Chapter 2
In Florida, I worked at one of the best restaurants in town. In Montana, I’m cooking short-order in a diner. Not that I mind the work. It’s the pay that disappoints. Feeding people good food is what I love to do.
I shouldn’t complain, I have enough to get by.
It’s a slow afternoon, and I’m reading a cookbook. It’s a little vice of mine. I can’t get enough recipes in my head; mine or other peoples’, it doesn’t matter.
The bell above the door jingles and I don’t need to look up to know Daile has entered. I sense her every movement, and the scent of lavender soap and woman rushes through my nostrils. She’s far too good for me. I’m an outcast, and she’s human. She should find a nice human man to settle down with.
Milo is in the back room and because it’s slow, the waitress went to some event at her kid’s school.
Daile stands at the counter near the register and stares at me through the opening into the kitchen. “Hi.”
There’s something about her red hair and freckles that lights me up. I want to comb my finger through and trace a path by every dot with my tongue. I have to stifle a groan. “Hello, how can I help you?”
Her smile is sunflowers and ice cream. I’m more wilted daisies and muddy coffee. She doesn’t seem to notice as she studies my face. “I wondered if I could put a flier for my art show in the window. Is Milo around?”
My instinct is to get close to her, as close as possible. I push through the kitchen door. “He’s in the back. Do you want to leave it with me and I’ll ask him?”
The flier gives a date of next Friday night for an art show featuring Daile Whittaker at the firehouse.
“That would be great. Thank you.” She favors me with the brightest smile.
Heart leaping, I’m taken aback and stare wordlessly. I should make conversation and try to keep her close for as long as possible, but I have no right to her. She’d run if she knew what I am, and if she knew about my past, she’d never speak to me again.
She walks to the door, but turns back with her hand on the push bar. “Will you come, Jorge?”
“To your art show?” I must be misunderstanding something.
Her cheeks turn fiery red, and she dismissively waves her hand. “Never mind.”
Shit. I blurt out, “Do you want me to be there?”
Meeting my gaze, she nods. “I would, yes.”
“Then I wouldn’t miss it.” I’m a total fool. This is a dangerous game that can only end badly for her.
Her adorable blush works its way down her neck and disappears beneath her sky-blue V-neck shirt.
All I want is to feel the warmth of her flesh and follow that blush to see how far it goes. I’m thankful there’s a counter between the bulge in my jeans and her view. That would certainly scare my angel away.
With a last smile, she turns and walks out.
I watch as she crosses the street.
Milo steps into the kitchen from the storage room. “Who was that?”
Shaking off my lustful thoughts, I say, “Miss Whittaker asked if she could put a notice in the window about her art show.”
I must not have been as successful as I thought, as he stares at me, then looks across the street to where Daile steps inside the bank. “Pretty woman.”
My boss is older, but shifters don’t age like humans, so he still looks young enough. In fact, he is not mated, so he could go after her. She’d think he was in his forties when he’s likely twice that. A touch of gray in his longish blond hair and a few wrinkles are enough to let a fellow shifter know he’s seen some years. Humans have no idea.
Inside, my beast grumbles like we need to protect Daile. I manage to keep my cool. “Yeah. I noticed.” I hand him the paper as I return to my post behind the grill.
“I think you’d have to be dead not to notice.” He reads the flier before putting it in the window. When he returns, he leans against the refrigerator door. “You should ask her out.”
Scoffing, I shake my head. “She’s human and that’s only the smallest reason she’s better off without me making a mess of her life.”
“Whatever happened in Florida, it really messed you up, buddy.” He’s never asked me about my past, and I have no intention of divulging the mess my life became unless I have to. Reliving that is not on the menu today.
“I’ve made my bed.” No sense in blaming anyone else. What happened wasn’t fair, but getting there was my own doing. I shake off memories that try to invade my mind.
If I had any sense at all, I’d take another path to get to the woods for my nightly run. Like any shifter, I look forward to taking my beast’s form and running free. Walking past Daile’s house night after night was foolish before we’d met, but now it’s dangerous. Still, I can’t resist a glimpse of her.
Having made up my mind to look but not touch, I catch her scent on the breeze before I’m close enough for her human eyes to spot me.
Her hair is pulled up in a messy knot, and she’s staring down the road in my direction. Is she looking for me? No. I’m being stupid. She must know on some primal level that I’m not for her.
When I hear the motorcycles, I get out of the road and stay out of sight. I never ride my bike to the edge of the woods like many of the club members. Since I haven’t been invited to join, I figure I’ll keep my bike in the garage unless I need to get out of town. There are six of them and a few wave to Daile as they roll by.
A wolf shifter, whose name I don’t know, stops and says, “Hi Daile. Want to go for a ride?”
My gut tightens. My cat wants to rush in and make sure both of them know she’s mine. But she’s not. I stay shaded by the old fir trees and watch.
“No thanks, Gabe. I’m not much for riding motorcycles.” Her voice is light but wary at the same time. She doesn’t trust the wolf any more than I do.
