Danil’s Mate(27)

The sun was starting to set and it felt good to stride down the street, matching Dora’s quick pace. They’d been sitting at that coffee shop for the better part of the day and Danil was grateful to stretch his legs. Actually, he would have been even more grateful to shift into his bear form and really get a workout in. But he wasn’t sure how he’d explain that to Dora.

Actually, he wasn’t sure how he was ever gonna explain that to Dora. He’d just have to get her to understand that no matter what, he still had his own heart. He was still Danil in there. Even when he was a twelve-foot-tall Eurasian Grizzly with fangs the size of a small banana.

He made a mental note to ask Papa how he’d broken it to Mama when they’d first met.

“Do I need to dress up to meet your parents?” Dora asked, as if she could read Danil’s thoughts.

He scanned her outfit, which he was beginning to recognize as her usual. Tight-fitting jeans, a silky, low cut shirt and her bomber jacket. But today it was set off by a pair of small heels. Which she’d probably worn because she’d known they were gonna be sitting in a coffee shop all day.

“You weren’t staking out the street, were you?” Danil guessed, the puzzle pieces clicking into place.

“Hmmmm?” she asked, staring forward, evading his question.

“At first I thought you took the seat by the window to be able to watch for something on the street. But now I realize it was for another reason.”

Dora flicked her eyes toward Danil as she made a left at the corner toward her car. She’d driven them today.

“You sat there because you knew that was the zone that the waiter, Kip, served. You expected him earlier, which means you knew his schedule. And you waited for him all day. So you must have really wanted to talk to him.”

Dora unlocked the car, revealing nothing. They slid in.

“And you knew he worked a second job. At some kind of warehouse. And they received a late shipment last night. Which must have been what you wanted to know. Because we left right afterwards.”

Dora turned on the car. “Interesting theory, counselor.”

“So where does he work?”

Dora said nothing as she started to drive and Danil swallowed down his frustration.

“At a package sorting facility,” she answered tersely. “But I was too late. Because all the packages were already delivered this morning. So I missed my chance and I won’t get another one for another week.”

Her knuckles were white on the steering wheel.

“Well,” Danil said, leaning over at a stoplight to nuzzle behind her ear. “You were very busy this morning.”

He felt, rather than saw, her smile.

“And no,” Danil continued. “You must not wear this to my parents’ house. Mama and Papa would not care. But if any of my brothers see you in that silky little shirt I’ll be forced to commit fratricide.”





CHAPTER EIGHT





It was really silly to be nervous, Dora knew. She’d been held at gunpoint before and hadn’t broken a sweat. Literally. Except her father had been by her side at that point.

She looked at Danil as they walked up his parents’ driveway together. And now she had Danil at her side. Which was a very different feeling. But one that was filled with a very inexplicable trust. And that wasn’t something she’d felt since her dad died. She knew that no matter what happened in there, Danil had her. He’d made that point very clear when they’d gone home to change. In fact, he’d made that point twice. Once against the front door of his house and once in the guest bedroom while she’d been searching through her things for something to wear.

“I’m your home,” he’d chanted in her ear as he’d bent her over the desk in the guest room, pumping into her from behind. He’d made her say it twice before he’d let her come. And she’d be damned but this whole repeating-it-until-it’s-true thing he had going on was working. Must be the power of suggestion.

Or maybe it was just that he was so fucking yummy. Dora tore her eyes from the way his button-up shirt was rolled up over his massive arms. He looked like he could burst from the shirt at any moment. And she wouldn’t have minded at all.

She turned her face forward again. She was about to be a guest in his mother’s home. She could not be having those thoughts right now.

And she was back to being nervous.

Danil took her hand, squeezed it gently, as they bounded up the porch together.

No sooner had he reached for the doorknob did the door come clattering open.

“Danishka!” Maxim yelled, throwing out one hand while he crunched an apple in his mouth.

The two brothers leaned forward to kiss one another’s cheeks and embrace in a way that Dora found deeply charming.