“A man can also lose both his eyes in a tragic tiger mauling.”
His brothers snickered and he felt his annoyance grow. Hard not to let it happen when he was as horny as a dog. Just watching her move had his mouth watering. Classy. Sweet. Funny. A real lady.
Angie evaluated the table, then stepped back. “Dinner!”
All three brothers jumped. A real lady who could out-scream a football stadium.
His parents showed up as the rest of them made their way to the table. His mother stormed out of Boris’s pickup truck, slamming the door behind her. She looked angry as hell, but she still had a hickey on her neck.
“Good,” Boris boomed. “I didn’t miss Momma’s fried chicken.” He smiled at Angie. “Best fried chicken in the entire South.”
Boris stood at one end of the table while Nik helped his grandmother into a chair on the opposite end. His father pulled out a chair for Angie and then another for Nik’s mother. Angie sat while Natalia slapped Boris’s hand away, re-adjusted the chair, and sat down. The fact his mother agreed to stay for dinner at his grandmother’s house was quite a feat for his father. No wonder the old man beamed like he bought another company.
Nik settled his grandmother and walked down to the seat beside Angie. Ban already took Nik’s seat next to Angie, so he grabbed the chair his brother sat in, lifted up both, and moved him closer to Reena. He grabbed another chair and sat down beside her.
Angie shook her head. “And to think I used to wish I had brothers and sisters.”
“What do you mean? I love my family.”
Angie simply snorted in response.
Nik pushed a stray hair behind Angie’s ear. “So, sugar, why exactly are you here?”
“Spending quality time with the Clampetts really can’t be beat.”
His hand strayed down to her bare leg, caressing it under the table. He loved that she jumped at his touch. “Still think you’re better than my family?”
“Oh, honey. I don’t think I’m better than your family.” She lifted his hand and placed it on the table. “I think I’m better than you.”
Nik smiled as his father slammed his fist down on the table.
“I do like this girl!”
Well, Angie had to admit it. She liked these people. They were funny and interesting. They kept her laughing all through dinner with stories of their other relatives and the people from town, shifter and human. Broyna said very little except for the occasional snide remark about a cousin or local. She seemed simply to enjoy having her grandkids and son around.
Angie found none of this surprising. Southerners always did tell the best stories. Of course, they were also the ones with relatives named Big Earl and Jackie Ray.
After dinner, things slowed down a bit. The family wandered from the table, Ban and Alek helping their grandmother back into the house. Reena and Kisa went off to talk to Natalia while Boris stepped away to check his messages on his cell phone.
All of which essentially left her alone with Nik.
He grabbed hold of the chair by its legs, turning it, and her, around so she faced him. He pulled the chair in close to him, so that his big legs ended up bracketing hers.
She expected him to say something, but he didn’t. He simply stared at her face. After two minutes of that, she grew considerably uncomfortable.
“What?”
“Nothin’.”
“Then stop staring at me. You’re freaking me out.”
“Everything freaks you out.”
“Not true. I have a very high tolerance for weirdness. I have a high tolerance for you, don’t I?”
“And my family.”
“They’re nice.” She always wondered what it was like to come from a big family. Angelina didn’t know. Her parents were never close to their few siblings and other relatives. And once they dumped her off in Texas it was like she no longer existed to the rest of her family.
Nik rubbed her legs with both of his hands, stopping to touch a rather long, simple scar cutting across her right knee.
“How’d ya get this?”
She glanced down at it. “Knife fight.”
“A knife fight?”
“Yup…well…I didn’t have a knife. I’m not really good with knives.”
“I see.”
“I had a baseball bat.”
She looked off down the path that led to the house. Headlights headed their way in the murky light that came before it went pitch black.
“I guess you learned to use that from the baseball player.”
“Nope. He taught me to pitch. The head of the motorcycle club I dated when I was sixteen until Marrec found out—he taught me how to use a baseball bat. I don’t think he expected me to use it on him, though.”
