Did she like coffee? Pastries? Waffles? God, he didn’t know how to do this. Ramsey didn’t do sensitive shit. He’d tried with Tenlee for about fourteen seconds before she shut that down, but Vina was out of his league, and she deserved a good man.

He was going to get everything and just hope for the best. Ramsey gave the to-go server at the Partridge Pancake House in town his giant order, and then watched, not-so-patiently, through the window to the kitchen the cook work on their food.

The to-go server looked uncomfortable at his hovering near the counter, so with a huffed breath, Ramsey sank down in the waiting area and stretched out his leg, his riding boot making a clump sound on the red brick flooring. The Crow had let him in last night. Well, after Vina was sleepy and talking in circles to him in her front yard. She’d started nodding off, so he’d Changed back and carried her to bed. She’d wrapped her arms around his neck, rested her cheek against his chest and, for a while, he’d sat on the edge of her mattress just holding her.

She was changing everything.

“Are you one of those animal men?” a woman with perfect blond curls and a high-necked baby blue sundress asked from beside him. She clutched her matching blue purse in her lap. “One of those shifters?”

Ramsey frowned at her and turned away in his chair.

“’Cause your eyes are black and evil-looking.”

“I’m not evil,” he gritted out. Settle down, she’s just a nosy woman, probably doesn’t mean any harm.

She tapped him on the shoulder, and he barely avoided the snarl that bubbled up his throat. “Here’s the card for my church. We could get that demon out of you and give you a normal life.”

Shocked, Ramsey stared at the card in her hand. “Seriously?” he asked, turning toward her. “You’d exorcise my animal so I can be like you?”

“Well, yes.” She arched her perfectly manicured brows and wiggled the card impatiently.

For a moment, Ramsey considered walking away and waiting for Vina’s breakfast outside, but fuck this. He yanked the card from her fingertips and offered her an empty smile. Then he ripped it slowly into little pieces and murmured, “I like my demon where he is. Why don’t you go worry about your own life?”

“Ramsey,” said the girl behind the checkout counter, pushing a trio of plastic bags of food toward him.

“Oh, I’m not worried about mine,” the blonde said, shaking her head slowly. “I know exactly where I’m going.”

Ramsey huffed a laugh. “Same. You have a good and judgmental day, ya hear?” He stood and made his way to check out, paid, yanked the food off the counter, and made his way past the blonde and outside.

Demon. She wasn’t that far off. His crow was capable of horrible things, but so was the man side of him. That lady was a pill. Was that what the public thought of shifters? He hadn’t really paid attention to the news lately. He’d had other shit to worry about.

It was barely dawn outside, six in the morning, and cloudy. He loved cloudy days and didn’t care at all what that said about him. He bet Vina loved the sun. She was sunny spring days and he was overcast winter, and the demon in him cawed happily because he loved that contrast. She was different. She was what he needed.

And that made him want to take care of her. To make her want to stick around.

Ramsey, I’m yours—the three most life-altering words to a broken crow like him. And he was going to spend the remainder of his sanity making her feel special like she deserved.

The drive to Vina’s house was a short one. She lived right in town, just a few streets away from the pancake place. He cut the engine to his Harley, settled it on the kickstand, and made his way to her door. “What?” he asked the woman glaring at him, standing on the front porch of the duplex next door in a robe and fuzzy bunny slippers.

“You are the most inconsiderate people on the whole planet. It’s six in the morning and you are blaring that monstrous bike all around town. Perfect match for her.” She jammed a finger at Vina’s front door.

Ramsey chuckled. “Thank you. I like her, too.” He offered the battle-ax a wink and let himself in Vina’s front door, which was unlocked. He was gonna have to have a serious talk to her about locking up. He’d locked it when he left this morning, but she must’ve checked the mail or messed with the trash bins or something.

He could hear her singing over the running spray of the shower and grinned to himself. “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Atta girl. She was so unique. So cute. So many layers that he wanted to know about.

“Babe!” he called, giving her the warning that he was back. Babe?

The metal clasps on the shower curtain screeched across the bar. “Ramsey? Did you just call me ‘babe’?”

He laughed. “Apparently, that’s where we are in this relationship now.”

“Friends who have naked parties and call each other babe?” she asked. Her voice was infused with excitement.

Ramsey opened the bathroom door.

