Authors: Shelley Munro
“Mama!” The terrified scream of horror ripped through her sexual fantasies. Tomasine struggled for freedom. Felix spun around, keeping her behind him while footsteps thundered across the wooden floor of the old farmhouse. Gina appeared in the hall, followed by Leo.
“What is it?” Gina crouched low, her eyes fierce when she scanned the hall.
“Mama!” Sylvie sounded panicked and terrified.
With unsteady hands, Tomasine reached for her towel and covered her naked body. She stepped from behind Felix but Gina beat her to Sylvie. Her daughter was dressed in her favorite pink dress and wore green frog gum boots with protruding yellow eyes on her feet. Her midnight black hair was in need of a brush while her brown eyes were wide and frightened. Her rosebud mouth trembled, underlining her confusion at finding big men inside the house.
“Don’t be scared, Sylvie. These are Tom’s friends. I was making them a cup of coffee. Would you like to help?” Gina asked, hugging the little girl briefly. “They’re big but they’re not very scary.”
An immediate protest rose to Tomasine’s lips but a warning glance from Gina tamped it down. Gina was right. She’d set the wheels in motion last night. They had to follow through now that they’d started. Hopefully through Felix she could learn more about the shifters. Insider’s knowledge was what she sought. And the big one, were they in contact with the shifter clans in Africa?
“Mama?” Still Sylvie sought reassurance and it made Tomasine sad. Angry. A child’s life shouldn’t be full of fear.
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“It’s all right, Sylvie.” Tomasine tightened her grasp on her towel and went to her daughter. She squatted so she was at her daughter’s height and kissed her button nose, knowing it would make Sylvie giggle. “You go with Gina while Mama gets dressed.”
“I dressed myself,” Sylvie said.
“Good girl. So you did.” She’d also sprayed perfume by herself. The wretched stuff made Tomasine’s eyes tear but she smiled in encouragement anyway. “Off you go with Gina.”
“I sprayed myself.”
Tomasine closed her eyes wondering what Felix and his brother thought. “You’re a good girl, Sylvie. I’m very proud of you.”
Sylvie nodded, threw her arms around Tomasine’s neck and squeezed tightly before letting go just as quickly. She ran to Gina, chattering rapidly as she normally did. Gina ushered Sylvie and Leo to the kitchen leaving Tomasine alone with Felix. Tomasine was almost frightened to look at him. She straightened when his hands curled around her shoulders.
“I’d better get dressed.”
“I’ll help,” Felix said.
Tomasine snorted. “I doubt your help would be productive.”
“If you mean I’d want to kiss every inch of your skin before it was hidden by cloth, then you could be right,” he conceded. “Your daughter is very pretty.”
“Thank you.” Tomasine steeled herself, waiting for the inevitable questions.
“Where is Sylvie’s father?”
Tomasine bit the inside of her lip hard and allowed sorrow to form on her face. “He died in an accident over two years ago.” Clan infighting and genocide fitted the accident category.
“I’m sorry.” Felix stepped closer and she felt the heat coming off his body. She wondered what it would be like to run with a beloved mate, to run with family again in 47
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feline form. Leaping in trees and racing across the savannah with not a care in the world. The seductive thoughts appeared when she hadn’t allowed herself to think of them for years, of how much she missed socializing with her own kind and how much she craved the shift to cat. She hadn’t wanted to risk a change while things were so uncertain.
Tomasine swallowed to rid her throat of the lump of emotion that had suddenly appeared there. “I’d better hurry. Really.” She sought refuge in humor. “I’m a big girl now. I can dress by myself.”
Felix nuzzled behind her ear and she felt his tongue lick across the sensitive skin. Immediately her body was on high alert. Wanting him. Again.
“I’ll wait for you in the kitchen with the others.”
“Okay.” Tomasine turned away, feeling a trifle breathless and definitely full of anticipation.
“Tomasine.”
“Yes?” Tomasine turned with a smile.
“Please don’t put any perfume on when you’re dressing. I don’t like it.”
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Chapter Four
Felix turned away without saying anything else but not before he caught the fleeting terror that crossed her face. He wanted to turn back and tell her everything would be all right, that he would never hurt her. She could trust both his family and him.
