A delightful, rich giggle bubbled from her as she leaned her head against his. “Apparently, I have the right touch.”
Och, lass. Ye have no idea.He lapped out his long tongue and whined.
Concern flashed across her face. “I know you’re hungry. I’m just not sure what we have in the fridge, but I’ll find something for you.”
What the hell was afridge? He followed her across the room. Damn, but the woman’s shapely arse swayed in the finest way when she walked.
A whining groan escaped him again as she yanked open the steely door of some sort of box and bent to peer closer at what appeared to be shelves made of metal. He rolled back on his haunches and licked his chops. Lore a’mighty but the woman made his mouth water with the very wanting of her. The view from this particular spot could not grow any better. Well. Mayhap it could. If the lass would bend over just a bit farther, surely her wee fuzzy frock would slip a bit higher and bless him with an even better view.
His tongue rolled out one side of his mouth and he panted. He couldn’t help it. Her bare legs sprouting out from the short hem of the fluffy bit of material drastically added to the heat of the room. He paced from side to side in the narrow space between the table and cupboards. His soul strained to take human form. No. Not yet.Ronan shuddered with the need to shift and claim this woman he had sought for so very long.
He trailed his gaze down the lickable curves of her shapely legs. What he wouldn’t give to have the silk of her beneath him. He came up short and tilted his head to one side. What the devil did the woman have on her feet? Those surely had to be the most hideous pair of slippers he had ever seen. What sort of animal possessed black fur with stripes of white and oddly placed spots? Had the footwear been a gift from an admiring hunter? Jealous rage flashed through him. He would make short work of those damnable shoes at his first opportunity.
She backed out of the strange steel box with a square container in her hands, bumped the door closed, and slid a finger around the clear lid of the container. It popped it open.
Ronan backed up a full body length and snorted. Damnation.Somewhere beneath a mixed aroma of overripe tomatoes, strong garlic, and putrid onions was the whang of something rotten. He would not eat that muck.
“Shew.” She wrinkled her nose and quickly slammed the container shut. “I didn’t think soy meatballs would turn that fast, but these are way past their prime.”
What the hell was a soy meatball? He had never heard of a soy. Judging by the strange shape of the meat, it must be some exotic bird of this time that was not very large. He raked a paw down his muzzle. Whatever it was, it stunk and he doubted it had ever smelled much better.
Mairi walked over to a round metal cylinder and stepped on a black lever sticking out of the base of the object. The lid of the thing flew up and rattled against the wall.
He scrambled backward, sliding sideways on the highly polished floor as the top of the cylinder banged the wall a second time.
“It’s okay.” She dropped the entire box of the wretched soy animal’s remains into the metal container, took her foot off the lever, and flipped the lid shut. “You must not be used to being inside. This is just a trash can. It’s full of gross stuff to be thrown away.” She smiled down at him as she brushed her hands together. “And don’t get into it. Karma always used to scatter the trash whenever he was mad at Trulie, but I’m trusting you to be a good boy.”
A good boy? That was the second time she had called him such. Surely, the woman jested. Why the hell would she think him a lad?
Ronan stood and shook himself from the tip of his long narrow muzzle to the end of his tail. He had to get them back to the past. The barely understood conversations and strange things of the future made his head pound worse than poorly aged ale. Giant boxes, somehow filled with winter’s cold air and used to store food? And the strange contraptions were lit from within by some unholy magic. Basins armed with tubes of metal that brought forth water at the touch of a lever? He shook himself again.I dinna like this time—not one damn bit.
Mairi worked her way around the room, yanking open the small doors of the cupboards then shaking her head and banging them shut again. “We don’t have anything you’d want to eat. None of us eat meat and it looks like Eliza finished off the last of the cheese.”
None of them ate meat? By the very gods, was that what the future had come to? Were there no beasts to hunt? What about the soy birds? Were the strange fowl so rare and elusive that they had to be doled out sparingly? A groan escaped him as he stretched out on the soothing coolness of the smooth floor and covered his muzzle with one paw. If he was to survive this wretched time without starving, he best tuck his wolf away soon and resume human form. At least then he might find a wee bowl of parritch.
Mairi frowned down at him, one of her hideous furry shoes tapping the floor. “I’m going to go throw on a pair of jeans and run to the market. You don’t need to eat people food anyway. I’ll get you a big bag of dog food and be right back.” She reached down and fluttered her fingers through his ruff. “Maybe they’ll even have some chew bones. I promise I won’t be gone long.” She gave him one last pat between his ears and scampered up the staircase.
As the black and white striped slippers disappeared from view, Ronan came to a decision. As soon as Mairi was out of the house, It was time to release his soul and resume the form of a man. Dog food indeed.
CHAPTER5
The overpowering scent of rosewater and talcum powder invaded the kitchen like a noxious cloud. The source of the smell plowed through the swinging half-door with quick, clicking steps. “Merciful heavens.” The woman’s eyes widened as her gaze locked on Ronan.
He rose from the floor, stretched to his full height, and rolled his shoulders, shaking free the last vestiges of flaming energy rippling across his flesh. Much better.It was time to embrace the task at hand as a man.
“Lord have mercy on all our souls.” The older woman, short of stature and painted brighter than a king’s favorite courtesan stood with one bejeweled hand pressed to her ample bosom. Her vibrant red lips puckered and twitched as her wide eyes swept an appreciative glance up and down his unclothed body. “Not that I’m offended, mind ye, but ye are bare as the day ye were born. Do ye truly think it best that ye introduce yerself to our Mairi in such a way?”
“Ye must be the one Granny Sinclair said was caretaker to her granddaughters.” Ronan stepped forward, acknowledging her presence with a curt bow. “Eliza MacTavish?”
Eliza nodded as though polite naked men stood in her kitchen every day. A hint of a smile lifted the corner of her mouth as her gaze dipped back down below his waist.
Ronan primly clasped his hands over his cock. Apparently, the woman had no shame. “Nay. I dinna ken it best to meet my future wife in such a state. I would welcome yer help in finding some proper garments. It appears the items I brought with me have gone astray.” Well—not actually astray. His parcel was still stuffed deep inside the hedge back at the hillside where he had arrived. But he couldn’t very well acquire it.
One of Eliza’s painted brows arched a bit higher. “Nia warned me yer arrival would be a bit unconventional, but she failed to mention ye would come as a naked shapeshifter.”
“I am not a shapeshifter. I merely have wolf’s blood coursing through my veins.”
Eliza spared him a look that clearly said she thought him a liar. “Splitting hairs.” She yanked open a low cupboard wedged beneath the stair. With a huffing grunt, she worried free a cloth bundle stuffed among the shelves. “Not a shapeshifter, eh? Then pray tell where is the wee wolfie whose toenails were a clickin’ in my kitchen but a few moments ago?” She toddled a few steps toward him then lobbed the bundle at his chest. “And the room still smells of wet dog.”
