by Thorne, Elle
After a quick cab ride to the hotel, Rafe gave directions to the front desk, then turned around to bid farewell to Jax’s worn out, jet-lagged parents.
“Can we see you tomorrow? The cruise ship doesn’t leave until two.”
Rafe glanced at Jax.
She looked shell-shocked.
Seeing that she wasn’t going to respond, he did. “Sure.”
“Ten o’clock?” Beth pushed forward, clearly oblivious to her daughter’s state of mind.
Rafe nodded.
He and Jax left her parents and went out the luxury hotel’s double doors. He held the cab door open for her and gave the driver the address to her apartment, as that was where he’d left his car.
She’d been quiet the whole time he’d made arrangements for her parents’ room and for their luggage. It was as if she was elsewhere, somewhere far away. He didn’t to talk while they rode in the cab, but he had some questions for her.
Rafe began to second-guess what he thought they’d shared earlier, that was how remote she was.
But during the twenty-minute drive, the change happened. He noticed it, though it was gradual. It began with her pulse then her scent signaled the change. She was changing. Her mood was changing. Her vital signs signaled a growing difference in her.
As soon as they were both out of the cab, she turned to him. “Thanks for your help tonight.” She took a step toward the stairs leading to her place. “I owe you.”
What the hell? What was this about?
Chapter Nine
Jax ran up the stairs as quickly as she could. She could feel his gaze on her, feel him watching her all the way up. She felt self-conscious at first, the way she sometimes did, about her ass, her figure. Then, quickly, she nudged those thoughts away, pushed them back. She wasn’t going to let her mother’s jabs about being heavy get to her. She loved her curves. She’d grown to love them.
Her keys didn’t want to cooperate, leaving her fumbling, and, with every second that passed, her palms grew sweatier and her fingers more uncooperative.
And she knew Rafe was still there, at the bottom of the steps, watching her.
Finally.
She opened the door, slipped inside, and practically slammed it shut. Then she leaned her back against it. She was out of breath, as if she’d been running from a predator.
A loud yell greeted her.
Scotty. Cheering about some damned kill he’d just made on his video game. Headphones on, he hadn’t even noticed she’d arrived.
The damned place smelled like he’d doused it in Jack Daniel’s. She flicked the light on.
Finally noticing he wasn’t alone, he pushed one of his earphones aside. “Hey, babe.”
“Hey.” Was he not even worried she hadn’t come home right after closing the café? Had it crossed his mind something could have happened to her on the way home and that was why she was so late? She shook her head.
“Bring anything to eat?”
She looked at him like he’d lost his mind and rolled her eyes.
“What?” He patted the cushion next to him on the couch. “Come.”
Jesus. He was a fucking Neanderthal. One-word sentences.
“I need to do some work. Think you can keep it down?” She took out the laptop.
“Sure.” He pushed the earphone back in place and turned his attention back to his game.
A second later he roared a cheer.
This wasn’t going to go well.
Another yelling cheer.
It wasn’t going to go well at all.
Less than an hour later, Jax was packing up her laptop. “I’m going back to the café,” she told Scotty.
“Why?” The word was slurred, courtesy of his Jack.
You won’t shut the fuck up. She bit that back. “I need a bit more quiet.”
“Okay, babe.” He turned back to his game.
She was starting to hate the word babe.
Then he yelled over his shoulder, “How about a quick blow job before you go?”
She squeezed the laptop in frustration. A set of dark-blue eyes crossed her mind. I bet he doesn’t treat his girlfriend like this.
Then a pang of jealousy that was so much more than a pang coursed through her.
She hated the thought that somewhere out there, Rafe, Rafael, or whatever he wanted to be called, was cuddled with a girl and giving her all his attention.
She turned to look at Scotty before she shut the door behind her.
He wasn’t even going to offer to walk her to the café.
* * *
A few yards down the street, on the roof of the building across from Jax’s place, Rafe leaned against the stucco wall.
At times, he cursed his shifter hearing. This was one of those times.
He was too close to not hear her exchange with Scotty. When Scotty asked her for a blow job and then didn’t offer to make sure she arrived at the café safely, Rafe clenched his hands into white-knuckled fists.
The fact she had to leave well after midnight and go to another location several blocks away in order to do her homework, when all Scotty had to do was quiet his ass down, set Rafe off.
She locked the door, pulled a beret onto her head, and went down the stairs. Crossing the street quickly, she glanced both ways, but never bothered to see if she was being followed or if anyone on the street might be a threat.
That only served to heighten Rafe’s ire with her boyfriend. The dickhead didn’t deserve her.
Rafe followed her all the way to the café. He made sure he heard the door lock and that she was safely ensconced inside before he decided he couldn’t just let this happen.
And he had absolutely no qualms about using his shifter skills to take care of business.
Unfair advantage, my ass.
He made his way to her apartment quickly because he didn’t want to be gone from her for long.
