“You wanted to ask me something?”
“No.Yes.”Edwina swallowed and broke their visual connection while cursing her cowardice.She had so many questions.
“Go ahead,” he said, that accent of his cruising across her nerve endings just so.
Her stomach swooped, and she bit her bottom lip to stop the purr building deep in her throat.Her feline’s attraction to the shifter man was problematic.
“What are you?”she blurted.That heat swallowed her face again, her cheeks burning.
“Tiger.”
Oh.That fit with his size and his prowling gait.His stillness.“How old are you?”
“Relatively young.”His eyes gleamed with challenge.
“What does that mean?”
“You recently turned twenty-one.”
“Yes.”Either her grandmother had filled him in on her minor details, or he had efficient spies.
“I am forty-one.”
She did a double take, blinking at his grin.“You don’t look that old.”
“Tiger shifters age slowly, but then so do leopards once they reach maturity.”Sharp canines glinted before his lips concealed them again.
“Yes.”Another thought occurred—an important one.“Why haven’t you married before?”He was older than most seeking a wife.
“None of your business,” he said with a silky softness that had the hairs on the back of her neck lifting.
“You don’t think that’s relevant?”Edwina snapped.As soon as the words fell between them, she winced.
“We need to concentrate on making this marriage appear real, especially to my grandfather.”
“Does that mean I have to sleep with you?”
Their gazes collided, and she caught the flare of heat in his blue eyes, the faint shift before he regained control.Every muscle in her body tensed while her feline purred in delight.An audible one that Mikhail heard.
“That is what married people do.”His beautifully shaped lips twitched a fraction, discernable in the dim light of the car interior.
“This isn’t a typical marriage,” she said, tension leaking through in her words, her strident tone.
“Many people have arranged marriages.”
But this wasn’t what she’d envisioned.She’d wanted her music first, and the idea of a relationship had come a distant second.
Wait.What was he telling her?
Her breath hissed out.He’d thrown her when he’d informed her what her grandmother had done.It was too late now, but perhaps she should’ve argued, negotiated, and called his bluff instead of letting her stunned heart and feline guide her direction.
“We will share a bed.No one will believe this marriage is genuine unless our scents mingle.”
Oh.Edwina stared at her laced fingers.He was an attractive specimen and appeared in excellent health.Of course, a suit could hide many sins and excessive business lunches, but given his shifter status, she imagined muscles.
“Your grandmother led me to believe you are a virgin.”
Her head jerked up, and a chill ran through her veins.
