“They bring me elk and deer.”
His big grin returned. He had to be the happiest man she’d ever met. “The woo-in’! They must like you.”
“So it would seem.”
“Not that I blame ’em. You’re a charmin’ girl.”
“As are you.”
“Yes, I am a charming girl.”
Angie snorted and went back to her martini. She liked this hick. He made her laugh.
“So, you interested in any of ’em?” Boris asked lightly.
“No.”
“Why not? Is it ’cause you think they’re hillbillies?”
“They are hillbillies. And I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Why are you women so difficult?”
“We’re not difficult. We just don’t take shit anymore.”
Boris looked at the current object of his lust. “She sure don’t. That’s one of the things I love about her. She’d rip your throat out as soon as look at ya.”
“That’s lovely, Boris. You should have that printed on a greeting card.”
She felt Nik behind her even before she saw his big hands brace against the bar on either side of her body. Why the hell did he insist on doing that?
“Back off, country.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not touchin’ ya.”
“No. But you’re invading my personal space.”
“Of course I am. It’s as big as Montana, so I really don’t have room to go anywhere else.”
She glared at him over her shoulder, but he was staring at Boris. The two men watched each other for several long seconds.
“What did you do,” Nik finally demanded.
Angie immediately jumped to Boris’ defense. “Hey, hey, hey! He didn’t do anything.” She turned in the circle of his arms, careful not to touch him. “He was being a perfect gentleman. So back the fuck off.”
“I’m not talkin’ about you.” He raised an eyebrow at Boris. “I mean what did you do to Momma?”
Boris shrugged. “Nothin’ I haven’t done a thousand times before.”
Nik glared and spit between gritted teeth, “You’re disgusting.”
Boris became deadly serious. “I’m also your father. So watch how you talk to me, boy.”
Angie ducked under Nik’s arms and stepped between the two men. She put her hand on Boris’s chest. “Calm down.”
“Sometimes my boy forgets his place.”
“My place?”
Oh, man. This was getting bad. She never argued with her parents. There had never been a point. Of course, that also meant when they left again, she’d find someone to physically harm. Usually at the playground or the local diner.
But she was having a wonderful time so far and didn’t want it ruined by Nik’s bullshit.
With one hand on Boris’s chest and one on Nik’s, she stood between the two men. “Gentlemen. The last thing you want to do is piss me the fuck off. So why doesn’t everybody settle the fuck down. And try and enjoy this goddamn evening.”
Father and son looked at Angelina, then back at each other.
“Now, how can we turn down an offer like that.” Boris laughed. He took her hand from off his chest and kissed the back of it. “You know, Miss Angie, I would love for you to sit with me at dinner tonight.”
She grinned. “I’d love to.”
Her hand still on Nik’s chest, she felt that growl long before she heard it. She stepped away, not even bothering to look at him. The dinner announcement rang out over the room and everyone slowly made their way into the main ballroom where all the tables had been set up.
Angie took Boris’s offered arm. “You know, Boris, it’s such a pleasure to finally be around a gentleman.”
“Why, thank ya kindly ma’am.”
She didn’t even have to look back to know Nik still stood where she left him…glaring.
“Is that the girl your brothers stole?”
Nik nodded. He couldn’t believe his father had made him jealous. He knew there was no reason to be jealous. The man still loved Nik’s mother. Always had, to hear him tell it.
“Yes’m.”
“She’s a pretty little thing.” His mother, still so beautiful and reeking of class and old money, stepped in front of her son and straightened the collar of his jacket. “And probably not good enough for one of my sons.”
“It doesn’t matter one way or another if she is, Momma.”
“Oh? Are you trying to tell me you’re not interested?”
“I’m not interested.”
She sighed as she took her son’s offered arm. “I’ll never understand, son, why you insist on taking after me.”
“Well, mostly because you try not to embarrass the family.”
Boris pulled out a chair for Angie. “Sit, darlin’.”
“Thank you.” Boris sat down next to her and the pair smiled at each other.
“You know,” Angie delicately chastised, “you should have told me he was your son.”
“Now where would the fun be in that?” Boris leaned into her, but she still didn’t feel remotely threatened by his presence. “Now tell me true, darlin’. You ain’t got no man waitin’ for you back in Texas, do ya? Some cowboy with your name tattooed across his chest?”
Angie chuckled. “No. I don’t.”
“Good.”
“I thought Nik’s mom was your lady-love.”
“Oh, she is, darlin’. But I ain’t thinkin’ about me.”
Nik walked up to the table, pulling out chairs for his mother and sister. He looked up to find Angie and Boris staring at him. “What?” he asked in confusion.
Angie couldn’t help it. She began giggling, Boris joining her.
The dinner was another Boris Vorislav success and one of the few events one could find an enormous group of tigers at together. Nik spent the majority of the evening chatting with his mother and aunts, ducking the advances of some of the females, and avoiding some of the more aggressive males since he’d rather not kill someone at one of his father’s parties. Especially an important fundraiser like this.