Vina screeched and yanked the curtain over to cover herself. “I didn’t know you were coming in! I just washed off my make-up!”

He laughed, pulling the curtain back again. “You look like a disheveled raccoon.”

Vina tried to cover herself again, but he wouldn’t allow it. “Let me see you in all your naked, wet, make-up streaming down your face, glory and get it done with.”

“I want you to be attracted to me,” she wailed, covering her face with her dripping hands.

He was laughing in earnest now, trying to pry her hands off her face with one hand and holding onto her breakfast with the other. “Woman, I already saw you. You’re the cutest fuckin’ raccoon I’ve ever encountered, and I would still fuck you right here in the shower, runny make-up and all.”

“You would?” she squeaked.

“Yes! Look at you! Curves for days, them long stems, naked, dripping wet… I ain’t even lookin’ at your make-up!”

She pulled her hands away and pouted out her bottom lip. God, she was so cute and sexy. How could a woman master both at the same time?

“Feel,” he murmured, drawing her hand to the fly of his pants so she could feel his boner. “That’s all you.”

Her pout turned to a smile, and she squeezed right over his balls. God, he really did want to fuck her now. “How much time do you have before work?”

“I have to leave in forty-five minutes.”

“I brought you breakfast….” He rolled his eyes closed at how good her kneading little fingers felt. “Damn woman. I was gonna try to keep off you this morning, but fuck it. Come here.”

When he pulled her from the shower, she did something that shocked him and went right down onto the bright purple bath rug on her hands and knees. Then she arched her spine and presented her cute little ass for him and, holy fuck, she was the sexiest woman alive. Soccer Mom wasn’t home right now, just Sexy-AF-Vixen.

Ramsey couldn’t think of anything else but the curve of that ass. Like a rutting animal, he dropped to his knees and unfastened his jeans as fast as he could. She was soaking wet when he slid into her and, God, the pressure felt so good on his dick. Fast and hard. That’s all he had to offer right now. He reached around and pressed his fingers to her clit as he bucked into her. Fuck, every time he was balls deep inside her, it was ecstasy. His perfect girl. So wet and tight. She was moving with him, gasping like she was close and, thank God, because he was there. “Fuck, Vina,” he gritted out as he rammed into her and came, his dick throbbing hard. And then she was pulsing too, panting his name—so fucking beautiful.

He huffed a breath and leaned onto her back, kissed her wet hair, and brushed his fingertips up and down her ribs to her full breasts and back. He didn’t want to get off her, didn’t want that disconnect, but she had to get ready, and he wanted her to have time to eat before she left for work.

He nipped at the back of her neck and growled, “I like fucking you right out of the shower. Clean girl, and I get to make you dirty again.”

She gave a soft giggle that made his stomach clench with something easy. Something that felt good. Happiness? Damn, what was that?

He slid out of her and sat back on his bent knees, unable to take his eyes from his cum dripping down her inner thighs. He fucking loved it. His. She was his. He wanted her full of him all the time. A possessiveness took over him as he smiled with pride. She rocked back on her knees and leaned her back against his chest. He held her there, arms around her, lips pressed to her neck as he smiled and smiled. Couldn’t stop smiling. God, what was wrong with him? Vina was breaking him in a good way.

Against her ear, he murmured, “I’m gonna get your breakfast ready. And you’re gonna get all gussied up in your fancy work clothes and look like a proper lady, but all day, you’ll think about how you got fucked on the bathroom floor by your man, and deep down, you’ll know you’re a badass for me. I’m gonna go handle some stuff with the Clan, and tonight, I’m gonna take you out. We’ll be perfectly proper in public, and then I’m gonna bring you home and remind you of what a bad girl you really are.”

He swatted her ass and reveled in the happy sound she made as she rocked her head back against him. That woman had the best reactions to his touch.

He kissed her neck, nipped her, kissed her ear, nipped her, then gripped her hair and angled her face gently to taste her lips. Then he stood slowly, careful not to let her fall back, and left her there on the bathroom floor, looking like she had no idea what he’d just done to her body.

“I like you,” she whispered in a dreamy voice right as he was leaving.

Good girl. My girl.

And then he leaned against the doorframe and threw all his rules away with an admission he’d sworn to never give another girl as long as he lived. “I like you back.”

And if the slow, happy smile on her lips was anything to go by, she knew exactly what he really meant.