“No, why?”
She laughed, sliding into the front passenger seat. “Most people I know think having a car is a waste of money and very inconvenient.”
He scooted around to the driver’s side and got in with a shiver. “Not me. Especially not tonight.”
“Traffic in Manhattan is crazy, and parking is insane.”
“I suppose,” he replied, looking over his shoulder before pulling out into the street. “But it’s a necessary evil. I have work that takes me upstate a lot, so I need a car. We can always walk to the subway if it bothers you. Though, given the tundra-like temperatures, I’ll take a warm car over a freezing train platform any day. Shifters don’t usually feel the cold like humans, but this wind is off the chain.”
Her eyes tracked to where steam rose from a manhole in the street, blowing wickedly over the pavement. “You know, when you put it that way—” She gave him a quick grin as he wound his way around toward Twelfth Avenue and uptown.
“Where are we headed anyway?”
“Rockefeller Center. I thought we could ice skate, and then go to Junior’s for dinner. I’ve been dying to try their famous cheesecake.”
“Ice skating? I thought you said you’d rather not freeze your nether bits. Besides, you said dinner.”
“Have you ever been?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I don’t skate. At all. And in case you didn’t notice, I’m wearing a skirt.”
“Yes! An ice virgin.” He smiled. And I did notice your sexy curves in that skirt. How could I not? Still, how can I pass up the chance to introduce the sensual feel of gliding over a hard, slick surface.”
“Ew.”
Eli burst out laughing. “Can’t blame a guy for trying, right?”
“Hmmm.”
“No, seriously. The rink at Rockefeller Center is gorgeous and historic. I thought you’d appreciate that. Plus, it sits below street level so it’s semi protected from the wind.”
“I do.” Mikki shrugged. “What I don’t relish is falling on my ass in front of a bunch of strangers.”
He reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Not to worry. I’ve got your gorgeous ass covered.”
The feel of his hand made her stomach jump as much as his noticing her butt. As if reading her mind, he lifted her knuckles to his lips. The innocent gesture warmed her, but she couldn’t help wondering what that kiss would feel like on other parts of her body.
Heat flushed in her chest, creeping up her throat to her cheeks. “Can you turn down the heat a bit?” She unwrapped her scarf, blowing out a breath.
“The climate control is set on low, love…but I can turn it off completely, if you want.”
He went to let go of her hand, but she pulled him back. “No, it’s okay. It must be me then.”
The car slowed to a red light, and Eli turned with an appreciative gaze. “It’s definitely you. It’s been you all day. Since the moment I caught you off that ladder.”
Without warning, he leaned over and kissed her mouth. Not demanding, but not soft, either. His lips parted just enough to promise all kind of possibilities, lingering long enough for her breath to catch.
Imagine that once he adds some tongue action.
Help me, Jesus.
Shifter slut.
Must you always be right?
The light turned green before she could unscramble her brain. “That should hold,” he said, pulling away to take the wheel again.
“Hold for what?” Her voice croaked, and she coughed.
He grinned, keeping his eyes on the road. “For whatever you want next.”
Mikki didn’t reply. The statement hung in the sexually charged air between them, not helping her hot flash. His delicious masculine scent didn’t help either.
Her brain clouded and her mouth watered. She shifted in her seat. Hell. If she was squirming in her skirt from a simple kiss, how on Earth would she last the entire night without embarrassing herself silly or straddling the man?
Cold air. She needed cold, cold air.
As if on cue, the clicking from Eli’s turn signal dragged her from her haze, and she watched as he pulled up to a hotel valet and cut the engine.
“We’re here,” he said, unclipping his key fob.
“I thought you said Rockefeller Center. This is the Jewel Hotel.”
“Right. Its valet parking is open to the public.” He paused with a slight grin. “Well, it’s open to me. I keep a suite here for clients.”
“A suite. How convenient.”
He got out of the car and handed the fob to the valet, taking the call ticket and sticking it in his pocket. “It is, but I didn’t bring you here for an ulterior motive. In fact, I can’t use my suite tonight. I have a client staying the night.”
