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“Look, Holly. I know you don’t believe me, but I’m not gonna hurt you.” His gaze flicked to her chest again. “Or take your laptop away. Just think about what you’re doing, okay?”
He rose and headed for the cabin’s kitchen, built into one corner of the main room. She watched him pull a large, lidded pot from a vintage avocado-green refrigerator.
“What’s that?” she asked as he walked past her and placed the pot on top of the wood stove, next to the ancient, mineral-encrusted kettle that served as the cabin’s humidifier.
“Dinner,” he replied. “You’re gonna need calories to finish thawing out.”
“Oh.” Right on cue, her stomach growled loudly.
“You okay with sourdough bread?” he asked, heading back to the kitchen and returning with a Dutch oven in cast iron, with a domed lid.
“Love it,” she assured him. Her mouth watered at the prospect of warm, freshly baked bread.
Apparently, he hadn’t been lying when he mentioned he worked as a cook at the Bearpaw Springs Resort.
He set it down next to the stew pot. “That’ll bake while the chili heats.”
Then he threw himself back down on the sofa and resumed scowling into the flames.
Holly couldn’t keep her eyes off him. I’m snowed in with an actual were-sabertooth cat, and all I can think about is, he’s the sexiest man I’ve ever met and I’m stuck here in my underwear. She smiled. Geez, my life!
Ice shot her a sidelong glance. “You’re really not scared of me, are you?”
“Nope,” she answered, with more confidence than she felt.
He smiled, a genuine smile that did wonderful things to his face and eyes. “Most people are,” he said quietly.
“So, can you change into any other animals? Were you born this way? Or did something happen?” The questions tumbled out of her in an eager torrent.
He blew out a breath. “You know, this whole thing might be easier if you feared me.” He sounded regretful.
“Why?” she asked, confused.
“Because then you’d obey me when I ordered you to get rid of the evidence.”
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” she assured him.
Inside her, a tiny voice suggested that maybe she should dial it down a notch. She ignored the voice. “Are there any other people who can turn into sabertooth cats? Or is it just you?”
He glared at her.
She met his hot gaze squarely, and waited. Her job had taught her patience while she waited for wild animals to do their things.
“Okay,” he said finally. “How ’bout we cut a deal?”
“What kind of deal?” she asked, instantly suspicious.
She hugged the laptop to her chest. The tiny video storage cards she’d extracted from the camera were still tucked inside her bra. The hard plastic edges and corners dug into tender skin. Even if he grabbed her laptop, maybe he wouldn’t notice the cards.
“If I answer your questions, will you swear not to tell anyone that I’m a shapeshifter? And wipe the footage from those trail cams?”
She hesitated. She desperately wanted answers. But was his price worth it?
“And I’ll know it if you lie to me,” he added ominously. He tapped his nose. “I have super-senses.”
She absorbed that information and added another few questions to her long list.
“That’s a tough deal,” she confessed. “I mean, having proof of a living sabertooth cat is the scientific discovery of the century! And then there’s the whole ‘shapeshifters are real’ thing…”
