A Shifter's Healing Love

by T. Cobbin

  It was then Danielle realized that Leo was standing in the chilly mudroom in just a pair of shorts, a t-shirt dangling in his hand. The man was partially naked, revealing golden-tanned skin underneath a chest of hair. He had six-pack abs and muscles that look big enough that he could probably lift a small car without a problem. She frowned as something dawned on her—where were his clothes? The shorts he had on looked like the pair she’d washed and placed back in the box. Come to think of it, the t-shirt did too.

  “Where are your clothes?” she asked.

  A slight pink tinge touched his cheeks before he looked down, taking himself in. “Would you believe me if I told you I swam here?”

  She nearly laughed, but he looked so serious she held it in. “You swam here in the sea?” she asked after a pause. Well, duh! What else would he be swimming in?

  Leo shrugged and half his lips lifted in a smile.

  She turned around and headed toward the kettle to make him a warm drink. “You don’t have to lie, you could have just told me you fell out of the boat climbing onto the dock, or even you fell off the dock itself. Swimming in the sea this time of year is just ridiculous. You’d freeze to death.”

  The sudden need to look after this man had her mind and mouth turning over like an engine.

  “If you put your wet clothes in the washer, I’ll have them ready for you in the morning. Would you like a cuppa to warm up? I’m not sure if you remember or not, but as the winter draws near it can be rather cold here at night. You must be cold?” Shut up, woman. You’re rambling, she chastised herself.

  Heat suffused Danielle’s cheeks. Picking up the kettle, she filled it with water and placed it on an oven plate. Striking a match, she was about to light some kindling in the oven burner so the wood would catch, but gasped when Leo blew it out from over her shoulder. He was sure-footed; she hadn’t heard him come up behind her so fast.

  “Don’t worry about firing up the oven, a cuppa can wait ’til morning.”

  “I…I, uh...” she stammered. Wow, his eyes are stunning. The green in his eyes looked similar to a dirty swamp green. The brown flecks in his irises added the dirty look to the green.

  Her lungs burned for air. She hadn’t realized she was holding her breath. Exhaling, she tried to get her frozen brain to work. Danielle stared at his face. He had a strong jawline, and two small dimples appeared on his cheeks when he smiled. His plump lips looked…kissable.

  Oh God! Where had that thought come from? Blinking, Danielle allowed herself another peak down Leo’s body. The t-shirt he wore clung to his pecs, his abs, then petered off just above his crotch. His shorts were tight enough they didn’t hide the quite substantial bulge hidden inside them. Blushing again, she raised her gaze back up to his chest. She hadn’t had sexy thoughts since before…Master.

  The thought of Master was like a cold shower. She instantly felt guilty. This was the first male she’d seen in ages, and she was drooling over the man.

  “I can make you some warm milk?” she offered, finally finding her voice.

  He smiled a pearly white, toothy smile. “Sure, why not?”

  He pulled up a stool at the breakfast bar, which didn’t hide the thick muscles of his thighs and calves. Damn, he must work out a lot. Oh God, I’m staring again. Move, Danielle, the man’s waiting for his drink.

  Quickly, she filled a cup with milk and placed it in the microwave. Not daring to turn around, she kept her gaze on the clock as it counted down.

  “How have you found this place?” Leo asked. Danielle assumed he meant the house. “I know you must like my little island, otherwise you wouldn’t have stayed here for five years. You say very little in your emails, but how have you managed through the winters so far? From what I read before I came here, this winter is supposed to be a bitch. They’re predicting snow is coming in early this year.”

  Danielle turned to answer his question. “It’s not been too bad so far—”

  Beep, beep, beep.

  Twisting back around, she opened the microwave and handed Leo his drink. Geeze, this man was tall. Even sitting down, she still had to look up at him a little.

  “Just how tall are you?” she blurted out without thinking.

  Leo chuckled. “I’m half an inch off seven feet.”

  “Tall enough to be a basketball player then.” Good Lord, there she went again, blurting things out. “Sorry.” Her voice came out quietly as she grimaced. “I suppose I’ve been on my own with just Ollie for so long.”

