“You can’t play with this one, ya know. She’s special. There’s something about her that says she’ll happily kill you in your sleep.”
Nik smiled, even while he kept his head down over the paperwork in front of him. “You like her.”
“Don’t you?”
“I don’t dislike her.”
“Hell, boy, for you that’s marriage.”
“I thought we were here to work?”
“Don’t blow this by being a chump. A woman like that comes along once in a lifetime.”
He sure hoped so. He didn’t think he could handle more than one Angelina Santiago. Face like an angel. Body like a demon. Mouth like a Bronx trucker.
But he never planned on keeping her. He wasn’t his father. At least, he kept reminding himself of that over and over again. Still…a woman who practically snaps your neck when she’s coming was not a woman you tossed aside easily.
“Look, old man, I refuse to discuss my life with you. Now or ever. So let it go.”
“All right, if you want your future slippin’ away from you ’cause you ain’t got no sense—”
“Why can’t you be normal?” Nik didn’t mean to nearly yell it, but his father’s pushing had finally gotten the best of him. “Why can’t you be like everybody else? Have yourself more than one female. Have yourself twenty! Why are my brothers, my brothers? And not my half brothers? The only ones who should be from the same mother are Kisa and Aleksei because they’re twins.”
“Being normal is boring.” His father looked around at the greasy diner he always insisted on going to. Full of shifters, mostly tigers but a few Pack and Pride, they all openly stared. Most likely hoping for a full-on fight between the old tiger and the younger one. Old tigers never went down quietly. “These people are boring. Your momma, though…that woman has never been boring. Crazy. Mean as a snake. Snobby as all hell. But never borin’.”
“And what makes you think Angelina is never boring? Right now she’s back at my house reading Vogue—again—and whining about how there’s no TV. Does that sound interesting to you?”
“Really?” His father nodded toward the window. “Isn’t that her in one of my pickup trucks?”
Nik’s head snapped around. Sure enough, Angie—most likely one of the most dangerous drivers in the Carolinas from what she’d told him—was behind the wheel of his father’s Chevy Dually pickup.
“And ain’t that your sisters next to her?”
Nik rubbed his eyes. I leave the house for five goddamn minutes and all hell breaks loose.
“See, boy? Never borin’.”
“What do you think?”
Angie sipped her champagne. She debated whether to be kind.
Nah.
“I wouldn’t, hon.”
“Really?”
“It makes ya look dumpy…and fat.”
The lioness turned and stormed back to the dressing room.
Reena, a little tipsy on all that champagne, stretched out on the couch. Her head rested against Angelina’s side and Angelina felt the urge to toss her off the couch. She didn’t have the heart to be so bitchy, though. Not today.
“You know, Santiago, you should feel damn proud of yourself.”
“Oh? And why’s that?”
“Because this is the first time Fallons Department Store ever had tigers, lions, she-wolves, a couple of cheetahs, and a few bears all in the same place without beatin’ the hell out of each other.”
“I thought these places were neutral ground for you shifter types.” She liked this place. It reminded her of Neiman Marcus or Bloomingdales. Big, spacious, with all the great designers.
“They are. Humans shop here, but it’s run and owned by shifters. Still, we can usually smell each other. The lions stay away from the tigers. The hyenas away from the lions. Etcetera, etcetera. This is the first time that I can recall this level of inter-mingling.”
“How many of these stores are there?”
“All over the states and Europe.”
“Cool.” Maybe she could drag Sara’s ass to one close to the Pack den and get the woman some hot clothes without the Harley-Davidson logo on them. “I find out something new every day.”
Kisa sat on the couch. “Like what else?” The more Angie talked to her, the more Kisa opened up. Like a turtle sticking her head out of her shell.
“Well, I had no idea Manolo Blahnik made size thirteen shoes.”
“Well, they don’t make them openly. But the bears and wolves have huge feet,” Reena whispered.
