Page 21 of Tiger Born

She was lying on the dry mess his injuries had left last night. His blood was on her stomach. She reached up and wiped a spot of her blood from the bottom of his lip where he’d cleaned her arm. His eyes were so bright. So inhuman.

He’d marked her, and it meant something she couldn’t understand yet.

She was supposed to run, right?

“I’m sorry,” he murmured again.

Misty leaned up and kissed his lips, then cupped his cheeks as she relaxed back under his weight. “Don’t be,” she whispered.

Chapter Five

“How is this thing even alive?” Dame touched one of the shriveled-up leaves and the dry thing fell off of Veronica, her pitiful money tree.

“Don’t touch her. She’s fragile.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s really bad luck to kill a money tree.”

“Oh, you know what Veronica is?” she asked, peeking out from the bathroom. She’d just cleaned the marks on her arm and was putting gauze on it now to keep it clean. She wanted this one to heal prettier than the jagged one Stellan had made.

Good Lord today had turned out weird. Oh, just cleaning her tiger mark from a man who fucked the hell out of her twice, after they took a shower to wash off the gore from their newly injured lovemaking.

And it wasn’t even awkward. He’d washed her body like they had no first-date jitters at all.

She had never been this comfortable with anyone in her entire life. She would never forget what they had just done, and there wasn’t an ounce of regret or confusion around it.

Just a feeling of rightness.

“I’m pretty sure Veronica has root rot. You’re watering her too much. We need to cut off the rot and repot her. You don’t need bad luck, and killing this thing feels risky.”

“Two orgasms and repotting my plant. Sir, I’m going to need you to slow down before I ask you out on a second date.”

“Pretty sure sewing me up doesn’t count as a first date.”

“Potato, pototo.”

“I don’t think you used that correctly.”

She offered him a grin. “Tomato, tomoto.”

He closed his eyes and laughed. “When are you going to realize how messed up that was and freak out?”

“You mean the seven-minute bone-fest in the back of my car under a tarp in a barn?”

He licked his lips and tucked his chin to his chest, then lifted those gold eyes to her. Misty’s insides nearly melted. “You know what I mean.”

“Mmm, I want to do it again so I’m pretty sure the freak out will be delayed for a while longer.” She batted her eyelashes at him. “It was the dust mote speech that seduced you, wasn’t it?”

He laughed as he said, “Shut up,” and closed the distance between them. He gripped her hips and pulled her against him. He leaned down and kissed her lips. “You’re a fun little human.”

“Thank you,” she said, her body humming under his able touch.

She’d never done drugs, but if she had to guess, kissing Dame was probably what drugs felt like.

She’d driven him to her apartment after leaving a goodbye note for Uncle Tim. So far, he seemed to like her place. Well, other than her plants. She did try, but she didn’t have a green thumb like her uncle.

Dame’s phone vibrated on the coffee table, and he eased out of her kiss, then tossed it a look, and released her. He picked up his phone and checked the screen. He answered it fast.

“Hey. Where are you?”