He also spent a good portion of his evening making sure none of the males got too frisky with either his sister or his cousin. Their sudden transformation seemed to have gotten them a lot of male interest. He didn’t worry about Reena. She could handle anything and already had two cubs from two different males. But Kisa…well, he did worry about her. Of the entire family, she remained the best hunter among them. But only when tiger. As human her shyness became painful to watch. And he’d be damned if he’d let some overbearing prick push his baby sister around. But when he wasn’t worrying about that, he spent the rest of his time keeping his eyes on Angelina. To his great annoyance, the woman got along with his father like they were old friends. She also had the attention of almost every male in the room. Every time she got up to go to the bathroom or stretch her legs, every male eye focused on her.
He didn’t like it. Not one bit. And it bothered him that he didn’t like it.
His father finally walked away from her, leaving her alone at the huge table, and made his way over to his son.
“Boy,” he barked in way of greeting.
“Daddy.”
“This turned out well, don’t ya think?”
Nik shrugged. “Sure. But it won’t change a damn thing. They still don’t think we’re good enough.” And Nik blamed his father’s wolf-like-mating tendencies more than his past poverty.
Fierce gold eyes locked with his own. “They’re right. We’re not. We’re better. And don’t you forget it.”
Nik nodded. “Yes, sir.” He wasn’t about to start another fight with the old man. He did still respect him. His father was the toughest man he’d ever known. A door gunner in the war, those men had the shortest life expectancy. Yet his daddy survived to tell the tale. Put himself through school, made his own business, and was one of the wealthiest tigers on the East Coast. At the same time Boris never forgot where he came from. And he refused to be ashamed. God
forbid his children ever were.
The man’s only weakness—Nik’s mother, Natalia. They’d been playing their game for at least thirty-five years and never seemed to tire of it. Personally, Nik didn’t like games. A person said what they felt and meant it. As soon as he thought a woman was trying to bullshit or manipulate him, he bailed.
“Now, listen up. All three of ya.” His brothers moved to stand beside him at his father’s order. “I want you to keep that little lady safe.”
“Excuse me?” Nik growled.
“You heard me. She’s a lovely little thing, and I don’t want you gettin’ lazy.”
Nik growled again. Why his daddy insisted on pissing him the hell off, he would never know. Especially when he was trying so hard not to rip the old bastard’s throat out.
“Daddy, that’s not fair,” Ban cut in. “Nik’s takin’ great care of her.”
“And maybe you should mind your own business,” Alek added.
“This family and everything that happens in it, is my business.”
“What’s going on?” Nik’s mother stepped in front of her sons. As if they were still cubs, she continued to protect them.
Boris’s eyes dragged down Natalia’s body like he was checking out a stripper and not facing off against the mother of his children. What a horn dog!
“Just talkin’ to our boys, darlin’. Is there a problem with that? Somethin’ we should straighten out in private?” He wiggled his eyebrows and she snarled in annoyance.
“I hate you.”
Before his parents could really get out of control, Kisa rushed up to them, Reena behind her.
“We’ve got a problem. Szervác is making a move on Angie.”
The entire family looked at where Angie was sitting. Next to her, Szervác had moved in close. Too close, Nik knew.
“Let’s go kick his ass,” Ban sneered.
“No one move.” They all looked at Nik and he shrugged. “I wanna see what she does.”
His mother turned on him. “Nikolai Vorislav, you cannot be serious!”
“Fifty bucks says she takes him out.”
His mother glanced at Angie, then back at her son. “A hundred.”
Angie turned to look at the idiot invading her space. “I need you to back away.”
“Now, now, sweetheart. Don’t be so difficult.” He ran his index finger against the inside of her arm. “I can make it good.”
Angie shuddered in anger and disgust. It amazed her how much she hated non-requested physical contact. She knew she could call for Nik, but she’d grown up taking care of herself. True, she wished she had her bat, but she’d have to make do with what she had available.
She pulled her arm away from his touch, bent it, and slammed her elbow into the man’s face, breaking his nose.
Blood gushing, he let out a roar of pain.
Angie slid out of her folding chair, grasped it with both hands, turned, and swung. The metal slammed into the back of his head, knocking him into the table, which crashed into the floor.
Angie dropped the chair. Calmly, “Next time a woman tells you to get your hands off her, get your fuckin’ hands off her.”
She spun on her Ferragamos, but stopped when she found the entire Vorislav family staring at her like the freak she suddenly realized she was. She didn’t mean to embarrass them. Actually, she felt almost a physical pain knowing she probably ruined Boris’s important evening.
Christ, can this night get any worse?
She decided to face the nightmare head on. No point in ducking and running. Besides, where the hell would she go?
She moved swiftly away from her prone admirer before he could get back to his feet. As she approached the Vorislavs, she realized they were swapping money.
“Boris, I’m really—” she began.
Boris held up one finger, cutting her off. He glared down at Kisa. “I do not owe you a hundred.”
“You do, too, Daddy. I told you she’d find a way to use that chair.”
“It was fifty.”
“Hundred.”
“You’d take money from your own daddy?”
