Midnight Wolf (Shifters Unbound #11)(35)

Ciaran lifted the menu, which was almost as large as he was. “Can I get anything I want?”

“Sure,” Tamsin said at the same time Angus barked, “No.”

Angus shot Tamsin an irritated look. “If you eat too much and get sick, you’ll slow us down,” he said to Ciaran.

“I won’t eat too much,” Ciaran scoffed. “If I get one steak and shrimp po’ boy and one sausage, that will be enough. Barely. Those guys really didn’t give me much to eat.” He made sad wolf-cub eyes over the menu at Angus.

Tamsin hid a laugh. Ciaran knew how to milk a situation, even a bad one. Good. Kept him from being traumatized. Tamsin knew all about trauma.

“Get the steak and shrimp one,” Angus said. “If you finish that, then we’ll order more.”

Ciaran let out an aggrieved sigh. “Oh, all right.”

The waitress stopped at the table, beaming a wide smile. “How are y’all? What do you want to drink?”

Before Ciaran could speak, Angus ordered glasses of water, which the busboy was already slamming down in front of them, and coffee for himself.

“And a giant sweet tea for me,” Tamsin said. “The sweeter, the better. With lots of ice in it.”

“Oh, Dad, let me have a sweet tea. It’s all right—it’s not like sodas. Dad doesn’t let me drink those,” he confided to Tamsin.

The waitress looked at “Dad” for confirmation. Angus gave a grudging nod. “Not too much.”

The waitress bustled away to fetch the drinks. She was back with them soon, the glasses beaded with condensation on this humid evening.

They ordered the po’ boys and the cheerful waitress sailed away again.

Tamsin studied Angus while pretending to keep an eye out around the diner. Angus’s gray eyes were focused on the door, waiting for whatever trouble might come through it. His body was tight, his fists curled on the table. If a Shifter Bureau agent did come through the door, Tamsin sensed Angus would have her and Ciaran down the restroom hall and out the back faster than fast.

An agent wouldn’t come in, Tamsin was willing to bet. She’d gotten good at knowing when she was being followed and when she was in the clear for a while. They’d given Haider the slip for now.

But he’d be coming for them eventually, she was well aware. Hopefully Angus and Ciaran would be safe from the man before then.

Angus was a good fighter though, as Tamsin had already seen. He was also nice-looking. His face had clean lines, though his nose might be a bit long—but he was a wolf, couldn’t help that—and his eyes had a way of pinning you even when he wore a neutral look.

As though Angus felt her watching him, he turned his head and met her gaze. Tamsin’s cheeks warmed, and she quickly looked away.

The food came. Long sandwiches on flaky bread piled with meat and dripping with gravy oozed on the plates, and the waitress plopped down a huge basket of potato chips for all of them to share.

“Tamsin,” Ciaran said. “This is how I eat mine. Watch.” He took off the top bun of his sandwich, swept up a handful of chips, and pressed them on top of his roast beef. Fried shrimp slid from under the meat, but Ciaran patiently replaced them. He jammed the top piece of bread back on and opened his mouth wide for his first bite.

Sauce and shrimp squirted out of the sandwich along with a few chips. Tamsin burst into laughter. She expected Angus to snarl at his son, but his lips twitched, and he said nothing.

Tamsin lifted her sausage and hot sauce sandwich and bit down. Her eyes watered as soon as the food hit her tongue, but she chewed enthusiastically. Good stuff, and she was hungry. The breakfast Ben had cooked very early this morning was a long time ago.

Angus was watching her. He had ordered a roast beef with debris, but he hadn’t eaten any of it yet.

Tamsin realized half her sauce had spilled onto her chin. She reached for the pile of napkins the waitress had left, but Angus had already lifted a napkin, and he touched it to the corner of her mouth.

Tamsin stilled, the spice from the sandwich and the warmth from his unexpected touch burning her. Angus’s gentleness manifested as he carefully wiped her lips and then her chin, catching a drip that threatened to trickle down her throat.

Tamsin’s heartbeat was off the scale. She wondered if Angus could feel her pulse banging against his fingertips.

I’m just horny, she told herself. Shifters liked to mate—had the instinct ingrained. She rarely trusted anyone enough to let herself be vulnerable to either a Shifter or a human male, so she’d avoided any kind of sexual encounter, or even opportunity, for a long time. Years, she realized.

Angus wasn’t offering her sex. Hell, she’d had to convince him to come in here and give her food.

He was simply wiping her mouth, like he would for Ciaran. Except he hadn’t reached for a napkin for Ciaran—he was busy scrubbing at his face with half the pile. Angus leaned toward Tamsin, his gray eyes flicking down as he concentrated on dabbing sauce from her chin.

He looked up, and their gazes met, as they had in the hidden room in the house. Right before they’d kissed.

Tamsin wanted to kiss him again. More than wanted to. She craved it. She wanted to kiss him, wrap her arms around him, and keep kissing him. She’d let her hands explore his body, the muscles under his shirt, his tight stomach, his firm buttocks. She wanted his weight on her, his mouth parting her lips, his hands learning her, his thumb brushing her breast and bringing her to life.