Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 107670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“You think you’re scaring me?”
“You haven’t been in the shifter world for a long time. There’s a lot of violence in it.”
“There’s a lot of violence in the human world too.” A saddening amount. “You’re staring again.”
His hand clenched in her hair. “I won’t let them have you.”
She knew he meant the extremists. “Neither will I.”
Using his grip on her hair, he tugged her close and kissed her. “You wear my scent now.” He didn’t bother keeping his satisfaction out of his voice.
It was about damn time he addressed that, she thought. “Yes. And you wear mine. Why didn’t you mention it earlier?”
“I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about imprinting starting without your claim. You didn’t think it would, did you?”
“No,” she admitted.
He grinned. “I did.”
“Smug bastard.”
“Sore loser.” He rolled her onto her back. “I need to be in you again.” Needing to be buried deep in his favorite place where there was only her, where nothing and no one else mattered. So when she wrapped her legs around him, he thrust hard.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The next day, as they drove through a set of high security gates toward a huge three-story mansion, Jesse whistled. Having kept tabs on Harley, he’d already known she’d lived here for many years with her aunt. But it was one thing to know intellectually that she lived in comfort and a whole other thing to see it for himself. It brought home what standard of living she was accustomed to, and it made Nat’s comments seem not so petty.
“Tess lived here with her ex-husband until they were divorced, right?”
Harley smiled. “Your level of ‘well informed’ continues to astonish me. Yes, they were divorced about a year before Tess brought me here.”
“Big place for one person.”
“Yep, but she loves it. That was why her ex didn’t fight her on keeping it. It was a fairly amicable split. As Tess says, they just drifted apart until they were more like friends who slept together. There was no bitterness on either side, and they’ve even remained friends.” As they parked the rental car next to her aunt’s Porsche, Harley turned to him. “Now, listen. Tess is kooky and full of what some people find an annoying amount of energy, but she’s also the sweetest person ever with a huge heart, so be nice to her.”
“I’m always nice.”
Harley snorted and hopped out of the car. The front door opened as they neared, and there was an immaculately groomed Tess—her blonde hair curled perfectly, her designer clothes tailor-made to fit, and her makeup completely flawless.
“Harley, I’ve missed you!” She wrapped her arms around Harley, rocking her gently from side to side. “You look so well.” Pulling back, she turned to Jesse with her smile still in place. Her aunt was nothing if not gracious. “You must be Jesse.”
He gave her a respectful nod. “And you must be Tess.” He wasn’t really very sociable with outsiders, but he’d make an effort with this female because she was important to his mate.
She gently elbowed Harley. “His eyes are a little vacant, but I like his voice. And he’s very cute. No, not cute. That’s not a manly enough word. But I wouldn’t kick him out of bed, that’s for sure.”
Harley groaned inwardly. “Tess . . .”
“He doesn’t mind being objectified for just a minute.” Stepping back, Tess urged them inside. “Lunch is almost ready. And no, Harley, I did not make it. How about a tour, Jesse?”
Interested to see the inside of what had once been his mate’s home, he nodded. Following Tess around the ground floor, he was unsurprised to see that the interior was as grand as the exterior. White walls, luxurious carpeting, stylish furnishings, and expensive paintings ran throughout the entire space. There wasn’t a single thing out of place, and everything seemed to glimmer.
Taking them up a grand staircase, Tess showed him the one room he’d been eager to see—Harley’s old room. His wolf was just as curious. “I left it exactly as it was,” Tess told him.
Considering his mate had lived there until she’d left for college, he’d expected a space that was typical of a teenager. But there were no posters or girly things or even any personal touches. It didn’t shout “Harley” at all. He got it. To fit in with her human friends—friends who would have spent time here—she’d had to be human. To do that, she’d had to hide her cat, but being a shifter meant having a dualism to the soul; the human and animal were fused together. In hiding her cat, she’d hidden her true self. He doubted many people knew the real Harley Vincent.
When the tour was over and they were making their way to the dining room, he slowed to study a cluster of photographs on the wall. They were all of Harley at different ages, even from when she was just a cub and still part of her pride. She was smiling in each photo, but the smiles in the earlier pictures didn’t quite reach her eyes. The photos of her as a teenager when she’d come to live with Tess were different; Harley was clearly happier and healthier.