Page 22

Harper

I was doing so well, right up until we tried to leave Tor’s family restaurant.

His family was gorgeous. Overwhelming, but totally sweet.

“Here, take this as well!” Anya had found yet another plastic container and filled it with food. This one contained these delicious little bites of fudge covered with poppy seeds.

“Muum…”

Tor was obviously embarrassed, but she just waved him away.

“I’m just making sure your mate has enough food for the week.”

“Something I will take care of, if you stop thrusting food at her face,” Tor growled, taking that container as well and adding it to the others he was holding. One slipped because they had become a stack of Jenga blocks in his arms.

I could see they were just about to start arguing, so I stepped in.

“Thank you so much for your hospitality. Honestly, my flatmate and I are going to eat better than we have for weeks with this stash, but anything more and it would just go to waste. I’ll make sure to wash all the containers and get them back to you.”

“Then I can fill them with more food.”

I blinked, not sure what to say in the face of such intense mothering. Tor’s dad shook his head, steering his wife away.

“It was lovely to meet you, Harper. Tor, you could come by and see your mother more often. Then she’d be less likely to send you away with enough food to feed an army. You know cooking is her love language.”

“And I love you for it.”

Was there anything sweeter than a guy who loved his mum? Tor leaned in, careful not to dislodge the containers before pressing a kiss to his mother’s cheek.

“You’re a good boy.” She patted his face, then turned to me. “He is, despite this…” Her hands waved in the air. “Scruffy exterior.” I watched Anya reach up to ruffle his hair in the face of his obvious frustration. “I hope you come to see that.”

And that’s when things got awkward.

I didn’t do parental expectations well, not mine, not other people’s parents.

“Thanks for your hospitality.” Great. They’d put on a banquet for me and I was mouthing some rote platitude. “The food was amazing and?—”

“We need to go.” Tor’s green eyes seemed to catch my every twitchy shift, because before his family could complain, he finished his sentence. “Harper has to get up early in the morning, so I need to get her home. Love all of you.”

Would all my aunties and uncles come out to see us off like this?

I never saw my father’s side of the family and Mum’s usually ended up getting drunk and belligerent at the rare times we all got together for Christmas.

I couldn’t imagine them rolling out the welcome mat for Tor.

I smiled and waved, my face feeling unnaturally stiff, until we walked out and over to his car.

This wasn’t a casual thing, no matter what Tor had to say.

The way his family responded, the sheer amount of food gifted to us, this was an investment in a future daughter-in-law.

As Tor put the food on the backseat, I frowned slightly, considering that idea.

I wasn’t doing this for the plot anymore.

People could get really hurt, and so I sucked in a breath, ready to let him down easy.

As if sensing that shift in mood, he appeared at my side of the car, cutting me off before I could say a thing.

“Look, don’t say it.” Were tiger shifters psychic as well? “Not yet, OK? This…” he shook his head and looked back at the restaurant. “Did not go to plan, obviously. Gimme another chance.”

I was ready to say nope, I didn’t do serious, but then he had to get in my space, the air filling with the scent of amber and musk. That broad chest, those sensitive hands, I knew exactly what they could do, and that had me craving something that I couldn’t get from a plastic container.

“I…” Say the words, Harper , I thought, as his hands slid down my arms, the soft brush of his palms making me shiver. “I’ve gotta put my washing in to dry or I’ll have nothing to wear to work tomorrow.”

Excellent. Well done, Harps.

“Mm hmm…”

I looked up, his hair falling in messy waves as his eyes bore into mine. With a shake of my head, I tried to break the spell I was under.

“We shouldn’t do this,” I said. “You’re looking for your fated mate and I’m…” I threw up my hands. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Right.”

I was trying to be responsible here, but he ignored all of that. One hand tilted my chin up, and somehow lengthening my neck felt just right. It also made it really hard to avoid his gaze.

“You want a mate,” I said.

“I’ve got a mate.”

“No, you don’t get it.” I pushed against his chest, forcing him back, though it was obvious he could’ve dug in his heels and stopped me. “I don’t know…”

It’d all seemed clear to me yesterday, before Mack horned in on my disastrous date. Go to work, keep it casual, go out with guys that were here for a fun time, not a long time, and talk shit about it with Daria. This was how I’d lived my life for years, so why would I stop now?

Because being around the guys messed up my neat little life.

“I don’t know what I want, OK?” That seemed ridiculous to say. I was nearly thirty. Surely it was time to get it together. “Dinner was amazing.”

“You’re amazing,” he said, stepping forward.

“Tor, you’re not listening! If we keep going the way we are, I’m going to hurt you.”

“Is that what you’re trying to save me from?

” He picked up my hand and placed it on his chest. There I felt the rapid beat of his heart.

“It already hurts, Harper. The minute I saw you, I knew what you were to me and the rest of our pack. Watching you walk out of that hardware store was fucking agony. I wanted to throw you over my shoulder?—”

“You threaten to do that a lot,” I said. “Is this some kind of kink or something?”