Instead, he headed for the sound of laughter and giggles, determined more than ever to learn the truth about Tomasine Brooks. He smirked at the picture he saw when he entered the lounge area and glanced across to the dining room. Leo was perched on a chair with Tomasine’s daughter sitting on his lap. One of his hands was curled around a coffee mug while the other was curled around the child’s waist to stop her falling. He looked so uncomfortable Felix wanted to laugh out loud. He was probably getting a good whiff of that godawful perfume as well. That couldn’t be helping matters.
“Ah, Felix.” Leo’s voice held trepidation and his hearty voice underlined how uncertain he really was holding the child. But at least he’d lost his earlier depression.
“I’m going to take the girls out to breakfast at Storm in a Teacup. Gina suggested it to give you guys some time alone.” His brother didn’t appear enthused but Gina was excited. She fluttered her eyelashes at Leo and a flush covered her chubby olive complexion. His brother had made another conquest. That would teach him for being the pretty one.
“That would be good as long as Tomasine agrees,” Felix said. He glanced around the compact rooms. From where he stood next to the dining room table, he could see the entire lounge plus the tiny kitchen. Although everything was clean, the chairs and other furniture were well used and shabby, as if Tomasine had purchased them secondhand or inherited them from the previous tenant. The only exception to this was 49
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the television set. He’d noticed the satellite antennae on the roof before he’d entered—a necessary item in Middlemarch since radio and television reception was poor.
“Mama, we’re going to Storm in Teacup,” Sylvie said, naming the local café when Tomasine appeared dressed in jeans and a pale mauve T-shirt.
“Oh no. I don’t think so,” Tomasine said, casting him a nervous glance that brought guilt to the surface. He hadn’t meant to frighten her with the perfume comment but it was time to talk. He needed to know the truth if he were to protect her and her family.
“I promised to take the girls,” Leo said. “They’ll be quite safe with me.”
Felix wouldn’t have caught the look of panic if he hadn’t been watching Tomasine so carefully. It was a deep-seated fear and anguish that caught at his gut and tweaked his curiosity. What would put that sort of fear into a woman’s face? His breath caught. She’d said her husband was dead but was he really? Was she a runaway wife? Felix’s hands curled to fists at the thought of another man before blowing out a calming breath. There was no mating mark on her shoulder. No, he was her destined mate and the sooner she acknowledged the fact the better.
“Please let us go, Tom,” Gina said. “It will be fun.” Tomasine and Gina seemed to exchange a conversation without words. Eventually, Tomasine gave a stiff nod but she appeared unhappy with the development.
“Our sister-in-law Emily works there,” Felix said, trying to allay her uneasiness at letting the girls out of her sight. He knew they both attended school. She’d relaxed enough to have them out of her sight for several hours of the day. “I bet Emily will rustle up some special treats for little girls,” he added.
“Goodie.” Sylvie clapped her hands and jumped off Leo’s knee, almost falling. Leo caught her before she came to harm but one frog green gumboot dropped off in the process.
“I’ll have to brush your hair before you go out,” Tomasine said, holding out her hand to her daughter. The child pouted but eventually trotted off to have her hair tidied, leaving Felix free to observe the teenager. Gina, Tomasine had called her. She 50
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didn’t look much like Tomasine or the child. Gina was a bit on the chubby side with a mop of short blonde curls and beautiful sparkling hazel eyes. She needed a brush as well. She wore jeans and a tight-fitting black T-shirt and looked much like the other teenagers he’d seen around Middlemarch. Was she shifter too?
Hard to tell with the stench of the perfume still filling the air. Felix grinned suddenly. It was difficult to believe, but when they sorted all this mess out and he and Tomasine were together, he’d be a stepfather. The thought blew his mind. A family. Perhaps not so good on the sex life but he had a family he could foist them off on now and then when privacy was required. Saber and Emily came to mind. It would be payback for the mental suffering he’d had to go through while listening to them—their patent happiness in each other. Yeah, they’d definitely be top of the babysitting list.
Leo stood and closed the distance between them. “Make use of the time, bro. You’re going to owe me big time.”
“It will give you time to become acquainted with your new nieces,” Felix shot back in a low undertone.
“You’re very certain of your ground.”
