Page 44 of Tiger Bitten

“Pantry but you should know I already finished a half of a bag.”

He chuckled and stepped into the bathroom, pulled her by the waist to him and leaned down, hesitated inches from her lips, then kissed her. When he pulled away, a smile was tugging at his lips. And that was that. He did a reset on them with just a simple moment of affection.

Magician.

Her defensiveness faded to nothing as he offered his hand, and she slipped her palm against his. “I knew I was right to want to bring you here.”

“Really?” she asked.

“Yeah. Dame likes you. Misty loves you.”

“How can you tell?”

“Because Dame was ready to Change and stop me if I hurt you. And Misty has messaged me thirty times in the last two hours asking questions about you.”

She giggled. “I really like her too. She’s a straight shooter. I appreciate that. What was she asking?”

“One of the messages asked if you like dresses? She was online shopping and found a buy one get one half off coupon code and she needed to know if you would want to match her, because she could get one day shipping.”

Ren belted out a laugh. “What did you tell her?”

“Probably. She asked your favorite color, and I told her I don’t know because I just met you.”

“Oh God,” she said, following him out the door that led into the barn. “We probably need to have a lot of discussions about who we really are.”

“I know enough,” he said. “But I would like to know everything in time. Favorite color. Hit me.”

“Orange. Like sunsets.”

“Nice. Mine is brown.”

“Brown?” she scoffed. “Is brown even a color?”

“Yes! It’s totally a color. I like chocolate brown. My whole house is painted in that shade.”

“You’ve made a cave then,” she joked.

“Shhh, judgmental. Okay, what is your favorite season?”

“The fall.”

“Huh. Why?”

“Football season starts,” she said, giving him a wicked smile.

“You like football?” he asked.

“I like the snacks, and I like having my mom and Uncle Ronnie and his wife, and a couple of friends over on football Sundays to eat chicken wings and drink flavored ciders. And I like getting loud and yelling at the television if my team is sucking.”

“Whose your team.”

“Pass.”

“I’m serious! I follow college football, so you won’t offend me.”

Ren said her team’s name and explained that her mom had ingrained that love for the team inside of her since birth. She still had baby pictures of Ren in onesies with the team logo.

He was grinning the whole time, and good grief she couldn’t get over how hot he was when he was all relaxed and happy like this. His walls were down. She could tell.