Etienne (The Shifters of Shotgun Row Book 1)(48)

“You done?” I asked later when she hadn’t touched her plate in a while.

“Yeah, I’m pretty tired. Got up at four to get the bakery open. Gina was a little under the weather.”

“Okay, boys,” I addressed the lot. “I’m taking this female to bed. Clean up?”

They all nodded and gave their thanks.

I took her hand and led her to the house. I already had a list of things that needed to be worked on now that my mate was under its roof. Tansy stopped, jerking me to a halt with her.

“I love you, boys. All of you. Thanks for making me crew.”

Her words were sleepy and sloppy, but she got a nod from each of them. She belonged here with us.

“Come on, sleepyhead.” I picked her up, carrying her the rest of the way. After I tucked her into the bed, she once again reached for my shirt, tugging me down with her.

“I’m not too tired.”





Tansy

“You are tired, and you need to get up before anyone should.” He removed my shoes one by one. “Let’s get you ready for bed.”

He was right. I was tired. Exhausted, even. Gina had been under the weather all week, so I’d been putting in extra time at the bakery and still trying to stay up and hang with the guys or have quality alone time with Etienne, usually managing to do both. That left little time for sleep. Not that I was complaining. Life was good.

“Fine, but you’re coming with me because—because I said so.” I patted the bed beside me, my argument skills woefully depleted thanks to exhaustion.

“Works for me, love.” He bent down to kiss my cheek before pulling the shirt off his back and handing it to me. “Works for me.”

Sitting up, I changed into his shirt, inhaling his scent deeply. He loved me bathed in his scent, and I loved being surrounded by him, so it worked well. Had anyone told me I’d look forward to wearing my significant’s dirty clothes, I’d have thought them insane, but I did.

“That’s better,” I mumbled as he climbed into bed, wrapping his arms around me and pulling my back to his front. “Thanks for the kitchen.”

I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. I had an outdoor kitchen—in the bayou—and it made me the happiest woman in town. I was even getting used to the rain, bugs, and commute. There was something about this place that had me feeling more myself than I ever had in the city.

“It wasn’t me. I walked in on the guys and helped with the finishing touches.”

“It was all them,” I assumed, and it didn’t make it less special, that Etienne put them up to it to keep them out of our house which had become a gathering place thanks to my cooking.

“I reckon they like you here as much as I do.” He kissed the back of my neck, his erection pressing firmly against me.

“Doesn’t feel that way,” I saucily replied. So much for sleep. My libido was ready to go—like always when I was anywhere near Etienne or thinking about him or seeing something that reminded me of him. So yeah, all the time.

“Naughty girl. Behave.”

To which I replied with a wiggling of my bum against him because why not.

“And they do, just in a very different way.” His voice faltered slightly. Good gator was not as unaffected as he wanted me to believe.

“Then what is up with the ‘we’re not really crew’ mumbles every time someone says the word?” That had been bugging me. Someone would say crew, and then there would be some obvious discontent from others and then ignoring by all. And the roles changed, so I couldn’t even say it was a Justice thing or a Callum thing. It was a them thing, and it was weird.

“That’s not about you, Tans. That’s a shifter thing. We aren’t a crew ’cause we have no leader.”

“No one willing to step up?” Looking back, I could see they were all bossy fools to each other. It wasn’t like they were all passive people who wanted no part of controlling their environment. They had that in spades.

“Not exactly.” He pulled me closer. He wasn’t going to distract me with his smexiness and obvious desire now moving against me. Nope. I needed to know, especially if he was distracting me away like that.

“Can you human it down for me?” I cringed at my use of the word “human,” waiting for Etienne to use it as an excuse to hypothesize I wasn’t really human, either, once again. Thankfully, he didn’t.

“Being alpha is more than just taking over. You have to have something more. It’s hard to explain.”

And a little lightbulb sparked in my brain. Of course. That was what had happened at the station. How had I been so blind?

“More like the way Bruno can throw his power around like that with a smile on his face.” It wasn’t a question. Bruno. Huh. Go figure. Not that I wanted him here with us, ’cause heck to the no on that one. I might feel sorry for him, but that didn’t make me like him or want to have him around.

“Yeah, like that.” His voice had that inhuman quality he only had while struggling with his gator. I shouldn’t find it smexy, but I so did.

“Stop.” I rolled over, slapping him in the chest playfully before allowing my fingers to wander their favorite playground.

“What?” He feigned innocence.

“Don’t what me. I could feel your gator getting all riled up.”