She glanced at Nik. “Hey, don’t look at me that way. He’s back on solid food.”
“You gonna tell me what happened?”
“What’s there to tell? He was mean to my friends. That’s all I needed to know.”
Nik grunted and, for some unknown reason, seemed satisfied with her answer. Maybe it was a shifter thing. She’d stopped telling her dates that story long ago. They’d go to the bathroom after dinner and never return.
“Someone’s coming.”
Nik nodded, but he seemed eternally interested in her legs. “I know.” His big hands wrapped around her knees and she marveled at the size of them. “Do you have a boyfriend, Angelina?”
Why did the men in his family insist on asking her that question?
Angie thought back on the rodeo clown. He’d wanted to be her boyfriend. At least, he did in the beginning. Like all the others, however, he soon realized her friends were the most important thing to her and she really didn’t want anyone touching her unless it involved fucking. That last bit seemed to be the biggest problem for the cowboy. She had no idea why. He still would have gotten laid. Instead he got needy and possessive. She hated that.
“No. I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Good.” He squeezed her knees.
Suddenly, the man’s hands were on the move, sliding up her legs, his thumbs disappearing between her thighs. Angie jumped, practically off the chair, and a little whimper escaped her throat. Her hands grabbed his wrists and he stopped moving. But she knew he could have kept going if he wanted to. His arms were like big, thick steel rods.
“I felt you underneath me this morning, Angie. I don’t think anything’s ever felt that good before.”
Angie glanced around. No one seemed to be paying them any mind. But she didn’t know how much longer she could keep this calm thing going. With just words the man made her desperate to come.
“How you moved, your responses…sugar, you make me hurt in all the best places.” He rubbed the inside of her thighs although he didn’t move any further toward her crotch, and she was grateful. She didn’t think she would have been able to stop him. Not because he would have forced himself, but because she knew she wouldn’t want to stop him.
“God, woman,” he whispered. “I can’t wait to get inside you. To feel your pussy clench around my cock when you’re coming. To hear you say my name like you did this morning when I had your breast in my mouth.”
“You really need to stop now.”
He finally looked into her face and whatever he saw, he seemed damn happy about. He let out a breath and Angie swallowed in response. “I’m so glad I’m not feeling this way by myself,” he murmured.
She gave a desperate chuckle. “What? Are you kidding?”
“Hey, Nikky boy!” Nik glanced over and Angie realized the vehicles that had been heading toward the house had parked and a load of relatives or neighbors already out and socializing. She hadn’t even noticed. A young man, clearly another shifter based on his size alone, waved at Nik.
“Hey, Cleats. Be with ya in a sec.”
Nik turned back to Angie.
She cleared her throat. “We…uh…better…ya know, your relatives and all.” Well that made absolutely no sense.
/> “Yeah. We better. But, sugar, you need to let me go.” She blinked, not knowing what he was talking about. “You’re starting to draw blood.” He gazed down at her lap and her eyes followed his. She still had a death grip on his wrists, but her nails dug into his flesh and she could see blood starting to form on his skin.
“Oh, God!” She yanked her hands away. “I’m so sorry.”
He grabbed her hands back. “For what? For telling me you want me in no uncertain terms? Sugar, don’t ever be sorry ’bout that.”
He squeezed her hands, gently laying them back in her lap. “I gotta go make nice with the kin or Daddy will never hear the end of it. Which means I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Nik stood up, glancing around. He glowered and Angie again followed his gaze. The females were chatting and giving each other hugs. But the males were staring at her. For the first time since she found out exactly what Sara was, Angie felt uncomfortable around shifters.
Nik leaned down, his hands on both sides of her face. “Sorry, sugar, but this one can’t be helped.” He kissed her. A hard, demanding kiss that made her grip his wrists again as he practically yanked her out of her chair. His tongue slid inside her mouth and curled itself around hers. She’d never been with a man who could make her lose all sense of herself. Not when she kept such a rigid leash on her control. But with Nik, she forgot where she was, who else was around, or why the fuck she was there. All she knew was that Nik was the most amazing kisser she’d ever had the pleasure of meeting and that his grandmother’s fried chicken probably was the best in the South.