Felix met his brother’s gaze. “She’s my mate. I don’t want to look at another woman.”
Footsteps behind him made Felix turn around. Tomasine had changed Sylvie’s clothes and the child was dressed warmly in trousers and a sweatshirt with runners on her feet. Her dark hair was restrained in a braid and she looked as cute as the cupcakes Emily made for the café. His child, he thought in awe. Protectiveness flooded him. Whatever Tomasine was frightened of, they would face it together.
“Ready to go?” Leo said.
“Are we going to walk?” Gina asked.
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“No, I’ll take the ute,” Leo said, referring to the farm utility pickup they’d driven over to Tomasine’s house. “It’s too cold out there today to walk.” He winked at Felix.
“I’ll be a couple of hours, I reckon. Hell, I must be mad!”
Felix stepped over to Tomasine’s side and slipped an arm around her waist. Her face was pale and worried, and he hated that he was hurting her. But she wasn’t wearing perfume. He breathed in her scent and shifted aside her damp hair to nuzzle her neck. He fought the growing desire to bite. “They’ll be fine with Leo,” he reassured her. “And Emily is at the café baking cakes. If I know her, she’ll probably set the girls to work in the kitchen. They’ll have fun.”
Tomasine sniffed. “It’s hard enough letting them go to school.” She turned to face him and stared into his eyes for a long moment. “You know.”
Felix nodded. “Why all the pretence, sweetheart? You could have told us. You didn’t need to pester us all with questions or seduce me. Although, I’m glad you did. Seduce me, that is.” As he’d planned, his words drew a snort and lightened the worry lines on her face.
“You put the moves on me, mister. It wasn’t all one-sided.”
“No, which is why you’re going to give me the quick version of the truth and let me take you to bed while we have the opportunity.”
Tomasine swallowed. “Can’t we go to bed now?”
And cancel the talk. Tomasine was having a hard time trusting him. It pissed him off. The sex could wait. They’d have plenty of time for that later. This week. Next week and all their tomorrows. “No.”
They stared at each other in a strained silence.
Felix decided to ask questions to prod her along. “Are Sylvie and Gina shifters too?”
“Yes. Black leopard.”
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“The same as us.” Felix tugged on her hand and led her over to a faded green couch. He pushed her down before sitting beside her. Felix purposely crowded her, making sure as much of their bodies touched as possible. From shoulder to knee, he pressed against her side, the contact easing his anger.
His mate
. Felix hadn’t believed he’d find a mate in Middlemarch.
A shifter mate
. He’d resigned himself to remaining single since he refused to live in the city with Alicia or attempt to lure a city girl into the country life, and then Tomasine had waltzed onto the scene. Life was good.
“Where did you come from?”
Tomasine plucked at a piece of fluff on her jeans-clad knee. “I can’t tell you that.”
“Why?” What was wrong with the female? He was trying to help.
“It’s dangerous.” Tomasine glanced at his face, saw his displeasure and hurried into further speech. “It’s not safe. All I wanted was a secure place to put down roots and raise Sylvie and Gina.”
“You’re safe here.”
She shrugged. “Maybe.”
“You are safe in Middlemarch,” Felix reiterated. “Is that why you were asking so many questions?”
Tomasine nodded.
“But I don’t understand why you wrote the story about the black panther sightings if all you wanted was a safe place. You drew attention to us.”
“I know,” she whispered. “And no one would talk to me. I didn’t mean to but I was just so angry and frustrated with my lack of progress. Haven’t you ever done that?
Acted unwisely and regretted it afterward. I’d take the story back if I could. In fact, I didn’t intend to run the cat story but there was a mix-up and it was published instead of the one I’d written about the upcoming Middlemarch dance.”
“Didn’t you realize that it might make Middlemarch unsafe for all the shifters that live here?”
Of all the stupid reasons.
Felix didn’t know whether to put her over his knee 53
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and smack some sense into her or hold her tight to reassure her they were secure here. He was safe. Maybe he could work both into the equation. His cock jerked at the thought and he stored the idea for later consideration. Tomasine’s tongue darted out to lick her lips and he watched avidly. She was so tiny—petite—yet physically she’d taken him easily. He imagined her lips wrapped around his cock and bit back a groan. Focus, dammit.