Purrfect Protector (7 page)

Aleksi had stolen a car then he’d driven for over an hour before abandoning the vehicle at the side of the road and making the hike on foot through thick woodland. When they stopped, there was a small clearing where the trees didn’t intrude on a small, neatly kept garden. A paved path that had a mosaic effect of pastel blue and green in swirling patterns lead up to a two-story house that had green wooden shutters and an old-fashioned, dark-green stable door. Despite those things, the house appeared modern and…homey.

“What do you think?”

“This doesn’t look like a safe house.” He frowned as Aleksi retrieved a key from a hollowed-out log that lay with planted herbs under the kitchen window.

“Been to many, have you?”

“Well…no. But it doesn’t look like how I imagined one to look—cold and unfriendly. This is lovely. A family could live here with a dog and have barbeques in the summers on the log burner over there.” Sure enough there was a wood-burning grill in a shaded corner of the garden that he could imagine cooking on.

When the shifter didn’t reply, Kale turned to see the much bigger man staring at him. “What?”

“I didn’t expect you to like it. You’re a city boy.” Kale didn’t get a chance to respond, as Aleksi opened the door and went inside. He followed the shifter and frowned again when Aleksi toed off the shoes they’d retrieved from the hotel garden and placed them on a shoe rack to the left of the door in the small porch that seemed to double as a mud room for boots and coats.

“Wait. This is
your
house?” Kale examined everything with new eyes. The soft furnishings created a comfy and cozy ambience and the relaxed style of the worn black leather sofa and armchairs made Kale feel like he wasn’t a stranger but a welcomed guest. The contrast of the sleek, modern kitchen with the black marble countertops and stainless-steel appliances—such as the fridge, toaster, oven and microwave—was reflective of the big, bad bodyguard and the playful cat shifter who had teased him then smacked his ass. It just…fit him.

“Yes. I don’t get to stay here as much as I’d like since my job takes me all over the world, but this is where I call home.” Aleksi led him away from the kitchen and living room to a set of dark-stained wooden stairs.

“We’re going upstairs?”

“Yes. So I can show you where you’ll be sleeping and you can wash that glittery stuff off. You look like an extra from that Twitchy franchise.”

The way Aleksi said it made him laugh. Manly men really had a thing about glitter. It was as if the substance automatically castrated them or something.

“Twitchy? Do you mean
Twilight
?” He wasn’t even touching the comment about the makeup he still wore. Aleksi seemed completely undaunted by the fact Kale was a model. Although the shifter gave him signals that suggested he was interested, Kale wondered if it was simply because of how he looked or whether someone finally liked him for him. They hadn’t known each other long enough for it to be his personality. The thought disappointed him more than he’d expected.

“Yeah,” Aleksi answered, smirking in a way that told Kale the shifter had gotten it wrong on purpose to see if Kale knew it well enough to recognize it by the wrong name. Sneaky.

“Ass.”

“So you keep saying. Do you know any other curses or has all the pretty sparkly vampire drama addled your mind?” Aleksi teased with a wink.

Kale pushed past the annoying shifter and stormed up the stairs. He ignored the fact that Aleksi
let
Kale shove him. Kale was secure in his manhood, but it annoyed him sometimes that Aleksi was so much stronger.

“You know… You’re pretty enough to be one of those sparkly characters in that bunch of vampire films. Except not the one who looks like he cried in his Cheerios every morning.” Aleksi shadowed his steps.

Kale tried to get rid of the blush creeping up his neck.

“Thank you.” Hopefully Aleksi would drop the topic. It didn’t annoy him at all that he evidently
wasn’t
pretty enough as the casting director had chosen they guy with the eyebrows instead. Nope, not one bit. “So which room did you say I was staying in?”

“I’m the first on the left and you’re right next door.”

It was hard to miss the way Aleksi narrowed his eyes in interest as the cat noticed the change of subject. Kale was beginning to feel like prey around the powerful shifter.

Once Aleksi had shown Kale to his room, they went back downstairs and fixed something to eat. Despite the impressive kitchen, it seemed Aleksi’s signature dish was canned tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. He was doubtful at first, picking at the melted cheese, but Kale was surprised at how nice the meal was.

