To Tempt A Tiger (8 page)

She blinked her eyes open, confusion sparking a hint of anger. Until she heard Zoe’s little voice a split second before she wandered into the kitchen.

“Can I have juice, please?” she asked.

It took Rose several moments to recover her senses. “Of course, baby,” she said, trying to ignore how breathless she sounded. “Give me just a sec then I’ll get you a juice box.”

Zoe grinned and spun around, dancing back toward the living room.

Rose let out a long, shaky breath and leaned against the counter, her eyes closed. What was she thinking? What was she doing? How the hell would she have explained that to her daughter?

“Okay, that can’t happen again,” she said aloud to Vlad, finally opening her eyes to look at him. “Not…not now. I want to explain things to Zoe without what’s between us complicating it. She’s the one that matters. Do you understand?”

He nodded.

She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but in that moment, she decided it was probably for the best because if his imagination was wandering through the same fields of naughty lusty thoughts as hers, they were both in a lot of trouble.

Vlad leaned against the counter again and kept his hands on the countertop, holding tight to avoid reaching for Rose. His body pulsed with the need to finish that kiss, to do more than just take a brief sip. He wanted to take, savor, glut himself on her taste. Hell, he hadn’t even put his hands on her yet and it was all he could do not to pull her into his arms. His palms actually tingled with the need to feel her skin.

It was probably better he hadn’t put his hands on her. The faint sound of Zoe’s footsteps had jerked him back to reality just in time. If he’d had Rose’s body pressed against his, he wouldn’t have been able to react so quickly.

He squeezed the counter as tight as he dared and tried to force his mind away from visions of Rose naked. Before his imagination and body had run amuck, she’d brought up a valid complication in him teaching Zoe how to shift.

Zoe had been raised by humans who were much more sensitive to nudity than his own people. The casual nudity among tigers could be disturbing to a child not used to it—especially with a male who was essentially a stranger. He hadn’t even considered that, until Rose mentioned it. Taking his clothes off to shift was simply a pragmatic necessity, not something he’d ever given much thought to.

But she was right. He couldn’t just strip down in front of Zoe to show her the shift.

So how could he show her how the process worked? How could he explain it and teach her without actually showing her?

Damn. He was going to need help, female help.

Deep in thought, considering his options, he was surprised when Rose put a mug of tea under his nose. He took it automatically. “Thanks.”

“You’re thinking really hard. What about?”

“How to show Zoe what I need to show her, without shocking and offending you both.”

Rose’s expression softened. “Thank you for taking my discomfort seriously.”

“What did you think I’d do?”

“I don’t know. Try to convince me it was natural and no big deal.”

“Rose, I don’t take your worries about any of this lightly. This is a huge thing for you both. It’s complicated and scary. I understand that. It’s necessary. She has to know and learn. But I won’t diminish the difficulty of that either.”

Her smile robbed him of sense for a moment. She used to look at him like that all the time. And every single time it had shaken him to his soul. Until that moment, he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed that expression, the way her face glowed with warmth, giving him a smile meant for him and him alone.

He’d do anything to have her smile at him that way for the rest of his life.

She turned away, ending the moment. And he hid his disappointment by sipping his tea. They would have time for their relationship, he promised himself. He hadn’t been lying to his brother about wanting Rose back. He just had to prove to her that she could trust him.

To do that, he had to make sure Zoe was safe.

“If I can find a female to help us, someone I can trust with knowledge of Zoe, would that be easier?” he asked.

“Do you know someone? Wouldn’t that alert your brothers?”

“The person I’m considering wouldn’t go to my brothers.”

“But?”

He sighed. He should have known Rose would hear his unspoken worry. “But she doesn’t necessarily like me. It’ll take some convincing to get her here.”

“If she doesn’t like you, how can you trust her?”

“I trust her to consider Zoe special and to be protective of her.”

“Who is this person?”

“She’s a close friend of my sister’s fiancé.”

“The sister you just met?”

“Yes.”

“Are you friends with her fiancé?”

“No.”

“Then why would his friend help you?”