He shuts off his engine. “I think you’d like it if you gave it a try. I’d make sure you were safe.” He’s halfway up her driveway and closing in.
Normally, I would admire the way her hair moves as she shakes her head, but there’s fear in her voice. “No thank you. I’m not interested in riding.”
Stepping back onto the road as if I was never hidden, I continue walking toward her house.
Gabe reaches her front walk. “Why don’t you invite me in and we can see if what you said about riding is true.”
Backing up to her front door, Daile’s essence has changed and the tangy scent of fear reaches me. If I can smell it, so can the wolf.
“I said no. You should get off my property, Gabe.”
Without hesitation, he ascends the steps both at once, grabbing the screen door out of her hand and trapping her between the wooden door and his body. “Let me change your mind. I asked you nicely, and I really didn’t have to.”
I race to the porch silently and leap over the far rail. So it looks as if I’ve been there all along, I lean back and cross one ankle over the other. “The lady said no.”
Gabe turns with wide eyes. The growl he lets out is canine more than man. He can’t imagine how I could have gotten here without him hearing me. “You should mind your own business. You’re new in town.”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I nod. “When I arrived, I met with the club’s sergeant at arms, Kade Barrington, and he told me that harassing townsfolk for amusement wouldn’t be tolerated.”
With a laugh, Gabe steps close to Daile and touches her hair. “I was just asking the lady for a date.”
“If that’s true, then she’s said no, and you should be on your way, Gabe. You don’t want to make me angry, and I don’t want to have to explain things to the club.” I stand up straight and my canines descend. I can’t help it. He touched her and my panther is not having it.
Gabe’s jaw ticks as his dim eyes work through the problem. Dropping his hand away from Daile, he winks at her. “Maybe you’ll change your mind. I’m a nice guy, Daile.”
“I won’t.” She turns her doorknob and hurries inside.
With her out of danger, my kill instincts ease. “Do I need to talk to your superiors, Gabe? I don’t want Miss Whittaker to be afraid in her own house.”
The roar of approaching motorcycles fills the air.
Gabe looks at me, then down the road at the headlights. His skin pales. “No. She don’t want me, that’s fine.” Jumping down the steps in one leap, he retreats to his bike and joins the pack on their way to the woods.
Sitting on the steps, I wait until I can no longer hear the engines and then wait a while longer, sniffing the air for danger.
The door opens and closes. Her warm arm brushes mine as she sits next to me. “Thank you.”
“It was nothing.” My feelings do not align with my words. I can’t bear the idea of what might have happened if I hadn’t been here. “I’m sorry you were frightened.”
“That’s the first time I’ve been afraid since I arrived in town. He’s never acted like that before.” She shakes her head and the movement releases the floral scent of her shampoo.
I could explain about wolves and the moon’s cycle, but that would require a lot of information. I’m not sure she’s ready to know about Broken Arrow’s non-human population. I currently have bigger issues. Desire races through my veins forcing my cat to rise to the surface and blood to rush to my cock. Damn, but I want this woman. “I guess I better get going.”
She wraps her hand around my biceps. “Do you have to go, Jorge?”
Staring at her hand so soft and warm against my tanned skin is way more erotic than it should be. “Why do you want me to stay when you just sent that jerk away?”
“I like you.”
Those three little words shoot hope directly to my heart in a way that is completely foreign. “I’m not worth liking.”
Bringing her other hand to my arm, she tightens her grip around the muscle. “I think you are. I’d like it if you’d stay for a little while. We can talk and if you want to see my studio, I’d like to show you my work.”
Turning my head brings my nose inches from hers. Our eyes meet and the connection is fierce. Unable to resist, I touch her cheek, running the pads of my fingers over those adorable freckles. “If you knew me, you would be afraid of me.”
“Never.” She looks away. “But…”
She’s coming to her senses, and I don’t like it one bit. “What?”
“I saw something that I don’t understand.” She wrinkles her nose. “It had to be the lack of light or my imagination.”
My heart is pounding out a staccato. “What did you see?”
Her laugh is nervous. “For a moment when you were saving me from Gabe, I thought your face looked different. I swear your pupils narrowed like a cat’s and your canine teeth grew.” Another laugh. “But that’s silly.”
With her fingers still wrapped around my arm, I could be happy like this for the rest of my life. I bend my neck and kiss the back of her hand. “There are many things in the world that you don’t know about, Daile. If you want to know, I’ll tell you, but you will never be the same.”
“What does that mean?” She pulls her hands away. “Are you telling me that it wasn’t my imagination?”
“I’m saying that if you want us to be… friends, there are things you should know. Then you will decide how far our friendship should go.” I’m walking a dangerous path. This is a human woman with no clue about shifters. She could freak out or maybe even pass out. She might go to the local authorities. On the outside chance that she could still look at me the way she did a few minutes ago after knowing what I am, I press forward. “I don’t want to accept your generous offer of friendship and deceive you.”