  Leo smiled. “Don’t worry, I know that feeling. I spent many years here myself before returning to society. I’ll tell you one thing about the city—it’s damn noisy. It took me a good few months to get used to living there.”

  The thought of living in, or anywhere near, a city made Danielle break out in a cold sweat. “You, umm… You aren’t going to fire me for threatening you with a rolling pin, are you?”

  Leo chuckled briefly before stopping. “No, little one, I have no intention of firing you, and besides, you wouldn’t have done much damage with that.” He motioned toward the rolling pin now setting on the kitchen counter. “You’d probably just knock a little sense into my noggin.”

  Relief had her thanking Leo profusely.

  “No need, it’s fine. Now, if you had shot me, that would be another story.”

  “Oh God, no,” she said, shocked. “I placed all the guns in the locked box where they are supposed to be and haven’t touched them since.”

  There were indeed two shotguns and a small handgun in a steel, locked box hidden in the mudroom, but she hadn’t even thought about them since she’d locked them away. She didn’t like the smell or look of those killing machines.

  “I was joking, Danielle. Don’t worry.” He stood and took a step toward her.

  Instinctively, she stepped back before regretting what she’d just done. He isn’t Master, she told herself. Either Leo didn’t notice or chose to ignore it.

  “Well, we can finish this conversation in the morning, because if I remember rightly, small children tend to get up with the sun.”

  “Oh, he won’t bother you, sir. He’s a good boy, although he can be talkative,” she warned.

  “Don’t worry, I quite enjoy a good conversation at breakfast. And I’m sure Ollie will keep it titillating.”

  Danielle gathered their cups and placed them in the sink for washing in the morning. “Have you been around children much then?” she asked, biting her tongue afterward. She really must learn to stop talking.

  “I have friends who have children. I also have the pleasure of being a foster father to one. Her name is Grace. She’s as bright as a button with a mouth that doesn’t stop. I’m sure half the things that she tells me are porkies.” He smiled wistfully.

  “How old is Grace?” Danielle asked.

  “She turned eight this year. I was there when her parents brought her home. She was so tiny I was afraid of dropping her. Her father, Chuck, was my band brother. He was chuffed to pieces with her. He’d show her off to everyone, and believe me, I mean everyone. That man was never seen without his daughter in his arms for nearly a year.” Leo smiled, lost in his memories. “He was a firearms officer with the London swat team. Just after Gracie’s third birthday he was fatally wounded. Since then, I’ve taken over Gracie’s care.”

  Danielle frowned. “What about her mother?”

  Sorrow filled Leo’s eyes. “She died not long after Chuck. The doctors couldn’t find a thing wrong with her. They just said her heart stopped.”

  “Can I ask where Grace is now?”

  Leo’s face lit up again. “She’ll be arriving either tomorrow or the day after. I’m hoping she and Ollie will get on together. Is that okay?”

  Danielle nodded, pleased that Ollie would get to spend some time with another child.

  “Oh, she has a private tutor, her name is Prue. She’s the one who’s bringing Gracie here tomorrow. I think you’ll like her.” Leo looked thoughtful for a second. Danielle watched throug
h her eyelashes as he ran one of his long fingers across his bottom lip. “We’ll have to put her in one of the upstairs rooms.”

  Danielle nodded again. Suddenly her heart thudded a little faster. The house was getting more occupants than she’d seen or heard from in five years. She felt a little panicky inside. But seeing this man in front of her that had taken on a child that wasn’t his and the love he blatantly had no qualms showing for Grace made Danielle’s heart melt, and her panicky feeling subsided. If a man loved a child that wasn’t his this much, he couldn’t be a monster. Right?

  Over the last few years, Danielle had often wondered what the hell she was going to tell Ollie one day about his father. To tell her child he was the product of a rape would be detrimental for sure. All she could hope was that her love would be good enough for her son. She didn’t know if she could ever tell him about his father...whoever it may be. To be honest, she’d never really seen Ollie as having a father; he was hers. But she knew that one day Ollie would ask, and she’d either have to lie to him or tell him the truth. She wasn’t looking forward to that day at all.

