Page 16 of Tiger Born

“Um, are you a virgin? Because how are any of your exes letting you walk out on them without stalking the shit out of you and trying to tie you down?”

“Um, because I’m a terrible partner and a good dick only gets you so far. Plus, I don’t do any serious dating. I told you. It’s not allowed.”

“Right.” She wore this cute little absent smile. “Do you want dessert?”

Dame looked down at his clean plate. He must’ve finished the rest of it while he wasn’t paying attention. What the hell? Okay, this woman was dangerous. She consumed his mind and pulled him out of the real world. That was scary for a man who had to keep his senses up constantly.

She stood and made her way into the kitchen and returned with two plates of what looked like homemade apple pie, complete with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. “My Uncle likes to cook and bake, and there has always been the best food in the house.”

A smile took his lips as he took the offered plate from her hand. “Did you come here a lot when you were younger?”

“I have a room in the basement. This was my home away from home. My dad travelled for work, and sometimes when he came home, he and my mom were fighting and trying to work their stuff out, and sometimes they just wanted alone time.”

“So, they sent you here?”

She nodded.

“Okay, but when did your dad spend time with you?”

She shrugged. “I had my Uncle Tim. He is my dad’s brother. My dad wasn’t a bad dad or anything, we just didn’t have the bond that I do with my Uncle Tim.”

Dame nodded. Huh. Probably that happened because her dad didn’t spend time with her. Misty didn’t seem cut up about it though, so there was no use digging into trauma that didn’t exist. She seemed genuinely happy here, and at home. Plus, he had no room to judge a family dynamic. No one had even cried at Mom’s funeral except for some lady who used to work with her at the hotel she cleaned for all those years. The rest of them though? Dry eyes. If Misty had a good dynamic for her childhood? Hell yeah. She deserved it. Dame and his brothers? Well, they’d got what was coming for them. Karma had eaten his family from the inside out.

There was a chair between them, and he did something so confounding. He told her, “You can sit by me.”

She offered him the sweetest smile and scooted over one chair until she sat right next to him. They ate their dessert like that, elbows almost touching as they both rested them on the table.

Afterward, he asked her to stay seated, and he cleared the dishes and washed them in the sink, then washed the dishes she’d left on the counter from heating up his food. Dame could feel her eyes on his back, but he didn’t mind like he would’ve with anyone else. Misty had good vibes, and a calmness to her. Maybe it was from years of nursing. Maybe it was just her personality, but Dame’s tiger settled down completely around her.

She was like medicine. Or maybe that was just the sedatives still talking, who knew?

All he knew was that when she’d been sitting beside him, he’d had to fight the urge the entire time to touch her leg or pull her closer.

That’s why she was so dangerous. She dulled his senses, and consumed his attention, and he knew this was wrong to want to kiss her, but he did.

He needed to find his phone and head back to find Stellan and leave Misty to her life.

She’d saved him back.

They were even.

It had to be enough.

Chapter Four

Oh, she had a big crush.

Even on the verge of death, that man had looked so hot.

The abs, the enormous perfect dick, the way his face looked half-wild, half hot. The muscles, and the lithe way he moved. The power. The growl in his throat. The raw masculinity that kept drawing her closer.

And then he’d gone and thrown a challenge at her like ‘we can’t be together because it’s the rules’ and everybody knew if you gave a challenge-loving woman something like that, the temptation to break the rules became infinite.

Like now, for example. He was walking slightly in front of her, his gait long and smooth, the T-shirt her Uncle had given her fit him with a perfect tightness on the shoulders and tapered to the V in such a sexy way.

And that butt in those jeans.

“So have you ever slept with a human?” she asked, feigning for innocence.