His grip on my hand tightened.

“The tiger wanted to come forward, track you back to your apartment, and lie in waiting for you to come out.” I went very still, a curious mixture of fear and something far more seductive coiling in my gut.

“He wanted to hunt you, capture you, and then drag you back to his lair, forcing you to stay right there until you saw it.”

“Saw what?” I squeaked out.

“That we’re meant to be together,” he said, his thumb brushing against my bottom lip. “I’m scared I’m fucking this up, because I’ve never pursued a woman before. You’re scared that despite what I tell you, I’m going to let you down, just like every other guy in your life.”

OK, definitely psychic. I frowned as I stared back, as if that was enough to protect my thoughts.

“And here’s the thing. The guy that was stupid enough to climb a damn tree at eight years old is the same guy that thought it was a good idea sleeping with you on the first night.

” Tor glanced back at the restaurant. “Maybe because when I’m with you, I feel the same way as I did when I leapt from the tree to the roof.

That I don’t need to be afraid to make that jump.

I’ll always make the landing, Harper.” He turned back to face me. “We’ll make the landing.”

My heart pulsed so hard in my chest I could feel every beat, and all I could see was the edge of the roof.

Discarded balls and lost frisbees clogged the guttering, along with dead leaves.

My leg muscles were tensed, ready to attempt the jump, but in my head there was only the ground below.

I’d fly through the air but wouldn’t have the power, the strength, to make the jump.

I’d go crashing through branches, clotheslines and flower beds, only to land with a crushing finality.

“Nothing in my life makes me believe what you’re saying is possible,” I told him. “And trust me, I’ve given it a red hot go with more men than I can count.”

That earned me a low growl, but as his eyes flashed brighter green, a slow smile spread across his face.

“Their loss,” he said. “Our gain.”

I was going to argue, providing him will well-reasoned arguments about how many relationships went bust. People got married, went to considerable effort and expense, only to split years later.

God, my own father hadn’t stuck around past the first couple of years of my life, and when I’d tried to make contact, he made clear he wasn’t interested.

So why… All thoughts were driven out of my head as Tor’s mouth came crushing down on mine.

This was where the noise in my head silenced and my body took over.

Responding to desire, kissing him over and over, getting deeper with each pass, this made sense to me.

Bodies knew exactly what they wanted and rewarded you with warm fuzzy feelings afterwards.

It was the tricky shit that went on in people’s heads that made my life difficult.

When he pulled back, my lips followed, wanting more, more.

“Not asking you to jump yet, Harper. You’ll know when you’re ready and I’ll be right there with you, but… just gimme a chance to show you what’s possible.”

I played his words over and over in my head as he drove me back home.

They seemed ridiculous, easy to dismiss, so why was I so fixated on them?

Probably because he sounded so completely confident in the outcome, that had me somewhat intrigued.

Of course, once we got to my place, it was a matter of collecting up all of those food containers, carrying them up the steps.

“So… did you want to come in?” My eyes slid down his body. “Pretty sure I’m gonna need some practise, handling those spines.”

“Hey.” My front door opened abruptly to reveal Daria standing there. “Thought that was you. Hey, Tor.”

“Hi, Daria.” He shot me a sly smile as he walked inside, then placed each container on the counter before stacking them in the fridge. “My mother sent over a care package.”

“Oh my freaking god, you saved me from two minute noodles,” she said, perching her butt on the counter, then grabbing a spoon and tucking into one of the boxes. I mouthed the word ‘cockblock’ at her as I walked past. She just snickered into her lamb rogan josh.

“So…” When Tor straightened up and walked over to where I was standing in the hallway, he stopped me from edging down towards my room with a strong arm that wrapped around my waist.

“To be continued,” he said softly, then leaned in, brushing his lips against my ears. “You can practise playing with my spines in your dreams, babe.”

Dreams he’d be able to feel, see, participate in, I remembered, and that had my mouth hanging open as he waved goodbye to Daria.

“I guess hit it and quit it didn’t quite work.” I could hear the smile in my friend’s voice, and sure enough, she shot me a shit-eating grin. “He took you out, brought you home with a stash of delicious food?—”

“That his family made,” I croaked out.

“You met the fam?” She was down from the kitchen cupboards and crossing the floor in seconds. “Damn, Harp, it is on.”

“It is not on.” I held out a finger, as if that would ward her off. “Not on at all.”

“On like Donkey Kong!” she crowed. “Harper and her mates, sitting in a tree. F-U-C-K—” I slapped a hand over her mouth, only for her to lick it.

“Ew, gross.”

“First comes love.”

“Shut up.”

“Then comes marriage…”

Daria was just being an idiot, capering around the apartment, but she didn’t know those words had my chest tightening, every breath a fight to take, because while she finished the song off with a reference to a baby, I knew how that went.

Not happily ever after, not for my grandmother or my Mum, so why should it happen for me?

Men got women shackled, tamed, locked down, and then…

they went waltzing out the door, leaving you to deal with what was left of your family.