Tempting Tabitha

by Tianna Xander

  It was a wonder she still had to look up at him while wearing the heels. Normally, she stood at least eye level with men while wearing heels. That was the main reason she chose to wear sneakers everywhere while in her human form, other than the fact that they were more functional than high heels.

  “Thank you.” She accepted the compliment with as much grace as she could muster. She wasn’t used to people complimenting her, especially men. Spending most of her life as a cat had made associating with other people difficult and a bit nerve-wracking.

  Should she compliment him as well? Tabby bit her lip, wondering if that was the right thing to do or if it would make her look stupid.

  “You always look good, too.” Her face burned when he grinned at her and then winked.

  “Thank you.” He gestured to the table. “Would you like breakfast?”

  “Yes, thank you.” She glanced toward the table and then back to Deno. “Do you need me to help?”

  “Help?” He chuckled. “Nope. It’s not like on Earth where I have to cook everything. Here, it’s just a push of a few buttons and everything’s on a tray and ready to eat.” He pulled a heavily laden tray from the replication device and gestured to the table. “Let’s eat.”

  He set the tray down, and she helped to set the identical plates full of food on the table. Her eyes widened when she saw the ham, bacon, sausage, eggs, toast, and hash browns on each of the plates. Two other plates had six silver dollar-sized pancakes. How much did he think she could eat?

  Closing her eyes, Tabby took another deep breath and refused to think with so much negativity. She had to let go of any preconceived notions she had about the man.

  “Wow, this is a lot of food.”

  “Not really.” He shrugged. “My brothers and I can eat three times this much. I wasn’t sure how much you could eat, and I figured I could eat whatever you can’t. Besides,” he said with a grin. “I have no idea what kind of stuff you like for breakfast, other than French toast. I figured if I covered a few of the bases, I might hit at least one.”

  That made sense, and he wasn’t obnoxious as she had first thought. At least she’d talked herself down before she’d made a scene and an ass of herself.

  “Have a seat.” He said the words in her ear. It surprised her as she hadn’t seen him move. “Let me get your chair.”

  He held the chair for her as she sat. Every nerve ending in her body hummed as he stood behind her. Then, after she settled in her seat, he rested his hands on her shoulders, bent, and pressed a light kiss against her cheek.

  “You smell delicious.” He took a deep breath before he straightened and moved to his seat on the other side of the table.

  “I think it’s breakfast you’re smelling, but thank you anyway.” Her cheeks burned at the intense look he gave her.

  What was he thinking? Everything he said, every look he gave her was different than any he’d given her in the days before. An intensity filled his eyes in a way she’d never seen. At least, not from him.

  “No. It’s you.” He waved his hand over the food in front of them. “The smell of this pales. No,” he paused and shook his head. “The scent of anything pales to your natural aroma.” He closed his eyes and took another deep breath and then let it out on a low growl.

  His eyes almost glowed when he opened them and stared at her, making her squirm in her seat.

  Tabby met his gaze, her trembling fingers hovering over her fork. She was a shapeshifter. She could turn into lions and tigers and bears. Why did that look of pure animal magnetism of his reduce her to a trembling bundle of nerves? She didn’t feel like a tiger or lion. At the moment, she felt like a mouse caught in the terrifying, predatory gaze of a big cat.

  Chapter Twelve

  Deno sat across from Tabby and waited for her to pick up her fork. Had he misjudged her and she wouldn’t eat any of the items he’d replicated? He hoped not. As much as he liked to eat, he didn’t have the time to eat everything on the table. His father had pressed him into service aboard the ship.

  He needed to help his brothers with a more permanent repair of the ship after breakfast. A repair that would allow them to utilize the cabins that the meteor strike had damaged. They would erect a force field over the compromised section of the hull and effect their repairs while still in transit to Earth.

  His father had even gone so far as to slow their speed more than their damaged engines required so they could do most of the work before they reentered Earth’s atmosphere. It was his way of making sure his sons didn’t skip out on the work. It was a ploy he’d used before and often.

  “Thank you for preparing this.” Tabby stabbed a waffle with her fork and placed it on her plate with a bit of syrup. She took a bite and closed her eyes. “I love waffles.”

  “I’m sorry you had to live as a cat for so long.”

  “Why should you be sorry? It wasn’t your fault.” She took another bite and closed her eyes. “These waffles are so good. You’d better claim yours or I might eat them all.”

  “Go ahead. I can always make more.” He wouldn’t need more to eat if she ate all the waffles, he was sure she wouldn’t eat any of the eggs or toast.

  “Can I have some of that sausage?” She indicated the plate at his elbow. “I always loved sausage with a little maple syrup on it.” She placed the small piece of meat on her plate in a dab of leftover syrup and cut off a bite. “What’s the matter?” She stopped eating and set her fork on her plate, placing her hands on the table in front of her. “Am I eating too fast?”

  “No.” He shook his head and scooped up a bite of the eggs he didn’t remember spooning onto his plate. “There’s nothing wrong, and you’re not eating too fast as far as I can tell.”

  He turned his attention to his plate, hoping she would do the same with hers, and continue to take sustenance.

  “What do you plan to do today?”

