Her Tiger To Take (5 page)

“We were just telling stories. No big deal.”
She gestured to the bench opposite her. “You’ve been working hard
all night. Sit.”

Reluctantly, he settled into the booth. “Did
they manage to scare you off?”

“Opposite, actually.” She chuckled at his
scowl. “Don’t worry, they only revealed the most embarrassing
stories they know.”

“What?” He started ticking through the
options and his scowl deepened. They wouldn’t actually tell her
about that time Margery Bingham draped herself naked across his
prep-table, would they?

She laughed and the sound sent a sharp shock
of excitement down his spine. He clenched his hands under the table
to keep from reaching for her. Damn the chemistry between them. He
should
not
have this much trouble resisting a woman.

“Worried?” she said.

“No.”

She stared at him, that half-smile hovering
on her full lips. Finally, she said, “If I were you, I’d be more
worried about what Charlie told me.”

He raised his brows and waved a hand for her
to continue.

Instead, she said, “You’ve picked a really
lovely place to live, Nick. The people here are great. I’ve never
been part of a small town before. To be honest, I didn’t think I’d
like having so many…people able to follow my life the way they can
in a town this size.” She hesitated over the word “people” and he
knew she had been about to say humans. “But this place is
unique.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Jane cornered me earlier today.”

“Fuck.” He ran a hand through his hair and
glared at his head waitress. She raised her brows and stared back
without flinching. “Fuck,” he muttered again as he faced Tiana.
“What did she say?”

“She wanted to know my intentions. It was
pretty sweet, actually. Like a protective mother. Except you’re
older than she is. Does she know that?”

“No. What did you tell her?”

“That I wanted to marry you.”

He blinked at her bluntness. This wasn’t
anything he didn’t know. She wouldn’t be here trying to force him
back to the Run if she didn’t want to keep him around. At least,
he’d assumed as much, based on all her letters and emails.

But a part of him had thought this was just
sex, just chemistry. She wanted kids and hadn’t found another
worthy tiger yet. She had gotten it into her head that he was
worthy—a serious mistake on her part—but that didn’t mean she
wanted more than babies from him. To hear her say it aloud, that
she’d declared to another person that she wanted to marry him
was…

Tempting.

To cover his wavering emotions, he said, “I
thought you were just looking for a good lay. And babies.”

“That, too.” Her smiled turned seductive.
“You know we’d be good together, Nick. But I don’t want a casual
tiger father for my children. I want a partner. I want you.”

“You don’t even know me.”

“Whose fault is that? I’ve been writing to
you for months now. If you’d answered me even once, I might not
have had to come here.”

“My silence was my answer.”

“It’s the wrong one.”

“Damn it, Tiana, I am not going to run. If I
don’t run, we have no option of having a relationship. Why make
things worse by getting to know each other?”

She shook her head. “So fucking stubborn,”
she growled. “Okay, how about this? You spend the next few days
getting to know me, and I’ll get to know you. We’ll…date. It’s
always possible we’ll end up hating each other. Then you’ll get
your way. I’ll leave.”

He frowned, about to open his mouth when she
interrupted.

“But you have to really give me a chance. You
can’t go all pouty and silent.”

“Pouty?” His outrage made him straighten.

“Fine, tortured and silent.” She smirked.
“You have to seriously let me get to know who you are.”

“What if who I am is tortured and
silent?”

“I know better than that. I’ve been talking
to the people coming in and out of this diner all evening. They
adore you. People don’t adopt and adore tortured, silent types who
never give anything back. There’s a reason they like you. You have
to show me that.”

“They like me because…” He trailed off and
let out a breath. “Because I helped them with a problem after I
arrived. They don’t care if I’m tortured and silent now.”

“I got hints of that. What problem?”

“Nothing. It’s not an issue now.”

She shook her head. “Nope. You have to tell
me these things. That’s part of the deal.”

“I haven’t made any deals yet.”

