Etienne (The Shifters of Shotgun Row Book 1)(28)

“Because you like them, and I figured if you were eating them, you wouldn’t be eating me.” I could feel his belly trying to contain his laughter. Only I could turn bringing treats into a sexual innuendo. My face burned with embarrassment. “No…that’s not what I meant. Never mind.” Some things couldn’t be recovered, especially as images of him doing that filled my brain.

“You came here thinking I was a bear and that your baked goods would protect you.” He held me back a wee bit, meeting my eyes as he asked.

“I didn’t need saving from you.” I held his gaze, needing him to see the truth in my words. I wasn’t scared of him. Never was. There were moments when how he made me feel had me in a tizzy and times when his bullheadedness had me frustrated, but I was never scared of him. “That was a joke gone horribly wrong. I figured you liked them, and I wanted to see you smile.”

He stood there for what felt like forever before taking my hand and leading me to the breakfast bar and offering me a seat. Not pouting over the end of snuggle time took all of my energy.

“Why did you come?” He took the seat beside me and waited for me to answer. It took forever to try to collect my thoughts, and when his reassuring hand settled on my knee, all coherence fled, and all the things I’d been thinking fell out in one fell swoop.

“To let you see I could be trusted. To make sure I hadn’t ruined all things. And then my Meemaw’s car broke down, Justice got all lizardy, and then it turns out you’re not even a bear, which is great cause, ya know, fleas. But then, there were all these people who may not be people, and mushed king-nuts, and me spilling my guts, and what the hay is Coonass, and am I one? Like is that what the mate thing means?”

“Anything else?” He was clearly amused. At least my inability to form a sentence had a positive side effect.

“I may babble when I’m nervous.” I shrugged.

“I make you nervous?” All. Amusement. Gone.

“No. That was a bad choice of words. Driving a beater, getting stuck then meeting all new people got me caflustered is all. You don’t. I mean, you do, but in the good way.” The very best way. The close-your-eyes-so-you-can-hold-onto-the-kiss-a-little-longer way. The make-king-nuts-after-you’re-closed-with-the -hopes-of-bringing-a-smile-to-his-face way.

“The good way?”

So maybe I hadn’t hurt his feelings, just confused him. I could work with that.

“You know what I mean.” I waggled my fingers in a teasing gesture. “I’m amusing you, aren’t I?”

“No, just surprising the fuck outta me. You come in here brave as could be, hold your own in a group of the scariest-ass shifters in the parish—all to confront someone you thought was a bear.”

The last thing I was, was brave. Silly gator.

“Sorry about the bear thing. To be fair, it was a logical conclusion.” If being a bear were logical, but seeing I talk to ghosts, I was calling it logical.

“Can we be done with this now?”

My stomach fell. I had finally let myself accept this was starting, and now he was calling it done. “Done with what?” I gasped, my voice far from steady.

“The talking.” He tilted my chin up with his thumb, his eyes heated. “I have better plans for my lips.”

I so misinterpreted that one. Before I could babble a rebuttal in an attempt to I didn’t even know what…his lips are on mine, and I am home.





Etienne



“She didn’t run,” Justice said from the driver’s seat while I tinkered with Tansy’s car, trying to get the damned thing to start again.

“Just start it up.” He turned the key. It sounded like the thing had been smoking cigarettes since it was six months old. Maybe since birth.

“I don’t think you’re gonna get this running again.” I looked at the engine. It hissed and let out some steam, agreeing with Justice.

“She can just use mine until we get her another one.” I shut the hood and leaned against the car, wiping the grease from my hands. Justice came to lean next to me. “You sure it’s her? I was convinced we were too big a pair of assholes to actually get mates. Fuck, if you’d asked me last week, I would’ve told you it was a punishment for any female actually to be mated to one of us.” He nodded to where Tansy was laughing and carrying on with Loic, who was stirring a huge cast-iron pot of jambalaya. Her hip cocked out, and she was holding a bottle of strawberry Abita that looked like it was made for her. I loved a woman who drank her beer from a bottle.

Just as I was looking at her, she looked up, winked at me, and frowned, pointing to her car. I would make it a point to kiss that frown off her later. She still had questions, and probably more once I started answering, but for now, we were content, somehow knowing we belonged together.

“Me, too. I know better now. I never imagined.”

“Maybe there’s one for me, too.”

I elbowed Justice in the ribs. “Doubt it.”

“Dickhead.”

“Asshole”

“Rat bastard.”

“Fuck face.”

I looked over at him. “That doesn’t count. You lose.”

“Yeah, well, your girl is giving you that come-hither look. You better come for her.”