Page 10 of Gorilla in the Groove (Shamrock Safari Shifters #3)

If it was possible to be wrapped in warm fuzzy joy from the inside, that was how Irina felt now.

Coddled and cozy and safe and, well, warm and fuzzy.

Strangely, Mick looked more like he felt relieved than happy, but Irina supposed confessing everything about shifters and fated mates might be more than a little nerve-wracking, so she couldn't entirely blame him for mostly being relieved.

She said, "Hey," softly, and put her hand on his chest, though. "You okay?"

"I'm grand so." He put his hand over hers, smiling down at her, now with both relief and happiness. "I wasn't sure how you'd react, that's all. 'Wonderful' is better than I was hoping for."

His hand was so big over hers. Encompassing.

Protective. Irina pressed her fingertips against his chest, wanting that connection.

"I don't see how I could think it was anything else.

I never would have imagined it, obviously, but now that it's here in my life and real, it's just…

wonderful! I think it's the luckiest I've ever felt.

" She smiled impishly. "Maybe it'll help me do better at the competition tomorrow night. "

"You did brilliantly last night," Mick said rather fiercely.

"I meant it, Irina. You were robbed. I talked to one of the judges while you were doing the photoshoot and the man's a wanker.

If you don't place well, it's because he's dead set against anybody but the Irish-born doing trad dance, so off he can feck, and his opinions with him. "

A little twist of pain caught Irina's breath, then burst. "You mean it really might not be that I'm not very good?"

"Macushla, you're only brilliant, and I'll throw anybody who says otherwise into the harbor." Mick made a face at Irina's laugh. "Only I won't, because I'm a big softie even if I look like a proper thug."

"Hey! You don't. You're a big man, but that doesn't mean you look like a thug. For one thing, I don't think thugs dress as well as you do," Irina says, trying to tease, and to her relief, Mick ducked his head and grinned. She added, "Seriously, you dress amazingly. I'd love you to dress me."

A blush leaped to her face as she thought of the obvious reversal of that comment, but Mick blinked at her, obviously surprised. "You'd never."

"I totally would. You obviously know what you're doing.

It was one of the first things I noticed about you.

" That and his thick, delicious thighs, but never mind that.

"So many men, whether they're big or not, look like overstuffed sausages in tight clothes, but you…

" She took half a step back to gesture at him.

Although he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt now, they, like the slacks and sweater of the night before, fit him beautifully.

"I don't know what it is, but your clothes really show off your body without looking like you're squeezed into them.

It's really impressive. More men should dress like you do. "

"D'you want to know my real secret?" Mick looked almost embarrassed, but Irina nodded eagerly.

"I read yer man online, the menswear guy?

I used to dress like those lads you're talking about, trying to show off all this—" He made a motion at himself, then lifted his shoulders like he'd actually try to hide inside himself.

"Hey." Irina put her hand on his chest again, then slid it to take his hand in her own.

Both of her own, because his hands were huge, and it took both of hers to really hold his.

"Hey, listen to me. I don't know how much of all this ," she said with a nod at his big muscular self, "is because you're a shifter and that makes you be in crazy good shape, but I get the idea that they're not really related.

Even if they are, you've obviously worked at being in top condition and you should absolutely not be embarrassed that you want to show that off a little.

I would too! I do!" She gestured at herself.

"I'm just not the same kind of big and strong that you are. "

"You're tiny and perfect," Mick said, sounding dazed.

"Thank you. Em. I." He wet his lips, looking honestly nervous.

"Men aren't supposed to care that much, you know?

But…you're right. Some of it's the shifter, like.

I'm a big auld gorilla so. But I don't have to be this big as a man.

I just like to lift the weights and get into that zone.

So I want to look good, and…" He really looked mortified, until Irina simply couldn't stand it, and lifted up on her toes to press her mouth against his.

The kiss was salt-tanged, as fresh and sweet as the summer wind.

Mick actually gasped, then wrapped his arms around Irina and lifted her off her feet.

She wound her arms around his neck and kicked her feet, laughing into the kiss, which Mick broke so he could nuzzle his nose against hers. "Was I spiraling, then?"

"A little, maybe," Irina murmured. "Do you do that a lot?"

"I will if it gets me kissed!"

"You don't have to spiral to get kissed," Irina said, and kissed him again to prove it.

The world went away around her, save for the warmth of the sunshine and the summer breeze, as she fell into the warmth and tenderness that was Mick's kiss.

At least until somebody whistled and applauded, at which point Mick laughed again, set her down, and took her hand.

"Maybe we should get off the piers, at least."

"You think?" Irina beamed up at him, and they finally made their way back to shore, waving good-naturedly at the guy who'd whistled at them. "So you learned to shop for your size, is that what you were telling me?"

"In a way, yeah. I learned a lot about classic lines and what looks good from this menswear lad, anyway, and about the wonders of alteration.

" Mick's eyes widened. "Alteration's brilliant.

Next time I'm home for a spell I'm finding a sewing class, it'd only be magic to alter my own clothes.

I'm sure I'll get laughed at, a big auld lad like me in a sewing class?—"

"I will bite anybody who laughs at you," Irina said with considerable ferocity. "I think it's amazing you want to learn to alter clothes. I'd sew myself to the machine, or something. But I'm tiny, and it's easier to find clothes that just fit me."

