Perfect Scents

by Heather Karn

  Chapter 12

  Kev joined me on the bench almost an hour later with a gentle thud. There were three pages left of the chapter, so I hurried to finish them, but Kev didn’t disturb me. When I was finished, I let the book snap shut, or as much as it was possible for a worn paperback to snap. It was a satisfying sound nonetheless. Flipping the book over and over also kept my hands busy and my attention away from Kev. After last night and yesterday’s revelations, I wasn’t quite ready to meet his eyes. Who knew what they’d do to me this time?

  “I saw Doc with a book a couple of times, but I never had the courage to ask him if I could hold it.”

  My fingers stopped mid flip, surprised by his confession. He always came across as so confident and sure of himself that I’d never thought he wouldn’t be brave enough to ask some guy to hold a book. The truth of what he’d admitted stunned me, and I turned my wide eyes to meet his. They were full of wonder and awe as he stared at the paperback.

  “You’ve never touched a book?”

  “No. There are so few of them in Fairimorr, and those that we have are held in high regard and kept safe. I didn’t want to be the one to wreck any of them, so I never went near them.”

  “But you wanted to.”

  Though it technically should have been a question, it came out more as a statement of fact. His eyes, and the shaking of his hands, gave that away without me even having to ask.

  “Yes, I wanted to. Our worlds are similar, but the differences are extreme. The fact that you have a written language at all amazes me.”

  “You don’t?”

  He shook his head slowly, never taking his eyes from the book in my hand. The more he told me, the more guilt built inside of me. There was so much in my life that I’d taken for granted. I’d never thought a written language would be one of those things.

  “All of our history and stories are oral. When we send messages, they’re verbal. Until I heard Doc talk about books, I’d never imagined a language could be written.”

  That solidified my resolve. If he’d never held a book, then he’d never seen our words. This was a problem that I could remedy, and I would.

  “Here.” I held the book out to him. Sure it wasn’t the most pristinely kept book of all time, but many readings of it had caused minor tears and dogged edges. It was just as well that it wasn’t in the greatest shape because judging by the wide eyes of the man I was offering it to, he wouldn’t take it if there wasn’t a blemish already on it.

  “I can’t. It’s your book. I don’t want to damage it.”

  “You won’t, silly. Look, I’ve already done some to it. And if for some reason it gets ruined, then I’ll just buy another copy. Books aren’t rare around here, especially not this one.”

  His hand lifted from his lap and reached across the space between us, still trembling. I’d never seen anyone so excited and nervous with anticipation over a book before. Half the kids in my English class never bothered to read the books we were assigned, but here was a man who’d longed only to touch one.

  With a reverent regard for the book, he wrapped his long fingers delicately around the thick pages and lifted it from my hand. I’d never handled a book with such gentleness or love. Compared to him, I was like the kids in school who had little care for the well-being of a book’s binding or soft cover.

  “It’s called ‘The Hobbit’ and it’s by J.R.R. Tolkien,” I told Kev as he ran fingertips over the cover. With a hard swallow, he opened the book to a random page and let his eyes drift over the words and letters.

  “I think I know the answer to my question already, but I don’t want to assume, so I’m asking it anyway. Can you read?”

  “No.”

  “Would you like me to teach you?”

  His deep black eyes tore from the page he was devouring and met mine with such hope swirling in them that my heartbeat quickened its pace. Without answering, he turned back to the page, a small, shy smile creeping across his lips.

  “I’d like that very much. I never believed I’d ever have the chance to learn to read, or be able to read a book. I don’t know how I can ever repay you for doing this.”

  “Don’t worry about it, tiger. You’re teaching me about weregals, and I’m teaching you about humans. It’ll all come out in the wash.”

  “Humans have such odd sayings,” he mumbled under his breath as he feathered his fingertips over the pages, flipping them slowly and studying each one.

  “Weregals don’t have a written language. I think we’re even for odd behavior.”

