Vixen’s Run (3 page)

“You have known me for one day.”

“True. I will ask again tomorrow.” He smiled.

Tiff felt a tension headache coming on. “There are a lot of very nice women here who would love to go home with you.”

“Yes, but I have to earn my mate and get her interest in my health and physicality. You are the only one who saw the actual me, so I pick you.”

“Wait, because I noticed that you were having a problem, you have fixated on me like a baby duck?” She leaned back as her plate was taken, the dessert wine was served and the dessert was placed on the charger.

Davus cocked his head. “Sort of. Among my kind, the male will posture for hours trying to get the attention of the female of his choice.”

“Huh. Here, I always thought that the peacocks were in charge.”

“Nope. We live a life of chasing and begging, keeping our bodies fit so that our mate won’t lose interest. With my…injury, I was no longer of interest to them, so my father shipped me here simply to find a mate, any mate. I wasn’t happy with that idea, so I began looking for a partner and your face kept coming to mind.”

Tiff cocked her head. “A fox is a really bad choice for one of your kind.”

“Well, I know you are not looking for a mate, but what are you looking for, if you wanted one?”

Tiff poked at her pistachio-crusted ice cream on a warm peach cobbler. “I guess I would like a sense of humour. Handsome wouldn’t be bad. He would have to let me run when I needed to run and let me figure out how much affection I could handle. I haven’t been with a guy since…” she shrugged.

Davus winced. “You seem so at ease in your own skin.”

“I am. I don’t think about myself as sexual, so when I meet another shifter, we are just talking in the only way available. I don’t hide my body, but it is just what I use to get around in.”

“You are lovely.” His amazing eyes were sincere.

She shrugged off his compliment. “Most vixens are. We have to get the attention of a male fox, and they are egotistical bastards for the most part. They come and go in a lot of relationships, so the women just get by on their own.”

“Were your parents together?”

“They were, most of the time. My father dipped out now and then. Your family?”

“My father and mother are devoted to each other. They raised me and my sisters together with only a few rough patches.”

“You have sisters?”

“Four of them, I am the youngest in the family. I had little responsibility and far too much time to enjoy myself. That is when I was snagged and imprisoned.”

Tiff noted his sudden seriousness and she stilled her normal quips.

“I was in the cage with the bladed collar for a year with them stripping my feathers from me. I was released and healed a few months ago.”

Tiff felt tears welling in her eyes. “I heard about that. One of my second cousins was retrieved, but she had only been in the lions’ custody for a week.”

He sighed as if a weight had been lifted from him. “I have been dreading telling someone about that.”

“It explains a lot. You aren’t in touch with yourself because your mind defended you by disconnecting your attachment of mind and body. Those collars were brutal units.”

Davus cocked his head. “You actually do know about it. I thought you were being kind.”

Tiff shook her head. “Nope. My cousin was returned to her mate and kits, but she was a little off. We don’t like being caged.”

“How did her mate take it?”

“He is dealing with it but he keeps taking off. I don’t think they are going to last long.”

Davus blinked, “What will she do?”

“Her sisters and mother will take care of her. It is our way.” Tiff finished her dessert and set her spoon down.

He looked as if he was mulling something over, and finally, he asked the question that had been obviously been burning in him. “Why are you here?”

* * * *

Davus watched the emotions flow across her features. There was dismay, anger, disappointment and finally resignation.

“Thank you for reminding me. I am here to find a mate so that my brother can get married. I am the eldest, so in our family, I have to wed first. He’s stuck if I don’t make a move.”

Davus nodded; it was tradition in a lot of shifter families to have the eldest children settled first. “He has found love?”

She shrugged. “That is what my gran says. I hope so. He is a little too attractive for his own good.”

Davus grinned. “Maybe he found the right woman.”

“It is possible. Or, perhaps, he has just found a woman that satisfies what he feels is his position. My brother is a bit of a snot.” She grimaced.

