Cree
Waking up next to your mate was the best feeling in the fucking world, Cree decided with a smug grin. Still mindful of Tamara’s fears, he yawned, stretched his muscles, and grinned.
“Are you smiling?” Tamara asked, turning in his arms so she pressed against his side.
“I think I am, yes.” Cree grinned down at the woman in bed with him. “I have everything I ever wanted right here in my arms.”
Tamara was quiet as one of her fingers traced the tattoo on his chest. “I want to get a tattoo.”
“Any idea what you want?”
She shook her head. “It feels strange. I mean, I’m nineteen. I’m an adult. But I lived under Adele’s thumb my whole life. I don’t have any idea how to be an adult.”
Cree kissed her forehead. “You’ll figure it out. How did you get involved in yoga?”
“It was part of my therapy. It’s quite calming. Centers me. But sometimes in a regular yoga class, the instructor touches you. Nothing major, but you know. Adjusting your arm position. Or try to help you get deeper into a pose.”
“That would have negated any calmness you got from the yoga,” Cree guessed.
“Oh, yeah, absolutely. My yogi, who also worked with soldiers with major PTSD, practiced no-touch yoga. It was liberating. He would touch if you didn’t mind. But he’d always ask. Always be respectful.”
“Is that what you want to do?”
Tamara nodded. “Flo said I could get a job as a waitress at the Lunchbox to help make ends meet. Give me time to maybe take a class or two on owning my own business.”
“That’s cool. Yeah, there’s a lot to learn. I like being the working partner. It lets me learn as I go. Have you waitressed before? Mel’s bark is worse than his bite.”
“I did in high school, yeah. It let me earn the most amount of money for the hours I worked.”
Cree winced. “I hate you grew up like that.”
Tamara lifted one shoulder and shrugged. “I hate that you grew up the way you did.”
He touched her. Couldn’t seem to stop touching her now that he had permission. No one else had ever expressed sorrow over his childhood. “We’re the same in a lot of ways,” Cree commented.
“Like two halves of the same coin.” Tamara wrinkled her nose playfully. “I’m the girl side, just so you know.”
Cree couldn’t believe how happy she made him. Even his cat, usually pacing and defensive, mostly just felt like purring. And being petted. By his mate.
Tamara’s possible reaction to seeing him in his fur still bothered him. Would it bring up bad memories for her? Would it remind her of the day he’d killed Elliot?
“The prettier half, too,” he said, unable to resist the lure of her mouth.
Tamara sighed. “Keep that up, cougar-man, and you’ll have a very happy woman in your bed.”
Cree tucked in against her, relishing their skin touching. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He was quiet for another minute. Desire skirted around the edges, but Cree wasn’t quite willing to succumb to it. Holding her, talking, naked was proving to be a lot of fun. “If you need to, the Leopard can always handle another waitress or two.” Cree grinned. “You can put Jason in his place.”
“Does he need a handler?”
Cree snorted. “Stupid bears. Too much testosterone. Not enough brains.”
Tamara smiled and wrinkled her nose at him. “I’ll tell Hadley you gave Hunter such a compliment.”
Cree lifted a shoulder. “Eh, smack talking is what we do. He’d probably faint if I said something nice.”
“You should try it. Just to see.”
“I should. Wouldn’t that be something?” They were quiet for a few minutes. “How did real estate hunting go?”
Tamara’s eyes lit with excitement. “Not exactly hunting, but I think it went well. Rafe showed me this place right next to the hair salon. Beautiful hardwood floors. A little one-bedroom apartment on the second floor.”
“Is that what you want? To live on your own?”
Tamara shrugged which didn’t tell Cree anything. He turned to look at her. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“Your place is so far away from town. I know you prefer your privacy, but I’ll be running yoga classes several times a day. This will give me a place to be between classes.” She blushed and averted her eyes.
“Don’t do that,” Cree begged. “Don’t hide from me, Tams. Just say it.”
“I’ve never been on my own. I want a place to say this is Tamara’s.” She lifted her eyes and rushed through the rest. “I don’t want you to be hurt by that, though. I don’t want us to change. But, I was virtually a prisoner at Adele’s. I want to taste freedom for a while.”
Cree propped his head up on one hand. The other he used to trace the satiny skin exposed above the quilt. “I understand that,” he said. “Maybe more than anyone else in the world.” He snorted with laughter. “Hell, I mark my territory at my house all the time.”
Tamara giggled at his words. “That’s nasty,” she said, kissing his chin.
“Gotta’ keep those damn bears away from my land,” Cree muttered, pleased when she touched him of her own free will. His hand caressing her grew bolder. Instead of flinching, she pressed into him.
