Her Tiger To Take (3 page)

“No,” he said, narrowing his eyes.

She smiled and made to move toward him.

“No!” He pointed at the couch. “Sit.
Stay.”

She laughed and raised her brows. “I’m a cat,
not a dog. I don’t sit and stay.”

“Damn it, just…stay in here. I’ll be back in
a few minutes.”

He escaped upstairs before she could distract
him again. His pulse pounded and her scent covered him. He couldn’t
think straight. He locked the bathroom door behind him, stripped
off his clothes, and stepped into an icy shower.

Which did nothing to take the edge off.

Taking his erection in hand, he pumped his
fist until his orgasm tore through him. The release was hollow and
didn’t do much to calm his need. But it was enough to give him some
breathing room. He hung his head under the cold water and tried to
wash away Tatiana’s scent.

He’d ended up like this more often than he
cared to admit over the years. His head full of her, his hand on
his own cock. He turned to look at the locked door. He could still
smell her, despite the water and soap. He shouldn’t have brought
her into his house. He’d have to move now.

Not that it would do him any good. The
combination of her scent and his was going to haunt him for the
rest of his life, pushing him that much closer to the insanity he’d
always known lurked just beneath the surface.

He was, after all, his father’s son.

He punched the water off and climbed out of
the shower. Of all the Chernikov brothers, he was the most like
their father—in looks and personality. It was only a matter of time
before his father’s weaknesses rose up to claim him as well. He
should have known Tatiana would be the catalyst for his fall.

With a towel around his hips, he crossed the
hall to his bedroom, locking that door as well. Tatiana was still
downstairs, but he didn’t trust himself not to call her up here to
join him in bed. The lock wasn’t so much to keep her out as to keep
himself in.

By the time he finished dressing, he felt
some semblance of control return.

Now he had to face her. And convince her to
leave him to his isolation.

Tatiana listened to the shower shut off and
the bathroom door open and close. Her body still hummed with need,
and it was all she could do not to climb the stairs and make Nick
pick up where they’d left off.

But he’d been right to stop. She wasn’t even
supposed to be with him outside the Run. Fucking him now would risk
the very thing she was here to do. Oh, but she wanted him.

That kiss!

She’d never felt anything like that before,
the desperation and heat, her body tightening and melting all at
once. She’d had mild levels of lust with a few human men, but
nothing like this. She could still breathe in their mingled scents
and the combination was perfection. Tiger catnip. Somehow she had
to convince him to join her next Run without actually jumping his
bones beforehand.

As he came down the stairs, his hair still
damp from his shower, she had a hard time convincing her baser self
that restraint was the best course of action. Her pulse thrummed
the closer he got. She still felt the imprint of his palm against
her bare skin. Her tiger growled and whispered,
more.
Him.

Yes.

He sat across the room from her, his mouth
tight, his eyes hooded. He was brooding. She hated men who brooded.
Or she thought she did. Nick carried it off with such intensity,
she shivered. Everything the man did ticked all her boxes. He was
nuts if he thought she’d walk away from that.

When he didn’t say anything for several
minutes, she gave in and started the conversation. “My next Run is
in two weeks.”

“I’m not going.”

“I’ve got two weeks to convince you. After
what just happened, don’t try to tell me you don’t want me.”

“That doesn’t matter.
We
can’t
happen.”

“Why?”

“I’m too old for you.”

She laughed. “Since when has age ever been a
thing among our people?” He was fourteen years older than her, but
since their kind lived between one hundred and twenty and one
hundred and thirty years on average—and a few lived much
longer—even his forty-two years was still young in the grand scheme
of things. “That’s not a good enough excuse. Try again.”

“The others will fight me.”

“It’s not their say, Nick. It’s mine. You’re
my choice. You just need to run.”

“And what if I do? Then what?”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Even if we spend this estrous together,
chances of you getting pregnant are low. And unless you get
pregnant, you’ll just have to keep running.”

