Page 10 of Angry Lion’s Naughty Little Neighbor (Company 417 Shifters #60)
Chapter Ten
Aaron
I’m in love.
I’m not falling in love.
I fell. I already fell head over heels and landed splat right on the ground. Well, that’s violent imagery for something so wonderful but, I guess, it makes at least a little bit of sense because loving Kelsey is pretty damned scary.
The girl is just desperate to be responsible and productive, a respectable human being who contributes to the people around her.
She’s done an absolute 180 since this whole thing started.
She’s changed everything about her behavior but—and I think this is what thrills me the most—she’s still the same girl.
She’s broken her will so that she can accomplish something in this life but her spirit is most definitely not broken at all.
And I’m in love.
I realize that this morning. I don’t know why it’s now that it happens.
Our one-year anniversary is only five weeks away.
But I know I’ve been in love for the last four months at least. This isn’t an easy thing to consider for me, and this is why I’m feeling restless.
It’s all residual conflict, too, if that makes sense.
She’s a wonderfully wild and uncontrollable girl.
She’s a factor in my life I don’t get to manage.
I can persuade, and I’ve definitely persuaded her to take control of her life.
I can suggest, and she’s been absolutely thrilled to put some of my suggestions into practice in her life.
I can do a great many things along those lines, and I’m truly grateful that I can.
I can be an influence, and I love how eagerly she responds to my attempts to influence her.
I love that she listens to me and then implements ideas because she’s confident in them or because she has faith in my wisdom about a particular subject.
Not because she’s instructed to.
Not because I’m in charge.
Not because I have a higher rank.
For a lion shifter used to the regimented sort of social system of a pride and (in our case) an extended pride, the idea that I earn compliance instead of receiving it because of my position is quite new.
It can be exhilarating, certainly, but it’s also damned terrifying sometimes.
No, not sometimes. Hell, it’s terrifying all the time.
How frightening it is to have to convince someone! How frightening it is to worry that perhaps I won’t be able to get her to see the possibilities. How terrifying it is to wait for someone else to see the light in order to do something. How terrifying to give up control.
But how rewarding when she does the things I suggests because she believes they’re the right things to do. How amazing it is when that happens and I see the light in her eyes grow bright as the real possibilities in front of her become as clear as day.
Wow.
I don’t just love her. I’m head over heels and completely unable to avoid the reality of the situation.
Ordinarily, I might try to come up with a measured and easy way to accomplish things but instead, I just dial her number on my phone.
When she answers, I say, “I have something I need to tell you.”
“Okay,” she says brightly. When there’s a long pause after that, she says with a little worry, “What are you going to tell me?” There’s worry and fear in her voice, and that makes me feel like an asshole.
“Sorry. I.. I love you and since I love you, I need to tell you everything there is to know about me.”
“You… you love me?”
“Well, of course I do. I’ve loved you…” My voice trails off when I realize it’s the first time I ever tell her I love her. “For a long time now.”
“How can you tell me that over the phone?” she asks. “I can’t hug you and kiss you over the phone!”
“I’m going to come see you right now. Is that okay?”
“Yes but… are you sure everything is okay?”
“I’ve never felt more okay in my life. I want you to be mine forever.”
“I’m totally going to have on the sexiest lingerie you’ve ever seen when you get here!”
“No, no!” I say, “I want that, sure but wear jeans. We have to take a ride.”
“Jeans, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I wear a shirt, too?”
The banter eventually ends and in about an hour we’re in the woods forty miles from the city, standing in a clearing.