Her Fierce Warrior (X-Ops #4)(31)

"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?