Rafe shifted into his tiger, slid through the maze of narrow streets and cobbled alleys, past the old churches and newer buildings. He stuck to the shadows, jumping to rooftops and balconies, and used the occasional bougainvillea and lack of moonlight as camouflage. Less than five minutes later, he bound up from the ground level directly to the second-story landing of Jax’s apartment.
Rafe shifted into his human skin but didn’t bother knocking. He already knew her boyfriend would have headphones on and wouldn’t hear the knock. He shouldered the door open.
A woman jumped up, topless, from the couch next to Jax’s boyfriend. She screamed when she saw Rafe.
What the fuck?
He hadn’t counted on this.
He sneered. This made what he had to do so much more justified.
Blonde, frizzy-haired, black mascara flaking to her cheeks, the woman stared at him, open-mouthed.
“You need to go,” Rafe told her. When she didn’t move, he added, “Now.”
She grabbed her shirt and ran out the door.
“Babe, where are you going?” The lump of human waste that Jax called a boyfriend raised his head above the couch’s back.
Rafe watched him, disbelieving. This asshole hadn’t taken long to replace Jax for whatever it was he needed.
“Who the fuck are you?” He stood up, zipping his pants.
“Don’t worry about it. You’re moving out.”
“The hell I am.” The lump’s nasal voice was whiny and pathetic. “I have nowhere to go,” Scotty said. “This is my home.”
“This is Jax’s home. And you’re moving out. I’m sure you don’t want to explain the blonde to her.”
“She wouldn’t believe you.”
Rafe didn’t want to spend another moment arguing with this idiot. He used his shifter speed to rush the moron and pushed him against the wall.
With his forearm against the other man’s throat, Rafe gave him his options. “You’re leaving. It’s just a matter of whether you do it on your own two legs or not.”
Rafe stepped back, took his wallet out, and removed enough cash to
provide the other man with airfare out of the country or a down payment on an apartment.
Scotty’s eyes went wide when he saw the cash. He took it from Rafe’s hand.
“There’s no returning,” Rafe told him. “Ever.”
“Just give me time to pack.”
“You have two hours. Get your game system and your shit and leave her a note.”
Rafe slipped out without a backward glance and traced his way through the merrymakers who still roamed around the tourist outskirts of town.
He had one thing on his mind: getting back to the café and making sure Jax was safe for the rest of the night while she finished her coursework.
Chapter Ten
Jax lifted her head. Damn. She’d fallen asleep. Something had woken her up.
The dream.
It was always the dream. The white tiger with the dark-blue eyes. She’d had that dream for as long as she could remember. It wasn’t a scary dream, quite the opposite. She’d wake up and be lying next to the white tiger while it protected her, fur soft, body muscle-bound, eyes a glittering darkness of indigo.
Then she remembered and became angry. Why did her mother have to bring it up all the time? It was like being reminded you’d had a crazy episode long after you’d recovered. That was how her mother made her feel about it. Like she was crazy for having the dream.
When she was almost twenty, Jax had finally gone to see a psychic. A fact her father didn’t have to bring up—thank you very much. She shouldn’t have told them anything about it, really. When would she ever learn?
The psychic had told her that her life would be tied to a tiger. A white tiger. That was all the psychic would say.
Maybe I’ll meet someone with a white tiger tattoo.
She felt a warmth on the back of her neck and touched the spot where she had a tattoo. Nothing there.
Oh well.
She shrugged and looked at the time on the laptop’s monitor.
There was drool on the table. And on the side of her face. Ew. It was cooling and left her with a nasty feeling on her cheek. She wiped it off with a beverage napkin.
Five thirty? She stared out the full-length windows. Dawn was definitely on the way.
Oh, God. How had she fallen asleep sitting up? She glanced at the document on her computer, determined that it was as ready as it was going to get, and sent the assignment to her professor. Now she had a few hours before she had to meet her parents. She needed a nap. In a bed.
Ugh.
Scotty was probably still playing. Oh, well, she could close the door to the bedroom, and, hopefully, that would muffle enough of his noise.
She could smell herself. Oh, yeah, she needed not just a nap but a shower, too. For sure.
Jax checked her sent folder to make sure the document had made its way out. She verified it was there, closed the laptop, locked up, and began her trek home.
She unlocked her apartment door with one thing on her mind, and only one thing. Her bed.
The first thing she noticed was the quiet. Completely silent. Scotty must have passed out early. She looked over the back of the couch and found it empty.
She went to the bedroom. Empty. The whole place was empty.
Then she saw it: his gaming system was gone. After that, she noticed the still-open drawers in the dresser. They were all empty.
He’d moved out?
She was too tired and too over it—over everything—to feel anything but numb. She set the alarm clock on her bedside table and plopped onto the bed.
* * *
Jax ran inside the hotel, a huffing, puffing mess, but at least she’d gotten a couple of hours of sleep and a shower. It was ten o’clock, right on the money.
Why do I still care so much if I’m a moment late? How can that bother me so much?
She wasn’t going to psychoanalyze her flaws and how she’d always failed her parents.
Her grades were Bs instead of As.
Her boyfriends were never the right kind.
Her hair was always the wrong color when she put highlights in it.
