panther,she thought, exalted.This is him. This is all him.
“Aren’t you gorgeous,” she whispered, and she could almost feel how pleased Luca was in the way he sat down neatly by her side, nudging her shoulder as she laid a gentle hand on his back.
“Can I pet you?”
In answer, Luca nuzzled his head under her hand encouragingly, and she touched his neck, his cheek, the special place behind his ears that always made her parents’ cats melt. Apparently it didn’t matter how big the cat was, because when she scratched her fingers through his velvety fur, he went boneless, stretching out to his full length beside her. After a moment, he uttered a low coughing sound that echoed up to the glass ceiling, making her jump. For a moment, she thought she had hurt him or irritated him, but then she realized.
“Oh my God, you’re purring. Is that how big cats purr?”
Between one moment and another, Luca shifted, and it wasn’t a gorgeous black panther next to her any longer, but instead a gorgeous man, one with his head pillowed on her thigh who looked up at her as if she had hung the moon and lit the stars.
Oh, the eyes are the same,Macy thought. They were.
“It’s called chuffing,” he informed her. “The sound panthers make instead of purring. Big cats don’t purr. And you don’t have to stop just because I’m in a different shape.”
Something about the way he said it, pointed and expectant, made her laugh, and Luca went a little red.
“Sorry, was that a little—”
She didn’t want an apology. Instead, she raked her fingers through his hair, marveling at the slippery silkiness of the black strands, scruffing her fingers against his scalp. She watched, fascinated, as his eyes drifted to half-mast almost immediately and how his lips—delicious lips—parted. It made her want to kiss him, but right this moment, she wanted him like this more, soft, open, just for her, all for her.
There was no telling how long they might have sat there in the sleepy summer light of the atrium, but then her stomach growled, loud and unmistakable. It made Luca blink and then sit up, giving her a slightly chagrined look.
“You’re hungry.”
The moment he said it, his stomach growled as well, and Macy laughed.
“So are you. I brought us lunch to share.”
“Lunch first,” Luca agreed, and she might have asked him what came after, but then her stomach growled again, even moreinsistently, and she gave in. She let him pull her to her feet, and together they made their way to her office, where she spread their meal out on the low coffee table.
“Smells amazing,” Luca said appreciatively. “Pork and… cooked apples?”
“Great nose on you,” she said, resisting the urge to addand great everything else as well.“They’re Cornish pasties.”
“Pasties?”
“They’re really more of an upper Midwest thing, but we’ve got some Cornish folks around here too. Here.”
She handed him an object that looked like half a pie crust folded over, the edges crimped. The grease was already dotting the brown paper wrapper, and it certainly wasn’t going to win any beauty prizes, but the smell coming from it was mouthwatering. She pulled out her own as Luca took an inquisitive bite.
“Oh that’sgood,” he exclaimed, taking another bite immediately, and she grinned.
“Here, have a bite of mine. This is cheddar and Granny Smith apples.”
She held her pasty out to Luca, and it gave her a thrill she didn’t quite understand to see him lean in and nip off a tidy bite of her pasty from her hand. Suddenly she understood why he had been so insistent on paying for her food. There was something deeply satisfying in being able to provide for your mate.
Too soon, they were done with lunch, and Luca stood reluctantly, packing up their trash to throw away.
“I should get back to it,” he said after a sweet kiss that tasted like pasty. “I’m not having any luck so far.”
“Oh no. Do you think there’s a chance the cerastes got out?”
“Unlikely. This place is like a perfect denning spot for it. It should still be on the premises. I just have to find it. The maps you left are a big help, but there’s still a lot of ground to cover.”
“Poor baby. I’m going to doing some work out front and field a few quick appointments I can’t reschedule, so if you need anything, come out and see me.”
There was a flash of white teeth, a smile that told her that he absolutely did need something, and then her phone rang, making her groan.