  “All the rooms upstairs are clean and ready for occupancy. It’s become a routine, once every couple of days, I clean the rooms before dinner and then downstairs after.” Danielle smiled.

  “I suppose we’d better depart for bed then. I look forward to meeting Ollie in the morning.”

  “Sir, before you go, what would you like for breakfast?”

  Leo stopped in his tracks, he was halfway out of the kitchen heading toward the back stairs leading up. “You’re not here as a maid, Danielle, you don’t have to make me anything.”

  Fear rippled through Danielle. Now that he was back would it mean she and Ollie would have to leave?

  Leo must have sensed her fear, because he quickly added, “Don’t worry.” He paused for a moment. “I seem to be saying that a lot this evening, huh? Anyway, I won’t be kicking you out or anything. This is your home now.” He stared at her. She saw his honesty and breathed out relief.

  “Thank you, sir. I don’t mind making your meals though. I make Ollie and myself meals, so adding a little bit more for you and Grace is no problem at all.”

  “Thank you. Let’s say, whoever gets to cook first wins.” Leo winked, and Danielle couldn’t help but smile. “I wouldn’t call me sir either. Gracie would have a ball with that. I’d never hear the end of it. Leo is just fine.” He chuckled. “And anyway, it makes me feel old.” He bent over, miming himself walking with an imaginary walking stick.

  Heat infused Danielle’s cheeks at his playful manner. “No more sir then,” she said with a small smile. “Goodnight, Leo. And again, I’m sorry about the rolling pin.”

  Leo walked through the doorway leading upstairs. It passed through Danielle’s mind that he hadn’t ducked, even with his height. Come to think of it, the doorframes and doors did seem bigger than the average ones. She watched him make his way up the back stairs laughing quietly.

  Danielle hadn’t realized just how tense she’d been in Leo’s presence until he wasn’t there. Her shoulders slumped as if they’d been carrying a weight on them. Her breathing slowed, as well as her heart. It wasn’t that she was afraid of him, it was that she felt drawn to him. His muscles were easy to see, and his height wasn’t something she could miss. Everything about the man screamed sexy, and fuck me.

  Danielle shook those thoughts out of her head—well, she tried to at least. The sexy man that just walked up the stairs probably had a wife, an ex-wife, as well as a mistress, and for all she knew there was a hidden gaggle of children somewhere to boot.

  Sighing, Danielle switch the lights off and made her way to her room. She followed his scent up the back stairs. Geeze, he smelled so good.

  * * * *

  Walking quickly through his dark bedroom, Leo dumped the spare clothes he always kept in his mudroom for emergencies onto the bathroom floor. How glad he felt to have kept clothes in the mudroom trunk, because it would have been really awkward meeting Danielle in the buff.

  Crap! That reminded him, he’d have to creep back downstairs later and add some of his clothes he kept here in the washer wet, so she didn’t think he was a liar. Well…he had been lying of sorts, because he didn’t exactly tell her he hadn’t fallen off the docks.

  Wet. Both he and his gorilla had one lustful thought between them—Danielle wet and ready. The thought had Leo’s cock thick and engorged, ready to plunge inside her sweet pussy. He would have called himself a pervert if it hadn’t been for one thing—Danielle was his mate! Being in her presence without pouncing on her had been hard as hell. She was his mate, the one who was meant to be. His gorilla knew as soon as he entered the mudroom. It had gone crazy and struggled against his human half, trying to get out and make her his.

  The first glimpse he caught of Danielle was when the kitchen door had been jerked open. It had surprised him, because he hadn’t even heard a sound on the other side of it, let alone noticed a house light had been on from the outside. But then he been preoccupied after belting his shin on the damn ride-on. His own stupid fault for buying it. With the light behind Danielle’s petite figure, it made her shine like an angel, and then as her scent filtered through his senses his cock hardened and he too knew as well as his gorilla that she was his mate.