  “Speaking of odd behavior, are you ready to tell me what happened last night that had you upset and running in the dark? And don’t tell me it was because you couldn’t cry. What happened with your grandmother?”

  Regret filled his eyes as he hesitantly handed the book back to me. I could tell he wanted to keep holding it, but his focus had changed, and with it so did his attitude. He was now once again the self-confident man that I knew, and he was demanding answers.

  There was no way out of it, so I let my frustrations escape with a loud groan as I laid my head back and stretched my legs out. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it kept me from having to look at him and gave me a clear view of the cloudless sky. If only there were a few clouds up there to make shapes out of.

  “I haven’t cried since I was like six. It’s frustrating because people think I’m emotionless, and I’m not. The emotions just stay inside, building until I can burn them off. That’s what happens when I run or ride my bike.”

  “Well, that explains why you wanted to go running last night.”

  “It helped.”

  “And also made you almost pass out.”

  “No, that was the panic. I was fine until then.”

  The bench moaned under us as Kev leaned forward. Out of the corner of my eye, I could barely see him run his hands across his face in frustration.

  “You’re either going to explain about your grandma or the panic attack. Now start talking, little one.”

  When I didn’t start talking right away, I thought he’d push further, but as I weighed the pros and cons of which subject to tell him about he remained silent. Telling him about my talk with Gram won out since I wasn’t ready to bring up my almost hiss and if that would mean I was getting closer to changing. There was no way I wanted to know about that.

  “Gram and I talked about my father and it ended in a fight with Aunt Gwen playing referee, again. They weren’t too happy to hear about you.”

  “You told them about me?”

  His startled voice brought me back to a normal sitting position, and I found myself turning toward him, hoping his eyes wouldn’t do that crazy bit they liked to do that made me feel all gooey inside. However, his black eyes gave nothing away, which was unusual, but the tense set of his jaw told me something was bothering him.

  “I…I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to.”

  “I didn’t think you would.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you were nervous about telling Chrissa, and you knew she would be okay with me. You were hesitant to ask your grandma about your father, so I naturally assumed you wouldn’t mention me. It’s okay, though, I’m glad you told her. Now I don’t feel like we’re sneaking around behind her back. I don’t like sneaking.”

  “Neither do I, but they weren’t happy about you being here.”

  “I didn’t think they would be.”

  “Gram was so angry about you, and talking about my father. I’ve never heard her use the words ‘knocked up’ before in my life. If I hadn’t been so angry myself I probably would’ve laughed, and that would’ve been ugly.”

  He shook his head with his own laugh. “Maybe if I knew what you meant I might find that funny as well.”

  “It’s the term used when a guy gets a girl pregnant.”

  Kev’s eyes bugged out as his cheeks flushed bright crimson and his eyes dropped from mine to my midsection. Sure I’d put on some weight in the last few months,
but there was no way I looked pregnant. At least that’s what I told myself as he continued to stare.

  Finally, he let out a long breath that he’d been holding and wiped sweaty palms on his jeans. His ears grew as red as his cheeks before he spoke, making his expression both shy and adorable, while his scent grew ever stronger, leaving me slightly dizzy with the heavy dose of it.

  “Your grandmother thinks I got you pregnant?” His eyes glanced toward my belly again, letting me catch a glimpse of emotion in them, but it wasn’t long enough for me to tell what he was feeling.

  “No, sorry, she was talking about my mom and dad, not us, although I’m pretty sure she’s worried that’s a possibility.”

  The bench groaned again as Kev leaned back, pressing his index fingers to either side of the bridge of his nose like he was trying to suppress a headache. Maybe he was. I’d just caused him a lot of stress.

  “What did she say about your father? Does she know who he is?”

  I wasn’t clueless that Kev hadn’t denied the possibility of us being together like Gram had thought. Either I was jumping to conclusions, or he’d purposefully avoided the subject. It was probably me.

