.
“Not particularly. I mean, I can tell that it’s not the middle of summer, of course. I think, if I were to try and provide a comparison, that I feel like maybe a slightly cooler fall day, something like that?”
“Must be nice,” she muttered. “I’m freezing my ass off over here.”
Braden coughed rather violently.
“Are you okay?” she asked, stopping to turn and look at him. “Are you choking on something?”
He recovered quickly, shaking his head. “I’m fine,” he said just a little too quickly. He was hiding something.
“Oh really? Then what was that all about?”
Braden looked around for way out, but when he didn’t see one he looked back at her. “Um, preventing myself from saying the first thing that came to mind, if you must know.”
“And what was that?” she asked.
He shook his head rapidly back and forth.
Elle crossed her arms. She let her expression remain light, but firm enough that he knew she wanted an answer.
The big shifter sighed. “You really want me to tell you?”
“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t,” she returned.
“Fine. I was preventing myself from saying ‘I certainly hope not.’”
Elle laughed. “That’s right, I’d forgotten you got a nice eyeful of my ass on the ice rink!”
Her comments made him blush, which made her laugh even more.
“Hey, you were the one that wanted to twirl around to show it off for me,” he finally managed to get out.
“That was not the point of it,” she said fiercely, but even Elle could tell that her denial sounded rather unconvincing.
Braden, wisely, just smiled and nodded.
“Okay, let’s go. Enough talk about my rear end. Let’s eat! I’m starving!”
“You and I both.”
They resumed walking. Elle was having a hard time believing that Braden wasn’t cold, but at the same time, she didn’t want to call him a liar. And why, if he was cold, didn’t he put the jacket back on? Finally her curiosity got the better of her. Taking off a glove, she reached out and touched him, placing her palm on his arm.
He jerked slightly at the unexpected contact, but kept walking. Elle, meanwhile, felt the heat from his skin radiating outward, warming her hand almost instantly. Several rather crude thoughts entered her mind in quick succession, but she fought them off, continuing to walk down the sidewalk next to him. Her arm drooped as she considered how amazing being that warm all the time would be.
Before she realized it, she’d found his hand with hers. Almost automatically their fingers interlaced. Elle inhaled sharply at the natural feel to it all, but for some reason that she wasn’t aware of, she didn’t pull her hand back, instead choosing to let it stay in his grip. Braden, for his part, didn’t do a damn thing. He kept walking, his head facing forward. She could see in the set of his jaw though that he was also unsure of the entire situation.
This was the second time now that they had ended up holding hands unexpectedly, and neither of them seemed to know how to react to it.
Screw it, she thought. If it kept happening on its own, then maybe she should stop fighting it and just go with it. After all, they were on a date. What was wrong with holding hands? It was a perfectly natural thing to do.
And besides, I can steal some of his warmth this way!
A sudden thought occurred to her. “How do you deal with the heat?” she asked.
Braden’s shoulders rose and fell. “You’ll notice that we aren’t among the tropics. Or that there aren’t any shifter territories in overly hot or humid areas of the planet.”
Thinking it over, she realized that as far as her knowledge of shifter strongholds was concerned, he was right. None of them were even remotely close to the equator. Most of them were in mountainous or northern climes, like Cloud Lake. Interesting, she’d never considered that before.
“Yeah,” he said, obviously watching her face as she thought it over. “We’re not big fans of the extreme heat. It’s a little oppressive. I much prefer cooler, wetter, hillier areas.” His arms spread wide. “Kind of like Cloud Lake.”
There was an odd note to his words that gave voice to her next question. “You sound almost…I don’t know, surprised, to be saying that?”
He shrugged again, the motion lifting and lowering her hand where they were joined. “Honestly, I didn’t think I was going to like it all that much when I first got here. But, now that I’m here, I don’t find it too bad.”
“There’s a ringing endorsement if I ever heard one. ‘Come to Cloud Lake! It’s not too bad,’” she said with a laugh.
He chuckled alongside her. “Well, I guess when you put it that way it sounds a little worse, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, maybe a tad,” she said, holding up her hand, her index finger and thumb held close so that there was only a tiny gap between them. “Just a bit.”
“Well, there are certain parts of it that are growing on me.” The look that accompanied his words was very direct and made it very clear just what “part” he was referring to.
“I’m glad I can make it a little less painful for you,” she giggled, telling herself not to blush. Which of course meant she blushed thoroughly, falling silent.
They walked the rest of the way to dinner like that, a comfortable silence that neither of them felt the need to break. She was surprised how relaxed it felt, just moving along the mostly empty streets. Something about Braden allowed her to feel at ease with…everything really, while he was around. She wasn’t sure how to interpret it, but she liked it.
The restaurant itself wasn’t overly fancy, which she appreciated, but also wasn’t overrun with screaming children. There was a time and place for such establishments, but tonight she wanted something a little quieter. Someplace they could talk, and the little Italian-style place had a real homey feel to it that was just perfect.