Her nails were too red, her laugh too loud, and her tattoos too plentiful—and she only had three. You’d have thought her entire body was covered in ink.
Her mother gave her a peck on the cheek. “Where’s Rafael?” was the first thing she asked.
Not “How are you?” or “Did you finish your paper?” Not anything else.
“Not here.” Jax fought to keep the hostility from her voice.
I will not compete with a stranger.
The weirdest question came to her mind. Maybe one day she would ask it. Do you love me? Or do you love me for what I can be that’s a reflection of you?
“Your dad’s nervous about getting to the ship on time.” Jax’s mother laughed, seeming a bit on edge. “We’re going to get a quick breakfast and then go that way.”
Her parents turned toward the front desk, talking to the attendant.
Jax sensed him before she saw him—a tingle caressing her skin the way a balmy breeze would. It was a warm sensation, comforting, but, at the same time, it had an electric charge that felt as if she’d put a vibrating dildo straight on her clit.
Shit. I did not just think that.
Heat rose to her cheeks. What the hell? She was standing with her parents. She couldn’t think sexual thoughts around them.
Rafe.
A surge of adrenaline followed the tingle and drove through her like a locomotive. The adrenaline was more powerful than the time she’d gone swimming in the Gulf. She’d jumped off of the charter boat and was enjoying the warm water. And then…
Hell broke loose.
She’d seen two fins in the water. Big fins. Scary fins.
She couldn’t move fast enough, but, at the same time, in the back of her mind she kept thinking somewhere she’d heard that splashing attracted sharks.
She remembered the way the adrenaline had made her feel.
That sensation had nothing on what she experienced right now, seeing this man in the daylight. His hair coal black, as black as her own. His eyes a brilliant, mysterious dark blue.
A face that still belonged on a Greek god, even in the morning’s revealing light.
Ugh.
The morning’s revealing light.
She thought of her own face. The dark circles she’d seen there this morning when she’d stepped out of the shower.
“Sorry about the delay.” Rafe put his hand on the nape of her neck and pulled her close.
It was like a stun gun had touched her when he put his fingers there.
He felt it, too. She knew because his hand left her skin for just a moment. He jerked it back and looked at her.
Her parents were signing papers at the front desk and didn’t seem to notice a thing.
Rafe pushed the hair on her neck aside. As much as Jax wanted to jerk away from him, she couldn’t.
Chapter Eleven
Rafe stared. What else could he do? She had the head of a snarling white tiger tattooed on the back of her neck, hidden by her hair. The tiger’s eyes were a dark blue. And, as eerie as it felt to admit it, the tiger resembled Rafe’s own.
Rafe’s tiger roared in his head, seeking affirmation from Rafe, chastising Rafe for questioning him. Like a physical blow, his tiger’s roar sent him reeling, so strong and loud it reverberated in his head and made his bones feel like they were being strummed.
He thought of her mother and father and what they’d said about tattoos, tigers, and psychics the night before. He needed to talk to her. He glanced at the clock on the wall. Her parents would be gone anytime now. He wanted alone time with her. He needed some answers for him and for his tiger.
And stronger still was the need to feel her body against him. He wanted her flesh next to his body. He wanted her…
He wanted her. All of her.
She looked at him, her eyes mysterious depths.
“Oh, Rafael.” Beth put her hand on his arm. “Will you join us for breakf
ast?”
“Elizabeth, I don’t want to miss the cruise ship.” Major tapped his highly polished, probably spit-shined shoe.
Jax had a strained smile on her face.
“Major’s right.” Rafe agreed with her father, just to get them on the road. “You never know. It’s best to play it safe.” He turned toward the bellhop. “A cab, please?”
“Certainly, Mr. Tiero.”
Rafe faced her parents. “I’d offer you a ride, but my car’s a two-seater.”
“Would you like to accompany us?” Beth seemed hopeful.
Major frowned.
Jax looked like she was going to empty the contents of her stomach.
Rafe wasn’t about to inflict that on her. And he wasn’t particularly interested in it himself. “I have a meeting I can’t miss. Why don’t we make sure we spend some time together after you return to Rome?”
“Or never.” Jax’s murmur was so low there was no way her parents would have heard it, but Rafe and his tiger did.
“Lovely.” Beth practically squealed.
Rafe took Jax’s hand—for show, he told himself, for her parents, for show—and the two of them accompanied her parents to the curb and saw them off.
As soon as her parents were gone, he turned to Jax. He wondered if the dark circles under her eyes were only due to the almost-all-nighter she’d pulled working on her assignment or if it had anything to do with her boyfriend leaving. He brushed the thought aside; that kind of thinking wasn’t going to resolve anything. She turned away from the departing cab, her hand dropping slowly, and gazed at him with haunted eyes.
“Thank you.” She paused. “I think.”
“I thought I did pretty well.”
“Maybe too good.”
“How’s that?” He cocked his head, studying her.
“They’ll expect you to be here when they get back.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” He gave her a sideways nod. “Let’s go somewhere else.”