  “Gram only met my father once. It was when Mom introduced him as her mate. She doesn’t like him because he left to go home one day and never came back. Neither she nor Aunt Gwen knows his name.”

  “How old were you when he left?”

  “He never even knew I existed. Mom found out she was pregnant after he left.”

  His fingers moved from his nose to tug on his lower lip as he thought. I had to pull my eyes away. There shouldn’t be anything sexy or otherwise about a man running a finger across his lip, but Kev made it so hard not to ignore the fact that my stomach had turned to knots, and my heart was like a pool of jelly it was beating so fast. I was more than happy when he interrupted my thoughts.

  “You told me you’re almost eighteen.” I nodded to confirm. “The tunnel caved in just over eighteen years ago.”

  “You think he got stuck in your world when the tunnel caved in?”

  “It’s possible that’s what happened.”

  “So he could’ve not had a choice to come back.”

  “Again, it’s possible. Does this upset you?”

  “I don’t know what to feel actually.”

  Emotions of various types and intensity had just bombarded me, making me fidget, so I stopped fighting it and stood, leaving the book on the bench. Pacing back and forth between the bench and the drop off to the river, I let my emotions sort themselves out.

  First, my father was a weregal, and so was I. Second, he could be alive and healthy in Fairimorr, a completely different world from Earth. And third, he could come back at any time to find my mom, but he’d find me instead.

  My feet stopped as the idea of meeting my father for the first time sent a shiver through my body. In my head, I’d always pictured a kind man with smiling eyes, my eyes, and a warm hug. What if that wasn’t what he was like at all? There was a huge chance that I’d be disappointed by him and that he’d be nothing like the man I’d pictured my mom falling in love with. Sure, most of my life I’d resented the man for leaving, but that hadn’t stopped me from forming ideas about him. I wasn’t too sure I was ready to meet him, though.

  Kev let me pace in front of him, then without a word, he held his hand out to me, and against my better judgment I took it and let him pull be back down on the bench. The security blanket of his scent wrapped around me as he took one of my small hands in his and began to rub his thumb tenderly along the back of my hand. No man, or boy for that matter, had ever held my hand like that. Deciding I had other fish to fry than dissecting my feelings about his handholding, I fought my emotions to pay attention to what he was saying.

  “So, do you want to tell me about the other thing that had you so upset yesterday?”

  “What other thing?”

  The thumb running across my skin was turning my brain to mush. Yesterday’s events were gone, blown away in the breeze of my hormones. I couldn’t be sure, but there was almost a laugh to Kev’s voice, and I knew he was smiling, but I couldn’t meet his eyes. This time, I was determined not to look into them because I knew darn well they’d start pulling me in.

  “Your almost panic attack.”

  “Oh, that thing. Nope, I don’t want to talk about it.”

  A firm, yet gentle hand rested on my shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze. If he was trying to be reassuring, he needed more than that.

  “What happened, Joey? Did I do something wrong?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then what happened?”

  Finally, I relented. He wasn’t going to let me get away with not telling him, and if I tried to leave, I had no doubt in my mind that he’d stop me. There was no “try to” about it. He would stop me since I wasn’t strong enough, or fast enough, to avoid him.

  “So sometimes humans fake growl when they’re upset.”

  His voice was laughing and full of surprise when he spoke, and it took me off guard. “You were going to growl at me?”

  “No.”

  “Then I’m confused.”

  “I almost hissed at you.”

  “Why would you hiss at me?”

  “It was stupid.”

  “I did something stupid?”

  “No, you were fine. The reason was stupid, and I’d rather not tell you.”

  He could try to pry the reason, which really was stupid, from my cold, dead body if he felt it necessary, but I still wouldn’t say a word. There was no way that I was telling an almost complete stranger that I wanted to hiss at him because I had been a hot mess and he’d hardly glistened.

