Page 17 of Bad Blood Panther

Chapter 8

When Jenny emerged from the trailer, freshly showered and dressed, she found Xander kneeling by the dead rabbit, sprinkling glitter over it from a baggie.

Ooookay.

Part of being idiotically shy meant she didn’t like to question people—especially people with short tempers—but she had to know. “Um, can I ask why you’re glittering that?”

He didn’t look up. “It’s what I do when I prank people with dead shit.” His voice had the same zero-fucks-given tone it had this morning, when he’d been razzing her in the bedroom. The tone he used when he wanted to keep people at a distance.

Her heart sank a little. “So…this was just a prank?” She was so stupid. It wasn’t a mating gift. Xander didn’t even know panther traditions.

“Sure.” He rose to his feet, dusting glitter off his hand onto his jeans. “I’m just a big ol’ prankster. Better get used to—”

Their eyes met, and his voice died out. He tucked the baggie slowly into his pocket. “I’m not…I don’t know why I did it. Gross, right? I thought…”

He stopped talking again, wiping his palm back and forth against his thigh.

“Thought what?” Her heart was pounding in her chest.

He rubbed his hand across the back of his neck. Tiny bits of glitter dropped onto the shoulder of his t-shirt and sparkled in his hair. “Um. My cat—who I take no responsibility for—wanted to bring it. For your panther. As a gift.” He took a deep breath, then said really fast, “He thinks you’re his mate. Our mate. Shit.”

He turned and took a step as if he were going to walk away, turned back, then turned away again. Like he wanted to leave, but he couldn’t.

She took a step forward, scared of spooking him. “What do you think?” she asked softly.

She found herself holding her breath. Xander was sweet, crazy, complicated, and dangerous. But her heart yearned toward him, the way it always had.

Always would.

He turned back toward her. They were closer now. Only a foot apart.

“I don’t know.” She saw him swallow hard. “Except…when I saw you sleeping in there this morning, I wanted… Well, I can’t tell you all the things I wanted, because some of them are perverted.” He stepped toward her. “But this was one.”

He stroked his knuckle up her jawbone and cupped her cheek. Then he leaned in and kissed her.

It was warm and sweet and somehow made her want to cry. It made her want to rub up against him and kiss away everything that hurt him.

He pulled back, giving a self-conscious half-laugh. “You can slap me now,” he said.

She rested her hands on his chest instead. Say it, she told herself. Don’t be a chicken. If he can do it, you can.

“When panthers choose a mate,” she said, “the males bring the females a fresh kill.” She glanced at the rabbit. “They don’t usually put glitter on it, though.”

Xander gave a ghost of his cocky grin. “It’s my personal signature.”

Jenny traced one of his pecs with the tips of her fingers, hating herself for being such a damn wuss. Why was this so hard for her? She pushed the words out. “If the female likes it—likes him—she eats some of it. If not, she ignores it.”

Xander played with a strand of her hair, slipping it between his fingers. “So what does your panther think of my glitter rabbit?”

Screwing up her courage, Jenny gave him a quick kiss, with a tiny bite on his lower lip. “I think it’s a good thing my panther took a bite out of that before you glittered it up.” She stepped away and headed for the stairs. “Otherwise, I’d be pooping sparkles for the next couple of days.”

She walked off down the steps, hoping her ass was swaying seductively, and she wouldn’t do something stupid like fall flat on her face.

Xander looked at her, and then the rabbit, and then her again.

He looked stunned speechless. But he was smiling, just a little bit.

That made her brave. “You coming?” she said, turning around in the middle of the path. “My panther’s the one who likes dead rabbit presents. Me, I need coffee.”