She leaned back and crossed her arms over her
chest. The move plumped up her already generous breasts and he
couldn’t seem to drag his gaze away from those soft mounds.

“Nick Chernikov, either we date for the next
week and you let me get to know you, or I stick around and haunt
your every move until you give in and run. Those are your
choices.”

With his gaze still focused on her breasts,
he said, “Those are crappy choices.” Feeling like a hormone-crazed
teenager, he forced his gaze up and met her glare.

“Tough,” she said.

Her bottom lip trembled a bit before she bit
it to keep it still, and he knew he’d hurt her again. The sight
made every soft, protective part of him want to pull her into his
arms and hug away her hurt. He stayed where he was, his hands
fisted against his thighs. But he couldn’t bring himself to hurt
her again.

“Fine. We’ll…date. Although, if we get
caught, it won’t matter whether we end up liking each other or not.
They’ll officially ban me from the Run.”

Those were the rules. Once a female started
her Runs, the males had to stay away from her in between cycles. No
dating, no courting, no attempts at currying favor outside the
official Run. The rules were in place to make the Run feel like a
fair contest between males. That fairness was an illusion, but it
was an illusion that had kept their community from descending into
chaos for the last two centuries. Hard to argue with that.

“No one knows I’m here,” she said. “And I’m
not going to tell anyone. Are you?”

He scowled. It would be a good way to get her
to leave him alone. Being banned from the Run would eliminate any
possibility of him trying for a tiger mate and would force Tiana to
make another choice. He wouldn’t be allowed to compete for her. She
wouldn’t be allowed to choose him.

For some reason, he couldn’t force himself to
pull that trigger.

“No, I won’t tell anyone,” he grunted.

“Then. Okay.” She let her arms drop and took
a shaky breath. “Good. So tomorrow night Jane tells me one of your
other cooks is here and you have the night off. We’ll have our
first date then. You can pick me up at the motel.”

“I’m not coming inside.”

He’d let that comment slip out. He’d meant it
to be an admonishment to himself. By the way her eyes narrowed and
her lips curved up, he knew he’d revealed more than he’d
intended.

“I’m not inviting you in,” she said. “While
we’re dating, no sex.”

“We’re not supposed to have sex outside the
Run anyway.”

“Ha. We’re not supposed to date either. But
in this one thing, I’ll stick to the rules. No sex.”

He narrowed his gaze. Whether she meant to or
not, she’d just issued him a challenge he was having a very hard
time ignoring. His tiger wanted to rise to that challenge, to
seduce her and take her and make her his mate. His tiger didn’t
give two fucks about Nick’s desire for peace and quiet, not when
such a deliciously tempting tigress was so close.

She rose, and he followed, still working to
resist the call of his tiger.

“I’ll see you at six tomorrow.” She leaned in
and kissed his cheek.

The soft brush of her lips against his skin
set his blood pumping so fast he saw spots. Every nerve in his body
lit up as her scent wrapped around him, invading him and sucking
away his willpower. He flexed his fingers, so close to catching her
in his arms he couldn’t speak around the need.

She pulled back, smiled, and left him
standing there, his body hot and tense and his soul more than a
little desperate.

Dating. No sex. But chemistry that robbed him
of speech.

What the hell had he just agreed to?

Tiana paced the small motel room as she
waited on Nick. Part of her worried he might not show. She’d track
him down and challenge him if he did stand her up, but the rebuff
would hurt.

Fear lurked beneath her pacing. Fear that she
would fail and the one man she wanted would refuse her. What would
she do then? She simply didn’t want any other tiger she’d ever
met.

Before Nick, she’d been talking to Elizaveta
about going to a Run in Russia. Maybe she’d have to go through with
that. Meet other tigers. Run in completely different places. And
hope.

The thought almost brought her to tears.

She sucked back the emotions because she
didn’t want Nick to show up and catch her being a sniveling, crying
mess over something that hadn’t even happened yet.