“Then
we
keep running.”

“In between, the others will attempt
to…dissuade me.”

She frowned. “Meaning?”

“They’ll come after me. I’ve spent five years
building a life here. A nice, quiet, peaceful life. I haven’t had
to fight other tigers in all that time. And I don’t want to bring
that kind of chaos down on this town. They’ve accepted me here.
They don’t deserve to have their home invaded by a group of angry
tiger shifters.”

“The others can’t do that.” She leaned
forward. “You haven’t been banned from the Run. You’re allowed to
compete for a mate. There is no fighting allowed.”

“You think that’ll matter?”

“Your grandmother is an elder. They have to
follow the rules where you’re concerned.”

“And the unspoken rule for me and my brothers
has always been that we were the bottom of the barrel and therefore
subject to challenges and threats—everything short of killing us is
acceptable. My grandmother isn’t allowed to stop it. The only
reason my father is still alive is because of the deal my
grandmother made with the other elders. That deal meant she had to
withdraw her official power and support from her grandsons.”

“But…”

“No buts, Tatiana. This is how it is. And
since I don’t want my father executed for his crime, I’ve accepted
the situation. Even tried to make the best of it.”

Her heart hurt for him and his brothers. She
knew their story—she’d made a point of learning everything she
possibly could about Nick. She hadn’t been brave enough to ask
Elizaveta about her son Ivan’s crimes, but she had admitted to the
elder that she wanted Nick. Elizaveta had encouraged her
interest.

With that kind of support, Tiana had been
sure she’d be able to get Nick back to the Run. The damned man was
a lot more stubborn than she’d counted on.

What she hadn’t realized was that the other
males might come after him despite the fact he was her choice. That
wasn’t supposed to happen. The whole point of the Mate Run was to
eliminate fights and challenges between the males.

She shook her head. “They can’t come after
you to prevent you from running,” she insisted. “I don’t care what
the unspoken rules for you and your brothers are. The rules of the
Run are very clear. And you haven’t been banned. You’re allowed to
participate.”

“Don’t be naïve.”

She growled and launched off the couch.
“Don’t be condescending. The other males are not allowed to prevent
any individual male from running.”

“You think they’ll announce that they came
after me?”

“You gonna let other people tell you what to
do with your life?”

“And what are you trying to do?”

She blinked. She’d expected him to get mad.
She’d been goading him on purpose. Instead, he sat there calmly,
just staring at her.

Damn him and his logic. He was twisting her
reasonable arguments. She stalked the length of the room to burn
off her frustration. When it didn’t work, she spun on him and
pointed. “I’m not trying to keep you from something you want. I’m
trying to talk you into taking something I
know
you want.
Something you can have.” She straightened her shoulders. “And I’m
not giving up just because you’re afraid of a fight.”

His eyes flared with a spark of anger. “I’m
not afraid to fight. I’ve been fighting my entire life.”

“Then fight now!”

“No.”

“Why? And don’t tell me it’s because you
don’t want me or what I’m offering you. Don’t even try to lie about
that.”

“Fine,” he growled.

He stood in front of her in a blink. She
gasped, startled by his sudden move.

“I am sick to death of fighting. I
like
the peace I have now. And there’s nothing you can offer
me that will be worth going back to the fight.”

He may as well have hit her in the chest. The
blow was so physical she actually took a stumbling step back from
him. The swell of pain almost choked her, and she had to blink back
tears.

His expression softened. “Tatiana…”

She raised a hand for silence. Staring at the
floor, she took a few long, slow breaths, until the shock of pain
passed, leaving only a dull ache in its wake.

Finally, she said, “I’m going to go back to
the motel now because I have a few things to do, and we both need
to cool off.” She met his gaze again. “But this is not over. What
we could have is worth fighting for, Nick. I’m going to convince
you of it. I’m not leaving here until I do.”

Before he could say anything else, she
grabbed her coat and walked out the door. She didn’t want to hear
anymore just yet. She had to rally her emotions.