“We heard that,” one of the bears growled.
Angie stood up, laughing as Reena’s head slammed against the couch. “Sorry.”
She headed off toward the bathroom, stopping several times to dissuade two women to never wear orange again and to urge a wolf to consider waxing her brow into two distinct ones.
She reached the bathroom, her hand on the door, when her hackles raised off her neck. She remembered feeling that way before—when she’d turned around to find a hyena female standing behind her outside her shop.
Angie turned slowly. A different female stood behind her this time, but a hyena just the same. She could tell the difference now.
The woman didn’t speak, but she bared her fangs. A whole mouth full of them. Little, needle-sharp fangs that could easily tear the flesh from Angie’s body.
What a pleasant thought.
The hyena took a step toward her and Angelina tensed her body, ready to start hurting anything that got near her. Most normal people would run. But Angie didn’t run unless someone told her too. Otherwise she stood around and started swinging. Since neither Sara nor Miki were there to tell her to run that meant one thing, and she balled up her fists preparing to let them fly.
“Is there a problem, Angelina?”
Sahara Lyon stepped around the corner, a she-wolf female beside her.
“We thought we smelled somethin’ funky,” the she-wolf grumbled. “So we decided to come check.”
The hyena female stared at Angie. She knew that look. The look of someone desperate to kick the living shit out of her. She’d seen it more than once over the years. And Angie bet her face mirrored the exact same sentiment back to the hyena. She could almost taste the beating she’d planned to give her. She could practically feel the flesh and bone give as she laid into her.
“What will you do?” Angie whispered. “So close and yet you just can’t get near me.”
The female took another step toward her and Angie thought she might have goaded the dumb bitch into a fight. But to Angie’s eternal surprise, Kisa stepped in front of her. Big tiger fangs bared. She opened her mouth wide, a tiger growl ripping through the store.
Angie glanced at Sahara who shrugged in mutual surprise.
Kisa grabbed the woman by the throat, yanked her close, and then threw her. The hyena flew over several racks and into a few other hyena females. Racks hit the floor, glass broken, clothes damaged. Angie winced. Well this is gonna cost.
The hyenas picked up Angie’s challenger, not even stopping to brush the glass off, quickly moving toward the escalators as Kisa walked back to Angie. “I think I’m going to get that blue dress I tried on.”
“You do that, Kisa. It looks really good on you.”
The tigress walked off and Angie glanced at Sahara. “Okay. She’s a little scary.”
“A little?”
Nik stood on Main Street next to his brothers. “When did you first see ’em?”
“Just today.”
Male hyenas. Weak, subservient bastards. Probably from one of the Raleigh Clans.
Nik watched them skulking down the street, trying to fit in. But every shifter in town watched them walk by and smelled that they didn’t belong. Hyenas didn’t live this far away from a city. Which really wasn’t very surprising. One breed at a time they’d happily fuck with, which was easy enough to do in a town like New York or San Francisco. But two, three, six breeds all managing to live together in a small town in the mi
ddle of nowhere? No. Hyenas stayed near the big cities where they felt safer and could do more damage, usually steering clear of the small shifter-filled towns.
“What do you want us to do?” Alek asked.
“Do what the South is famous for. Run their asses out of town.”
His brothers grinned.
Chapter Thirteen
Nik threw open his front door. “Angie?”
“Kitchen.”
He froze. Kitchen?
Nik walked toward it with trepidation, but as he neared, he smelled food. And it smelled really good.
He found Angie sitting at the kitchen table, her feet up on the sturdy wood. The latest copy, he assumed, of Mademoiselle Magazine open on her lap. The relief he felt at seeing her safe practically knocked him back out the door. When his brothers pointed out the hyenas in town, he immediately feared the worst. And seeing female wolves and lions hanging out in front of Fallons Department Store simply confused him.
“What’s that smell?” He liked that he didn’t have to start every conversation with the usual pleasantries. In fact, he got the feeling Angie hated pleasantries.
