“Oh, I can getmuchcloser, but you probably wouldn’t want an audience for that.”
Ray laughed harder. “You’re incorrigible.”
He waggled his eyebrows at her before taking a sip of soda. “You know, I’ve been in here a few times with my brothers, and I can’t believe that all those times, I was so close to my mate without having the first clue about it.”
“Brothers?” Ray asked. “How many do you have?”
“Just two. And a sister. She’s the baby of the family and spoiled rotten. What about you?”
Ray shook her head. “I’m an only child.”
“Really? That must have been…” He couldn’t imagine growing up without his brothers and sister bantering and playing, and the rough and tumble of shifter siblings. “Quiet.”
She nodded. “Sometimes, it was lonely. I mean, my dad worked constantly, my mom was always shopping or at a spa, so most of the time it was just me and the nanny. But Rosa was very nice.”
“Ananny?” Sloane spluttered. “Was that as Mary Poppins as it sounds?”
“Yes, but with less magic. Actually, I would have loved to have had brothers and sisters like you had. It would have been nice to have other children to play with at home.”
“My brothers and I fought constantly,” Sloane said. “Still do.”
“Don’t remind me.”
When Sloane raised an eyebrow in query, Ray said, “The punch.”
“Ah, right. Yeah, I forgot you caught that.”
“What was it for?”
Sloane cleared his throat. “Um, I was coming to talk to you and Brody said I couldn’t because you were with your boyfriend.”
Ray blinked. “That was it?”
“Pretty much, yeah. I told you shifters are possessive.”
“I’ll say.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m not usually that quick-tempered. I can’t be, not with the job I do. On the SWAT team, you need to have a level head, but when a shifter’s mate is concerned, all bets are off. And of course, that was before I’d claimed you. After I have, my bear will calm down.”
“Claimed me?”
Damn it.
Sloane had to let his mouth run away with him, didn’t he? He scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck.
“Sloane?” she prompted.
He sighed. “So, when shifters get together, they claim their mate with a bite. During sex.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh my. Does that…hurt?”
“Um, only a little, from what I’ve heard. And only at first. Afterwards I understand it’s quite pleasurable.”
Eyes wide, Ray took a sip from her wineglass, clearly trying to process what she’d just learned. Then her cheeks flooded with color and Sloane wasn’t sure if the idea alarmed her or not. He decided to get their conversation back onto safer territory.
“Have you always lived in Miami?”
She shook her head. “No. I was born in New York. Dad has an office there and another in L.A. so I spent a few years in each place. But my mom got sick of all the moving back and forth and told Dad that she wanted to settle in one place.”
