Page 47 of Tiger's Voyage

“We’ve had lengthy discussions on your pancake preferences. Come on, Tiger.”

We made a thorough mess of the kitchen, but it was worth it to see the look of ecstasy on Ren’s face when he took his first bite.

“If I didn’t love you before, this would have shot me over the edge,” he mumbled with his mouth full. “What can I do for you to equal this? Surely there must be something.”

“Theyarepretty good. Definitely worth a trade. Hmm, you know what I miss? Your massages. You give the best back rubs on the planet, but it would hurt you too much now. Maybe I’ll ask Kishan. He’s pretty good at it too. I think I slept on my neck wrong last night.”

Ren set his fork down and frowned at me. “I don’t want Kishan putting his hands on you. I’ll suffer through it.”

“You don’t need to. He’s perfectly capable.”

“Kishan is capable of a great many things, and girlfriend stealing is at the top of his list of skills.”

“So is that what I am? Your girlfriend?”

Ren searched my face with his blue eyes. “Don’t you want to be?”

“I didn’t think you were ready to define us yet.”

“Labels aren’t as important to me as knowing how I feel. I know I want to be with you, and the farther away Kishan is, the better I feel.”

“Are you jumping the gun with this because Kishan is interested? Leap on the deer before the other tiger does? That sort of thing?”

“That may be a part of it,” he confessed. “But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong to move ahead in this relationship. You justfeelright. Ineveryway possible.” He grinned. “So?Willyou be my girlfriend again?”

“I never really stopped being your girlfriend. I’ve always belonged to you.”

Ren gave me one of his heart-stopping smiles and said, “That’s exactly what I needed to hear.” He took my hand, kissed it, and then happily dug into his pancakes again.

I frowned and swirled my fork in the syrup. “I’ll have to talk with Kishan.”

“When are you going to tell him?”

“I think the sooner the better. He’s probably still mad about me ditching him last night.”

“Right. Okay, meet me back here in an hour or so. I’ll clean up. You go talk.”

“Why? What are we doing in an hour?”

“I have plans to spend the day with you … as a tiger. The benefit is I can spend hours with you with no side effects. And if you feel the urge to stroke my back, scratch my ears, and kiss me? All the better.”

I laughed. “Okay, it’ll be just like old times. I’ll see you later.”

Kissing the top of his head, I set out to find Kishan.

I had to use my phone’s GPS tracker to locate him. He was in the woods behind the house using thechakramto level a tree. I heard thethwangof the returning disc and ducked in automatic response. He spoke without turning.

“What brings you out here? Isn’t Ren keeping you entertained enough?”

“You’re mad at me.”

He sighed. “It’s not that I’m mad. I’m just … I’m unsettled.”

“Can we talk?”

He finally turned around and looked at me. He was unhappy, but he nodded and held out his hand. I took it, and he led me to a log where we sat down, resting our backs against it.

“First, I’m sorry I ditched you last night. Ren planned this big thing, and he worked really hard at it.”