He loved her nearness but not the reason for it. He had to be stronger than this. But having a gorgeous woman’s hands on his body wasn’t something he’d pass up lightly. He allowed her to help him regain his balance and then walk with him toward the small bathroom.
“Don’t lock it,” she cautioned, nodding toward the bathroom door as he reached out to grab the doorframe and she let go. “Just in case.”
He wouldn’t let himself pass out, but he understood her advice. It was only wise to take precautions.
“I won’t. But I’ll be okay.” He didn’t like the worried look on her face, so he decided to tease her a bit. “Of course, if you want to come in and scrub my back, I wouldn’t say no.” He let his voice drop into suggestive tones and shot her a wink for good measure. It was way over the top and he knew it. He wasn’t surprised when she laughed. In fact, it was precisely the reaction he’d wanted.
“Nice try, Casanova, but I’ll take a rain check.” She was still smiling when he closed the door between them.
Chapter Four
Gina did end up opening the door to the bathroom before Mitch was done with his shower, but it wasn’t for any sort of exciting reason. He heard her come in and turned toward her, but the frosted glass showed only the vague outline of his magnificent body.
“Just dropping off these clean clothes. Some big guy distracted me before.” She joked with him, trying to forestall the unreasonable attraction she felt for Mitch. “How are you doing in there?”
“Why don’t you come in and check for yourself?”
If he only knew how much she wanted to. But she feared his teasing was just that. Teasing.
He knew who she was. Her secret was out—at least to him. She couldn’t be sure he was flirting with her for the person she was or for the princess she had never really had a chance to be. Anything that happened between them—romantic or otherwise—would be colored by that annoying little fact of her birth. She was royalty. And he was a Royal Guard. Alpha. Strong enough to guard, but not elite enough to mate.
No matter how much her inner tigress urged her to open that shower door and jump his bones. Tigers liked the water, and her cat wanted desperately to come out and play, but Gina didn’t dare. She didn’t allow the tigress to rule her. She never had. She’d made a deal with her wild half long ago.
She let the cat run, but she didn’t allow her to dictate Gina’s actions in the human world. There was an uneasy peace between her two halves, but she made it work for the most part.
Until now. Until Mitch had crashed into her life, changing everything. She wasn’t even sure she’d be able to go back to her life in the city. Or her job.
“If you’re strong enough to flirt, you’re strong enough to finish your shower and dress yourself,” she quipped. “I’ll be outside if you need anything. We’ll eat and then we’ll see about that little walk outside.”
She left the steamy bathroom and shut the door behind her. The scent of soap and clean man was kind of intoxicating, and the tigress was scratching at her insides to get out, but Gina kept hold of her control. Just barely. She made it out of the room with her pride intact and then leaned against the closed door, trying to catch her breath.#p#分页标题#e#
She spent a few minutes putting a meal together, figuring she could gauge Mitch’s physical status best by watching him rather than asking questions. A tough guy like him would probably answer every one of her questions with the standard I’m fine. Well, that wasn’t going to be of any help. She had to gauge for herself whether or not he was up to shapeshifting and taking a prowl around the property.
Mitch came out of the bathroom dressed in some of her dad’s sweats. They were about the same size. Powerful Alphas in their prime.
He was using a towel to rub his wet hair. He wore it short. Clean cut. No nonsense. Masculine. And all too attractive.
Down, girl.
He walked over to her on only slightly shaky bare feet to claim the place at the small table that she had set with a plate and silverware. His scent had changed. Up to now, he’d emitted a thick chemical smell that she could only assume was from the poison with which he’d been injected. As the days wore on, the scent of his illness had grown strong, though she had done her best to keep him clean while he’d been out of it.
But now he was completely clean for the first time since she’d met him. His natural scent was almost clear of the chemical taint. Her sensitive nose told her that the poison was well on its way to leaving his system altogether.
If he was strong enough after lunch, she would not only permit, but encourage, him to shift form into his tiger. The magic of the shift would, in all likelihood, remove the final bit of the toxin. If they were very unlucky, it would trigger something worse. But she really didn’t think it would. She wouldn’t risk his wellbeing if she thought shifting would harm him more. All the same, she’d be watching carefully to make sure all went well and be prepared in case something went wrong.