Eli walked around the car to stop in front of her. “I want to skate with you, and then share the biggest piece of cheesecake you’ve ever seen. Is that a crime? Because you’re looking at me like I brought you here under false pretenses.”
He took her infinity scarf from her hand and wrapped it around her head and neck, babushka style. “C’mon. We have to walk a block and a half to get to the rink.”
Taking her hand, he started to walk with her toward 50th Street, but she pulled him to a stop. “You might not have ulterior motives, but I do.”
Cupping his face in gloved hands, she kissed him. This time with more than slightly parted lips. Eli slid his hand beneath her scarf to the back of her head and deepened the kiss, his tongue demanding and hungry.
She gasped at the way her body hummed at the taste of him. At the strong commanding feel of his hand on the back of her neck.
He broke their kiss and stepped back. Mikki blinked, never expecting to be rocked to the core from a simple French kiss.
So much for cold air. Her body was aflame, yet the air felt like absolute zero.
Chapter Eleven
“You’re full of surprises, aren’t you? After that kiss, I don’t think I’ll feel the cold again.” he said, locking her arm with his as he steered them toward the sidewalk. “I may have to ambush you next time. You know. To protect our delicate bits.”
If he kept this up it was his delicate bits that would be on the defensive, not hers. A vajayjay blitz. As in boneless and spent.
Ugh. What was it about her these days? Was she so sex starved that any male attention sent her body into overdrive? First Nick, and now Eli. She nearly spread herself on a concession table in the Zoo with Nick, and now she envisioned cold, hard ice beneath her ass with a hot hard something else between her legs with Eli.
Shifter slut…shifter slut…
Her inner voice was sing-song at the back of her head, and she closed her eyes.
Wind whipped down 50th Street until they crossed into Rockefeller Center. Considered a city within a city, the Concourse was a semi-subterranean, mini metropolis, lined with shops and restaurants, but right now it got them out of the wind.
Mikki shivered, but it wasn’t from the cold as they got in the down elevator to the rink. “Thank God. Another minute and I thought my skin would crack.” She gave him a small smile, to redirect her dirty mind, but the look on Eli’s face told her she wasn’t fooling anyone. Damn shifters and their noses. She was as turned on as he, and he knew it.
“It’s much better down below. Trust me.”
Ugh. Kill me now with the smutty double entendre playing in my head.
The elevator opened and they were greeted by a young man. “Right on time,” he said with a smile.
Eli took the man’s hand. “Terrance. Nice to see you again.” He gestured toward Mikki. “Mikki Townsend, this is my cousin, he runs this beautiful place.”
“Nice to meet you,” she replied.
“Not half as nice as it is to meet you. EJ hasn’t shut up about you all day. He must have called me six times this afternoon to make sure I did what he asked. He can be very persuasive.”
Mikki slid her eyes sideways toward Eli. “I bet he’d say it was par
t of his charm.”
“Not fair, Terry.” Eli smirked. “No getting my girl to gang up on me.”
“I’d say she’s got your number already, dude. Wait until the rest of the family meets her.” He drew his thumb across his throat.
“Whoa.” Mikki held up one hand. “First date, remember?”
“Second, actually. We had lunch this afternoon. Remember?” Eli teased back.
“Dirty water dogs.” Terrance wrinkled his nose. “I promise, this is much better. Even if I do say so myself, since I put it together.”
He stepped back and Mikki looked out into VIP lounge. The décor was chrome and crystal, with plush, velvety benches and matching carpet. Glass walls gave full access viewing to the ice and Rockefeller Center’s iconic gold Prometheus sculpture.
The ice was empty of skaters, and to one side was a café table and chairs with the same plush blue velvet decorated with a crystal ice bucket and champagne glasses. Beside it on the ice was a cart with a silver urn and thick mugs.
“Are we early?” she asked.
“Nope.”
