King's Throne(29)

Mitch’s golden gaze caught her watching him. And then he smiled. A warm, encouraging, almost sinful smile. She wanted to remember that smile all her life.
“Sorry. Did I wake you?”
“No,” she answered, her voice rusty with sleep as she stretched a little. “It’s okay. I usually wake up long before this. I think I overslept. What time is it?”
“Just after eight-thirty,” he replied, closing the book and putting it on the small bedside table. When he turned back, he bent down and nibbled her neck. The nibbles turned hot and then molten as he pecked at her lips, eventually taking her mouth in a kiss that was temptation itself. When he finally pulled back, he gave her one of those sinful smiles again. “I’ve been wanting to do that for the past hour.”
“Mmm. You should’ve woken me up.” She smiled back at him, loving the moment of communion     between them. Nothing else mattered. Just this. Just them. Together.
But reality intruded as her cell phone rang. Gina reached over to the nightstand to answer it. It was an unexpected, though not unwelcome, call from Paul Miller, the eldest of the Miller’s many children. He wanted to know when he should come up to the cabin with more supplies. She told him any time that morning would be fine and he agreed to stop by after breakfast.
Gina ended the call with a fond smile. Paul had already been a grad student when Gina started college and he’d helped look after her when she first ventured out into the big, bad world. He was an orthopedic surgeon and unofficial Royal Guard, having learned everything about being one from his parents. It wasn’t until she graduated that she fully realized why Paul and his siblings had been her constant companions in those years she’d been at university. They’d been protecting her.
More than that though, they’d been her friends. She’d grown up with the rambunctious family practically next door and had loved having them with her in school. They were classmates and buddies. It hadn’t really dawned on her that they’d also been watching over her all those years at their parents’ behest.
In fact, she doubted her father would have let her go to school at all if the Miller’s brood hadn’t all been around the same age and attending the same schools. Okay, maybe that was stating it a little too broadly, but sometimes she wondered.
She hung up and rolled back toward Mitch, but he’d already risen from the bed. He headed toward the kitchen area, the book tucked under his arm.
“You get the bathroom first and I’ll get some breakfast going. Sound good?” he asked casually.
So much for a little more early morning snuggling. Unless… If she was just a tiny bit more secure about where she stood with him, she’d walk right up to him and jump his bones.
But she just wasn’t that confident. Not after he’d called such a definite halt last night just when things were getting interesting. No, she wouldn’t risk his rejection and invite her own humiliation.
She had a few days to work on him yet. She’d find a way to break through his reserve. She had time to negate the mindset that had him turning away from her when all she really wanted was to have him make love to her. And mean it. That was the big thing that held her back.
She was pretty sure she could get him to have sex with her, but she wanted something more. Even the tigress in her soul wanted more. Raw sex would be nice, but making love would be even better. Even if it was only for a short time, she wanted whatever time they had together to mean something.
Gina shook off her troubling thoughts, scrounged up some clean clothes and headed for the bathroom. She’d take a shower, get her head on straight and then come out to tame the tiger presently making coffee in her kitchen.
When Gina stepped out of the bathroom a short while later, the first thing she realized was that Mitch was no longer alone. Paul had shown up early—with his sister, Maribeth—and Mitch had apparently invited them to stay for breakfast.
A little gremlin of jealousy reared up in Gina’s mind. Maribeth was a knockout, as well as a little indiscriminate when it came to her bed partners. Maribeth was, in short, a bit of a slut—even among shifters, who were not known for their abstinence. And the moment Gina walked out of the bathroom, she was well aware Maribeth was up to her old tricks, flirting up a storm with Mitch.
Gina had to suppress a growl. The tigress had her claws out and ready to swipe at her old friend who dared flirt with the male the tigress considered her own. Wow. Gina had never reacted that strongly to Maribeth before. Usually, Gina found her friend’s outrageous flirting and loose behavior kind of amusing. But not when it came to Mitch.