He watched her find a blanket and sheets in a small closet. She carried them to the couch and moved as if to make it up as a bed for him, but he met her there and said, “I can do it.”
“Oh.” She looked surprised to see him so close. Her gaze was locked on his chest, then it traveled down his abs to the waistband of his jeans. When she finally looked back to his face, he was charmed to see that her cheeks had darkened with a blush. He very much appreciated his ability to see in the dark, or he might’ve missed that sweet blush. His cock gave a twitch in his jeans. If she looked down again, she’d probably see him getting hard.
“Thanks for this,” he said, gesturing to the couch.
“Yeah. Um, no problem.” She turned and went into the adjoining bedroom, closing the door behind her.
He listened to the noises of her moving in there. The sliding sounds of clothing being removed—she was getting into dry pajamas, probably. And bedding moving to the side, the soft creak of her mattress as she climbed onto it. His cock was heavy and full. He felt like a total perv, turned on simply by hearing her get ready for sleep.
And fuck, he had to sleep in his wet jeans, because the alternative was full nudity, and it was weird enough he’d been naked in her yard. This was going to be an uncomfortable night.
He put down the sheet and blanket, then plopped down. The couch wasn’t long enough for him to straighten out, so he reclined, sitting halfway, his side against the back of the couch.
Cadence’s scent surrounded him, thick and fertile, and he sighed in defeat. The advantage of this was he was too turned on to sleep or even rest, so guarding her tonight should be easy.
Minutes passed. Every now and then, he heard her moving around, as if she was tossing on the bed, trying to get comfortable. Finally, he heard a loud, drawn-out, and frustrated sigh.
“You okay in there?” he asked.
A pause, then she responded through the closed door, “Can’t sleep.”
“Are you worried about Drewson?” Travis asked.
“Definitely. It’s also weird trying to fall asleep with a stranger a few feet away.”
He hadn’t thought of that—how she didn’t know him. He felt like he knew her, because he’d had to watch her from afar for a few days.
“Do you want to come out here and get to know me?” he asked. “Then I won’t be a stranger.”
“Are you flirting with me?”
“If I say yes, will you be mad? Because it’s not that big of a dill.”
She gave a little huff of laughter and he heard her bed creak again. A second later, she opened her bedroom door and stood in the doorway. She had on a long-sleeved tee and a fluffy pair of pajama pants with some kind of pattern on them. He focused until he could make the details out in the darkness. They looked like vegetables—carrots, tomatoes, celery. Cute. And fitting.
“Why is Drewson after me?” she asked.
Travis pulled his legs off the couch and patted the cushion next to him, inviting her over. She didn’t move at first, so he said, “Professional rivalry, it sounds like. This isn’t his first offense.”
“Do you think he’s out there? Tonight?”
“I do.”
“Are you going to have to…fight him or something? I don’t own a gun. I don’t want a gun in my house.”
“You just want peas on earth?” he asked.
“Please. Lettuce be serious.”
That twinkle in her eyes. It was everything. She hadn’t smiled at him yet, but maybe she would.
“I don’t have a gun, anyway.” He gestured to his body. “Where would I hide it?”
She gave his lap a look and let out a hysterical giggle. “Is that a gun in your pocket, or…”
He chuckled. “I’d say it’s more like a big cucumber. I’m really just happy to see you.”
She rewarded him with a smile that would’ve knocked him over if he’d been standing up. He had seen her smiling while working in her garden, but this was the first one she gave to Travis willingly, fully. Then she said, “So, no guns. What does that leave, bare-fisted defense?”
“I’ll beet the bad guy, whatever it takes,” he said lightly. He didn’t want to lie. He wanted to tell her about his mountain lion form. But he also didn’t want to scare her off, and the whole shifter thing was supposed to be a secret.
