He murmured, “Steps here,” when they got to them, and opened the door for her and flicked on the light.
“Welcome to my home.”
***
Ali felt like she was in a dream, or something. This was all too good to be true.
All of the guys she’d ever met at bars in Ryder’s Lodge had been the same. They’d wanted to get into her pants, and they hadn’t much cared about anything beyond that.
Grey was attracted to her. She’d noticed from the moment their eyes met in the bar. But that wasn’t a problem. Ali was definitely, definitely attracted to him, too. The point was that he
talked
with her. He listened to what she said, he thought about it, and he responded with what he honestly thought.
He’d even listened to her talking about clothes, with that expression on his face—even in the dimly-lit truck, it was easy to see—that said he was turning everything over in his mind, giving it due consideration.
She didn’t want to end the night. Actually, she never wanted to go home again. Having someone take her seriously was like a plunge into cool water in the middle of a blazing summer.
She wondered if Grey would notice if she just camped out nearby or something, instead of going back to Paul and Molly’s place.
You’re getting ahead of yourself, Ali
. She’d only just stepped into his cabin, after all.
It was a beautiful little building, though, all knotty wood and soft blankets. It looked like a den, which made sense for a shifter, she supposed.
The downstairs was all one main room, except for a little door that probably concealed a bathroom, with the kitchen off to the left, the space dominated by a long, sturdy wooden table, and a huge fireplace with a comfy-looking chair and rugs in front of it to the right.
There were also stairs up to a loft that was almost entirely filled by an enormous bed.
That gave her some ideas, all right.
A long bookshelf took up the wall underneath the loft, and there was a chair tucked in next to it. A little reading nook.
Ali drank it all in, then turned to Grey. “It’s beautiful.”
He shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. “I fixed it up a bit. There weren’t any bookshelves when I moved in, and just the one chair over there.” He nodded at the table.
“Where did you find these? In Prescott? I don’t know anywhere that sells gorgeous furniture like this.” She crossed the room to peer at the bookshelves, which were made of a complex-grained wood that almost glowed from within. Pine, probably
.
“I made them.”
She turned to look at him. He looked a touch more embarrassed. “I told you I do a little woodworking.”
“That’s not
little
! It’s amazing.” She tried to picture living in a place furnished like this, and couldn’t. Molly and Paul’s furniture was all pasteboard and plastic. “I’m very, very impressed.” She smiled up at him.
He smiled tentatively back. “Would you like anything? Water, coffee, beer?”
“I don’t want anything to drink, but I was wondering…” She hesitated. Was it too much to ask? “If it’s all right with you, could I see you shift?”
His smile spread, lighting up his eyes and illuminating his face. “Of course you can.”
Ali had been worried that asking would be rude. She didn’t know anything about shifter manners, in part because none of her shifter relatives were mannerly people. But he seemed happy she’d asked.
He closed those luminous silver eyes, and his forehead furrowed with concentration. His form blurred and shifted.
And there, right in front of her, was a snow leopard.
“Wow,” she breathed involuntarily.
His body was longer than she’d expected, sinuous and muscled, with a heavily-furred, powerful tail. His eyes were the same silvery grey. She’d expected him to have slit pupils, like a housecat, but he didn’t. His eyes looked expressively human. In fact, they had a spark that seemed excited. Happy.
Grey paced around her, his paws silent on the wooden floor, then came right up to her and sat down. He seemed to be inviting a touch, so she reached out and put her hand on his head.
His fur was soft and warm, and she couldn’t help scratching his ears. She’d always loved cats.
He leaned his head into the touch, and she stroked down his neck and along his back. She could feel all of that compact muscle rippling underneath the camouflaging fur as he stretched his long, lean body underneath her hands.
Coming to his feet again, he paced away from her, toward the door. When he got to it, he sat down, and looked over his shoulder at her. He couldn’t have more clearly telegraphed
Let’s go outside
if he’d said it out loud.
“Okay. I want to see you run, anyway.” She went over to the door and opened it. Seeing a light switch next to the door, she flicked it on. A pool of light illuminated the ground outside.
Grey bounded out in front of her, and she followed quickly. He prowled around the edge of the light’s radius for a minute, and she caught her breath at how graceful his movements were.
Then he bounded away. She was startled to watch him move seamlessly from running on the ground to running vertically up a tree trunk. She knew he was really climbing, catching the bark with his claws, but he was so fast and powerful that it looked the same as if he were running along the ground.
He settled on a branch, his thick tail hanging down.
She shook her head in amazement. “You’re beautiful.” She wasn’t sure if he would hear so far up, but his ears flicked at her words, and she knew he had.
He climbed down from the tree with the same apparent ease as he’d gone up it, and came back to sit next to her again. She reached out to pet his head, and felt the warm-roughness of his tongue as he licked her hand. It tickled, and she smiled.
He got up again and trotted away, looking back over her shoulder. She trotted after, keeping a careful eye on the unfamiliar ground, and sped up as she got more confident.
She wished she could run like he could. She wished suddenly,
passionately
, that she’d been born a shifter like Paul had.
For so long, she’d thought that she’d never want to be an animal, especially not a black bear like her brother. Nothing had seemed further away from the pretty, made-up, well-dressed girl she wanted to be.
Now, the idea of being able to run around the forest as though she belonged was something that awoke a longing in her chest.