  “Okay, so the why you almost did it isn’t important. What I need to know is why you were scared.”

  “Because I almost hissed an actual feline hiss. It was shocking and unexpected, and I was already out of breath, which didn’t help me. It was unnatural how easy it wanted to come out.”

  “We’re part cat, Joey, it’s in our nature to hiss, growl, roar, and other things. We may not act like real tigers, because we aren’t, but we still have some animal tendencies. It’s okay to do that.”

  My breath hitched in my throat at his voice. Though gentle as ever, there was a growl in it, like he was trying to explain our natures by his very words and actions. My heartbeat sped as my pulse pounded in my ears in response. The hormones riding through my veins were on high alert making my head swim. That had been the sexiest sound I’d ever heard from a man. When he spoke again, his voice was back to its usual melodic strain, which was a tad disappointing.

  “Joey, one day you’ll be okay with it, and everything will feel natural and right.” His hand squeezed my shoulder one more time, then let go.

  “How do you know that?”

  “I just do.”

  “What are you, some fortune teller or psychic who sees the future?”

  “Nope, I’m an optimist. Well, that’s what my mother tells me, anyway. Please don’t panic about who you are. I know this is new for you and unnatural for any human, but you need to remember you aren’t human. Female, yes, but not human. One day you’ll accept who and what you are. Then I’ll take you hunting, and share my snacks with you.”

  My eyes were drawn to his face as he spoke, which held a rather cocky smile. The black pools staring back at me dared me to challenge him, but I wasn’t nearly in the mood for that. We’d talked through two heavy subjects. His smiling eyes could dare me another time. Today I wasn’t taking the bait.

  Narrowing my eyes, I focused on the black, endless pools while my memories from Friday night played for me. His eyes had been so blue, so human. They hadn’t held the emotional openness that his weregal eyes showed, but they’d been beautiful all the same.

  “Kev, when we were at the movie theater your eyes were normal, like a normal human’s eyes. You can do that? Change your eyes?” From what I’d read I knew he could, but I wanted to hear the explanation from him
. If I were lucky, he’d even growl again.

  He reached between us and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. His thumb gently grazed the outer shell of my ear, sending a shiver down my spine and butterflies in my stomach. The hormones were at it again, the question I was beginning to wonder was: were they human or weregal?

  My almost imperceptible shudder had him chuckling as he leaned back against the bench and closed his eyes. A few moments passed before he turned back to me, opening his eyes, revealing a deep blue iris haloing a small black pupil.

  Instinctively I reached between us until my hand rested on his temple and gently stroked the skin around his eye with my thumb as I studied the new eyes looking at me. They were beautiful. It was like looking into a clear tropical lake. Deep and endless. His responding shudder to my touch didn’t go unnoticed, which turned my insides to jelly. Though it was a nice feeling, it didn’t bring any comfort to my racing heart that a man had reacted to my touch. If my female relatives ever found out about that, they’d be leading their own manhunt.

  “I can’t hold them this way long,” he whispered, unaware of my internal conflict as I drew my hand back. “Unlike being in my human form, which is only mildly uncomfortable, changing my eyes hurts and I have little control over it.”

  “Then how did you hold them that way throughout the entire movie?”

  “I didn’t. Since it was dark, I thought it would be okay to see with my regular eyes.”

  “Do your eyes change to black when you change into a tiger for the first time?”

  “No, we’re born with black eyes.”

  “I really am a weirdo.”

  “Joey, I don’t know why you’re so different, but it’s not bad. You’re half human, so maybe your animal side has been dormant all these years. You’ve never needed it before.”

  “And I need it now?”

  “Not necessarily, but meeting me and smelling my scent could have changed something.” An excited gleam entered his eyes before he blinked and they were back to their normal black again. I arched an eyebrow, making him laugh harder.

  “It’s easier to let them change back. It takes work to get them to look like yours. Work and concentration.”