She knew deep inside he’d said what he had to
hurt her and force her to give up. She knew he’d been mean on
purpose, so she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of
allowing his comment to drive her away.

She meant what she’d said. What was between
them, the potential of what they could have, was worth fighting
for, and she’d convince him of that, no matter what it took.

Nick stared at his front door for long
minutes, disgusted with himself. She couldn’t understand what life
was like for him, what she would be getting into with him. But she
hadn’t deserved his cruelty.

He pushed his fingers through his hair and
pulled hard until his scalp ached.

It was for her own good. He’d done that, said
that, to drive her away for her own good.

The logic didn’t prevent guilt from wrapping
a tight hand around his throat.

He shook off the unwanted emotions and headed
back to the diner. He had to get ready for the lunch rush. He
didn’t have time to hide in his house and brood.

He hated brooding anyway.

When he stepped back into the little diner,
Jane was signing an invoice for a produce delivery. She looked up
and raised her eyebrows at him. He shook his head and went directly
to the kitchen.

A few minutes later she followed him. “Well?”
she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Well, what?”

“Explanation, please.”

“No.”

“Nikolai Chernikov, we have been working
together for five years. I helped you make this place a success. If
that woman is here to drag you back into the big wide world, I
deserve to know.”

“What the hell makes you think that?” Nick
frowned. Jane was entirely too perceptive.

“It’s obvious she’s someone significant to
you. An ex-wife?”

“Never been married.”

“Ex-girlfriend, then.”

“No.”

“Current girlfriend?”

“No.”

“Someone else’s wife who wants to fuck
you?”

He scowled at her. “Jane, what the hell are
you talking about?”

“I saw the way you two looked at each other.
Thought the diner was gonna catch fire, there were so many
sparks.”

He turned his focus to cleaning the grill,
avoiding her too-knowing gaze. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry. She’ll
be gone soon.”

“Taking you with her?”

“No.”

“Why?”

That made him look up. “You want me to
leave?”

“Course not. We like having you here and you
know it. You’re one of us now. We don’t give up our own easily.
‘Specially after what you did for us with that gang of thugs.”

“That was nothing.”

“It wasn’t nothing. They were terrorizing us.
You got rid of them.”

“You know I hate talking about it.” When he’d
arrived in Eirene, the townspeople were being plagued by a pack of
werewolves they’d thought were a biker gang. Nick had paid off the
alpha and established territorial boundaries that kept the
werewolves out of Eirene. It hadn’t been a big deal, but the people
of Eirene kept making a fuss over it.

“Nick…” She trailed off and shrugged.
“Anyway, none of us want you gone, but you’re a young man.”

He snorted at that.

“Younger than me,” she pointed out.

Actually, he was older than Jane by six
years. But his tiger shifter genes made his forty-two look more
like he was barely thirty.

“You haven’t taken up with any of the women
here,” Jane continued, “despite some interesting attempts to entice
you. I find it hard to believe you want to spend the rest of your
life celibate.”

He didn’t answer, just focused on scraping
the grill.

“Beyond that being a waste of a good man,”
she said with a little smirk, “I want to see you happy.”

“I am happy.”

“Bullshit.”

“Such language,” he teased.

She shook her head. “Stubborn man. Fine, you
want to keep your secrets, keep your secrets. But if you decide to
leave us, I want to know ahead of time. I don’t want to wake up one
day to discover you’ve disappeared, and I’m out of a job.”

“I’d never do that to you.” He straightened
and faced her. “I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”

“Don’t make those kinds of promises. They
might come back to bite you in the ass.”

She left him to his cleaning and his
thoughts. Nick stared at the grill, frustration twisting his gut
and his brain.

“Well, hell.” He turned his attention back to
his work and forced thoughts of Tatiana and the conversation with
Jane away. He didn’t want to think about this anymore.
Work,
Nick
, he told himself.
Focus on work
.