He’d kissed her.

Kurt shook his head for the tenth time since his and Tenlee’s little make-out session yesterday.

The rest of the Clan was due to come back in a few hours from their trail ride, and Kurt had about a dozen chores to get done before then, but he couldn’t focus this morning. And he hadn’t been able to sleep last night either. All he’d been able to think about was the way Tenlee looked when she was angry, the way her face had lit up when she’d talked about the things she liked, including him. And how her skin felt so soft. Her hair was wild, but he loved it, and she spoke differently, as though she didn’t use human speech that much. He couldn’t stop thinking about how her lips had tasted, how she’d melted against him, and how damn good and warm she’d felt in his arms.

There had been an instant spark, an instant connection. Shit, what was this feeling? Guilt. He’d gone in for that kiss without a single second of hesitation, but he hadn’t connected with someone like that since he’d been with Laney. He’d had sex, sure, but that’s all it had been…sex. And no kissing, ever.

But with Tenlee, he could’ve kissed her for hours, built them up until neither one of them could resist getting lost and fucking relentlessly. But with her…it wouldn’t be fucking, now would it?

Nah, she was different than the occasional girl he’d brought home from the bar just to lose his mind for a little while before he dealt with the guilt the next day. Tenlee was a mystery, and something he couldn’t put his finger on. She was something that intrigued him, made him want to unravel every layer to her. He wanted to know her. To see her. He wanted to learn everything about her. What she liked, what she disliked, what scared her…how she’d come to be Ramsey’s unwilling mate.

He hoisted the saddle over the fence railing and settled it so it wouldn’t slip off if Remedy messed with it. That horse was well-behaved about forty percent of the time and ornery the rest.

As he fed the horses in the corral, he looked up time and time again, thinking Genie, errr Tenlee, would be there. Any time a leaf moved, his heart pounded thinking it was her.

She wasn’t a wishing squirrel. She was a damn siren, calling to parts of him he thought had been killed the night Laney had.

Gunner had made a bowl with his T-shirt, poured chicken feed into it, and was taking care of the hens in the coop. He was quiet this morning like Kurt was. Probably just tired, though. They had to wake up extra early because the rest of the Clan was out.

“H-hi,” Tenlee said from behind him in that raspy, soft voice of hers. She probably hadn’t spoken in her human voice since yesterday in the barn.

He turned to find her leaning against the other side of the fence, eyes on the ground and red in her cheeks. She was dressed in jeans with holes at the knees, a fitted black Harley Davidson T-shirt, no bra if her perfect, perked-up nipples were anything to go by, and her medium brown hair lay in soft waves just past her shoulders. She was looking down at the ground with her hands clasped onto the fence so hard, her knuckles were white. Good God, Tenlee was hot.

“I stole Ava’s clothes. They’re kinda big on me, but they aren’t scratchy, so that’s good.” Tenlee looked up from the ground and stunned him with the soft brown color of her eyes. There were gold flecks near her irises. She wore light pink lip shimmer, and her eyelashes looked darker, her eyes smokier. She had freckles on her cheeks. How had he not noticed that before?

“Also, I watched Ava and Karis put on their make-up like a hundred times, so I stole some of that, too. I poked my eye trying to put this shit on.” With an earnest expression, she pointed to her left eyeball. “It watered for a long time, but…” She shrugged up her shoulders and forced a smile again. She did that at weird times, as if she thought she was supposed to smile but didn’t really feel like it.

“You look real pretty, Tenlee.” He said her name because she’d told him she liked when he did. And then she gave him a real smile that could stop a man’s heart. Tenlee was a rare and wild beauty.

“I like the way you look, too,” she murmured. The blush in her cheeks made her light freckles disappear altogether. She gestured to his jeans. “Those are my favorite.” And then to his boots. “And those.” His shirt. “And that one, and I like your face. That’s my favorite, too.”

God, he liked her. She was so honest. And brave, because sometimes he could tell she didn’t want to talk, but she told him things that embarrassed her anyway. And it was nice stuff. Genie the Meanie was actually Tenlee the Sweetie. “Hey, Gunner!” he called out over his shoulder.