“That is what I used to think of my sisters, but they all turned out all right.”

“Foxes get worse as they age.”

He loved watching the expressions flit across her features and the gleam of fire in her hair. Just looking into her leaf green eyes, he wanted to strut, to prove that he was worthy of her. He wanted to capture her attention so that she never cast that devastating smile toward another waiter.

The suddenness of his attachment to her shocked him, but he had never had a woman look at him and see into his soul before. Her clear green eyes were bright and unflinching. When she had mentioned her own trauma, there had been shadows in that gaze and he wanted to clear it so that joy overtook her instead of darkness. He also wanted to do more than bite the men that had hurt her.

The darkness in his thoughts surprised him. He had never imagined that meeting the right woman would bring out a protective instinct. His own issues were forgotten in his urge to keep Tiff safe and happy.

Davus wanted Tiff to want him; he wanted it more than anything. If she were a peahen, it would have been easier. He would show off his feathers and she would either ignore him or be receptive.

With a fox, it was different. She was direct and had no problems being at close quarters with him, but she was cold. The petty masculine part of him wanted to kiss her until she responded, but the intelligent part of him mentioned that it was the wrong tactic to try with her.

He was going to have to wait until she made the first move. After the year of being cooped up, he was tired of waiting, but he was going to have to fight his own instincts to win his mate. That was not in doubt. Tiff was destined to be his.

He just had to convince her.

Dawn the next morning was fun. She played hide and seek with him in the forest. If she dodged him for more than five minutes, he would buy breakfast at the café.

Tiff ran through the trees in her workout gear and found the waterfall that she had located on the second day. She eased in behind it and checked her watch. He would be looking for her right about…now.

He had cheated a little by providing her with a lymon yellow shirt for the game but that just made it more fun. Nothing in her home territory ever hunted her. It was why she teased the neighbour’s hounds. Sometimes, a girl wanted to be chased.

She kept her mouth shut as the roar of the water didn’t quite mask the approach of footsteps.

The sight of Davus caused her to sit down hard on the rocks with surprise, but it was the lithe woman next to him that sent a previously unfelt sensation through her. Jealousy.

The woman spoke to him and inclined her head with a grin.

Tiff seethed.

* * * *

Lee whispered to him. “She is inside the waterfall, but I can’t say that she will be happy to see you with a woman.”

“Thank you, and thank Jim for not getting bent out of shape when I asked to borrow you, but you were spoken of while I was recovering. You were thought of very highly by a few of the other lions who came to help.”

“I am so sorry for what you went through there. I am glad to see you moving forward with your life. From what Teal has told me, Tiff is one of a kind.”

Davus grinned, “You are saying that like it is a bad thing.”

“I think you need someone supportive.”

“I believe I have found her. If I can convince her to be my mate, she won’t let me get away with anything.” He smiled. “Thank you again.”

Lee inclined her head and left him next to the water’s edge.

When she was gone, Davus removed his clothing and dove into the pool, swimming up to the waterfall and ducking his head under the pounding water. “I believe I win.”

Tiff was glaring at him. “Who was that?”

He pulled himself onto the rocky ledge next to her. “Lee. She is the wife of the owner of the Crossed Star and also the prime medic here at the Crossroads. She runs the first aid station and has the keenest nose I have ever heard of. I asked her to prove it.”

Tiff was still frowning but she nodded. “I have heard about Lee. I haven’t run into her before. I have been avoiding the common areas.”

He steeled himself for the next gambit. “I know. But since I have won hide and seek, albeit with help, you are paying for breakfast. And, I believe I would like a kiss.”

She stared at him with surprise in her eyes. “A kiss?”

“Yes. I will keep my hands down and you will kiss me.”

“You are naked.”

“I am aware of it, I am also dangling my legs in cold water. That should help keep me calm.” He grinned. His testicles were currently internal. The water was exceptionally cold.

He was going to continue cajoling her, but she grabbed his head and pressed her lips to his in a juvenile mash up of mouths. She eased her assault after a few seconds and gentled the caress.