And to be something as gorgeously graceful as a snow leopard…
She shook off the idea. She hadn’t been born a shifter, after all, and even
she
knew that shifters almost never bit anyone to change them on purpose.
She’d watch Grey run, and maybe that would satisfy a little bit of the ache in her chest.
Grey stopped at the very edge of the house light’s reach. Ali could see a rocky outcropping stretching up into the darkness, a chunk of mountain reaching up out of the forest to make itself known.
Next to her, Grey gathered himself, and in an explosion of movement, his powerful hindquarters propelled him upward toward the rock. She saw him land perfectly on a narrow ledge, and then he leapt again and disappeared into the shadow.
She scanned the rock, but he was completely hidden. “Where are you?”
For a long moment, nothing happened. Then a piece of the rock seemed to move. Grey emerged from the shadows and leapt back down to alight next to her on the ground. He shimmered, and suddenly Grey the man was standing next to her.
“That was amazing!” Ali exclaimed. “It looked like you just completely disappeared.”
“Camouflage coloring.” Grey smiled, a hint of the fierce excitement he’d shown as a snow leopard still visible in his eyes. “Snow leopards are designed to blend into rocky areas. In the mountains, we’re basically invisible as long as we stay still.”
She shook her head. “That’s amazing. I wish I—” She stopped herself before she could say,
I wish I could do all of that too.
She couldn’t say anything that made it sound like she was angling for him to bite her. “I wish I were half as graceful as that.”
“You’re pretty impressive in those shoes,” he pointed out. “I was worried when you started to run after me in heels, on uneven ground. I thought for sure you’d fall. But you were as light as a cat yourself.”
“I am
amazing
at walking in heels,” she replied, without false modesty. It was true. “It’s my one athletic talent.”
“It takes grace and strength,” Grey said seriously. “Don’t sell yourself short.”
Ali knew she was blushing, but hopefully it was dark enough that Grey wouldn’t be able to tell.
The cold air would cool her cheeks down soon, anyway. The early spring night was chilly, and now that Ali wasn’t distracted by Grey’s amazing feats, she shivered a bit.
“You’re cold,” Grey said. “Come on, let’s go inside.”
Ali followed him back toward the house. He stuck very close to her, but didn’t offer her his arm or try and help her walk.
She didn’t stumble once.
***
Grey didn’t know what had come over him.
His days of showing off were long, long behind him. Sure, demonstrating his powers for anyone he wanted to impress had been a lot of fun back when he was nineteen, but now he preferred to talk to people to get to know them.
But Alethia’s interest was different. It seemed like she wanted to see his leopard because it was a part of him, not just because it was cool.
And, he had to acknowledge to himself, he did want to impress her. Some of those stunts outside hadn’t been necessary. He’d just gotten carried away in the moment. He’d wanted her to see everything he could do.
He still couldn’t believe he’d made her run after him in four-inch heels. But she’d made it look easy.
Grey hadn’t been kidding when he’d said that took grace and strength. It also took a certain awareness of her surroundings. If she’d put a foot down on a tree root or a loose stone, it wouldn’t have mattered how strong or graceful she was, she would’ve gone right down. But she hadn’t made a single step wrong.
He suddenly wished that she could have shifted with him. That they could’ve run through the woods together. That he could have taken her up above the tree line as a leopard, where they would’ve become ghosts among the rocks, up to where the snow began.
It was a strange thought. Big cats were naturally solitary, unless they were mated. In his adult life, Grey hadn’t ever felt alone in his snow leopard form. It was natural to be on his own.
Maybe it was a sign he’d been out here with the logging bears for too long. He wanted his own kind again.
Well, that would happen or it wouldn’t. For now, he opened the door for Alethia and gestured her inside.
***
Once they were inside again, Ali knew what she wanted. She wasn’t sure how to say it, though. It had been so long.
Grey turned to face her and said, “Are you still cold? I can get you a blanket or a sweater…”
That was definitely going in the wrong direction. She shook her head. “That’s not what I want.”
She could hear the rough desire in her voice, and it focused his attention immediately. His gaze felt like a physical thing. She could feel her nipples hardening, her pussy getting wet, just from the heat in his eyes.
She stepped toward him. “Grey, I know we just met. I don’t want to give you the wrong impression of me.” Too many people had the wrong impression already.
Ali found it hard to keep going. She’d been planning on propositioning Grey when she suggested they go to the cabin. Heaven knew she’d propositioned other men that quickly in her past. She didn’t know why she was so shy now. Out of practice, she guessed.
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘wrong impression,’” Grey said in his deep, husky voice. He closed the distance between them with such a strong, masculine grace that it was impossible to look away.
Catlike,
Ali thought.
“I think you might mean that I would think less of you for being the type of woman to go to bed with a man right away.” He was right up close to her now, his spicy scent washing over her.
She nodded, starting to get a little breathless.
“I know men who think that. But they’re all happy to go to bed with women right away. So I don’t know what they think is wrong with it.”
He touched her shoulder gently, his hand warm and dry against her skin, and Ali shivered, her nipples drawing tight. They were barely even touching, but she was already more turned on than she’d been in a long, long time.
“I don’t think I have the wrong impression of you, Alethia.” Hearing her full name in that warm, textured voice gave her shivers all up her spine.
“I think you’re thoughtful, and smart, and caring, and beautiful.” He leaned forward and kissed her softly right where his hand was resting, at the join of her shoulder and neck. Ali almost moaned aloud.