"Does that mean you don't want me to go shopping for you?"

"Oh no," Irina said hastily. "I don't like shopping at all. I absolutely want you to do it for me. With me. However that would work."

"Not to be stereotypical, but what about women liking to shop?"

"Not to be stereotypical, but what about men hating to shop?"

Mick laughed. "Fair. Fair. I do like it, especially for other people. C'mon then, will we go back into Cork and shop for you?"

"Only if it involves ice cream first."

Mick's eyes widened. "Oh, no, if it's ice cream you want, we'll start here. There's a brilliant shop down the town square. They've the best honeycomb ice cream I've ever had."

"I've never even heard of honeycomb ice cream but am willing to try anything once. Twice if I like it."

Twenty minutes later, finishing a scoop in the brightly-colored alley that hosted the ice cream shop, a bakery, and an art gallery, among other things, Irina looked sadly at the last bits of the cone. "Twice if I like it, but not twice in a row. I could barely finish this one."

"I volunteer to finish all the ice cream you can't eat," Mick said nobly.

Irina snickered. "I imagine so. Your body mass must be twice mine, even without turning into a gorilla. Do gorillas like ice cream?"

"Yes, but it's bad for them."

"It's bad for everybody!"

"There's that," Mick said with a grin. "Next time maybe you can share with him."

Irina blinked. "That sounds…I don't even know how that sounds. Unusual," she decided, and then, as they walked back along the seafront toward Mick's car, asked, "So that was really you at the wildlife park? What's that about? Are all the animals there shifters?"

Mick smiled out at the harbor, then down at Irina herself.

"Not by half, no, but it's a brilliant place to go if you want a chance to be your other self for a while without drawing attention.

And it's a cheap way to travel if you're a shifter on holiday.

The wildlife park gets an exotic animal for a week or so, and the shifter doesn't have to pay for a hotel. "

"But if they spend all their day times at the wildlife park they don't get to see anything!" Irina protested.

"Ah, they'll go in for the morning or an afternoon and then take the rest of the day off," Mick explained. "After all, how often have you been at a zoo and not seen several animals? Nobody thinks anything of it if the gorilla's gone for the afternoon. They just figure it's in the back sleeping."

"Oh. Oh, yeah, of course. That's smart." It took a few minutes to drive out of Kinsale, the harbor sparkling blue until they were enveloped in a canopy of trees casting green shadows on the twisty road.

Irina sighed happily. "It's so pretty. I suppose you're used to it, but it's a little magical to me.

My grandma was from Ireland, and she used to tell me about it all. "

"Oh?" Mick glanced her way, though most of his attention was on the road. "Have you citizenship, then?"

"I do, yeah. I could come live here, technically, but I feel like I'm lucky to even be able to visit.

" She fell silent, watching the shadows change as they drove.

She could live here. Much more easily than Mick could live in the US.

Mick, her fated mate. "Do I get to say you're my fated mate, too?

" she asked suddenly. "Or is that just the shifter side of things? "

Mick gave her another glance, this one startled, before he smiled. "I'd say you can, although only to shifters."

"Obviously." Irina grinned. "I guess it'd just be true love for us regular people."

"True humans," Mick said with another smile. "But yeah, I'd say so."

"I don't know what I'd do here," Irina said, following her own line of thought. "I work in a grocery store, and I still live at home, so I don't have a lot of expenses, but I get the idea Ireland's pretty expensive, and I'd need to figure out how I'd live here."

"It is expensive," Mick said with obvious reluctance. "Loads of us here still live at home. So do I, actually, when I'm here. There's no sense in keeping an apartment when I'm only here two or three months of the year, and not even all at once."

So they definitely weren't going to move in together immediately, fated mates or no. Irina couldn't decide if that was disappointing or a relief. A little of both, clearly. "How does it work?" she asked softly. "When your fated mate is from the other side of the world?"

"I don't know, but we'll figure it out," Mick promised, and a little to Irina's surprise, she believed him. "In the meantime, we shop. Will you let me take you to a boutique shop I know?"

"I'm not sure 'boutique' and 'my budget' belong in the same sentence," Irina said reluctantly.

Mick nodded. "Fair enough, though if I'm shopping for you, I feel like I ought to be buying for you, too, and—" He glanced her way hesitantly, like a man who didn't want to overstep his bounds. "I can afford it. I'm not exactly David Guetta but I do better than most."

Irina squinted at him thoughtfully. "I'm considering it. Give me a price range on this boutique shop. Like, can we shop there for, I don't know, under two hundred dollars? Euros? Whatever? I think much more than that and I'd start to feel guilty or uncomfortable or something."

Mick pursed his lips. "Again, fair enough, and…maybe? I don't shop for women's clothes, mostly, so I'm not sure. Want to find out?"

After another moment's hesitation, Irina gave a quick kick of her feet and a wriggle that she couldn't contain, just at the idea of doing something as frivolous as going to a boutique shop. "Let's. It doesn't matter if we don't find anything. It'll still be fun!"

Mick's sweet grin met her enthusiasm. "Yeah, I think it will be. And then I'll take you out to a decent dinner, how's that sound?"

"Like a great evening," Irina said happily. "I can't wait."