And if she got to look at the hard line of his chest and the strong muscles in his arms then she would think herself a lucky woman. She smiled at the thought. Her attraction to him amazed her. She’d never had the slightest interest in men before now. Shrugging, she chalked it up to the mating thing.
Maybe she wasn’t supposed to want men who weren’t her mate. Of course, in New Orleans there had been lots of male shifters who had wanted her…
She walked closer to him. The outline of his tattooed arms was visible to her. She would really need to be on top of him to see them closely but she thought one of them looked like some kind of bird.
Did Parker like animals?
“Thank you. I think I’ll be very comfortable there.”
Smiling, she glanced down at the floor where he’d made the bed before she glanced back up at him. Parker scowled at her and for a second she couldn’t breathe under his harsh gaze.
“What?”
He took her and turned her around so she faced the bedroom. With strong hands clutching her shoulders he moved her forward until she stood in the doorway. Pointing, he nudged into the room he indicated.
Huh?
Her wolf darted around. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do and neither was Angel.
Yeah, she needed to get Parker back his voice as soon as possible.
“Do you need something from the bedroom?”
Parker made the one noise he seemed to be able to make—the low growling sound in the back of his throat and turned her around to face the bedroom again.
“Oh!” Realization dawned on her and she rubbed her forehead. “No, I am not sleeping on your bed while you sleep on the floor. I can go back to the motel and bunk there.”
He moved in front of the doorway and crossed his hands over his chest.
“Are you suggesting you aren’t going to let me leave?”
He raised an eyebrow at her question. She shook her head. You could take away the voice but you couldn’t take away the male ego.
“If I want to leave, I’m leaving.”
Parker stormed away from the door into the kitchen. With his back to her, he rinsed off a few of the dishes strewn around in the sink. She sighed. Apparently, he wasn’t going to try to stop her. She scratched her head.
To say this was confusing would be an understatement. She walked next to him staring down into the sink. “You wash all day, I’ll do it.”
He shook his head and pointed at the bedroom again.
“Fine, then I’ll dry.” She took the towel hanging on a hook on the wall. “This one okay?”
He nodded without looking at her.
She couldn’t help the smile that crossed her lips. All right, maybe she was a little sick in the head but she couldn’t help it, she wanted to tease him into a more joking mood. Or, at the very least, she wanted to know if she could.
“Gonna thank me, big guy?” She took the plate from his hand as she dried it with the towel.
He raised his eyebrow in question.
“That’s right, thank me. You don’t have to use words. I’m sure you can come up with something you can do to get your point across.”
He turned off the water and shifted his position to stare at her. For the most part, Parker hadn’t made a lot of eye contact with her and she found the power and force of his gaze to be intimidating. It made her quiver. After a second, she looked down in what she knew was a distinct act of submission.
She shook her head. That hadn’t gone well. If she wanted to spend her life being docile, she could have stayed in New Orleans where it was expected of her. Exhaling a long breath, she pushed at his chest. It was childish and asinine but she wanted to see what he would do.
Maybe it would be more effective if her efforts had made him move in the slightest.
Parker was built like a solid wall. It would take a construction vehicle to move him or maybe two strong men. In any case, her attempts at shoving him did nothing more than make him smile.
She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. Most of the time Parker seemed severe.
Hard lines marred his face and his eyes were intense, almost all seeing in the way they bore into her. But when he smiled. Wow, he lit up the room. He was beautiful, like a mythical Greek god come to life.
Reaching up to touch his mouth, she pressed a tentative finger on his lips. His smile fell but she didn’t move away her hand. Instead, they stayed like that for a few moments.
Wow. Her skin is so soft.
Angel dropped her hand. “Did you speak?”
“I wish I could speak. I would tell you to get your butt in the bedroom and stop arguing about things I’m not going to relent on.”
“Now, I know I heard that and you didn’t move your lips.” She took a step back as she pointed at him. “I can hear your thoughts.”
Parker’s eyes got huge. “What?”
Yes. She’d heard about this. True mating. What was it? Oh! True mates could speak telepathically. She chewed on her bottom lip. There was only one way to find out.
“Can you hear me when I think my thoughts towards you?”
Silence filled the room and Angel sighed. Apparently, not.
Parker nodded. “I can.”
Putting her hands on her hips, Angel wished she could kick him. “Why did you wait so long to answer me?”
“I was a little shocked. I don’t really understand how this is working. Can you hear all my thoughts?”
She shrugged. “Gods, I hope not. I really don’t want to know what you’re thinking and doing every second of every day while I’m here. Try to limit what you send in my direction.”
“But I didn’t mean to send you anything to begin with. How am I supposed to limit myself?”
This was turning out to be a lot harder than she liked, especially considering she wasn’t planning on making this a permanent arrangement. “Maybe we should just be glad it happened by accident and leave it at that.”
“Easy for you to say.”
Angel turned her back on Parker. Maybe she would take his bed. He was being so surly he didn’t deserve her good will. “I think I liked you better when I couldn’t understand you at all.”
The sound of his laughter resonating in her mind followed her to the bedroom. She closed the door behind her and realized she was scowling. Touching her lips, she couldn’t help the smile that came with that realization. She hadn’t meant to be funny; she’d intended to be rude.
What did it mean he’d found it amusing instead?
Touching her head tentatively, relief filled her senses. The spot where she’d been whacked didn’t hurt anymore. She was lucky. If she’d been a regular human, the blow she’d taken to the head would have sent her straight to the hospital. Instead, it had knocked her out and then given her no trouble at all.
She smiled at her wolf. Thanks for fixing it.
Her wolf didn’t acknowledge her. That was typical. Her canine companion didn’t like gratitude for things she did that fell into some kind of category she called „standard care.’ Angel wondered all the time if other people had as much of a prickly relationship with their wolves as she did with her own. It wasn’t like there was anyone she could ask.
Half of the female wolves in the New Orleans pack were latent and the other half terrified. No way was she ever approaching a male shifter about it. Nope, she’d just have to never know.