Around six, I gave up on snoozing and dressed in my running clothes, hoping a few miles after breakfast would ease my frustrations. I headed into the kitchen and turned on the lights over the stovetop. Soft illumination from the drop-down ceiling lamps shone against the polished black-and-tan granite counter and our dark-stained cabinets. The previous owners had wrecked the place. In a way, it was good thing. We were able to buy it for a steal—well, for Tahoe prices, anyway. But it took a lot of TLC to bring the thirty-eight-hundred-square-foot house back to its original splendor.
I’d just placed the waffle iron on our center island and reached for a spoon when the softest of steps trotted down the front stairwell. I stuck my head around the corner. Koda was leaving in a rush, his behemoth shit-kickers in his hand. He reached for the doorknob, not realizing I stood mere feet away.
I growled. “Are you sneaking out on my sister?”
Koda froze. “Ah, no. I just have somewhere to be.”
I crossed my arms, still holding the damn spoon in my hand. “At six o’clock in the morning? On a Saturday. You asshole.”
Koda’s dark brows knitted tight. “Don’t yell. I don’t want to upset her.”
I marched across our dark wood floors and poked him in the shoulder with my spoon. “I think she would be more upset knowing you used her!”
The pungent scent of Koda’s fury practically burned off my nose hairs. “I haven’t used her!”
I waved my arm out dramatically. “Then what do you call this?”
Koda bowed his head. “I only have one-night stands with females.”
I nodded. “I see.”
Then I broke his nose.
Koda staggered back covering his nose, the whites of his eyes blazing with shock and anger. “Wha da heln?” he said as his bones slowly crunched back into place. “Dat’s not wha I mean.”
“Really. ’Cause that’s what you just said.”
Koda squeezed his eyes shut and let out a breath. His sinuses must have been on fire. Poor man-whore bastard.
“It’s not by choice, Celia. Women want very little to do with me after we…are intimate.” His head dropped again. “I’m told I’m too…intense.”
I swallowed back bile. “Did you hurt her?”
Koda’s head snapped up. The scary beast I’d first met rushed back with a vengeance. My beast fought against my hold, sensing my fear and desperate to protect me. Still, I refused to show it and hissed low and deep.
Koda straightened, his voice a soft rumble in the dimly lit foyer. “I would never hurt her!” He trembled. “And God help anything that does.”
If the world were ending, and the only thing that could save it was my ability to sniff out lies, we were all screwed and might as well dig our graves. But despite my lack of sniffing talent, I believed him. Something was up. Koda obviously adored Shayna. Hell, he practically wagged his tail every time Shayna skipped into a room. And God knew he’d stepped up to protect her.
“If you leave like this, I promise you will hurt her.” I picked up my spoon off the floor, hoping to stall his departure if nothing else. “Come on. I’ll make you some breakfast.”
I returned to the kitchen. Koda paused momentarily before following, dropping his canoe-size shoes on the floor near the door. I handed him a wet towel to wipe the blood off his face before grabbing eggs and sausage out of the refrigerator. But it wasn’t until I poured the batter into the waffle maker that either of us spoke.
“I’ve had a lot of sex, Celia.”
I cringed and set a plate in front of him. “I know. I’m just down the hall.”
Koda chuckled. “I mean in general. But…that’s about all I’ve had.”
I filled his plate with eggs, sausage, and a waffle, but waited before handing him the syrup and sitting across from him. Everything told me it was wrong to discuss Shayna’s private life in her absence, but part of me felt Koda should know more about my little sister. “Shayna dates fairly frequently.”
Koda stopped eating.
“A lot of men find her attractive.”
Koda bent the fork with his teeth.
I held up my hand. “But she doesn’t usually engage in deep levels of physical intimacy—like she did with you.” I sighed. “If you care about her—”
“There is no ‘if.’ I do care about her.” Koda’s brow softened at his words.
I shook my head. “Then don’t presume she’s another one of your trampy one-nighters.”
Koda swallowed with great effort. He probably ingested a few prongs. I glanced at his fork. Yup. He did. “What if you’re wrong? What if—”