Unless she’s your mate. Then it doesn’t have to be a secret. The thought struck him with its obviousness. If she was his mate, it would explain a lot. His uncontrollable desire around her. His urge to protect her, no matter what the cost. His yearning to confess everything about himself to her. The way that, even with her hair wild and messy right now, and the shapeless way her pajamas fit over her, she was the sexiest woman he’d ever laid eyes on.
“Do you think he’s going to hurt me?” Cadence asked. “Or is he just after my garden?”
“Hard to say. But I won’t let him hurt you, Cadence.”
She padded over and sat next to him on the couch. Within touching distance. Fuck. Fuck. What had he been thinking, inviting her over to sit so close? He didn’t know how he’d keep his hands to himself. And if she was willing, great. But he was also supposed to be guarding her, not laying her out naked over the sofa and licking every part of her body until she was squirming and writhing and pleading for him to give her his eggplant…
“I’m worried about my plants,” Cadence said. “They won’t understand.”
“Understand?” he asked, struggling to bring himself back to the present moment. It wasn’t hard—Cadence’s concerns were far more important than his cock.
“Ugh, I shouldn’t have said anything.” She looked away and started to get up.
He touched her hand, briefly, and said, “No, I want to hear whatever you have to say.”
“I’m just worried about them because I have a weird connection to them, that’s all. No, I don’t think they’re sentient or whatever. But there’s a bond. And if someone else shows up and messes with them, it’ll hurt both them and me. And I can’t believe I’m telling you this. I never tell people this. I should just shut up now before you start thinking I’m insane.”
This was fascinating. And it gave Travis an opening.
“It sounds like you might believe in magic,” Travis said.
She gave a soft laugh. “I know, I sound kind of bonkers when you put it like that. But I can’t come up with a better explanation for why the plants respond so well to me.”
“I believe in magic,” he said.
Cadence laughed again. “It’s okay, you don’t have to humor me. Most of my former friends think I’m nuts just because I quit my job to move out here. I didn’t even tell them about my relationship to gardening.”
“I’m not humoring you,” he said. “I grew up with magic. I’m…I want to say I am magic, but that isn’t quite right.”
Her voice went hard and she scooted away from him on the couch. “If you belong to some kind of cult, I’m kicking you out right now. I’m vulnerable enough as it is.”
“Not a cult, I promise. I’m the mountain lion,” he said. “The one you saw before.”
“I don’t believe you.” She stood up, and this time he let her.
He sighed, disappointed. He’d thought she was his mate. Did that mean she was supposed to believe him when he told her about his true nature? Maybe he was wrong about the mate thing.
Not wrong, his inner mountain lion said. Just wait.
When he didn’t argue with her, Cadence seemed to be at a loss.
“Are you pranking me because I said I have a bond with my plants?” she asked, her voice sounding small.
“What? No!” Travis stood up, too. “Fuck, I’d never do that. I think your plant thing is awesome. You have a real affinity for it. I’ve watched you for days. You come alive out there.”
“Days?”
Shit. He sounded like some kind of stalker. “It was my job. I’m sorry I ever worked with Drewson.”
She seemed to put it together, though.
“I kept feeling like I was being watched. I never saw anyone, though.”
“My coat blends in with the yellow and brown grasses out there,” he said.
Her expression was a mix of disbelief and puzzlement. “You watched me…as a mountain lion?”
He nodded, then realized she might not be able to see the movement in the dark. “Yeah.”
“And the lion I saw in my garden just now…and you were naked…” She trailed off, finally drawing the right conclusions.
“I can show you now, if you want. I’m not at all dangerous in my cougar form.”
“Oh, no, that’s cool,” she said, backing away.
“I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do,” he said.
She stepped toward him again. One step, then another. Then a third. Until she was standing directly in front of him, her eyes level with his chin. “Why am I so drawn to you?”
“Animal magnetism,” he quipped.
She laughed. “I can’t believe I’m even considering this as a possibility. But fine, show me what you want to show me. It’s easy enough to know if you’re telling the truth or not. You either turn into a mountain lion, or you don’t.”
