“Interesting.”
“Really?”
“No. Not really. I’m just looking for shit to say.”
Angie’s phone rang. He’d gotten her a new phone but with her old number so she could keep in touch with her friends.
She pulled the gold-plated phone out of her Dolce & Gabbana handbag. Nik guessed it would be those dog friends of hers. He expected tears, soothing words about how she was doing fine.
What he didn’t expect…
“Don’t you dare yell at me, Sara Kylie Morrighan!”
“We’re coming for you. Tonight!”
“Like hell you are!” Angie stood up. “I swear to God, you push me on this and I’ll make that scar on your face look like a fuckin’ scratch!”
“Here!” Sara yelled away from the phone. “I can’t talk to her!”
Angie began pacing around the table. “She can’t talk to me? She’s being an irrational psychopath and she can’t talk to me?”
Nik worked on another burger—how many was that now? Forty?—and watched her, but didn’t say anything. She suddenly wanted to punch him in that handsome face, but that was because she felt a little tense. She stopped taking out her anger on others a long time ago. Or at least she worked really, really hard not to.
“Hello?”
“And when the hell were you going to tell me you were pregnant?”
“I just found out! I didn’t even have tests yet!”
“What do you mean you haven’t had any tests? Then how the hell do you know?”
“Because they can smell it on me! Like that’s not fuckin’ freakin’ me out! And why are you yelling at me?”
“I don’t know!” With a sigh, Angelina sat back down at the table, right beside Nik.
“Miki, you need to get control of Sara. Now.”
“I don’t think she’s wrong. I think we should come get your ass this damn second.”
“Miki Kendrick, I swear to God—”
“Angie, we don’t know these people you’re staying with.”
“They’re tigers.”
“Siberian,” he offered.
She glared at him over her shoulder, but barked into the phone, “Siberian, apparently.”
“Oh, really. Well, according to page six hundred and ninety-five of the Encyclopedia of Mammals, male tigers are one of the most vicious and deadly predators known to man. The males kill cubs just so they can get the female back into heat so they can get her pregnant with their own.”
Angie used her free hand to rub her forehead. “That’s fascinating, Kendrick. But I really don’t think I have anything to worry about here. You do. So why don’t you focus on yourself for awhile? You are the one about to breed.”
“I wish everybody would stop fucking saying that.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. How about you’re the one about to experience the wonders of childbirth?”
“You are such a bitch.”
“And you are such a psychopath.”
“Fine!”
“Fine!”
Angie slammed her phone closed, then slammed it down on the picnic table. She picked it up and slammed it down two more times.
“Do you and your friends fight like that all the time?”
“That wasn’t really a fight. That was a disagreement. Fights usually involve finger pointing and the occasional headlock.”
“And parts of the toilet?”
She smiled, her anger evaporating in seconds at his humor. “Naw, sugar,” she mimicked back in her best hick accent. “That was a full-on assault. Texas style.”
Not even realizing her actions, Angie reached over and gently touched the cut she’d given him right above his eye. Already it damn-near healed completely. Must be nice to have that awesome shifter metabolism.
“I didn’t hurt you too bad, did I?”
He didn’t answer. Instead he closed his eyes, her fingers stroking along his brow, and leaned his face against her hand.
At that point, she really should have taken her hand away. Normally she would have. Normally she wouldn’t have touched him in the first place. But after being kidnapped by hillbillies, “normal” seemed the least of her worries right now.
Nik tilted his head down, rubbing it against her hand. His eyes still closed, she could just watch him. He had the longest black lashes she’d ever seen on a man. And his hair wasn’t black but a deep, rich brown that felt incredible against her hand. Not really knowing why, Angie dragged her fingers through his hair…and Nik purred back in response. A low one, from deep down in his gut.
Startled, she snatched her hand back. Two weeks ago she’d been arguing with the rodeo clown about how she didn’t like to be touched in public. She finally admitted she didn’t like him touching her. Now here she sat, running her hands through her kidnapper’s hair in front of God and everybody.