“May I ask you a personal question?” he asked after they were seated and their order taken.
“Uh, sure, I guess? I mean, I might not answer if it’s too personal, but you can go ahead and ask.”
He nodded. “I have to confess as to being curious about your story.”
“My story?” She was confused.
“Yes. You know, who you are, where you’re from, how you ended up with the Institute. Your story.”
“Ah, that story,” she said, sitting back and munching on a bite of the fresh bread that was served with their drinks. It had come with cinnamon butter. Cinnamon butter. She wanted all of it, but that would have been…rude.
“If you don’t want to tell me it’s fine, you don’t have to,” he said, waving the question off.
“No no,” she said. “I don’t mind. It’s not that fancy, truth be told. Sort of a set of circumstances that all came together at once really.”
Braden leaned back in his seat, showing her that he was ready to listen, a piece of bread disappearing equally as quickly in front of him. It was good.
“I grew up poor. My parents scraped and scrimped and cut corners and did everything they could to provide a good childhood for me. It wasn’t until I was in my later teens that I realized just how little we had, and how much they gave up to try and provide me with the illusion that we weren’t that poor.”
She smiled tightly. “Then my dad hit it lucky with the lotto and ran out on my mom the instant he had the money. It wasn’t one of the mega jackpots, but enough that he could get a fresh start somewhere else. I was two weeks away from my sixteenth b
irthday when that happened. And no, he didn’t send me a present.”
The nostrils and eyes of the oversized shifter flared angrily, but he didn’t say anything, not wanting to interrupt her.
She smiled and waved it off. “I’m over it now, though it hurt at the time. I’ll never forgive him, but on that messed-up internal level, I can understand. I get it. I don’t agree, but I can see why he did it. Though if I ever see him again I’m going to break his nose, you can bet on that.”
Braden smiled.
“Anyway, I got a job, started working, all that stuff. Finished high school, but college was absolutely out of the question. So, I just kept working. I got all the free certificates I could, all that sort of stuff, but it was never really enough.” She sucked in a slightly shaky breath. “Then my mother died. That was four years ago. I was lost, had nowhere to go, didn’t really know what to do with my life. I went home, got really, really drunk, and started binge-watching tv. We couldn’t afford cable and internet, but Netflix is a godsend. We had a shared laptop, a really old thing, but it could still run Netflix.”
Elle ran her fingers through her hair, feeling the slight waves she’d imparted to it with her curler, trying not to ruin them as she stress fidgeted. “The next morning, I hit something on the computer to try and get it to play the next episode, and it brought up a webpage. There was a big ad for the Institute. I was drunk, I read it, and I guess I signed up. Got an email saying I was approved, to be at this location on this day.”
Braden was nodding along, the bread long gone. He took a sip of beer now before speaking. “And the rest, I suppose is, as they say, history?”
“Yep,” she agreed. “Went to their facility, was matched with a decent-looking shifter. Boom, baby. First try.” She pondered it all for a moment. “You know, I’m not happy how it went down, or that I signed up, but if I hadn’t, it wouldn’t have given me Gwenevere.”
A brief frown crossed her date’s face before realization dawned. “Gwenevere,” he said, repeating the name. “That’s your daughter’s name?”
She nodded.
“That’s a beautiful name.”
“Thank you. She’s a beautiful little girl. I can’t wait to see how she grows.”
“With you as a mother, I’m sure she’ll blossom into a wonderful human being.”
Elle blushed at the compliment, but was saved by the food. “Ah, dinner!” she exclaimed.
“Yeah, can I ask you another question?” he said as the plates of pasta and meatballs were set down in front of him, and the handmade pizza in front of her.
“I suppose? But make it quick,” she said, gesturing at the food.
“It’s more of a favor, really.”
“What’s that?” She was curious now.
“Don’t judge me while I eat? I’m famished.”
She laughed and picked up the pair of scissors that she was to use to cut the crust. “Only if that’s a two-way street.”
“Done!” he said without hesitation, the first bite disappearing into his maw.
Elle focused on her own food, the two of them eating in silence. There would be plenty more time for conversation post-dinner, she was sure.
***
Braden pulled open the door to the cab as she pulled her coat tighter around herself. She didn’t bother zipping it up, since the walk to her place wasn’t overly long.
“Thank you,” she said at his chivalrous gesture. Elle didn’t need the door opened for her, but she had to admit it was kind of cute, and very fitting with the slightly old-fashioned mannerisms of the shifters, as she’d come to learn. Just watching him maneuver her as they walked on the sidewalk so that he was on the street side between her and the cars had shown her that he was like that. She didn’t mind, as long as he didn’t start to treat her like she was made of glass.
“You are very welcome,” he said with a gesture up the path to her unit. “May I walk you to your door?”
Elle nodded in the affirmative, not objecting as he linked arms with her. The walk was all of thirty feet, but she wasn’t going to turn down the offer of his thickly-muscled and most importantly heated arm.