“I’m not sure what happened yesterday,” he said, lowering his face to nuzzle the blankets out of the way. “But I’m thankful as fuck.”
Tamara arched, offering up one small, pert breast for his perusal. “So sweet,” he muttered, lapping at the hardened nipple.
“I’m tiny,” she whispered, cheeks growing pink again.
“I think you pronounced perfect wrong,” Cree said, kissing her.
She smiled at him shyly. “Can we try something different this morning?”
“Baby, we can do anything you want.”
“I don’t want to get scared, but I think the more we do, the more confident I’ll become.”
“Haven’t you figured it out?”
“Figured what out? And if you keep doing that with your fingers, I’m not going to be able to think at all.”
“I’m a wild animal in bed.” Cree dipped his head and grinned up at her. “More afraid of you than you are of me.”
She laughed, the joyful sound echoing in the quiet room. Tamara burrowed her hands in his thick hair and massaged his scalp. “C’mere wild man. Let’s see how afraid you are.”
Tamara
By three o’clock, Tamara was bored, bored, bored, with a side of blasé. She’d read, done a yoga practice on the sun-warmed deck, folded her clothes twice, and eaten an entire bag of chips.
Tamara had spent the last decade working and going to school. Getting her two-hundred-hour yoga teacher certificate. This much downtime was driving her crazy.
She tried to enjoy the downtime and not think too much about the future. Once she had her own business, she’d have more work than hours in a day. But days off made hardworking multi-taskers like her itchy and nervous.
But it did reinforce her desire to have her own place in the center of town. She liked rural living, but the isolation of Maxwell Mountain Resorts was a little too quiet for her.
Tamara opened to door to see what Lacey was up to only to find Lacey on her way across the parking lot. “Hey, Lacey. How do you stand this much quiet? I’m going out of my mind.”
“It’s not so bad once you get used to it,” Lacey said. “Besides, I work three days a week at an animal clinic in town, I have two foster cats, and I’m trying to talk Seximus Prime into building me a llama enclosure.”
Tamara’s lips quirked. “You do seem to enjoy your llamas.” Today, Lacey’s shirt said “my llama don’t like you, and she likes everyone.”
“Llamas are cool.”
“Don’t they spit?”
Lacey waved away Tamara’s concerns. “I’m trying to talk Quinn into getting a pair. We have plenty of land for a llama farm.”
“Pretty sure you can talk Quinn into just about anything,” Tamara teased.
“True, true. I do have my skills, don’t I?” Lacey’s smile was proud. “Anyway, Hadley just called. She’s a little stir crazy. Hunter is away handling a forest fire, and Hadley wants to go out.” Lacey’s smile was full of mischief. “How about an evening of dancing at the Lusty Leopard?”
“You guys have fun,” Tamara said, trying not to be disappointed. “I can stay home and babysit Anthony. I’m not twenty-one yet. I can’t get in.”
“Oh, fiddlesticks,” Lacey said. “Your mate owns the place.”
“Half-owns,” Tamara corrected her. “He has a silent partner.”
“Huh. I didn’t know that.” Lacey waved her hand. “Anyway, Dan is coming up to watch Anthony.”
Tamara shivered. Dan was a hawk shifter who lost his eye in an accident a while back. He’d been quiet and sullen since coming around, and Tamara wasn’t quite sure she liked him. “Does he know anything about babies?”
“I’m sure it will be fine. Now, go get into your prettiest dress. If you don’t have anything, you can borrow one of mine.”
Tamara laughed and indicated the difference in their chest sizes. “Not sure I’d fit in one of your dresses. I’m sure I have something, though.”
“Perfect! We’ll go out to dinner, and then head over to the Leopard.”
“I shouldn’t. I don’t have a job, yet. I want to buy or rent a building. I need to save everything I have.”
Lacey sat on the front porch and patted the space next to her. “Sit down, sweetie.”
Tamara rolled her eyes but couldn’t resist Lacey’s Southern Belle invitation.
“Now, look, I am inviting you out to dinner. We are all going to be regular clients at your studio, and I’m sure you won’t even need to waitress a full month before your classes are full.”
“I’m not quite that optimistic but thank you for believing in me.” Tamara took a deep breath, calming her nerves. “I’ve been saving since my first job. Everything was about having enough money to leave Adele’s house and find Cree.”
“Adele is your mama, right? The one who told ya’lls each other was dead?”
“That about sums her up.” Tamara hoped that on some level, Adele loved her. And maybe one day there could be forgiveness. But not today.
“I will treat for dinner. You can talk to Mel about a start date. Then we will all get into the club and get our dance on.”
Against her better judgment, Tamara nodded. She was finally getting comfortable with casual touching. She had finally made love to her mate. She was getting better. What harm could happen on a dancefloor surrounded by shifters?