Aleksi had made a remark about him being too prissy to eat grilled cheese.

The comment had hit home.

He remembered, just a few weeks ago, that Caleb had asked him to help out with landscaping at his new house. Kale had thought it was a joke at the time and he’d offered his brother the number of a professional, as if it was ludicrous to think that
he,
a successful model, would ever dig in the mud to clean out the old lake.

When his modeling career had taken off, he’d been swept away in the lifestyle that went with it in fancy soirees and dining out at restaurants more nights than not. Somewhere along the way, he’d forgotten where he’d come from.

Later, as he sat on the bed looking out of the window at the night sky, he appreciated the stars he couldn’t see in the city. Now that he was thinking about it, he recalled at least half a dozen instances where he saw how he’d let his brother down. He’d always thought he wasn’t like the prima donna models he worked with whose lives revolved around artificial things and their appearance.

Kale rubbed his stomach in an attempt to ease the heavy feeling there.

Perhaps it was time to reevaluate his life.

Movement outside the window caught his eye and he gasped at what he saw. Aleksi stood stark naked in the middle of the backyard, looking up at Kale’s window as if he wanted Kale to see him.

The man was truly magnificent.

He wasn’t close enough to see the details of the shifter’s no doubt perfect body, but even from where he sat in the guest room, Kale was impressed with every part of the man—especially the more generous area.

Aleksi didn’t move and Kale took advantage of the fact to ogle him longer, but too soon, the man turned around. Then it was as if his skin burst apart to reveal a massive saber-tooth tiger. The beast was nothing like the one from
Ice Age.
This was a dangerous, scary creature that could probably reach his window if it stood on its back legs.

It was as if Aleksi had heard his thoughts, as one moment he was looking out at the night and the next, the enormous face of a saber-tooth tiger filled the large window as Aleksi reared up on his hind legs.

Kale stumbled and hit the bed hard, tumbling backward. Trying to catch himself only made things worse and he rolled off the bed, landing with a crash and a yelp.

The cat’s breath fogged the glass and it nudged the pane with its big, pinkish-brown nose as though he wanted Kale to open it.

“Uh-uh. Maybe…maybe next time,” he forced out numbly.

The tiger mewled and prodded the glass again with its nose. Instead of being the harmless gesture the shifter probably thought it was, all it did was draw Kale’s attention to the massive front teeth that were bigger than Kale’s arms as they tapped the window.

Kale frowned at the tiger, trying to convince himself that he wasn’t on the verge of having a panic attack.

“It’s not happening, Aleksi.”

The cat huffed and stuck its big pink tongue out to lick the transparent surface before moving away, making chuffing sounds as it left. Kale got the feeling Aleksi was laughing at him.

“I hope you get fleas!”

A small roar of what he guessed was indignation sounded from outside then it all went quiet.

Being face-to-face or touching Aleksi’s animal was going to take a bit of working up to. He climbed to his feet and headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed, but he paused for a minute to take a sneak peek out of the window. Aleksi had gone but his massive paw prints remained. Kale gulped.
A whole lot of working up to.

* * * *

If Kale
was
still there come morning, Aleksi would admit to being wrong about him. Sticking around after coming face to face with his beast would convince Aleksi that Kale was more than he pretended to be. He’d seen flashes of a man Aleksi was curious to get to know and he was interested in pursuing the attraction with him after this was over, but those flashes were smothered by a façade. He’d bet the real Kale didn’t even realize the superior attitude came up as a wall.

At dinner, the way the man had wrinkled his nose at Aleksi’s choice of meal had poked at the part of Aleksi that was still the scared little boy on the streets of Russia trying to get enough to eat. That was before Scott’s brother, Robert, had found him and brought him home to America. He knew he was sensitive about it, but seeing Kale’s model persona sneer at the food he shared with him had pissed off Aleksi more than he wanted to admit to himself. So, he had let it fester away until he’d deliberately pushed the human too far. Aleksi never just unleashed his animal around a stranger. It was too dangerous for them both.

Not that he would hurt anyone, but he would defend himself.

Kale had actually taken it really well, despite the putrid smell of fear. The guy hadn’t run from him screaming—which was a lot more than some had done when faced with his cat.