Have I lost my fuckin’ mind?
Nik’s eyes snapped opened to find her staring at him like he’d done something to her. When, in fact, she was the one twisting him around her very well-manicured finger. Many women had touched him before this one and many would after he got her skinny ass out of his house, but no one had ever made him lose himself like that before. And this one had done it with a simple touch.
She scrambled to her feet. “We…uh…better get back. The clothes…ya know.”
True, her twenty grand worth of clothes were in the back of his pick-up, but he really needed a moment to, er, compose himself.
“Are you coming?”
Well, that’s a loaded question.
He tossed the keys to her. “I’ll be right there. Gotta clean up all this stuff.”
She nodded and practically sprinted back to the car. He, however, willed his poor dick to behave.
Why did this suddenly feel ten times more dangerous than when he thought an entire Clan of hyenas was out to kill her?
Chapter Four
“Did you buy her a pony, too?”
“Don’t start, Reena.”
“I mean, exactly what is wrong with you? Has all rational thought left you to blow that kind of money on some woman that you don’t even know?”
Nik wouldn’t look at his cousin. Instead he buried his head into the couch cushions.
“Well? Answer me!”
“I think she’s cute,” he mumbled sadly into the expensive leather.
“Oh, good Lord!” Reena launched herself onto Nik’s back, batting his head around with her hands. Funny, it never hurt this much when they were tigers. “Have I taught you nothing?”
“Stop doing that. Now.”
She grabbed hold of his T-shirt and pulled. “Send her ass back.”
With a sigh, Nik sat up, knocking his cousin off his back. When she hit the floor, he barely glanced at her. “I can’t. I’m supposed to protect her.”
“Just ’cause they’re afraid to transport her. Send her in the jet.”
Nik found himself suddenly interested in his bookshelves. Maybe he should get new ones.
“Nikolai Vorislav, them dogs don’t know about the goddamn jet, do they?”
“It’s none of their business.”
“They left her here because they had no other way of safely gettin’ her back to wherever the hell those dogs roam. But if we can take her ourselves—”
“She’s stayin’. And I’m not discussing this anymore.”
“The woman hit you with a toilet.”
“She was scared. I almost think she regrets it now.”
“You think she regrets it. I think the bitch is crazy.”
Nik sighed again. “Yeah. But damn if she don’t look good in a sheet.”
“I’m leavin’.” Reena stood, clearly disgusted by her cousin. “The boys will be home from their daddies’ soon and you’re starting to piss me off.”
Reena took several steps away from him and spun around. “And just so we’re clear, you’re turning into your daddy.”
Fangs burst from Nik’s mouth. “I am not turning into my daddy.?
??
Reena folded her arms in front of her chest. “Did you care that Alek and Ban didn’t see her naked?”
Nik glared at his cousin, but didn’t answer.
Reena chuckled. “Too late.”
Angie sat on the floor of the bedroom that was now her temporary home. Shopping bags surrounded her and she went through each one, pulling out and meticulously folding each item. It gave her hands something to do while she silently beat herself up.
What the hell had possessed her to rub the man’s forehead?
She wasn’t like Miki and Sara. Though they hid it well, both craved affection and love. Angie craved occasional sex and not to get the shit annoyed out of her. Otherwise, she happily co-existed with herself. She didn’t even have a pet. The only full-time companions she needed were her two best friends, but even they went home at night.
Angie carefully folded a gold tank top and laid it on the pile. She shook her head.
Why the hell am I unpacking? Getting comfortable?
Sara wouldn’t get comfortable. Sara would have gotten drunk and beaten the brothers within an inch of their lives. Miki would have…well, Miki would have dug an underground tunnel, extricated herself a safe distance, and then blown the house up.
Neither of them would be unpacking clothes after a little shopping spree with their kidnapper.
