B008IJW70G EBOK (9 page)

      Riley didn’t ever want him to let go. Wanted to stay cocooned in his big warm arms, protected, forever. 

      
She wanted to stay
. 

      She could see now. See that it was her destiny, and that it was what she wanted. But to tell him that, to tell him she wanted him back, might want to share this life, to share it with him, it frightened her. When she didn’t even understand the bigger picture yet.

      “I’m going to take you to your sister,” he whispered.

      His voice drew her from her thoughts.
Claudia
. “Where is she?”

      “In the morning, I’ll take you to her.”

      Riley collapsed further in to his arms, holding him back tight now. “Promise?”

      He stiffened. Had she pushed him too far? “I think I’d better go. Let you get some sleep.”

      She shook her head against his chest. Listened to his heart as it started to beat faster beneath her touch. 

      The house was dark, Sophia had already turned in for the night. Riley wanted him to stay. She didn’t want to be alone. Her mind was too jumbled, too confused, to face lying in the dark alone. 

      “Stay?” she asked, her voice low. 

      His arms dropped from around her. Hunter looked… frightened. Like a deer caught in the headlights of a speeding truck at night. The first time she’d ever seen him look as vulnerable as she felt. 

      “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

      It might not be a good idea, but it was what she wanted. To have him near, protecting her. “Please?”

      His eyes looked to be weakening as she watched him, pleading with her own. The deep green was growing paler, his pupils wide. Hunter shook his head. “I…”

      She liked that he was unsure of himself. It was the first time she’d seen him falter. Not in control. And it only made her bolder. 

      “Please? I don’t want to be alone,” she said honestly.

      That did it. She knew it would. He was so overpowered by his desire to protect and defend her that any weakness on her part made his leopard spring to the surface. That alphaness that he couldn’t ignore making him leap to her rescue.

      “Just for a bit.”

      She grinned and tugged him inside with her. It was the first time she’d taken his hand and encouraged him, usually it was the other way around. 

      Riley let her eyes adjust to the darkness for a moment, then motioned for him to follow her down the hall. She stopped outside her room and pushed at the door. 

      Hunter looked tense. He paused, seemed to take it all in, then stepped into her bedroom. 

      Riley moved past him and grabbed her pyjamas. “Won’t be a sec.”

      Hunter nodded. He stood still like a statue.      

       Riley went to the bathroom, cleaned her teeth and then pulled on her leopard print bottoms and tank. The bottoms made her cringe, given the whole leopard thing, and the top seemed a little tiny, but it wasn’t like she’d packed expecting company.

      When she went back to her bedroom, pulling the door shut behind her, Hunter looked even more worried than before. And her confidence was starting to fade. She’d been so sure of herself earlier, knowing that she wanted him to stay, but now he seemed too big for her bedroom. Him just being there seemed too intimate. 

      “Hey,” she murmured. 

      He just turned his flashing, tortured green eyes at her. Riley watched as he tried hard not to look her up and down, then swallowed. Caught him out as his eyes flickered over her. He was sitting on the lone chair in her room, looking less like her protector and more like a guy who was ready to bolt.

      Riley wished she’d stayed in her jeans and T-shirt. It might have made this a whole lot less awkward. 

      She walked to the window, pulled the blinds, then slid beneath the covers. Having him here was nice, but peculiar too. 

      Riley lay there, knowing he was sitting, watching, not knowing what to do. Or what to say.

      Hunter cleared his throat. Riley wondered if Sophia knew he was here, in her room with her, and she guessed yes. She was the matriarch of a pack of leopard shifters. Her senses were probably the best of anyone’s, so she’d know. But unlike Riley’s mom, she was pretty sure Sophia wouldn’t mind her having company. Even if he was in her room, at night, alone with her. 

      Sophia had hardly been worried about telling her Hunter was her future mate. Not to mention letting them disappear every day without need for explanation. Her mom would flip!

      Hunter cleared his throat again. She listened as he shifted his weight. 