He still had so much to explain to Rose, about his people and the tiger community that Zoe would have to learn to navigate. Explaining Nila’s relationship, explaining who Alexis Tarasova was and how he could trust her with Zoe, were difficult things to do without Rose knowing more.

“There’s a lot I need to tell you first, things better discussed after Zoe goes to bed tonight. I won’t do anything without your permission, though. I want Zoe safe as much as you do.”

He watched her swallow visibly, but she nodded.

“Part of me wishes you were just…ordinary,” she murmured. “Just another guy. And Zoe didn’t have to deal with all this other stuff.”

“And the other part of you?”

“I still wish Zoe didn’t have to deal with all this. I certainly don’t want her in pain anymore. But…” She cringed. “But I kind of find the danger…sexy.” She rolled her eyes. “I know. I know. That sounds weird and wrong. I don’t want my daughter in danger, don’t think that. But if she weren’t in harm’s way…”

She trailed off as a beautiful pink blush brightened her cheeks. Vlad gripped his mug tightly to keep his hands to himself. When he heard the ceramic crack, he set it down with a clunk and moved to put more space between them.

“Maybe we should go out to the living room,” he said. He had to clear his throat to get rid of the husky sound. “I think we need a chaperone.”

“Good idea.” She hurried past him.

The move washed him with her scent. The delicious flavor of lavender and cardamom melding with the added spice of her desire made his head spin. He shook off the effect and followed her, working hard to keep his need in check.

Damn, but this was going to be a hard few weeks.

Chapter Six

They spent the afternoon playing with Zoe, building more snowmen, and hiking through the pine trees at the back of the cabin. Zoe, true to her word, didn’t take a nap but also didn’t get grumpy. In fact, she glowed with energy, bouncing around, telling stories, building snow people and their homes with the determination only a three-year-old could muster.

Vlad was a little surprised she could stay in the cold for so long, but every time Rose asked if she needed to go in and get warm, Zoe shook her head and went right back to building things out of snow.

“She just doesn’t get cold easy,” Rose murmured as they watched Zoe throw a clump of snow at a tree then double over giggling. “So long as she’s moving, she’s comfortable.”

“She got my metabolism, too, then,” he said very quietly.

“Lucky girl,” she said. “I always envied you that.”

“You did?”

“Of course. You never had to worry about what you ate. If I wanted to keep doing all the things I loved, I had to work at staying in shape and eating right. You just seemed to come by it naturally. Used to piss me off.”

He laughed. “I like your shape just the way it is.”

“Don’t start that now. We’ll get into trouble again.”

Too late, he thought, as his imagination taunted him with memories of her naked, pressed against him, with only an open sleeping bag between them and the ground on a cool spring night. He shook off the memory. She was right. He needed to stop thinking about her body.

By the time Zoe admitted defeat and agreed to come in, the sun had set and darkness had filled in the space between the trees. While Rose readied dinner, Vlad stayed in the living room with Zoe, stretched out on the rug in front of the fire, coloring in books filled with ponies and race cars as she explained to him which colors were the right ones to use.

Vlad was utterly charmed by his daughter. The thought that he’d sacrificed those first few years of her precious life because of his hurt pride poked at him. He’d had a lot of logical reasons to believe Rose had cheated on him. But her scent hadn’t carried deception and she’d been glowing when she told him she was pregnant.

He should have known. He should have
realized
. Rose wasn’t the kind of woman to cheat or lie. It was one of the things he’d loved about her—that straightforward, honest attitude. If she’d wanted to sleep with another man, she would have just dumped him and gone off with the other man.

“You not watching,” Zoe scolded, nudging his hand. “See. You need green now.”

“Of course.” He smiled and pushed aside his dark thoughts. He could berate himself later.

Over dinner, Vlad had another hit of regret. Sitting down with Rose and Zoe felt so right. They were his family.
His
family. And he’d tossed them both aside because he’d believed what he thought was fact over what he’d
known
to be the truth.

How was he going to make that up to Rose? Would she ever be able to forgive him and trust him again?

