Chapter 263
Andi sat on Kasen’s sofa, wondering what happened to him. Should she go home? Something weird was going on. Her shifter smell picked up chlorine, mud, and blood.
Kasen appeared in the doorway to the living room. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.” He held out a glass of wine. “Here, this is good.” He sat next to her. She realized something was different about him.
“You changed your clothes?” Why would he have done that? Just because she tried on and threw off six different outfits before settling on the sundress with a cardigan-type sweater… God, if that wasn’t the hardest decision she’d had to make in a month. Business was easy. Love, she wanted to run screaming from.
“Yes. I have to admit that the door locked when I came out to get you. I went around back to get the extra key and had… issues. I got a little mud on my pants, so I changed.”
She wondered if the chlorine was from a pool, and the blood—part of the “issue.” But he admitted, actually admitted, that he’d done something silly by accidentally locking them out. Would he really be a man to admit all the idiotic things men do? That warmed her insides. Or was it the wine?
His smell was divine. Just sitting next to him got her hormones riled. Her heat was almost here. God, what she would do just to sit on his face for an hour.
Kasen cleared his throat and abruptly stood. “C’mon, sweetheart. Let’s go to the kitchen. You’re smelling way too good not to eat. And you’re off the menu.”
What did he mean off the menu? Did that mean no sex? She shouldn’t be having sex with him anyway. That’d be leading him on, and she didn’t want to do that. Then why the hell was she here? She gave a mental sigh. She was so tired of debating with herself. Her head said one thing and her heart said another. Which should she listen to?
“Hey, babe, help me load the basket?”
“What basket?” She looked around and saw the red and white checkered picnic blanket and woven carrier. How wonderful. Something personal, yet not too intimate. She loved it. The sun would set in a little while and they could watch it together. The romantic in her peeked out. All the romance books she’d read over the years could be reality. As it was, Kasen reminded her of the heroes she read about in Bianca Sommerland’s romance books. That almost made her giddy. Almost.
She grabbed the basket and stood next to Kasen and the fridge. He loaded in various small trays with cheese and veggies. Who would eat that stuff? A rabbit. She’d eat the rabbit, then. She was a carnivorous cat. Next came potato salad, pea salad, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese—holy shit. How much did he think she’d eat? Then came red meat. Filet mignon cut into shish kebab-sized bites. T-bone strips, and a small roast?
“Kasen, how much are we going to eat? This basket is getting heavy, even for a shifter.” She laughed.
He straightened from bending over for the fridge. “Sorry, I didn’t know what you liked, so I got it all. There’s more—”
“I think this will do quite nicely, unless the whole pack is stopping by.” A smile tugged at her lips.
He winked and her pussy reminded her she wanted sex. “Nope, just you and me, baby. Talking and sharing.”
Picnic blankets splayed under an old live oak tree, Andi lay back and moaned. “Kasen, I ate too much. I’m gonna die.”
“I’m right behind you, baby. But damn, the fillet was delicious. Second best thing I’ve ever eaten.” He rubbed his belly.
Curiosity wouldn’t kill this cat, so fuck not asking. “What’s the first?” His head turned toward her. The want and desire in his eyes made her girly parts tingle. “Oh,” was all she could say. He quickly looked away.
She had a feeling after his “off the menu” comment earlier, he’d got it in his head that they weren’t having sex tonight. We’ll see about that. In a little bit. She was too stuffed to move.
“More sharing time.” Andi grinned at him. He playfully groaned.
“Okay, this is the lightning round. I say the item and you spit out the answers as fast as you can. Just back and forth. Got it?”
“Sure, have at it, beautiful.”
She scrunched her nose and her eyes suddenly lit. “Favorite color.”
He licked his lips, and she bit back a moan. “Blue.”
“Morning or night,” she mumbled.
“Night.” The word came out growly. Oh, lord. She needed to get laid.
“Favorite number.”
His right brow shot up as he looked at her. “I don’t have a favorite number. Who has a favorite number?”
She giggled. “Just say one, quick.”
“All right, twenty-two.”
“Twenty-two? Why that one?” she asked.
He threw his hands into the air. “You said pick a number, woman. And I did. Twenty-two happens to be a very popular number. Emmet Smith in football wore number twenty-two. Roger Clemens wore twenty-two. Amazing baseball pitcher.”
“All right, I get it, already. You ask me something now.”
He gazed over the slow moving water several yards from them. He really was playing hard to get—pretending not to pay attention to her. She’d fix that.
She turned toward the water, too. This was a wide section of the river, fairly slow flowing also. During summer, she imagined kids would come up to the little beach and splash around the rocky edge. With the slow current, it was probably safe to swim out a distance before needing to turn back. They had a similar spot in the pride’s river.
She cocked an ear to listen downstream. The current sounded like it picked up speed, which meant the channel probably narrowed. Farther down, splashing and fast flowing water hinted at becoming very rocky and dangerous. And… was that a waterfall? No way, that would be so cool to see. Their river didn’t even have white water, being too deep in their section.
He turned to her, finally coming up with his question for her. “Okay, dearest Andi, what do you do for fun? Any hobbies?”
Ah, perfect question. This was an opportunity to test his grit. His reaction to her “hobby” would show if he was a man she could live with or not. If he passed, which she seriously doubted, she’d give him a serious chance.