Wow. She really was a girl. Could she be any more girly? Any more dull? Any more dangerously weak and stupid and female?
“Hey, darlin’.” That came from the balcony of her room. Without missing a beat, Angie grabbed one of the baseballs she’d purchased from the sports store, crouched, turned, and pitched it.
The ball slammed right between the eyes of one of the hillbilly brothers. “Shit!”
Startled and hurting, he went to grab his head, forgetting he was on the other side of the balcony. The outside of the balcony. He fell back, disappearing from sight.
“Uh-oh.” Maybe she should have waited before attacking. She wasn’t too sure how well the family would take to her killing one of their own. Especially after trying to kill the other brother earlier.
Grabbing another baseball—just in case—she quickly walked to the balcony, and leaned over the railing.
Three of Nik’s siblings were down there and she guessed the two hysterically laughing were the ones who had not been on her balcony.
“What are we looking at?”
Angie gasped, his voice right in her ear. Big arms braced on either side of her.
The motherfucker is in my space!
Angie turned and swung with her free hand at the same time. Her hand contacted with a concrete slab…or a hillbilly chest. Either way, she felt like she’d broken her knuckles.
“Motherfuckinggoddamnsonofabitch!”
“Aw, sugar. Did you hurt your hand?”
Angie didn’t know what annoyed her more. The fact her punch didn’t even faze him or that he hadn’t moved back away from her. Yeah. She was sure of it.
Both annoyed the shit out of her.
“Lemme see.” He took her hand, but she snatched it back before he got a good enough grip on it.
“Keep your hillbilly paws off me.”
He held his hands up. “Okay. Okay. No need to get all hysterical.”
“I am not—” Angie took a deep breath and did the counting technique her anger-management counselor taught her. Ten. Nine. Eight…
“And what exactly are you gonna do with that?” His eyes glanced at the baseball in her hand and back at her.
She looked up into his smiling face. No. He didn’t smile at her. He smirked.
Condescending prick.
She looked at the baseball in her hand and, for a brief moment, Nik thought she might try and shove it up his ass. Man, this woman was quite the hellcat.
Instead of rectally damaging him, she muttered, “Three, two, one,” under her breath, and calmly looked at him. “Pick something.”
Nik looked down into that pretty face. “I’m sorry?”
“I said pick something. Anything around here, and I’ll nail it. Dead on. I used to date a minor-league baseball player.”
“Really?”
“Yup. He loved teaching me stuff.” Nik just bet. “It was the only time I didn’t tell him to get his fuckin’ hands off me.”
Nik rubbed his nose to stop from laughing. He leaned against the balcony. “Anything, huh?”
Ban stared up at them, rubbing his forehead. When he realized Nik watched him, he began making kissing faces and pointing at the pair of them. When Angie turned around, he stopped.
Sarcastically, “How about nailing my bonehead brother in the head again?” Since he assumed it had already happened once based on the knot already growing there.
She shrugged. “Okay.”
“Wait, I was kid—” But it was too late. She sent the ball blazing down from the balcony and popping Ban right in the head…again.
Man, that baseball player taught her well.
Ban let out a stream of curses he probably hadn’t used since he left the Marines and again gripped his forehead.
Nik ran his hands through his hair. No, he’d never hear the end of this one.
While Ban rubbed his head with one hand, he grabbed the ball from the ground at his feet with the other. Nik knew exactly what he had in mind. “Don’t even think about it.”
“That nutcase hit me in the head! Twice!”
She put her feet between the bars and leaned far over. “Who the hell are you calling nutcase, slow boy from down the lane?”
“She sure did hit ya.” Nik laughed. He probably shouldn’t be so proud of that fact, but he couldn’t help himself. “Why the hell were you up here anyway?”
Ban dropped the ball and took several steps away, closer to Nik’s side of the balcony. “I wanted to see if she wanted to come with us to the dinner tomorrow.”