  “Speaking of changing, how are you today in your human form? Did you get enough time in your animal form to be comfortable today?”

  “No, but that’s okay.” I stared him down when it seemed like he was going to stop talking. All he could do was smirk at me. “I want to keep the human form longer and longer. I can’t do that if every time I’m uncomfortable I change back. Yesterday I’d spent far longer in human form than usual, and I was extremely tired and uncomfortable. Why do you ask?”

  “Well, I was thinking that if you were uncomfortable today, you could change if you wanted. Then you could lie in the sun, and I could lean against you and read, or start teaching you to read, but if you’re okay to stay human, then that’s okay.”

  He grinned at me as he shook his head. “You just want to sit in the sun and have a comfortable body to lean against.”

  “Well, when you put it that way…” My brain really wanted to stop all conscious thought and start dissecting every possible meaning of his words, but I forced it to start thinking again. To my surprise, I never stuttered once during the hard shut down or restart. “Never mind, we can sit here and start your lessons.”

  The chuckle that rumbled in his chest let me know that he’d caught my mental misstep.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, still laughing, “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

  “It’s okay.” Heat flooded my face as my eyes locked onto the cover of my book.

  A hand rested under my chin and turned my head in Kev’s direction. His face was inches from mine, and his black eyes held mine with an intensity I’d never seen. I could almost feel his breath on my face as my heart stuttered at his nearness. As his eyes pulled me into their depths, emotions stirred within me, begging to be let free. Somehow I resisted their plea.

  “Do I make you uncomfortable?”

  “Only when you look at me like that.”

  My voice was little more than a whisper as my breath caught. Desire broke free from the prison it was trying to escape, roaring to the surface. Heat rushed through my blood, burning through the veins inside my body as I fought the need to reach out and touch Kev.

  He leaned in until his forehead rested against mine, his own desire reflecting in the black pools that held me bound. His fingers trembled as his hand wrapped around the nape of my neck, pulling me closer.

  Panic flared, pushing back all other emotion, including the desire, as my brain finally registered the man was about to kiss me. The spell his eyes held me under snapped in a heartbeat as I squeaked and shoved against his chest, my panic giving me more strength than I knew I possessed, though against Kev it still wasn’t much, but it was enough to break our eye contact and put space between us.

  “What was that?” The voice that escaped me was mine, but it didn’t sound like mine. It had turned into a squeal, which was something that my low octave voice had never done.

  His eyes closed as he leaned back against the bench and rubbed his hands up and down his face like he was trying to wipe away what had happened. His hands finally stilled, but they remained where they were as he took a deep breath in and held it.

  My good and bad angels were at it again as part of me wanted to run for the hills, while the other half of me was curious beyond words about what the heck was going on. I wasn’t sure which angel was which, but the one telling me to stay won out as I recalled the wave of desire that almost had me running my fingers through Kev’s hair. I needed to know what had caused that because if it was going to happen again, then I wasn’t going to be anywhere near Kev…ever.

  A deep, loud groan pulled me from my thoughts as Kev’s hands fell into his lap and he turned his eyes on me again. They weren’t intense this time, and didn’t pull me in, but were tired and sorrowful.

  “I’m sorry about that. Male instincts can be very intense, especially around a young, unmated female. I try to control them, but I’m not always successful, as you can tell.”

  “What instincts?”

  Before he answered, he leaned over, so his elbows rested on his knees while they cradled his head, refusing to look at me. “It’s the instinct that tells a male that a female would make a good mate. The intensity of the instinct varies between females, and the stronger the instinct, the better a match she will be for the male. Does this make sense so far?”

  When I didn’t respond, he turned his face to me. Since I didn’t trust myself to speak, too scared of where this conversation was heading, I nodded back. Satisfied with my reaction, he turned his head to rest again in his hands.