She looked at them both. “But there’s no one here, and it’s Friday night.”
“That’s because I reserved the place just for us. I told you I had your fine buttocks covered.”
Terrence glanced away at that, and Mikki felt her cheeks flush.
“Uhm, why don’t I get you both skates. What sizes should I get?” Terrence asked, completely redirecting the conversation.
“Thanks, Terrence. I wear a woman’s size eight shoe.”
“Eight it is,” he replied before glancing to Eli. “Still a size thirteen, cuz?”
Eli nodded. “Big hands, big feet, big—”
“Yeah, right,” Terrence cut him off with a laugh. “Keep singing that song. We’re shifters, bro. Size is baked into the DNA, and that makes you nothing special.”
“Ha, says you.”
With a snort, Terrence walked toward the rental counter and slipped through the side door toward the back.
Mikki watched Eli untie his hikers and slip them from his feet. The look on his face was warmly amused. From the good-natured razzing, it was obvious he and his cousin were close.
“You look like you’re a million miles away.” Eli stood, slipping his boots into a cubby beneath the bench. “I hope you’re not still preoccupied with that landlord business. I told you. It’ll all work out.”
“No, it’s not the landlord.” She smiled up at him from her seat on the bench. “Seeing you and Terrence together makes me miss my brother. I haven’t seen him in a while.”
In fact, she hadn’t seen Jordan in months. They texted every week, but long stretches were par for the course since her brother preferred the nomadic life.
Jordan travelled all over, so much so she never knew where he was from week to week, sometimes even day to day. The shop was hers as far as her brother was concerned, but still, he’d be sad to see it go because of a dick landlord.
Eli knelt on the soft carpet and lifted Mikki’s foot, easing her boot away before slipping it off. “We need to do something about those worry lines. You need to relax. Let off a little steam.”
His fingers lingered on her calf, caressing the muscle and soft flesh through her thin tights.
Electric sparks jolted up Mikki’s thigh and into her lower body, and her panties dampened. Her eyes met his, only to find his pupils were dark with unspoken desire. Well, semi-unspoken. Eli had made it clear in every way short of blurting that he wanted her as much as she him.
“Do you know how beautiful you are? How interesting and smart?” he murmured, letting his fingers trace a little higher up the back of her thigh.
“I think these will fit, but if not I’ve got plenty of selection left in the back.” Mikki jerked her attention to Terrence as he approached.
He absently fiddled with one set of laces, and when he looked up at the two of them, he stopped.
“Uhm, sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Eli let go of Mikki’s leg, and then quickly helped her off with her other boot. “Nah, man. We’re fine. Let’s get mademoiselle laced up and outside on the ice.”
Terrence handed Mikki a pair of figure skates, while Eli slipped on a pair of sleek hockey blades.
“The champagne is well-iced, but there’s also Ghirardelli hot cocoa. It’s really rich, and really, really good.” Terrence nodded. “Of course, I put out a bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream, as well.” He winked. “In case you prefer it hot with a kick.”
Mikki bit the inside of her cheek and bent to lace up her skates. The two of them were cut from the same dirty-minded cloth. Were all shifter men giant throbbing hormones? Albeit polite and careful about consent, but still.
Still nothing. First date. Second, on a technicality, if you counted their hour in the park this afternoon. Did that mean her plans with Nick tomorrow counted as two dates?
Three dates usually meant a leap into something physical, and though she wanted them both, she wasn’t sure she was up for juggling two shifters in and out of the bedroom.
She’d known Nick for two days, and Eli less than twenty-four hours. Despite obvious connections, what she felt was undoubtedly a symptom of infatuation. Something she’d do well to remember.
What if she felt the same kind of connection with Nick tomorrow? What then? God, she hated being indecisive. A man would have no qualms about juggling two women, so why was it a problem for her?
Because you want the fairy tale.
I do?
Yes, you do.
What if I can’t choose?
Crickets. It figured. Her inner voice had plenty to say except when it came down to the nitty gritty. The thought of Nick versus Eli had crossed her mind a couple of times over the past two days.