      “Now that you’re, ah, settled, I guess I’d better go,” he said.

      Riley sat up against her pillows. He looked even more uncomfortable than before. 

      “Please don’t.” She was embarrassed, but she didn’t want him to go. Awkward or not, it was better than being alone. “Come here.” She put her hand on the covers. 

      He swallowed hard again. She could see his Adam’s apple as it bobbed. Could see the tense line of his shoulders in the light from her lamp.

      Hunter shook his head, like he didn’t trust himself. 

      “Please?” she whispered. 

      He stood slowly. She could see he was fighting something, but he made himself come forward. Each footfall an obvious effort. 

      Riley wriggled back down, her body cold despite the warmth. 

      Hunter perched on the edge of the bed. It was like he couldn’t even look at her. Like he didn’t know what to do or how to act.

      “Just lie here with me.” She asked. “
Please
.”

      He lay back, hesitantly. Almost filling the double bed. 

      They stayed like that. She waited until his breathing relaxed. Then she turned and wriggled closer to him, so their bodies were touching. His, jeans clad, on top of the covers, her safely tucked beneath. 

      Riley pressed into him, wanting the warmth and comfort of him. Her left arm struggled free and she placed it on his chest, palm down so she could feel the rise and fall of his breath.

      “Riley.” His voice sounded strangled, like he was trying to warn her.

      She didn’t answer, just tucked herself closer to him, her head nestled into his shoulder. 

      He didn’t move, not straight away, but then he turned, barely, to face her. Let his arm scoot around her, making her head turn so that it fell deeper into his chest, his face against her hair. 

      They lay like that, for as long as she could remember. Holding one another. Touching. Being together. 

      Riley fought sleep as her lids grew heavy, wanting to remember being with him like this forever. But she couldn’t resist. 

      She was exhausted. 

CHAPTER NINE

Riley woke first. Her body was still tucked against Hunter’s. She could feel his breath as he exhaled touching her face. 

      She stayed still, not wanting to wake him. Her hand stayed splayed on his chest, but her eyes were on the move. Across his face, past his eyelashes, over his mouth,
they searched every bit of him. 

      Riley was studying his skin, the golden, endless stretch of it, when his eyes opened.       

      Suddenly the warmth she’d felt at being so close to him was so hot it almost scalded her. 

      Hunter smiled. A half-smile that played across one corner of his mouth. “I think I fell asleep,” he mumbled.

      His words made her feel less worried. It was still awkward, but it was nice waking up to him. She smiled and pulled back a little, not wanting him to feel trapped against her. She’d never had a guy in bed beside her, let alone wake up to one. 

      “What time is it?” he asked.

      “I don’t know.” Her voice was still croaky from sleep.  

      He closed the space between them, kissed her forehead, then sat up. Hunter stretched, his T-shirt rumpled, and ran a hand his hair. He looked even better, if that was even possible, rumpled from bed. 

      “You want to go for a run today?”

      Riley eyed the sunshine as it crept through the window. She’d like to tuck back up next to Hunter and fall asleep in his arms again if it was up to her, but she wasn’t going to say that. And she was always game to shift, now that she’d gotten the hang of it. 

      “Yeah. Sure.”

      “And I haven’t forgotten my promise. I’ll take you to Claudia, today if I can.” His voice was so low in her ear she only just heard it. 

      Riley ignored the rapid thump of her heart and nodded, swinging her feet out of the bed. She wasn’t even going to let herself think about Claudia until it was time. 

      It was weird, having Hunter in here, but nice too. Even if he seemed to dwarf the room with his size when he stood. 

      “How about I meet you out front in an hour or so?”

      “Okay.” She murmured. Whatever he said sounded good to her. 

      Hunter looked almost confused, not sure of himself, which she wasn’t used to. He looked at her, and the confidence seemed to drain from her and fill his eyes instead.

      He walked around the bed, bent his head, brushed her mouth with his, without saying a word, then backed away, his eyes still on her. Saying more than any word could express. Like they could communicate in silence.