“True,” he said.
“But are you still you? When you’re a mountain lion—if you can even do this? I don’t need to worry you’re going to maul me or anything?”
“Yep. I’ll still be me. I won’t hurt you. I won’t ever hurt you.”
She gave a nervous laugh. “I truly believe you. But I’m just gonna stand over here in my bedroom so I can close the door if I get scared, okay?”
“Yep.”
He pulled off his jeans. Cadence made a sound of surprise.
“Sorry,” he said. “I don’t want to wreck these pants. They’re the only ones I have here.”
“Yes, of course,” she said, breathless.
He liked to think her breathlessness was due to awe at his amazing cock, but he suspected it was more nerves that she was either about to have a full-grown mountain lion sitting in her living room, or a totally unhinged man who believed he was a mountain lion.
Closing his eyes, he let the shift begin. Cadence gasped, and he guessed it was because of the white light surrounding him, absorbing and giving the energy needed for the shift. That, on its own, showed something magical was happening. Moments later, the shift was complete and he stood in front of Cadence as a lion.
Cadence gaped at him. “I can’t—I didn’t really think—”
She covered her mouth, eyes wide. Not wanting to scare her further, Travis lay down on the floor and rolled onto his back.
“Ha, I’ve played that game with housecats,” Cadence said. “Ooh, look at my belly, don’t you want to pet it, and then yowch.”
Travis gave a little cough of a laugh and rolled back to his stomach. He’d played that “game” with housecats, too. Little assholes.
Slowly, Cadence walked over to him. She reached out, her hand moving as if in slow motion, and touched the top of his head, then his ears. “Incredible,” she murmured.
In his animal form, everything was more intense. Yet it was also clearer, and simpler. This was his mate, right here next to him. He belonged to her—forever. He nudged her hand with his cheek, marking her as if she belonged to him. He hoped, with every fiber of his being, that she truly would be.
After a minute more of Cadence softly touching his head and ears, he stepped away and let his human form return. He stared directly at Cadence as a man, wondering if she could see the raw hope in his eyes. He needed her acceptance, her approval.
“That,” she said, “is the hottest thing I’ve seen in my entire freaking life.”
“Really?” he asked.
“Really. I don’t know why,” she said. “But you, naked, after you’ve just been a scary AF predator. Standing in my living room. I want to kiss you.”
She didn’t need to say anything more. He closed the distance between them and gently grabbed the back of her neck with his hand, tilting her head up so he could meet her lips with his.
Her mouth was warm, sweet. She parted her lips and he took that invitation, sending his tongue forward to taste her more. Fresh. Raw. She gave a soft moan and wrapped her arms around his neck, delving her fingers through his hair.
As the kiss went on, he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. He laid her on the bed and hovered over her. He was naked, but she wasn’t yet. And he really wanted to see all of her so he could worship her body.
“Fuck, Cadence, how I’ve wanted you,” he murmured against her lips.
She answered him by wrapping her legs around his waist and tugging him closer. He felt the heat of her through her pajamas. Too many clothes. He wanted to get her naked—now.
There was a reason he shouldn’t, though. He fought to think through the fog of lust crowding his brain.
The sound of tinkling shards of glass from the kitchen, combined with a subtle change of air pressure, was all the reminder he needed.
Drewson was here.
He pulled back from Cadence with a growl.
“Growly in the sheets, huh?” she asked. “I like it.”
“No,” Travis whispered. “He’s here. Stay down.”
She hadn’t heard the glass—she was human and her senses weren’t as powerful as Travis’s. But she did as he asked, and sank to the floor on the other side of the bed.
“Don’t worry,” Travis whispered. “You’re going to be okay.”
“But what about you?” she whispered.
“I’ll be okay, too.”
All was quiet in the kitchen. Drewson might not be in the house yet.
Travis shifted into his lion form. He could protect Cadence better this way.