She checked her makeup in the tiny bathroom
mirror to avoid looking at the bedside clock again. “If he doesn’t
want you, Tiana, you will walk away,” she told her reflection.
“And, hey, you might find that despite the chemistry and everything
you’ve learned about him, he’s actually an asshole. You could hate
him after tonight. Stop getting all worked up. You will be fine,
even if this doesn’t work.”

She gave herself a sharp nod and returned to
the bedroom. She hated this feeling of uncertainty and insecurity.
A little part of her—the part that had worried something was truly
wrong with her before she met Nick—was afraid that if things with
Nick didn’t work, she’d be destined to be alone for the rest of her
life. That maybe something in her really was broken. She wanted to
deny that sneaky, nasty little voice, but it was working with her
insecurities to beat back her confidence. And she detested it.

“Fuck it,” she growled.

She’d barely gotten the words out when a hard
knock sounded on the door. Her stomach tumbled in crazy chaos as
Nick’s scent snuck into the small room. She’d been so preoccupied
with worry, she hadn’t even sensed him approach. Shaking off the
mix of fear and excitement, she opened the door with a smile.

“What’s wrong?” he asked before she could
greet him.

“What?”

“You’re upset. What’s wrong?”

Her stomach did another crazy dance. She
wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed or overjoyed. She hadn’t wanted
him to know she was worried, but the fact that he looked so ready
to leap to her aid made her heart thump faster.

This will work
, she thought.
He
wants me. We’re compatible. We’ll like each other. This will
work.

“Nothing’s wrong,” she said.

“You said ‘fuck it’. Why?”

“How long have you been outside this door?”
It couldn’t have been long or she would have noticed. The fact that
he’d managed to be there for any time at all without her knowing
was disconcerting.

“Only long enough to hear you and you sounded
upset. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I promise. I was just talking to
myself about…work.” She lied blatantly, knowing he’d recognize it,
that he’d be able to smell it.

His eyes narrowed, but he dropped the
subject. At least for the moment. She couldn’t explain to him what
she’d been fretting about yet. That would have to come later, after
things either worked out or they didn’t.

They would, she told herself as she grabbed
her purse and locked the motel door. This would work.

Nick gestured to the truck parked directly in
front of her room. She crossed the sidewalk, passing in between the
wooden planting boxes that separated the parking lot from the
motel’s first floor. The three-story motel sported rows of doors
opening directly to the outside. There was no need to go through a
lobby, which worked well for her. If she decided to let her tiger
out for a walk in the woods behind the motel, she wouldn’t have to
call attention to herself when leaving her room.

They climbed into his four wheel drive, and
she buckled up as he started the engine. “Where are we going?”

His scent filled the inside of the truck,
overwhelming her, making her regret the “no sex” rule she’d put
into place. He looked fabulous—dark jeans that fit him well, a
button up white shirt under his heavy leather coat. His gorgeous
eyes were greener in the limited light from the dashboard and his
heavy-lidded look made her think of beds and tangled sheets. Her
pulse kicked.

“There’s a restaurant in Vail I’ve been
wanting to try,” he said. “It’s a little bit of a drive. You good
with that?”

“The drive is fine. And feeding me is always
a good thing.” She settled back into her seat. “I obviously like my
food.”

He cast her a slight frown. “Why
obviously?”

With a gesture down the length of her body,
she said, “You don’t get curves like these without liking food.”
She laughed, but the sound dried up when she caught his expression
as he looked over her curves.

He met her gaze for a split second before
facing the road again, but that brief look was enough to spark
Tiana’s lust. Her skin tingled and tightened, her breathing sped
up. Oh, but she could just crawl onto his lap right now and eat him
up—speaking of hungers.

All her earlier worries got beaten to the
back of her mind under the scent of desire painting the air around
them. They had something. Something powerful. They could build on
that.

This would work.

The restaurant was small and packed when they
arrived, but the maître d’ led them directly to a waiting table.
The woman smiled a little come-on smile at Nick as she handed him a
menu, then winked at Tiana as if they were sharing an inside joke.
Tiana shook her head.