      Riley’s hand went to her mouth, touching where his lips had been. He did something to her, made her feel something that she’d never felt before. And it felt grown up too. Not like the hurried, bumped teeth kind of kisses she’d had before. It was more real. 

      “See you soon.” 

      She liked the husky note to his voice. Made her think maybe he’d enjoyed the night, the kiss, as much as she had. That he’d liked staying over. 

      “Hunter?”

      He turned back to her when she said his name. 

      “Maybe you should go out the window. Sophia might think we’ve…” she left it at that, cheeks burning.

      Hunter just grinned. That casual, laid-back smile he always seemed to throw her way. “Sophia expects us to be together. Don’t sweat it.”

      She tried to smile but it only made her stomach flip more than it already was. There was something odd about having a gran that didn’t mind her seventeen-year-old granddaughter having a boy to stay the night. Even if they hadn’t done anything. It was just plain embarrassing. 

      Riley watched his full lips as they tugged into an even wider smile.

      “She’d know if we’d been up to anything anyway.” 

      
Oh my
. If she’d been embarrassed before now her cheeks were literally burning up in flames. 

      “Your scent would have…”

      “Enough!”  

      He held up a hand in a wave, smirk still on his face, and disappeared out the door. 

      Riley flopped back down on the bed and shut her eyes. One moment she was falling in love with him, the next she was cursing him. This whole situation was ridiculous.
Unreal
. 

      She opened her eyes again and focused on the ceiling, on the room. She’d almost thought this time when she opened and closed her eyes, that she’d wake up at home. Like this had all been some crazy dream. That she’d imagined the shifting, Hunter, even Sophia.

      
But it wasn’t a dream.

      Hunter was real. Her abilities were real. And Claudia, in whatever form it was she that took, was real too. 

      She just had to learn to suck it up and deal with what life had thrown her. That life wasn’t as black and white, as easy to define, as it should be. That the world wasn’t what she’d thought it was either. 

      Although dealing with Hunter wasn’t exactly difficult. Staying away from him was the part she had trouble with.

Hunter hadn’t reappeared yet, so Riley had decided to soften Sophia up by cooking breakfast. Bacon, eggs, the works. 

      Now she was ready to interrogate her. “I think you need to start at the beginning.”

      Riley watched as Sophia sighed, before placing her knife and fork across the plate. She’d promised, there was no way she was letting her off the hook. She needed answers, and she needed them now. 

      “Ask me anything you want.” 

      Maybe this was going to be easier than she’d expected. “Do my parents have any idea? Are they in on this?”

      That caused a smile to hover over Sophia’s lips, which annoyed her.       

      “No,” she answered. 

      “Okay, well how come I can shift, and you can shift, but they’re completely in the dark about the entire thing.”

      “We have a gift that skips every other generation,” Sophia explained, her expression serious. “Unless your parents had twins again though, you and Claudia would be the only ones from our line.”

      It still didn’t make sense. 

      “So why now? Why haven’t you asked me to visit before? Why the sudden interest in me? How did you even convince them to let me stay here?”

      That made Sophia sigh. Her gran stood, raising one finger to indicate Riley should follow. She did, out onto the porch, then down the steps and down to the lawn. Breakfast forgotten. 

      “Riley, I’ve known all your life that you were the one.”

      She went to speak but Sophia held up her hand to silence her. 

      “I knew you were the one because you had the fight, the courage, in your heart. I could see it from when you were a little girl.”

      “When you came to see us for our tenth birthday,” Riley remembered. 

      Sophia nodded. “Claudia was the gentle, soft, nurturing sister and you were the explorer. The inquisitive one who could have climbed trees with the fastest boys.” 

      It was all starting to make sense. Slowly.

      “I wanted to let you enjoy your childhood. You were too young to be expected to hold a secret like that, it was all just too hard to explain.” And besides, you couldn’t physically change until recently anyway.”

      Riley watched Sophia, saw how genuine her words were. This was hard for her too.