He finally pulled away, slowly lowering her back in her chair. “In case any of my kin get any funny ideas.” He winked at her, then walked off to greet the others.
Angie, staring down at her lap, rubbed her lip, and tried to be calm and rational about all this. Not really working, but a worthy attempt nonetheless.
When she felt confident she wouldn’t embarrass herself, she finally looked up—only to face pretty much all of Nik’s female relatives. They sat on and around the table, while two took the time to clean off everything and bring it back to the house.
She sighed. “Aw, hell.”
Nik slapped one of his younger cousins on the back as way of greeting, sending the poor kid flying into Alek.
He winced. “Sorry ’bout that.”
Alek helped the kid to his feet. “Don’t take it personally, Jimmy Ray. Nik’s feeling a little primal right now.”
“Shut up.”
But his brother was right. Angelina brought out his most base instincts. She turned him into that tiger protecting the female with the cubs he knew was his.
Christ, she brought out the Boris in him. He shuddered at the thought, but he knew. Hell, now everybody knew. But if he’d just wanted to get in her pants, he would have fucked her by now and sent her back to her Pack in the family jet. He sure as hell wouldn’t be waiting to fuck her. Waiting for the right moment. Waiting until she was so crazy in lust she’d never be able to simply walk away from him.
He mentally shook himself. He wouldn’t go that far down Boris-lane. His father wanted to be trapped with one female his whole life that was down to him. Nik just wanted this to be memorable. Of course, Angie’d already made it that way.
A knife fight?
“By the way,” Nik announced to his brothers as he caught the beer Cleats chucked at him, “I got a call this afternoon.”
“Oh?” Alek took the beer Ban handed him.
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“I’m supposed to keep you away from his sister.”
The three brothers stared at each other. Then they burst out laughing.
“Can I help you?”
An older woman leaned forward and Angie waited for it. The interrogation. Or the “scare off”. Whatever. She could handle it.
“So, what would you put me in?”
Well this has gone suddenly weird. “I’m sorry?”
“I think Chanel. But my sister thinks Dolce & Gabbana.”
“I thought Dolce & Gabbana only made shoes,” one of the younger females tossed out.
“No. They don’t only make shoes. What is wrong with you?”
Good God. They wanted to know about clothes.
Angie shook her head. “Um…I’d put you in Marc Jacobs.”
“Really?”
She smiled to keep from laughing hysterically. “Definitely.”
Chapter Eleven
Nik couldn’t believe she’d fallen asleep in the back of his brother’s pickup truck. That was awfully “down-home girl” for his little hellcat. But that’s where he found her when the impromptu party began to break up. She had the sweatshirt he’d been wearing over his T-shirt wrapped around her like a blanket. He pushed her hair off her face. She didn’t swat him away this time. Instead, she smiled in her sleep.
Alek gripped his brother’s shoulder. “You ready to go?”
Nik agreed by quietly climbing into the back with her. He carefully pulled Angie into his arms, careful not to wake her. She cuddled into his body and sighed as one hand gripped his T-shirt.
They got home far sooner than he would have liked, although he knew his brother took his time. Alek opened the rear door, allowing Nik to get out of the vehicle like a normal human being.
Nik picked Angie up in his arms and jumped out of the truck. He nodded at his brother and went into his house as Alek pulled off. He carried her up the stairs, and to her room.
The cleaning people must have come by because the bed had been changed and made. He used one hand to pull the comforter and sheets back, then carefully laid her out. Slipping off her white Keds, he stopped to rub her chilled feet before carefully unwrapping the sweatshirt and pulling it off her. He tossed it on the floor, and dragged the sheets and comforter back over her still body.
Crouching down beside her, he stared at her face. Damn, but she sure was pretty. He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.
