"Ivy is a feline shifter, and I have her DNA in me, so that means I am part cat, too," Minka said.
Angelo already knew that Ivy was a feline shifter but didn't mention it. Not that Minka gave him the chance anyway. She was telling him again how she'd learned to make her claws extend and retract. She'd already told him at lunch, but he didn't mind hearing it again. He was thrilled she was learning how to control her hybrid side. He hated the idea of leaving her, but at some point, he'd have to, and he'd feel a lot better doing so knowing she could keep the beast at bay.
But then Minka told him that Tanner and Ivy had encouraged her to use him as an anchor to help her stay in control. It was merely another reminder that no matter how many tricks Minka learned, she still depended on him. She had a much longer road in front of her than she imagined, and he was afraid he'd have to leave before she even got started.
"Did your mother teach you how to cook like this?" Minka asked from beside him, watching him work the grill to get the meat perfectly cooked.
"Nah. My dad grew up in Mexico before moving to Texas and becoming a U.S. citizen. He taught me everything I know about making Mexican food. He still makes it ten times better than I ever will."
After everything was cooked, he and Minka brought it over to the table; then, Angelo showed her how to put together a fajita.
"Careful," he warned. "It's going to be hot. And spicy."
Minka piled on the ingredients and took a big bite as if he hadn't spoken. Angelo held his breath, waiting for her to reach for her glass of water. But instead, she groaned. "This is so good. I could eat this every night."
Angelo chuckled and bit into his own fajita, feeling absurdly happy that she liked the meal he'd made. It was crazy really, especially after spending the past fourteen years becoming an expert at keeping the women he got involved with at arm's length. But that strategy wasn't working with Minka. She was slipping her way inside his defenses faster than he would have ever believed possible. He was falling for her-hard.
He'd said as much to Landon when his friend had shown him around the DCO training complex earlier that afternoon. "One second, she's sweet and innocent. The next, she's smoking hot and more sensual than any woman I've ever met. No matter how many times I tell myself not to fall for her, I keep doing it."
Landon chuckled. "Man, who ever said you have a say in anything when it comes to who you fall for? Trust me, one day, you wake up, and bam, you're so in love you can barely remember your own name. And when that happens? You just hang on tight and go with it."
His former commander made it sound so easy-and maybe it was simple for Landon and Ivy, despite having to hide their relationship. But Angelo had a job to go back to that didn't leave room for Minka.
"So what did you and Landon do this afternoon?" Minka asked, her soft voice dragging him back to the present.
Angelo looked up to see that Minka had already polished off two fajitas. Damn, the girl could eat. "Landon gave me a tour of the DCO complex. I did some target shooting and blew up a few things. He even let me play with the expensive surveillance toys. I swear, it felt more like a recruiting pitch to get me to work there than anything."
Minka's eyes flashed green, her full lips curving slightly. Damn, why the hell had he said it like that? Now she probably thought he was going to come work for the DCO. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't, not after just reenlisting for another five years. The army wasn't the kind of job where you could walk into the boss's office and say, "I quit."
Thinking it would be a good idea to steer the conversation back to safer ground, he reached for another fajita and asked Minka a question instead. "What do you think you'll work on next with Ivy and Tanner? You going to practice with the claws for a while or move on to something else?"
Angelo felt a little crappy about changing the subject, but if Minka noticed, she didn't seem to mind. And it wasn't like he had to fake interest in what she was saying. Anything that involved Minka was important to him. Besides, he didn't know much about shifters or hybrids, so the whole thing was pretty damn fascinating.
"What do you visualize when you see the beast in your mind?" he asked.
"Before today, I thought of it as a giant, blurry monster. But after learning that the beast is a cat, that's how I picture it now." She smiled. "Not a little house cat, of course. They aren't scary enough. More like a big cat that roams the mountains."
"Makes sense," he said.
Minka set the other half of her fourth fajita on her plate and gave him a curious look. "Would you mind if I ask you a personal question?"
His mouth twitched as he prepared another fajita. He wasn't used to Minka being so reserved. She usually said whatever was on her mind, regardless of whether it was personal or not.
"Go ahead," he said.
"The first time we met, I had claws, fangs, glowing red eyes, and I tried to kill you. Since then, I've spent most of the time telling you about an imaginary creature that lives inside my head and makes me act like a monster. How are you so calm about that? Most people would have run away already."
Angelo chuckled. Not exactly the personal question he'd expected, but then again Minka rarely did the expected.
"Well, my mom was full-blooded Cherokee, and I grew up around all kinds of Indian folktales and legends. My dad was in the army, and whenever he was deployed, Mom would take my sisters and me back to the reservation where she grew up in Oklahoma. I'd stay up half the night listening to the old men tell stories about shape-shifters, animal spirits, skin-walkers, and trickster spirits." He grinned. "I'm not saying I necessarily believed in all that stuff back then, but after meeting Ivy, Tanner, and the other shifters at the DCO, it just didn't faze me that much."
Minka looked at him with wide eyes. "You're a real American Indian? Like in the movies? With horses and everything?"
He laughed again. The expression of wonder on her face was adorable. "First, I'm only half-Indian. My dad is Mexican, so there's that. And second, Native Americans are almost nothing like you see in the movies. We don't all live in tepees and ride horses. In fact, I don't even own a horse."
Minka was a little disappointed about the no-horse thing, but she was fascinated with what it was like growing up on an Indian reservation and being surrounded by all those legends. She immediately asked him to tell her some Indian stories. It had been a long time since he'd thought about them, but to make her happy, he dug through his head and tried to remember every tale he'd heard as a kid.
He was halfway through a story about a Cherokee man who could turn into a bear when he realized they'd demolished the entire tray of fajitas. He finished telling the tale as they cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher. Then, Minka cuddled up close to him on the couch while he told her some more stories. Sometimes, she mentioned a similar myth or legend from her culture, but mostly she listened to him talk. He sure as hell didn't mind. He hadn't had so much fun talking to a woman ever.
Angelo didn't intend for the cuddling to go anywhere, but Minka was sitting there with one leg casually draped across his lap, and his hand found its way onto her thigh. He couldn't help himself. She'd been wearing a skirt when he'd found her in Tajikistan, but he hadn't exactly been focusing on her body at the time-he'd been more worried about the claws and fangs. Since then, she'd worn yoga pants. Even though they showed off the fact that Minka had nice legs, they simply didn't do them the same justice as the skirt she now wore.
Because Minka didn't just have nice legs-she had amazing legs. Long, toned, and touchable. It didn't hurt that, with her leg across his lap, the skirt slid up to show off more than half her thigh. He didn't even realize he was gliding his fingers up and down her leg until he heard her purr in the middle of a story about the redbird. It had to be the sexiest thing he'd ever heard.
He told himself to cool it, that it was crazy to let this go any further, but when Minka reached up and tugged his face down for a kiss, he didn't try to stop her. And as the kiss deepened and the taste of her lips overpowered his senses, he knew the night wasn't going to end with a make-out session on the couch.
Angelo had been seriously attracted to Minka from the moment they'd met, and every minute they spent together had moved both of them further in this direction. He might not have known how long he'd be able to stay here with her, but did he want to look back later and kick himself in the ass for being too scared to go to a place they both obviously wanted to be?