  Once the mudroom light had flickered on, and his eyes adjusted, the sight of the small female standing there with a rolling pin in the air was both cute and strangely alluring. She barely reached his chest. And even if she was to reach up to hit him with the wooden weapon, it would just bounce on his hard head, not leaving so much as a bruise.

  He had immediately noticed her scent. Every emotion had a scent, and what he had smelled from her had been fear, and it had continued for the entire time he had spent with her. At first he understood, being he’d just scared her shitless by turning up unannounced in the middle of the night. But as they sat talking over warm milk, not once did her fear dissipate.

  When she spoke, she lowered her eyes to the floor. She hardly looked at him. However, he did notice that she discreetly skimmed her gaze down his body a couple of times. He enjoyed her eyes being on him. He had only caught a few quick glimpses of her brilliant lavender eyes. And they were guarded by such sorrow it broke his heart a little. It was the kind of sorrow that someone held deep in their soul. What had she gone through to seek such solitude, especially pregnant and then a mother? Who had scared or frightened her so much for that horrified look to appear in her eyes?

  Turning on his shower, he was once again reminded of the work he’d had done on the house after his father had given it to him. The house was old and barely had the basic amenities. First, he’d had electricity installed, and then, after bumping his head one too many times on the top of the damn doorframes, had every single one in the house heightened. That had cost a pretty penny, but it had been worth it. He’d also had someone install indoor plumbing as well as electric showers. He was a warm-blooded shifter, but an ice-cold shower each morning as well as going outside to pee, wasn’t his thing.

  The kitchen was the only room he had really updated, although he did keep the wood burning stove. He’d also kept the boiler at the back of the fireplace, because it worked fine, and apart from the showers, it supplied hot water to the rest of the house.

  The water warmed under his fingers, although peeking down his body to his rock-hard cock, he knew he should probably take a cold shower. His thoughts drifted back to Danielle. The scent of fear that emanated from her made it obvious that something bad had happened in her life. Something so bad that five years on it still affected her so much that being around a man had her shaking in her metaphorical boots. He knew that telling her about his gorilla, and that she was his mate, wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. But shit, he’d done other things a lot slower in his life than getting to know her.

  Chapter 3

  That night Leo slept with his windows wide open. He enjoyed listening to the peace of the island and house. He did
n’t miss the noise of the constant traffic from the city center, the late-night revelers, the fumes, or the sirens from the city’s emergency vehicles. It was peaceful enough that he slept longer than he’d ever done in the city. It was an adorable child’s giggle that had him opening his eyes and fully awakening from his sleep stupor.

  His thoughts immediately drifted to Gracie. He couldn’t wait to see her again. Even a day apart from the child made him feel the loss of not seeing her. Even in the city when he worked well into the night and early mornings he always made sure to spend a few hours with her before or after her lessons. She’d become such an intricate part of his life since her parents’ death. He couldn’t imagine his life without her now.

  Leo lay in bed for five minutes listening to both shushing noises and then giggles. He could hear Danielle telling her son to be quiet, but he could tell she was losing the battle because the child kept laughing.

  Sitting up, Leo rubbed his hands over his face. He felt better than he had in months. He hadn’t realized how much the city had been dragging him down. Sliding his legs from underneath the covers, he placed his feet on the floor and stood.

  Fifteen minutes later, after getting dressed and doing all the usual morning stuff, he was walking down the back stairs toward a very lively kitchen. As he stepped off the last step, he was met with instant silence, before a grimacing Danielle started apologizing profusely.

  “Oh God, I’m so sorry. I tried to keep him as quiet as possible. I was even about to take him outside.”

  Leo held a hand up in the air to halt any more apologies and smiled. “For the first time in weeks, maybe months, I’ve had the best night’s sleep, and waking up to a happy child makes me more than happy. I miss Gracie already. I can’t wait ’til she gets here.” He walked behind the small boy and ruffled his hair. “And your laugh, young man, is very infectious.”

  “Ollie, do you have something to say to Leo?” Danielle asked her son as Leo made his way to the coffee machine. He popped in a capsule before turning back toward Ollie and his mother.