“Night, sugar,” he whispered softly.
He walked back to the door, shut off the light, and closed the door after him.
Angie lay in the darkness for what felt like forever. What in hell was that anyway?
She thought for sure he’d try and cop a feel while she was asleep. Actually, she kind of hoped he would. But he didn’t. Nor did he have one of his brothers simply dump her ass in the bed while he went off to do whatever tigers do after a certain hour.
But a chaste kiss goodnight? What the hell was that? What exactly did that mean? And when exactly did she start analyzing anything anyone did or said? Especially a man. Normally that stuff didn’t mean shit to her. Miki did the analyzing. Sara did the obsessing. And Angie worked hard trying to prevent the two of them from driving themselves into a mental institution.
Add in that the long, revealing conversation with the females of Nik’s family had confused her even more. Tigers were notorious players. Both the men and the women. The majority of them didn’t want anything beyond the fucking and the kids. The women had their own lives, their own careers, their own homes.
They considered Boris a freak of the highest order. A tiger who clung to one mate no matter how hard she fought. They didn’t seem to like Natalia too much. Thought she was a rich snob, like Broyna did, but they didn’t think she was any different than the rest of them when it came to sex and relationships. But as soon as Boris saw her, when they were only twelve years old, he decided she would bear his cubs and be his mate. By the time he was twenty-one, he’d already gotten Natalia pregnant with Nik. Ban came a short time after. And finally the twins. Due to complications during the birth of Alek and Kisa, Natalia was unable to have any more children. The family felt certain, or at least hoped, that Boris’s obsession with her would end. That he’d move on to other females that could still breed.
He didn’t. He had four children and seemed more than happy with that. He never left her. Never gave her up. Terrified any male who got within sniffing distance. And altho
ugh their days consisted of her telling him to get the hell out of her life, they spent their nights together in the same bed.
Everyone, however, hoped his children would be more like the rest of them. Yet after the way Nik kissed her in front of everybody, they now seemed pretty confident he took after his daddy.
Angie, however, didn’t feel nearly as confident about Nik’s feelings toward her. He wanted her, but that could be because she was simply a fresh pussy in his house. But his wanting to wait for sex and his incredibly sweet goodnight kiss kept confusing her. Although he made it perfectly clear his kind wanted nothing more than a fun romp in the hay, Angie couldn’t help but feel something very different might be going on here.
What concerned her more than anything? That she cared. She cared whether Nik might be falling for her. She cared whether his family liked her. Hell, she cared whether the man was happy or not. Her. Angelina Santiago.
Angie cared when she never had before, and that absolutely freaked her the fuck out.
Nik checked the house. Now that he had Angie staying with him, he didn’t like taking any chances with her safety. Once he felt it was secure, he shifted and headed out to check his property. He knew his brothers were around, too. They’d taken it upon themselves to make sure his grounds were safe.
It didn’t surprise him they felt as responsible for her as he did. Because they were. They’d taken her from Marrec’s Pack. But he couldn’t be angry with them anymore. Not really. If it hadn’t been for them, she wouldn’t be here. Sleeping in his house.
He owed his brothers for this one. He owed them big.
Angie, unable to sleep, rolled out of bed. She took a quick shower, put on a long T-shirt, and headed to Nik’s office on the first floor. She opened the glass doors that led outside. The fresh smell of pine assaulted her and she suddenly felt like one of those women in the floor-cleaning commercials. “Shifters—now with a pine-fresh scent.”
She laughed and went to his desk, searching out another magazine, thinking she could read a little while before heading back to bed. She grabbed an issue of GQ and plopped down on the couch. She liked how Nik had this room set up. With a desk and seriously comfy leather chairs. But also another enormous couch like the one in his living room, facing a set of French doors, looking out over his backyard. She wondered if he spent a lot of time in this room. She wondered if he lay on this couch as a tiger. It had to be one of the biggest, sturdiest couches she’d ever come across. Also the most comfortable.