He savored helping her put Zoe to bed, his chest tight with emotions too powerful to name as they tucked her in with her favorite blankie in hand and kissed her goodnight. When Rose said, “I love you, Zoe,” and Zoe answered, “I love you, Mommy,” Vlad thought his heart would break completely.

He followed Rose to the living room after, and then…waited. He wasn’t sure what he was waiting for. Her to kick him out. Her to ask him to stay.

When she motioned to the couch, he sat, a little jump of his pulse betraying his hope. If she were a tiger, she’d scent a lot of his emotions in that moment, probably be able to detect the desire and longing easily enough. He could hide his feelings from his family. But with Rose, he was an open book. He was lucky her human senses weren’t strong enough to read him. He’d be in real trouble then.

She settled on the opposite side of the couch from him and faced the fire, her expression pensive. He opened his mouth to start the conversation then thought better of it. He was treading a very delicate line here. He needed to let her take the lead.

“Zoe can still hear us,” she said quietly, her voice soft against the gentle crackling of the fire.

“She’s almost asleep,” he assured. “We can wait to talk until she’s drifted off.”

Rose faced him. “How can you tell?”

“I can hear her breathing when I concentrate.”

“Your hearing is that sensitive? Doesn’t that make being in cities difficult? All the noise doesn’t hurt?”

“Since my hearing has always been like this, I’ve spent my life learning how to…adjust what I take in. I’m used to it. Does living in the city bother Zoe?”

“Doesn’t seem to. Sudden loud noises make her cover her ears. But I’ve seen other kids her age do that. It’s possible with all the other pain episodes, she’s never noticed her hearing as causing her discomfort.”

“She likely won’t. To her, hearing well is normal and she’ll naturally learn how to adjust to her surroundings.”

“You said the other thing is natural to her, too. Why hasn’t she just…done what you do?”

“She doesn’t know it’s possible. She’s never seen it. Our children grow up with that all around them. It’s normal.”

“When do your kids start this part?”

“It varies, depending on the child, but sometime around two they start…flipping shapes.”

“Flipping?”

He chuckled. “Once they start, it can be hard to keep them in one form for very long. They hop back and forth for fun. Usually with lots of kid giggles. It’s both cute and frustrating for parents—so I’m told.”

She smiled, but a furrow formed between her brows. “Doesn’t that hurt them? Can they just keep changing without, I don’t know, wearing out?”

“It’s like anything kids do. Eventually, they do get tired and have to stop, but they’ve got a lot more energy at two than you and I do at our ages.”

“True. When she’s not in pain, Zoe can play well past the point when I wear out.”

“She’s a really good kid, Rose. You’ve done a good job with her.” He swallowed back his guilt and said, “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you two. I should have been.”

She shook her head. “How could you have believed me when you thought it was impossible?”

But he heard the hesitance and distrust in her voice. “I still should have known. I can…scent a lot. Emotions have different signatures, flavors I guess you could say. My senses told me you weren’t lying, that you were excited about being pregnant. I should have realized you didn’t cheat.”

“Yeah, you should have,” she said, the comment barely audible, even to him.

He watched her swallow visibly as she focused on the fire, not meeting his gaze.

“What’s done is done, Vlad. We can’t change the past. All I care about now is making sure Zoe is okay.” She glanced behind her, toward the hallway and the bedrooms beyond. “Is she asleep yet?”

He paused to listen. “Even breathing, little snores. She’s out.”

Rose faced forward and pressed her lips together before saying, “This shifting business scares me.”

Vlad forced himself to drop the subject of their relationship. He couldn’t fix that without first helping Zoe, and to help Zoe, Rose needed to understand what being a shapeshifter meant for their daughter. “What specifically scares you? Outside of everything.”

She flashed him a half smile before turning serious again. “At the moment, the thing that freaks me out the most is the idea that she might start to change shapes and then get stuck.”

She faced him finally, her beautiful blue eyes wide and glistening. The fear in her scent broke him.

“Can that happen?” she asked. “Can the shifting hurt her more than not shifting has?”