  “Me?” She shrugged. “I don’t know. I might hang out with my sister if she’s not with your brother.”

  “She won’t be.”

  “How do you know?” She tilted her head. “I’d think they would be spending almost all their time together planning their wedding.”

  “Well, for one thing, Xeno would rather get run over by a semi, twice, before he got roped into planning a nuptial event.” He grinned. “And for another, our father has taken it upon himself to press his six sons into service while we’re aboard his vessel.” He continued at her questioning look. “He wants us to effect a more permanent repair on the ship before we reach Earth and go back to our lives. To tell you the truth, he’s even gone to some lengths to make sure we get everything done before we get home.”

  “How has he done that? Aren’t we almost back to Earth already?” She frowned. “I don’t know much about astronomy, but I’m pretty sure we passed Saturn this morning, and with how fast this ship can fly, it seems as though we should be home by sometime tomorrow.”

  “We probably would have been had he not slowed down. Now that he’s cloaked the ship, he can hang out in space near your planet indefinitely.”

  “Great.” She closed her eyes with a sigh. “I was hoping...”

  She didn’t finish her sentence, but Deno had a good idea what she’d been about to say.

  “You were hoping we’d get back to Earth soon so we wouldn’t have to spend more time in each others’ company.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I didn’t mean that. I just... It’s difficult for me to live in such close quarters with anyone. Even when I stayed with Charly, she went to work every day, and I had the apartment to myself. She’d also let me outside when I scratched at the door, or I’d crawl out an open window.” She pushed her plate away and sat back. “You have to understand. I’m not used to staying in such a confined space with so many people.”

  “Not many people would consider this ship a confined space. What you saw on the planet’s surface was only the boarding platform of the ship. It’s much larger than it appeared from the outsi
de. Most of the ship was cloaked. It was the smaller boarding area that was covered by the tree branches and brush.”

  “Oh.” She took a sip of her milk. “It still feels small, and that’s enough, I guess.”

  “I’m sorry you feel confined.” Deno clenched his fists under the table. Would she ever feel comfortable around his family, around him?

  Would he ever be able to live down the horrible way he’d treated her when they first met?

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “Isn’t it?” Appetite lost, he stood and started clearing the table. “Aren’t you really saying that you want to go back because you don’t feel comfortable around me because of the way I treated you when we first met?”

  “No.” Standing, she sighed and grasped her plate. “I’d be lying if I said that had nothing to do with it. But it’s not that. It’s mostly not that. I let that go. I thought we both let that go last night.”

  “It’s easier for you. You’re not the one who was in the wrong. I was the one who was an ass. It’s a little bit more difficult for me to say, Sorry. My bad. It doesn’t work that way for me.” He ran his fingers through his hair and spun around.

  He placed the dirty dishes in the replicator and turned around to clear more from the table.

  “Here. You put these in that contraption.” Tabby handed him her plate and fork. “And I’ll get the rest of the dishes off the table.”

  Deno accepted the dishes and placed them with the others. He closed the door, pressed the clean icon on the console, and waited for the dishes to disappear.

  “That thing is awesome,” Tabby said as she moved up beside him. “I think there should be one of those in every home. Why haven’t you and your brothers reverse engineered it and made a fortune with it?”

  “Because the technology is still way too advanced for any of us to explain how to make it, and once it was on the market, someone would try to take it apart and see how it’s made, so they could make and sell their own.” He took the rest of the dishes from her and placed them in the unit for cleaning. “There are a few crystals and at least two metals that no one has discovered yet.”

  “What do you mean, discovered? Haven’t we discovered all of the metals there are to discover on Earth?”

  “Yes, and no. As soon as your people discover a few more base elements, and those elements are there just waiting for someone to find them, they will have uncovered a way to make the new metals and crystals needed.” He smiled at her look of confusion. “It’s not as complicated as it sounds.”

  “But how would they make crystals?”

  “How do they make lab-created rubies or sapphires? Your scientists would create them in a lab with the currently undiscovered elements.”

  “I thought we’d discovered all of the elements there were to discover.”

  “Nope. You’re missing about forty elements, give or take, from your periodic table, according to our version of it. And one thing we’ve discovered in our travels is that, for the most part, the majority of planets with carbon-based life forms have the same or very similar base elements.”

  “I didn’t know that.” She lifted her chin as though she thought he’d said she was less than intelligent.

  “How could you? No one on your planet would unless they’re alien to Earth or knows an extra-terrestrial. I wouldn’t expect anyone from your planet to be aware of any of this.” He grasped her shoulders and stared deep into her eyes. “Don’t assume I think less of you because of it. Give me credit for being less of an ass than that.”

  Would he never be able to convince her that he was truly sorry for the abominable way he’d treated her that first day? She said she’d forgiven him but Deno wasn’t quite sure she had. He should have known better. Much like his twin, he tended to screw things up beyond all recognition. This time, he’d made a collosal mess of things and there was no way to make it right. His chest ached with the knowledge that he would never be good enough for her. Perhaps he should just let her go and give her the opportunity to find a male who was worthy of her.