Truth be told, she was more likely to let them both go than choose between them. Being alone wasn’t so bad. With the bookshop and Carmela, at least she was never lonely. Maybe it wouldn’t come to that. Maybe Nick and Eli would decide she wasn’t all that, and case closed.
“Mikki?” Eli held out his hand to help her up onto her skates. “You’re doing it again.”
She chuckled, giving her head a quick shake. “Sorry. I’m a bit of a daydreamer.”
“More like worry wart,” he teased, taking her hand. “It’s kind of cute the way you get that crinkle between your eyes when you’re lost in thought. Makes me wonder what’s going on inside your pretty head.”
Gripping his fingers, she stood, wobbling a bit. “Nothing’s going on except praying I don’t make a fool of myself in front of everyone watching from the railing gallery above the Concourse.”
He folded her harm in his and turned with her toward the glass doors leading out onto the ice. “One step at a time, love.”
“I hope you know what you’re in for. I have two left feet, historically. I have trouble with sidewalks, I can’t imagine ice.”
He held her arm, and she let herself be led. There was no problem as long as they were on the rubber-matted surface, but the minute they hit the rink’s threshold, she hesitated at the number of people gawking down them.
Mikki stepped onto the ice, her ankles bending the moment her blades hit the slick surface.
“Fuck!”
Eli tightened his hold on her arm. “Trust me. Use the boards.” He gestured to the rimmed plexiglass perimeter. “It’ll be easier once we get clear of the door.”
When they were far enough away, he took both of her hands and skated backwards, slowly towing her in front.
“Don’t let go, Eli. I mean it.”
“I won’t.”
They skated the length of the rink, circling the perimeter past the small café table Terrence had set for them. It was decorated so beautifully. Like an early Valentine’s, and at the center was a box of donuts. The largest in the box a heart-shaped cream with pink icing.
She pulled Eli to a wobbly stop. “I can’t believe you got donuts.”
“You never got to fin
ish yours at the bookshop, so I thought you might want one now.”
“What about cheesecake at Junior’s?”
Eli swept her around in a circle, keeping the momentum going in an awkward skater’s loop. “I thought we’d eat in the VIP room. It’s completely private, and Terrence can call in whatever we want. Even from Junior’s.”
“Donuts and cheesecake. I’d have to walk back to Little West 12th Street to work that off.”
“You’re a shifter, Mikki. With our metabolism, calories are a necessity, and sweets are our drug of choice. Especially when we find ourselves wanting…”
Wanting what?
He pulled her to his side, holding tight to her hands cross-wise in a couple’s skate. “You sure you’re a shifter?”
She looked across at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Tell me what you sense. Right here. Right now.” He nodded to the rink.
“I don’t understand.”
“Close your eyes. What do you sense? The motion of your feet on the ice. The cold breeze that motion makes on your cheeks. But what else? What can you sense that regular humans can’t?”
Eli’s expression was curious, but he also looked as if daring her to try.
“Why do you care what I sense or don’t sense? I already told you I wasn’t schooled in the shifter arts.”
“Difficult and stubborn. Like most shifter females.”
“Ha.” She rolled her eyes but closed them anyway.
The cold air tickled the inside of her nose, and the smell of the ice was clean at the back of her throat. Like rainwater dripping off leaves after a storm. The vibrations as their blades slicing through the hard surface tingled up her calves and she heard Eli’s heartbeat. Felt his pulse from the effort of holding her steady while keeping their pace. Inhaling she tasted his scent against the clean icy air. Masculine. Fresh. With a hint of musk laced with…desire.
Her eyes snapped open and she exhaled, a little stunned.
“So, Ms. Kitty. From the look on your face I’d say you gleaned quite a lot from that basic experiment.”
Mikki watched the knowing grin spread on his lips. “I’d say that’s an understatement.”
“Tell me about it.”
Torn Between Two Alphas: Howls Romance Page 8