If Kale did run, Aleksi would be there to protect the human from the other predators in the woods. If not, he would apologize in the morning.

Guarding the house, Aleksi settled his big head on his front paws.

* * * *

Aleksi plated up the apple pancakes and glanced for the hundredth time in the direction of the stairs. It was a little past nine and Kale still hadn’t come down, despite Aleksi having heard him get out of the shower an hour ago.

Just as he was ready to go up and get the man, he heard the top step creak.

He busied himself with making tea as he pretended he wasn’t listening to Kale coming closer and entering the kitchen.

“Morning.”

“Morning,” Kale answered.

Aleksi stirred in enough milk to take out the natural bitterness of the tealeaves and removed the strainer, setting it aside. He turned and offered Kale one of the cups.

With a gasp of pleasure, Kale quickly took it and smiled gratefully. “How did you know I preferred tea to coffee?”

He hid his smile behind his cup as he blew across the surface of the hot liquid. “I didn’t. I prefer it myself.”

Kale blushed beautifully. “Oh. Thank you for sharing some.”

“You’re welcome.”

They settled into an awkward silence and moved to sit at opposite ends of the table in the kitchen-diner, not looking at each other. There were few things Aleksi hated more than apologizing for doing something wrong. It was easier when he knew he was right, because he could just fake it.

“I wanted to apologize for scaring you last night. I was wrong.” The humble pie burned going down. Aleksi stared into his mug, watching the steam swirling in patterns on the air above the hot liquid. When he didn’t get any kind of a response, he steeled himself and raised his head.

Kale was looking at him with a strange expression. “Thank you. Something tells me it was my mouth that struck first.” He shrugged sheepishly. “I’m sorry too.”

Aleksi dropped his gaze to Kale’s lips and his cat stirred. He knew Kale had noticed he was staring, but Aleksi couldn’t seem to look away from the pink lips that were blushing red as Kale bit the bottom one. Apologizing didn’t seem easy for either of them.

Aleksi inclined his head. “I suppose I’m sensitive about certain topics.”

“And sometimes I’m a bitch. I didn’t realize how much I’ve changed since becoming a successful model. I must have let the hype get to me. I’ll rein it in. Whatever I said, I’m sorry.”

The humor of their situation struck him and he laughed, finally able to look away from Kale’s mouth. “Are we arguing about who was an ass first?”

Kale smiled back, relaxing his shoulders. “Yes, I guess we are. Truce?”

Aleksi didn’t hesitate for a second before grasping the hand Kale held out to him. He let go then motioned to the pancakes he’d made earlier. He was starving.

“They should still be warm. Dig in.”

“No, thank you. If I eat even a quarter of what’s there, I’ll have to work out like demon before the Paris shoot the day after tomorrow.” Despite his words, though, Aleksi could see the longing for the sugary goodness of pancakes, bacon and syrup.

“Can’t you treat yourself?”

“My career is my looks, and fashion designers are always demanding skinnier models. I’m established, so I get a little leeway with my weight as long as the muscles don’t get too big or too small. But no sugar or fatty foods for me until I retire, I’m afraid.” Kale sent another wistful look in the direction of the pancakes before grabbing a granola bar from his pocket with a sigh. Even the packet looked unappealing. No sugar, fat, color or flavor. Now that was the way to sell a product.

“That sucks. I don’t get why they think bones are hot. Eat your fill, then I’ll take you on a run in the woods. I guarantee you’ll work it off.” Aleksi didn’t mention that shifters ran much faster and had greater stamina so he could go all day—all night too—but under different circumstances. When he was finished with Kale, the man would be a sweaty mess.

Mmm.
Kale all nice and sweaty, body strained from exhaustion and endorphins.
Now that’s a nice mental image.

“Really? I’ve never gotten into running. Didn’t see the point unless you were running away from something.”

“I could always chase you.” He threw it out there as a joke, but the immediate burst of excitement coming off Kale surprised him.
Interesting.

He narrowed his eyes and took a deliberate deep breath, letting Kale know he was scenting him. The guy blushed a delightful pink. Aleksi was about to blow off the joke in case Kale spooked but again, the man surprised him. He really should remember that Kale wasn’t a normal human.