  “You know what?” He dropped his hands from her shoulders and turned away. “Maybe this was a bad idea, after all.” He checked his watch. “I have to meet my brothers and help them with the repairs. When I’m done with that, I’ll pack up a few of my things and move in with my younger brothers. You can keep my room until we either repair the hull enough to utilize those compartments or until we reach Earth.”

  He should have known better. Much like his twin, he tended to screw things up beyond all recognition. This time, he’d made a colossal mess of things, and there was no way to make it right.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Tabby watched as Deno left the room. He didn’t look back until he got to the door. He gave her a half smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes and then rounded the corner out of sight leaving the door open behind him.

  “Well, you blew it, just like you knew you would.” She sighed and plopped back into her chair and rested her chin on her hands.

  “You really need to learn how to get along with bipeds,” Charly entered through the open door.

  “You don’t have to tell me.” Tabby closed her eyes and sighed. “I don’t know what I did. I guess I said something to set him off.”

  “What did you say?”

  “That’s just it. I don’t know. We were talking about the replicator, and I asked him why they haven’t built them and sold them on Earth. He said something about metals and elements we haven’t discovered, and somehow things escalated to him saying he’d pack his bags and move in with the younger twins. I’m not sure what the heck happened.”

  “He’s still feeling guilty.”

  “I got that. I just don’t know why he thought I was throwing what he said back in his face.” Her eyes burned with unshed tears. She stared down at the table, unable to meet her sister’s gaze. “Last night we agreed we’d start over and pretend we’d just met. Things were so...” She shook her head. “They were so good last night. We sat on his loveseat, watching a movie. He even held my hand, and I’d rested my head on his shoulder. I thought—” She choked back a sob. “I thought we were getting along.”

  “Oh, honey.” Charly bent and wrapped her arms around her. “He’ll come around. I know he will. Let’s just sit in the dining area and talk with the rest of the women. We can stay there and wait for the guys to come back for lunch.”

  “I don’t think—“

  I’m not taking no for an answer.” Charly grasped her arm. “You spend way too much time alone as it is.”

  “Okay, okay. I’ll go.” Tabby knew she was right but didn’t acknowledge it. She let Charly drag her from Deno’s cabin and down the cooridor to the mess deck.

  “Now,” Charly said as she plopped into a seat. “Let’s get something sweet and talk about what happened between you two.”

  “No, thanks. I never should have let you drag me here. I should go back to the cabin and try to figure out what it was I said that made Deno think I was being a bitch.”

  “You probably didn’t say anything.” Sela, Ceno’s mate, sat across from her and smiled, her mocha complexion contrasting perfectly with her light pink dress. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I was just passing by to take care of my dishes.” She set the tray she’d been carrying on the table. “It’s been my experience, when a man, any man...” She rolled her eyes toward her grandfather, who sat watching something on the screen. “And I do mean when any man does something wrong, they tend to get very sensitive about anything we might say to them.”

  “Isn’t that the truth?” Birgit sat beside her, her red hair falling over her shoulders. “I can’t tell you how many times Reno has gone out of his way to blame himself repeatedly for some tiny infraction that he seems to think is the end of the world.” She laughed, her blue eyes sparkling with mirth. “For instance, one day, he was preoccupied with a customer’s SUV, and he forgot to open my door when we got into the car. The man was beside himself because, in t
heir culture, it’s an insult to both the female and his family line.” She pursed her lips. “I can only imagine the mental beating that Deno is giving himself after what he said to you.”

  “Not to mention what his brothers and dad have said to him.”

  “What do you think they said?” Tabby met Sela’s greenish-brown gaze and pressed her lips together.

  “I have no idea, though it couldn’t have been good. What I do know is that they consider all females a gift from the goddess. Treating us well is practically a religion to them. What Deno said to you that first day is almost considered a sacrilege. As a matter of fact, he was sporting a bruise under his eye and a slight limp the day after. It’s a good thing they heal fast, or he’d probably still be hurting.”

  “Oh.” Tabby bit her lip. She wasn’t sure what she thought of that. She’d often entertained the idea of beating the crap out of him herself, but finding out that someone else might have done just that made her feel... angry somehow.

  How dare they? How dare they hurt him. They had no right.

  Wait.

  They had every right to do whatever their culture demanded. She had no say and no claim on him. In fact, she’d gone well out of her way to let everyone think she had no intention of laying claim to the handsome alien.

  “I didn’t know that.” How could she have? She’d been holed up in her cabin most of the time, refusing to give Deno the time of day. When what she should have been doing was getting to know him and his culture.

  “Well... You kind of have to try to get to know people to be in the loop.” Charly rested her hand on Tabby’s shoulder. “I realize you probably don’t want to hear this, but even though you’ve been in your human form, you’re still acting like a cat. You’ve been aloof and keeping to yourself and basically avoiding people.” She sighed. “Honey, you can’t do that as a human. You have to interact with people. If you don’t, you’re going to be very lonely. I don’t want that for you.”

  Tabitha didn’t want that for herself either, but how could she overcome a lifetime of habit? As a child, she’d kept to herself as a necessity. As an adult, she’d continued the habit to keep her cat from becoming the prey of bigger animals, cruel people, and animal control officers.