“In a heartbeat.” Kisa held her hand out. “Now give it over.”
Grumbling under his breath, Boris handed his daughter a crisp hundred from the wad of money he held in his beefy grip.
Angie turned to Nik. “You were betting on me?”
Nik nodded. “Yeah. The odds were too good to pass up.”
“Momma and Daddy underestimated you.” Ban counted his cash. He didn’t even look at her.
“But didn’t I embarrass you and ruin your evening?”
They stared at her, just before they burst out laughing.
“Oh, darlin’.” Nik’s mother put an arm around Angie’s shoulders, and Angie fought the desire to scramble away from her. The woman was being so nice, how could Angie tell her to get her cotton-pickin’ paws off her? “You’ve got to do much more to this family than that. Besides, Szervác only did that because you’re human. He’d never have the guts to try that move with one of us.”
“Well, thanks for being so…nice?”
“My pleasure.” She winked, and then glanced at Nik. “I think you need to take your houseguest home, son. Before things get difficult.”
Szervác’s family had picked him up off the ground, and were looking at the Vorislavs with a less-than-friendly glare.
“Good idea.” He grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the room.
Angie waved at Nik’s parents. “It was nice meeting you both!”
She let him hold on to her until they got outside and then she snatched her hand away. “You know, I can walk without your assistance.”
Nik moved on her so fast she stumbled back, slamming up against a limo. Again he braced both of his arms on either side of her and leaned in close, but not quite close enough to touch.
“So it’s okay for my father to touch you, but I can’t. Is that it?”
“He didn’t touch me. I touched him.”
Nik blinked. “What?”
“He held his arm out and I took it. Your father never touched me. Unlike you that man understands boundaries.”
“I see.” He moved away from her. But he wasn’t angry. Far from it based on the grin spreading across his handsome face.
“What are you smiling at?”
“Get your pretty ass in the car, sugar. Before Szervác’s family gets out here and starts somethin’ they can’t finish.”
Angie didn’t like this one bit, but she wouldn’t argue the point. Not now. Not here. But she had the feeling this was far from over.
Chapter Eight
Angie had to admit, she’d never slept so well before in her life. Between the fresh smell of real pine trees, the wonderful bed she currently slept in, and the soothing sounds of absolutely nothing, Angie found herself catching up on any sleep she may have missed over the last few months.
She rolled out of bed sometime around eleven. Took a quick shower, and changed into a comfortable pair of denim cut-off shorts and a T-shirt. Then, barefoot, she headed to the kitchen. A fresh pot of coffee waited, and Nik had even put out a mug for her.
Damn him. Why he suddenly felt the need to be so nice she would never know. On the drive back from the party, he didn’t say anything to her unless she asked him a question. But he did keep smiling. She hated that smile. True, it was gorgeous, but that wasn’t the point. It was a cocky, I-own-the-world smile. And it annoyed the living shit out of her.
He heard her bare feet slapping against the marble floor as she headed back to the stairs.
“Hey. Angie. Could you come here a sec?”
He knew using her name would freak her out, but he needed to keep her a little off balance. She didn’t answer him or move for a good minute. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. And when she gave a big dramatic sigh, he had to bite down harder.
She walked into the study.
“Well? Where are you?” she demanded.
He
raised his arm so she could see it over the couch. She walked around the huge sofa, and stopped to stare at him.
“Is there a problem with the couch?”
“No.”
“Then why are you sitting on the floor?”
He shrugged. “I like it.”
“Whatever. What do you want?”
“Come here.”
“I am here.”
He patted a spot right next to him. “Here.”
Grumbling curses, she stomped over to the front of the couch and sat on the floor. But she still kept her distance.
“What?” she asked.
He grabbed the loop on her denim cut-off shorts, quickly snatching her over to his side. Just as quickly he released her before she could start hitting him.
“Now, that’s better.”
“What do you want,” she bit out between clenched teeth.
“To talk.”
“About?”
The temptation to say—while staring deeply in her eyes, of course—“About us” so that he could watch her lose her mind, almost overwhelmed him. But he really did have a purpose here. His purpose became clear as soon as he pushed her up against the car last night. His no-human rule didn’t matter anymore. Nor did it matter she had a whole Pack of hounds protecting her. Or that the woman made being mean a lifestyle choice. He wanted her. More than he’d wanted anything before in his entire life. First, though, he would have to find a way around the wall of ice she built up.
Tigers were all about waiting for their prey, though. She would be no different.
And when they had their fill of each other, when he’d fucked her senseless and could no longer remember his name, he’d send her back to her pound puppies and he’d go back to looking for the right tiger females to bear his cubs.
“I wanted to discuss our conversation from last night.”
She sighed. Another big, dramatic sigh. “There’s nothing to discuss. Really.”
“See, but I think there is.”
And another sigh. “Fine. Let’s just get it over with.”
Good. He got through the hardest part. Getting her to sit and listen being a major triumph.
“So, I was thinking…”
She opened her mouth to say something, but seemed to think better of it. “Too easy,” she muttered.