“My kick-ass spaghetti with meat sauce.”
“You can cook?”
She glared at him. “Yes. I can cook. I often choose not to, but I can cook.”
He folded his arms in front of his chest. “So why have you chosen to cook for me?”
“You know, to thank you for your wonderful hospital—”
“Angie.”
“All right, all right!” Wow, that didn’t take much turning of the screws to get her to break. “I went into town with your sisters and there was a small problem with hyenas and Kisa. Then a fight with the lions and the bears, and then the cheetahs pissed off the wolves…anyway, Fallons will be charging about two grand to your personal account.”
Nik forced himself not to smile. “You rack up two grand on my account and all I get is your lousy spaghetti?”
He barely ducked that magazine in time. “My spaghetti is not lousy.” She swung her feet off the table and stood up. “And you’re going to eat it and you’re going to goddamn love it!” She pushed past him.
“Goddamn hillbilly,” she muttered while stomping to the stove. She had on shorts. Nice.
“Well sit your hillbilly ass down.”
He pulled his chair out and dropped into it. “It’s ready?”
“Nearly.” She dropped a plate in front of him. “But to get you started, here’s salad.”
She turned to walk away, but he grabbed her wrist and yanked her onto his lap.
“Where you goin’?” Somehow he knew there was more to this story.
“Get your cat paws off me.” She laughed, struggling to pull away from him.
Nik wrapped his arms around her waist and held her tight. “Now, what aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me, Angie.”
“I’m not.” He slid his hand between her legs, and she grabbed onto his wrist. “Don’t you dare!”
“Then tell me.”
“There’s nothing to tell.” He pushed his hand farther up her leg. “Okay. Okay!”
Angie took a deep breath, but still refused to release his wrist. “There was a slight fender bender with your daddy’s truck, but it was your sister’s fault.”
“How much is that going to cost me?”
“I don’t know.”
His hand moved up another inch.
“I don’t!” She pushed at his arm. “But your daddy said he’d let ya know.”
“Maybe,” he ran his tongue up around her ear, before pulling back, “you could work all that money off. Ya know. In trade.”
“Oh, get a grip, hillbilly. You know I’ll pay you back for all of it.”
He licked her neck. She pinched his hand. He bit her neck. She punched his arm. He slid his hand up and down her calf, simply enjoying the feel of her soft flesh beneath his hand and she snarled, “Look, hillbilly, unless you’re going to fuck me, stop freakin’ touching me.”
Nik stopped because he wasn’t sure he heard her correctly. “What?”
“I don’t like to be touched unless it leads to fucking. And, then, only if it’s the important areas. Otherwise, get your hands off me.”
“You’re kidding right?”
“No.”
He decided to test her, running his hand behind the back of her knee.
With a growl, she pulled back and he let her go. Unfortunately, she lost her seat and fell back off his lap, dropping to the floor.
Her ass hit the tile, then her head. Nik winced in sympathy.
“You okay, sugar?”
“Oh, fuck you.”
“Now that’s just rude.”
“You know…” She struggled to sit up, so he grabbed her T-shirt and yanked her into position. She slapped at his hands. “You are a very distracting man.”
“Why, thank you kindly.”
“It wasn’t a compliment, Cleatus.”
“I’m Nik. Cleatus is my second cousin twice removed. We call him Cleats for short.”
Angie buried that pretty little face in her hands and sighed.
She really could just kill him. True, she’d go to prison for at least twenty-five years, but it might be worth it.
He crouched down in front of her, grabbing her ankle and pulling her toward him.
“Hey!” She slapped at his hand. “What are you doing?”
“You took a nasty fall there. I wanna check the back of your head.”
“My head’s fine.” She tried to scramble away from him again, but with grim determination, he snatched her back, pulling her tight against his body.
“You’re not going to make me tie your hands behind your back so that I can do this, are ya?”