Drewson was still outside. Travis heard a muttered curse. Then the unmistakable sound of Cadence’s back door being unlocked.
Travis stalked forward on his large, silent paws until he reached the bedroom doorway. From here, he could see the back door. Drewson had a flashlight—a dumbass mistake, because it meant Drewson’s night vision was fucked. Travis stood silently in the bedroom doorway and watched dispassionately while Drewson swung the beam around the living room.
Then the light landed on Travis. The beam was bright, but Travis’s eyes could handle the change, his pupils shrinking to block out the influx of light. He knew what Drewson must see—a giant cat, with eyes reflecting at him in the dark.
Drewson screamed.
Travis growled.
Drewson spun around and ran. Travis chased him, because it was exactly what was expected, and it would scare Drewson the most. Travis shot through the kitchen and out the back door, then caught sight of Drewson’s back disappearing around to the corner of the house.
Flashing lights lit up the road. Shawna had come through after all.
Hearing Drewson’s screams, Cadence carefully stood up. He was at the front of the house now. Was Travis mauling him or something? She didn’t really think Travis would do such a thing, but she had just met him. Perhaps her instincts were wrong and he was a violent cougar-slash-person?
No. That kiss. She knew him. She didn’t understand why this was, but it reminded her of her gardening. Sometimes, with an odd certainty, a person just knew something on a soul-deep level.
And she knew that Travis was a good person, and that she wanted him in her life.
She was terrified at the idea of Drewson hurting him, but from the sound of Drewson’s panicked yelling, Travis wasn’t in any danger.
Flashing lights lit up Cadence’s bedroom walls, coming from the other side of the curtained window. The police were here? Cadence crept to the window and slid the curtains aside a few inches. Wind and rain whipped the cypress tree in front of her house. Drewson was out there, his dark clothes looking soaked, and flailing as he ran toward an unmarked car with a police light flashing on the top. In the shadows sat Travis, in his mountain lion form. He seemed impervious to the weather. Cadence could only just barely see his profile, and his
eyes reflected the strobe of the police light.
Drewson yelled, “I made a mistake! I shouldn’t have come here! But she sent a mountain lion to attack me—save me!”
Cadence half hoped a real mountain lion would chase him, but when she saw a tough-looking woman climb out of the police car, she knew that an arrest would be even better.
Drewson didn’t resist arrest, just babbled confessions while the officer reminded him of his right to remain silent. Once he was safely in the cruiser—practically crawling in past the officer in his rush to save himself from the “slavering mountain lion,” as he called it—the officer turned and looked directly at Cadence through the window. Then she pointed at Travis and shook her head.
She strode up the rain-slicked path toward the front door, so Cadence hurried to the living room to let her in.
“Hi,” the woman said. “I’m Detective Shawna Arms. We spoke on the phone.”
“It’s nice to meet you in person, Detective Arms,” Cadence said.
“Please, call me Shawna.”
“Thanks. Call me Cadence.”
From her peripheral vision, Cadence saw Travis coming in through the back door—completely naked. But Shawna didn’t seem to care about his nudity and ignored him while he found his jeans on Cadence’s living room floor.
“I just wanted to let you know,” Shawna said, “that I’ve arrested Mr. Drewson. He confessed to cutting off your power and attempting to break into your home. You don’t have to worry about him for quite a while. Maybe never, given that he seems to think you have a pet cougar to sic on him.”
“Thank you,” Cadence said.
“I’d like you to come in tomorrow and give a full report,” Shawna continued, “but this should be pretty straightforward. And Travis,” she said, cutting her gaze to the man who now wore a pair of pants, “you know better than to risk our kind like that.”
“She’s my mate,” Travis said, glancing at Cadence with a grin.
“Well, Drewson isn’t,” Shawna said.
“True. I don’t think he’ll have made the connection, though.”
“Probably not. Just be more careful next time.”
Eat Your Heart Out: A Romance Charity Anthology Page 46