  “The instinct tells me that you would be a good mate for me. You know so little about our kind, and I can tell by the way you act toward me that you don’t want me as a mate, so I am trying to hold back the instincts that want me to convince you to be my mate. I’ve never felt them as strong as I’ve felt with you. Forgive me. I’ll control it, but I understand if you don’t want to be near me. I wouldn’t blame you for wanting me to leave.”

  His words were raced, and it took my muddled brain a few moments to put what he was saying into coherent thoughts. The only thing it seemed stuck on was that he wanted me as a mate. Mint swirled in the air around us, and I found it hard not to reach out to comfort him, to take the shame from his voice that a female didn’t want him. In fact, I had to force my hands to ball into fists to keep them still in my lap.

  “Do you feel the instinct toward humans?” I squeaked, though I’d tried to make my voice stronger.

  “Our people? Sometimes.”

  “So it’s possible my dad felt it for my mom?”

  He nodded slowly, taking his hands from his face as he sat up, never looking at me, but keeping his eyes focused ahead. I didn’t need to be looking directly in his eyes to see the unshed tears. His eyes glistened in the sunlight,
but his voice was stronger than I expected.

  “We feel the mate instincts for every one of our kind, and some humans. As I said, they vary in intensity. We only choose a mate with a high intensity.”

  “But what if you fall in love with someone who has a low intensity?”

  “Won’t happen. We aren’t drawn to them, or attracted to them as humans would say, and their personalities aren’t compatible with ours. It’s like our body and mind are telling us who would make a good mate and who wouldn’t.”

  “So I would be a good mate for you?”

  “Yes, but you don’t want me.”

  “And how do you know that?”

  “Because every time I give in to the need to pull you in, you break the connection, or you fight it. A female who wants to have the male as a mate wouldn’t do that.”

  “But I had no idea what was happening,” I pointed out.

  “Would it have changed how you reacted to me if you had?”

  Though the question was innocent enough, to see the hope in his eyes as he turned to me twisted my gut. I wanted to say yes, that I would have let him do it, but it was still too weird, too personal for him to affect me like that. I didn’t want him, or anyone, to make me feel those strong feelings. They made you care, to grow close to someone, but in the end, it only caused more hurt.

  “Probably not.” I watched, unable to look away, as the hope faded from his eyes. What I didn’t expect was the emotional void that replaced it. Either he was trying not to feel anything, or somehow weregals could block their emotions. That was a concept I’d have to think about later. For now, I felt the need to explain myself. “Honestly, I don’t want a mate or even a human boyfriend. I’ve learned in the last few years that you only get hurt by getting that close to someone.”

  “What do you mean? How do others hurt you?”

  “They leave, and they never come back. I don’t want to love anyone the way I loved my parents. I don’t want to feel that pain of loss again. I’m already broken enough.”

  “Have you ever thought that love might be able to put you back together?”

  “You mean the love of a mate?”

  “Not just that, but you have your friend and your female relatives who love you. Maybe their love can heal you so you’ll eventually be ready to love a mate.”

  “You mean you.”

  “Yes.”

  “It could be a while.”

  “I’ll wait.”

  My laugh at his response was bitter, and though I tried not to make it as harsh as I felt, I failed. My cynical side was about to show. “Yeah, you’ll wait until someone with a stronger pull on your instinct shows up, and you’ll want her as your mate. I know how men can be, Kev. I’ve seen it too many times, and I don’t want to be played like that.”

  To my surprise, he reached across the distance between us to cup my face in his hand and his eyes burned with desire, but they didn’t pull. They only held mine as I sat, stunned, unable to respond. The coolness of his gentle hand almost had me closing my eyes and leaning into it. Almost, but not quite.

  “I’m sixty-five years old, Joey, and all I’ve ever felt in that time were mild pulls, which is not normal. If I’d felt anything near what I feel for you, I would have a mate right now. I’m one of the oldest unmated males in our entire history. There is no chance- none- that I will ever find another female with the high-intensity instincts that I feel for you, and I will never feel the mating instinct toward another now that I’ve met you.”