He meant it jokingly, she knew he did. But her mistake? Turning away, her breath coming out in a rush, and her nipples getting hard. All at the same time.
What could she say? The idea of being tied up and at this hillbilly’s mercy sent all sorts of dirty, erotic images slamming through her tired, slightly tipsy-from-the-champagne brain.
He didn’t miss any of it. His hands tightened at her waist and for someone who went running as a tiger for miles and miles every night, he seemed to have a sudden labored-breathing problem.
“Let me go, Nik.”
“I really don’t want to.”
“Nik…let me go.”
He did. Slowly. His fingers taking an achingly long time to release her. Once he did, she scooted back from him a bit.
“Angie—”
“Don’t get any weird ideas here, hillbilly.” She wanted to back away from him, but then again she really didn’t. “It’s not what you think. I’m not into any of that weird shit.”
“I know. I know exactly what you want.” He nuzzled her chin. “You like to play.” How come she suddenly felt like one of those squeaky mice someone gives to their cat? He leaned in closer and she closed her eyes. He smelled so good and her entire body tingled at his scent. “I’ve been waiting a long time to meet someone like you, Angelina Santiago.”
She felt his tongue against her lips and, with only a moment’s hesitation, opened to him. He groaned, his mouth claiming hers. His hand sliding behind the back of her, pulling her close.
So now what? She had an uncontrollable tiger by the tail. And what the fuck do I do with that?
Anything she needed. Anything she wanted. Absolutely anything—as long as he could bury himself inside her until the end of time.
Angie pulled out of their kiss. “My sauce…I…I need to finish it.”
Nik rocked his weight back on his heels and held his hands up, palms open. She had that feral alley cat look she sometimes got. He wouldn’t do anything to push her away. Not now. Not ever. “Okay. Not a problem. I’ve gotta finish up some work in my study and then I’ll come back and eat when you’re ready.”
Together, slowly, the pair stood.
“I’m gonna go
in my study now.” He spoke slowly so as not to startle her. “If you need me—”
“Yup. Yup. I know where you are. Now go away.”
He backed out the door. Once he was in the hallway, he heard her give a seriously sexy and frustrated sigh and start cursing like a sailor. After that, a lot of pot banging.
But she didn’t leave. And that was all he needed to know.
She couldn’t even taste the food. And that had to be the longest, most uncomfortable dinner she’d ever sat through. Especially when she kept thinking of Nik naked.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
“My brothers will be here soon.”
The last bit of spaghetti she brought up from her plate stopped, hovering right by her lips. “Why?” Well she’d filled that question with an aura of intense distrust. So much so that Nik leaned back in his seat.
“Hunting usually. But tonight we’ll be checking to make sure the property is safe. That you’re safe.”
“Oh.”
He pushed his chair back from the table, stood, and leaned against it. His big hands resting against the thick wood. “And maybe we should get some things clear.”
“Clear?”
Without responding, Nik picked up the table and moved it out of his way. Angie watched him, mesmerized. That thing had to weigh a ton. A fine, fine piece of antique furniture she’d been silently wondering the cost of for two days. Twenty thousand easy, and his family used it like he’d picked it up at a flea market for twenty bucks.
Nik walked up to her, took the fork from her hand and tossed it across the room into the sink. Before she could move, he gripped her under her arms and lifted her out of the seat until they were eye level.
“Yes. We need to make some things clear. I don’t share what’s mine. So you have no worries about my brothers. Ever.”
Too stunned to respond, Angie stared at him.
Nik grunted. Seemingly satisfied with her lack of response. He carried her over to the sink and set her down. If he’s expecting me to do the dishes, he can forget it. I cooked the meal, he can damn well clean it up.
But Nik seemed pretty disinterested in the dirty dishes and the mess she’d made on the stove. Instead, he grabbed her hands and spread her arms out away from her body and across the counter. He leaned into her, trapping her against the stainless steel.