“Yeah?” his son yelled from the coop.

“Come here. I want you to meet someone.”

Tenlee’s eyes went round as saucers. “No,” she whispered, “I ain’t ready.”

“I want you to meet my boy, Tenlee. It’s a big deal for me. I’ve never wanted a woman to meet him before.”

Her full lips parted slightly like she would say no, but she nodded, and that was yes enough.

Gunner came bolting up to the fence, his little legs moving double-time. “Hey, I know you!” he said to Tenlee as he climbed onto the fence beside her.

“Y-you do?” she asked, scooching away.

Gunner wasn’t having it, though. The kid didn’t give a single, hairy shit about personal space. Never had. He was like his momma in that regard, and Kurt just stood there grinning like an idiot as he watched his son chase Tenlee down the fence until she couldn’t go any farther.

“Yeah, you was in one of my dreams. I fell asleep by the stalls and had a dream Harley was tryin’ to bite me and you carried me away.”

“Well, that wasn’t a dream,” Tenlee said. “You fell asleep too close to him, and I had to make you safe so you could sleep good.”

“Wait, what?” Kurt asked. “You almost got bit by Harley? Boy Boy, what have I told you about getting too close to his stall?”

“Well, it’s okay! The lady was there, and I didn’t get bit.”

“I’m not a lady. I’m Tenlee.”

“Ten like the number ten?” Gunner asked. “Ten…lee? That’s a weird name.”

“That’s rude, son,” Kurt admonished him.

“I made that name up,” Tenlee said.

“You just made up your name?” Gunner asked. “Dad! I always wanted to name myself, too!”

“Well, you wanted your name to be Beaver McGunderson, so that’s a veto, little buddy.”

“Aw, maaan,” Gunner murmured under his breath. His face brightened. “Are you gonna live here with us?”

“Uuuuuh.”

“Tenlee is Genie,” Kurt said before he could change his mind.

Gunner looked between him and Tenlee and back again with the most confused look he’d ever seen on his boy’s face. “What do you mean?”

“Um, I’m like you,” Tenlee said quick. “I mean, I’m not like you, but I can be an animal and a person.”

“You’re a shifter?”

“Kind of. Mostly, I’m just a squirrel.”

“Huh,” Gunner said softly, studying her. “I was a little scared of Genie, but I don’t feel scared of you. Wanna help me with the chickens? I like to catch them and set them free when they peck me three times.”

Tenlee giggled. “Okay. I never caught a chicken before.”

“It’s easy-peasy. You just look for the slow ones and get ’em in a corner and tackle ’em, but don’t let Mr. Trig see you do it because he will yell at you for scaring the eggs outta his prize chickens…” Gunner’s voice trailed off as he ran for the coop.

Tenlee hesitated, her hand on the fence as she watched Gunner leave. “This is okay…right?”

Kurt smiled and nodded, then he lost his damn mind and climbed up on the fence, leaned over it, pulled her in by the back of her neck, and kissed her quick.

She looked drunk as a skunk by the time he pulled away, and she had that real smile on her face again. God, he loved giving those to her.

“Feels like I’ve known you,” he admitted. “Feels like you’ve been around for a while, and it makes me act…different.”

“I like that you’re different.”

“Tenlee!” Gunner called. He was in the coop, holding up a brown and white chicken.

“I like you,” Kurt said as she walked off.

“Me?” she asked, turning around.

“Yeah, you.”

Her smile lifted and then fell. And she looked truly sad when she murmured, “That’ll change when the new wears off and you get it in your head I’m not enough and try to fix me. That’s what always happens. I’m gonna go get pecked now.”

“What if I don’t try to change you?”

She canted her head and searched his eyes. “Then you would be the first.” She ducked her gaze and left him there wondering what the hell this girl had gone through.

And he didn’t know what this said about him, but that sad look on her face made him pretty damn determined to be that first. Something deep inside of him said that even if she was built a little different, she was fine just the way she was.