One True Mate: Shifter's Solace (Kindle Worlds Novella)(11)

Rory was holding her hand. She’d protested, but not too hard. It was nice to feel his strong fingers wrapped around hers.

A man walked towards them on the other side of the street, long dark hair and fierce slashes of eyebrows, wearing a bright orange T-shirt that boasted the slogan “UnBEARable”. He sauntered past trailing cigar smoke, and Ivy instinctively pressed closer to Rory’s side.

There had been no question of her leaving the firehouse without Rory accompanying her. “Forty-eight percent of accidents happen outside the home!” he’d insisted, and she’d rolled her eyes and grumbled but been secretly touched by his protectiveness…even if she knew she couldn’t really trust him. That vision nagged at her. She felt so safe with him, and she wanted him so badly. How could her instincts be so wrong and so right at the same time?

A flutter of arousal started in her belly, and she shut it down fast in case he could pick up on it.

Her boss at the diner, Jim, had not been happy that she wouldn’t be working for the next few days. He was a bad-tempered, simian-looking man who made up for overcharging his customers by short-changing them.

“Family emergency? You don’t got no family.” He’d glowered at Rory, who’d insisted on going inside with her. “Don’t got not friends, either, far as I know,” he’d added nastily.

All of a sudden, she didn’t know why she hadn’t looked for a different job. Okay, she wasn’t qualified for much, but surely she could at least find work among kind, decent people.

Like Rory and the guys at the firehouse, a little voice whispered inside her, but she squashed it, hard.

You can’t trust them, she reminded herself. They’re not even really people, or not human beings anyway.

Still a lot nicer than Jim, the inner voice countered.

“It should be along this road,” she said out loud to Rory. Her last errand was to get in touch with the property agent from her mom’s shop, and a phone call had gone unanswered.

But when they got to the address on the business card, it was a dry cleaners.

“Weird.” Ivy looked from the business card to the shop front and back again, but they were definitely in the right place. Except they were definitely in the wrong place.

“Maybe it’s one of those set-ups where several businesses share one business address?” she said. “Like in New York, where you get seventeen teeny-tiny lawyers working in one PO Box?”

Rory scrunched his nose in thought. “Doubtful,” he said. “It’s not like space is at a premium in Serenity. It’s more likely to be a misprint on the card.”

“I suppose so. Or maybe it’s an old business card,” Ivy replied, tucking it back into her pocket. “Since the phone number was wrong too. But how am I going to get in touch with her?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it for now,” Rory said. “If she turns up at the shop, it’ll be pretty clear what’s happened. She might even get in touch with the fire department directly.”

Ivy shrugged. She’d have to deal with the shop sooner or later. She seriously doubted it was insured – would she be liable for having the structure made safe? Where would she find the money? But somehow, with everything else going on, it didn’t seem that important at the moment.

“Let’s get some lunch,” she suggested.

Rory immediately tensed. “We need to get back to the firehouse,” he protested. “It’s my responsibility to keep you safe.”

She looped her arm through his and grinned up at him. “Fifty-two percent of all accidents happen at home, remember? Statistically speaking, it’s practically your duty to buy me a slice of pizza and a soda.”

He gazed down into her eyes. She could see he was tempted. “Well…” he said, “when you put it like that…”

They found a little pizzeria tucked away on a quiet side street. Ivy had never eaten there before, but the comforting smells of fresh dough and rich tomato sauce drew them inside, and they were quickly seated at a table with a red-and-white chequered wax tablecloth and a candle lodged in an empty wine bottle.

The pizza, when it came, was fragrant and loaded with toppings, and Ivy bit into it with relish before wiping her greasy fingers on a red paper napkin. They chatted idly – mainly about the other guys at the firehouse. He spoke about them with equal parts affection and exasperation.

Ivy watched in astonishment as he polished off his seventh slice of pizza. “Is that your stomach or a portal to another dimension?” she asked, eyeing his flat belly.

He laughed and patted his tummy. “Bearen metabolism,” he confided in a sexy murmur. “That and the Chief isn’t above having us running laps around the yard if we get under his feet.”

She smiled at the thought. “You make it sound like you’re a gang of little kids and he’s your dad,” she said.

He waggled his hand from side to side. “That’s not so far from the truth. There are a lot of power dynamics among shiften that would seem weird to humans. But yeah, the guys – they’re like my brothers.”

“And you squabble a lot, like any family,” she guessed.

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” he confirmed. “Which is why one of these days Ben is going to find himself made into an elegant fur hat and a matching pair of gloves.” He bit viciously into another slice of pizza, leaving a smear of tomato sauce at the corner of his mouth.