I"d never wrestled weaponless with a beast before, so I quickly came up with a plan of attack–I hoped it wouldn"t eat me. Oh, and that it kept its claws away from my face; other than that, I braced myself to, hopefully, survive my first hand-to-claw combat with an oversized cat. The tawny beast coiled to pounce on me, its muzzle drawn back in a snarl that showed shockingly large teeth, when a large, golden body shot out of the woods from the side and slammed into the mountain cat. With a screech of rage, the two large beasts went rolling off into the woods, snarling and spitting. Well, that was unexpected.
“Is it me, or does trouble seem to follow you?” asked the man I"d dreamed of all night long.
Not believing my luck, I turned around. It was Auric, dressed in jogging pants and a t-shirt that bulged over well-defined biceps. Slightly sweaty, his face annoyingly arrogant, I still found him breathtakingly gorgeous. I didn"t know if I should have prepared to fight him, or if I should have thrown him to the ground and mauled him. Maybe I"d gotten lucky and he"d come to maul me.
“Following me again?” I asked, instead of obeying my body"s instincts.
“Nope, pure luck or mischance, depending on how you look at it.”
“I take it that was your friend from yesterday?” I said, gesturing to the woods, which had gone quiet.
“Yup.”
“Aren"t you going to see if he"s all right?” I asked when he said nothing further.
“Nope.”
Auric really took the strong silent type a bit too far at times. “Well then, since you"re not worried, I"ll just be off then. Bye.” I started walking away.
Auric wouldn"t be shaken that quickly, though, and caught up to me. “Why was that shifter attacking you?”
“Maybe I smelled good,” I said. Actually, I had no idea why it had attacked me. Random act of violence, I assumed. Perhaps I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although, given my attacker"s special abilities, I tended to lean towards an intentional attack. Just another of many attempts to kill Lucifer"s daughter. Now that the danger had passed, I felt a little gypped. I had to wonder who would have won the battle–the cat-man or me?
“You seem to enjoy oblique answers,” he said.
“And you ask a lot of questions,” I retorted. “How the hell would I know what the shifter wanted? It"s not like we stopped to have a conversation. I was a tad too busy, fighting for my life.”
“Fighting for your life?” Auric chuckled. “You know what, I would wager money that even if we hadn"t come along, you"d have come out just fine.”
Now, that made me feel good. Which, of course, made me suspicious. This from the same man who"d claimed I needed protection last night. “Just what"s your game?” I asked, stopping again and turning to face him. “You came in to the bar last night asking me all kinds of questions about the bar and its owner. You followed me home, and then in the mother of all fucking coincidences, you happened to be on hand when some freak shifter I"ve never seen before attacks me out of the blue. And you think I"m being oblique? I don"t know what game you"re playing, but count me out.”
“No game. I went to your bar because of a recommendation. Sorry if my questions made you uncomfortable; I was curious and making conversation. As for last night, yes, I intentionally followed you to protect you. It"s just who I am. As for today though, that had nothing to do with me. I just happened along.”
“Yeah right,” I said, not believing a word he said, as I started walking again. I didn"t need a lie detector to tell me he hid something. No matter how much my body screamed to get to know him better, I intended to listen to my head, which kept yelling danger.
I saw him turn his head back down the trail and listen; I heard the faint sound of someone coming up the trail on two feet.
Auric spoke quickly. “Listen, I want to clear this up. Why don"t you have dinner with me?”
“I have to work.”
“Fine, then, coffee before work? Say in one hour?”
I shook my head. I didn"t have enough time, not if I was going to do a supplies run for the bar first. But my body wouldn"t let him go that easily. “Why don"t you come to the bar tonight? You can walk me home, intentionally this time, and protect me from the bogey man.” I almost bit my tongue in surprise. I hadn"t planned on saying that. Auric apparently liked it, though. For the first time since I met him, he smiled; and the effect it had on my equilibrium shocked me. A tingling warmth spread from my head to my toes, and I became especially tingly in between.