“Cute place,” he said as they approached the bottom-floor unit.
She snorted, not even bothering to hide it. “They’re all exactly the same,” she said with a gesture around her at the other various buildings that housed the “Women of the Institute” as she guessed they were being called.
All of them were the same, because the shifters who had built them had done so as fast as they could. They were perfectly fine for her needs for now of course, but each unit was one hundred percent identical to the one to the left of it, the right, and above—or below if they were on the second story—of it. No difference. The inside was all laid out the same, same size, same fixtures, same everything. So calling her place “cute” was a bit of a joke.
“Maybe I think it’s the occupant that makes the difference,” he said as they came to a halt at her door.
She leaned against the aluminum siding of the house, looking up at Braden. He was standing no more than two feet away from her, his presence imposing and yet reassuring all at once.
“Maybe,” she said, suddenly aware of their close proximity to one another.
Was he going to try and kiss her? Elle didn’t think so, and she had even less of an idea of what she would do if he did. But the look on his face reflected the sudden tension she felt as well.
“I, uh,” he stumbled, then recovered. “I had a really, really great time tonight.”
She smiled. “Me too. It was good.”
“I’d like to do it again.” There was no hesitation in his voice as he spoke that time.
Elle looked up at him through her eyelashes. “I think that would be nice.”
“Good.”
The two of them just sort of stood around for a second, neither completely sure what to say next. Finally Braden stepped forward and without a word swept her up into a hug.
“I’ll give you a call, and we’ll set something up, okay? I’m busy for the next few days, a lot of work stuff going on, but we’ll definitely arrange something.”
“Okay,” she said meekly, trying not to lose her composure as she leaned into his embrace, feeling the curve and bulge of, well, every muscle in his body basically. His arms were the size of her legs as they wrapped around her shoulders, bringing her tight against his broad chest. Her fingers played gently across the muscles of his back as she hugged him in return. Everything just felt so…solid, like he was made out of steel or something.
The hug continued on for several seconds past what could generously be considered “friendly”, and she knew that sooner or later one of them was going to have to let go. But she didn’t want it to be her. It just felt too good.
Time seemed to come to a standstill as they stood there. Elle could have taken a picture and framed it, it was that perfect. But as usual with all perfect moments, someone had to ruin it.
The door flung open to reveal Laura, the babysitter. “Oh. Ahem, um, hi.” She looked at Elle. “Am I interrupting something?”
Chapter Seven
Braden
He smiled sheepishly at the woman silhouetted in the doorframe, hoping that he hadn’t just put Elle into the crosshairs of another round of gossip. Stepping back from her, he prepared to say his goodbyes, recognizing the end of the evening when he saw it. He’d half hoped that maybe they might just stay outside and talk for a while, though he wasn’t sure she could stomach the cold. Nor did he want to keep her away from Gwenevere for overlong.
Gwenevere. What an adorable name, he couldn’t wait to meet her daughter, though that was going to have to wait for another day. As was…well, anything else.
“I guess—” he started to say, but Elle interrupted him.
“Just hang out here, okay?” she said, patting him on the chest and turning to the other woman. “I just came back to pick something up.” Then, before either of them could say anything, she duck
ed under the babysitter’s outstretched arm and disappeared into the house, leaving him alone with her.
Braden thought he knew her. The face was familiar; he’d seen her around the embassy before with Rachel and Angela, but the name was escaping him. Lauren? Lana? It definitely started with an L. Laura! It’s definitely Laura.
“Hi Laura,” he said politely, trying not to let the situation get too awkward. “Having a good evening?”
She looked at him levelly. “Yes.”
Fantastic. A real conversationalist. This wasn’t going to be a painful wait at all. He smiled in response and just sort of rocked back and forth on his heels in an attempt to kill time. Let her stew on that. He wasn’t bothered by the silence, not all that much at least.
Before he could really let Laura stew though, Elle returned. “Thanks doll, I’ll be back in a bit, I promise. You’re the best!” she hugged her friend and then grabbed his arm, dragging him rather forcefully back down the walkway and out of sight of the door. The protests of Laura were lost in the distance, and when they finally heard the door close, for whatever reason, they both burst out into immediate laughter.
“What was that all about?” he said through the howls, the mental image of Laura’s astonished face enough to renew the peals once more.
“I don’t know. I just…I just, well, she looked so smug at interrupting us, and I mean, I love the girl, but there was no way I was letting her get the upper hand. You know?”
Braden guffawed some more. Eventually he stood up and looked around. “What now?”
Elle considered that for a moment, then snagged his hand with hers and dragged him along after her. “This way!”
He shrugged for a moment, and then let the woman less than half his size pull him along in her wake. It was rather cute, but after a few steps he had caught up and their clasped hands fell more evenly between them. He liked that, liked the way it felt.
Together they walked through the complex. Many of the windows were dark, he noticed. “Not a lot of people up at this hour,” he observed.