Angie suddenly perked up, pushing Nik aside to look down at Ban. “A dinner? Like a party?”
“Yes. But I changed my goddamn mind!”
“Well that’s plain mean.”
“Forget it. I ain’t takin’ you anywhere. The slow boy from down the lane has spoken.”
Nik placed his hands on the railing, “accidentally” rubbing against Angie’s bare arm. “Good. ’Cause she’s comin’ with me.”
She turned on him. “I am not.”
He didn’t want to analyze why she seemed more than comfortable going with Ban, who she popped in the head with a baseball, and not him. He was definitely better looking than Ban.
“Sssh. Don’t interrupt, sugar. Big boys talkin’. ”
“We are not bringing her now,” Ban snapped.
“Sure we are. Daddy’ll love her.”
“Momma won’t. She hurt me. I’m gonna have a knot on my head.” Yeah. And once he made up some bullshit story, every tigress there would be falling all over their Christian Dior dresses to take care of the big idiot. They loved Ban. He was a proven breeder.
Nik brought his head right next to her so he could whisper in her ear. “He’s got a point, sugar. You done gone and hurt her baby boy. Ban’s her favorite.”
She didn’t answer him. She was too busy leaning away from him. He didn’t understand it. He’d bathed that morning.
He wondered how far she’d go, so he leaned over a little more. Immediately, her body leaned farther away from him. He wasn’t even sure she knew she did it. He stood up straight, and so did she.
He leaned over again. So did she. So he kept going, now desperate to see how far she’d go.
She hit the floor.
“Dammit!”
He stretched out his hand to help her up, but she slapped him away. She got to her feet and looked damn cute doing it, too.
“You all right, sugar?”
“Yes.” She brushed non-existent dirt off her dress. “And stop calling me sugar.”
“Naw.”
“Naw?”
He shrugged. “Naw.” He smiled at her. “Besides, ain
’t you sweet as sugar?”
She snorted. “Naw.”
Aleksei suddenly appeared on the other side of the railing. “Ya gotta come with us.”
Startled, Angie jumped back. “Are there stairs or something next to this fuckin’ balcony?”
“Naw,” both brothers answered.
She leaned over the railing, giving Nik an amazing look at those legs. Damn, girl. “Then how…”
“It’s our hind legs. Tigers can jump really far,” Aleksei offered.
“Really?” She bit her lip. “You must have amazing thighs.”
What the hell did the woman think she was doing? Flirting with both his brothers. And completely ignoring him!
Aleksei stared at her, completely lost. “They’re not bad.”
“Interesting.”
Alek leaned in closer and all Nik wanted to do was toss the man’s ass off his balcony. Why is he on my territory anyway?
“Ignore Ban,” Alek insisted. “Just come with us.”
“I’d love to. I do love a good party.” She glanced at Nik. “And I think I have just the dress.”
Nik barely bit back a snarl. “Only one?”
She shrugged innocently.
“Great.” Aleksei grinned. “Well, I better take care of Ban’s big fat head. I still hear him whimpering.”
“I ain’t whimperin’,” Ban yelled from the patio.
Aleksei winked at Angie. “Yes he is.”
She gave a wave of her hand. “Do what you must, hillbilly. But I want my baseballs back.”
She headed back into her room. Aleksei leaned in close to his brother. “Man,” he whispered. “That woman is hot. And I think she likes me.”
“I think she likes anyone dumb enough to be controlled by her.”
“You mean like you, Mr. Twenty Grand Man?”
Nik glared at his brother, slapped his hand over the man’s face, and shoved him off the balcony.
“That wasn’t funny,” Alek yelled once he landed.
Nik leaned over the railing. “Yes it was.”
Angie placed her newly purchased clothes in the chest of drawers as Nik walked back into the room. He closed the balcony doors and she almost screamed at him to open them back up. She finally had to face it, the man made her nervous. And closing her off in a room with him wasn’t really helping.