He flicked his tongue at her lips and she shivered slightly, mimicking his movements with an innocence that sent blood rushing to his cock. She slipped her tongue into his mouth, and his hands clenched to fists on his thighs. He groaned and she pulled back.

“Did I do that wrong?”

Davus shuddered and slipped into the water again. “It was perfect. I will meet you on the shoreline for my breakfast.”

He dove back under the fall and swam to his clothing. He shifted rapidly from human to bird to human again, using the magic to dry off.

He wasn’t sure what was going through Tiff’s mind, but as he finished tying his sneakers on, she appeared at his side.

She seemed at a loss for words. “Your colour is better.”

He could feel it inside him, something in the centre of him was responding to her care. “I guessed as much.”

He offered her his hand and waited.

She bit her full lower lip and slowly slipped her small, strong hand into his. The small act of trust melted his heart and sent a pulse through his groin.

“Well, since you are paying, I am going to make a pig out of myself.” He kept the conversation light as they made their way through the woods and into the town.

She held his hand the whole way.

* * * *

Tiff watched the plates keep coming. “You weren’t kidding.”

He grinned and wolfed down another stack of pancakes. “I have been off my feed for a while. I suddenly regained my appetite.”

She nibbled at her bacon and watched him eat. “Somehow, I thought you would eat like a bird.”

He grinned, and she laughed at the blueberries in his teeth.

She sat back and sipped at her coffee. “I hope that you aren’t going swimming for at least an hour. The water compression would pop all of that right up.”

He shook his dark head and kept eating. “I don’t plan on swimming today. Today, I am planning on courting you as best as I am able.”

Tiff blinked. “How are you going to do that?”

“I think I will find the swings that Lee mentioned and we will have a picnic. We can discuss where we want to live and what to name the children.”

She coughed on the coffee she was sipping. “Children?”

“Oh, yes. I would like three. The Fergus house is large and the kids will have cousins to play with.”

“See, it would never work. I would want to live at Grayson house.” She shrugged. “Sorry. As the eldest, I am the inheritor. I need to remain at the family home.”

He was staring at her with wide eyes. “Did you say Grayson?”

She nodded. “Yes, my name is Tiffany Grayson. Tiffany Annette Grayson if you must know the gory truth.”

“You live ten miles from my family home.”

She put her cup down with a clatter. “What?”

“You are on the other side of the county line, but your family lives ten miles from mine. No wonder we came through at the same time.”

Tiff laughed, “And why we used different transporters. Different zones by a few yards. They did mention that you were so close that you were almost on top of me.”

He got a heated look on his face. “Now, there is an idea.”

Tiff blushed. “Right, well, pardon my slip of the tongue.”

“Another lovely idea.”

“Oh god.” She put her face in her hands. The wicked gleam in his eyes started a shiver in her system and watching his flirtation was enough to warm her from the inside out. She tried to remember why she thought their mating would be a bad idea, but her mind drew a blank.

“Right, so I need to maintain my territory, Davus. It isn’t something I can negotiate on.”

He smiled. “Since we are so close to each other, home-wise, I believe that I can agree to that.”

Damn, she didn’t want him to agree. She wanted him to insist on remaining in his own home. Maybe they could arrange a weekend mating contract or something.

“What are you thinking about?”

She sighed. “Ways that I can have my cake and eat it too.”

His smile changed to a slow curl of his lips that made her heart flutter. “I believe we can arrange that very thing.”

Tiff was almost afraid to ask.

They stopped at the Open Heart Bed and Breakfast where Tiff got to meet her first djinn. Teebie was charming, elegant and she handed Davus a large basket with a wink.

Davus asked, “Where are you staying?”

“Um, why?”

“I thought you might like to change into something more casual.”

Tiff brightened, “Oh, I am at the small-predator hostel. I chose it to tick my gran off.”

He grinned. “Lead the way.”