  “What if I only ever want to be your friend?”

  “Then I will take that.”

  “And if another female shows up in the hundreds of years that we live?”

  “Her intensity will be nothing like yours. I won’t even notice.”

  “Kev-.”

  “Humans have a saying called ‘finding your soul mate,’ am I right?”

  “Yes.”

  “We don’t have a saying or words like that, but it’s the same thing. Sometimes weregal males come across a female they know is their female. She might as well have been made for him. No other female could ever compare to his female. She is his soul mate.” The burning intensity of his stare grew, taking my breath with it as his gaze seared into my soul. “Joey, you are that female for me. You are this ‘soul mate’. No other female could ever take me from you. If you never accept me as your mate, then there will never be another for me. I will never leave you for anyone. It will only ever be you that has my heart.”

  Though my heart yearned to hear this, wanted to be loved by someone so strongly, to believe what Kev was saying, I couldn’t. I turned my face from Kev’s touch, and his hand hung in the air before it settled back into his lap.

  I’d always thought the idea of having a soul mate would be awesome, but not for me. Not Kev. He belonged in another world, and I belonged here. It would never work, and to save myself the heartache we would both feel when he realized this, I needed to stop it before it even began.

  The scent around me intensified, but for the first time, I pushed it away from my thoughts as I breathed in. My heart had never felt so empty as that moment like I truly had become addicted to his minty scent, and now that I was pushing away it was leaving a hole in my heart that only it could fill. But I couldn’t let it because when Kev left, so would his scent.

  “I need to go,” I said and stood at the same time.

  “Joey, I’m sorry.” Kev stood as his hands reached to grip my shoulders to hold me back. “Forgive me. I should have waited to tell you. I knew it was too soon. Please, don’t go yet. I’m so sorry.” His voice broke as he blinked, sending tears down his cheeks. “You can trust me, Joey. I only want to be your friend, to help you and teach you about our people. I don’t have to be your mate to be your friend, and I’ll never speak of it again.”

  “I know. I just need some time to digest this. It’s a lot to take in.”

  “I know, but I need you to stay. Every instinct I have is telling me not to let you leave, not like this. Please stay for a little while longer. You can read, and I won’t even bother you. You won’t even know I’m here. I’ll change and lay in the underbrush away from you. Just don’t go.”

  He was begging. I hadn’t thought him the type to beg, and I almost said no, but the pain in his eyes tore at my heart. It wasn’t only emotional pain, but physical pain as well. What would a connection like that feel like where you actually felt physical pain from rejection?

  Though I told it not to, my heart softened and compassion filled it. This tiger was going to be the death of my resolve to avoid him. All it took was a few tears and some begging to weaken me and change my mind. Or maybe it was knowing that the man I considered to be the strongest man I’d ever met was humbling himself enough to beg.

  “All right I’ll stay, but I have some conditions.”

  “Anything.”

  “You turn into a cat and go lay down in that sunny spot. I want to read my book.”

  Before I could say or do anything, Kev lowered his face to gently place a kiss on my cheek. His lips were gentle and soft as they lingered only a moment on my skin, but left it scorched with heat from the touch.

  “Thank you.”

  Before I could object to his instantaneous decision to kiss me, even if it was on the cheek, he shifted into a tiger. His cocky strut was back as he sauntered to our grassy spot and curled up in the sun. This cat really would be the death of me. He had more mood swings that a teenage girl, and he could play me like a fiddle. If that were true, and we were soul mates, then maybe the roles could be reversed, and I could give him a taste of his own medicine.

  My feet were moving, carrying me closer to him, before I could change my mind and stop them. Sitting on the ground, I leaned against his furry body. Feeling his warmth against my back, the tension I felt melted away as my muscles relaxed. He was good to his word too and didn’t say a peep, but let me delve back into my adventure through Middle Earth.