Rose let out a long, shaky breath and leaned against the counter, her eyes closed. What was she thinking? What was she doing? How the hell would she have explained that to her daughter?
“Okay, that can’t happen again,” she said aloud to Vlad, finally opening her eyes to look at him. “Not…not now. I want to explain things to Zoe without what’s between us complicating it. She’s the one that matters. Do you understand?”
He nodded.
She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but in that moment, she decided it was probably for the best because if his imagination was wandering through the same fields of naughty lusty thoughts as hers, they were both in a lot of trouble.
Vlad leaned against the counter again and kept his hands on the countertop, holding tight to avoid reaching for Rose. His body pulsed with the need to finish that kiss, to do more than just take a brief sip. He wanted to take, savor, glut himself on her taste. Hell, he hadn’t even put his hands on her yet and it was all he could do not to pull her into his arms. His palms actually tingled with the need to feel her skin.
It was probably better he hadn’t put his hands on her. The faint sound of Zoe’s footsteps had jerked him back to reality just in time. If he’d had Rose’s body pressed against his, he wouldn’t have been able to react so quickly.
He squeezed the counter as tight as he dared and tried to force his mind away from visions of Rose naked. Before his imagination and body had run amuck, she’d brought up a valid complication in him teaching Zoe how to shift.
Zoe had been raised by humans who were much more sensitive to nudity than his own people. The casual nudity among tigers could be disturbing to a child not used to it—especially with a male who was essentially a stranger. He hadn’t even considered that, until Rose mentioned it. Taking his clothes off to shift was simply a pragmatic necessity, not something he’d ever given much thought to.
But she was right. He couldn’t just strip down in front of Zoe to show her the shift.
So how could he show her how the process worked? How could he explain it and teach her without actually showing her?
Damn. He was going to need help, female help.
Deep in thought, considering his options, he was surprised when Rose put a mug of tea under his nose. He took it automatically. “Thanks.”
“You’re thinking really hard. What about?”
“How to show Zoe what I need to show her, without shocking and offending you both.”
Rose’s expression softened. “Thank you for taking my discomfort seriously.”
“What did you think I’d do?”
“I don’t know. Try to convince me it was natural and no big deal.”
“Rose, I don’t take your worries about any of this lightly. This is a huge thing for you both. It’s complicated and scary. I understand that. It’s necessary. She has to know and learn. But I won’t diminish the difficulty of that either.”
Her smile robbed him of sense for a moment. She used to look at him like that all the time. And every single time it had shaken him to his soul. Until that moment, he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed that expression, the way her face glowed with warmth, giving him a smile meant for him and him alone.
He’d do anything to have her smile at him that way for the rest of his life.
She turned away, ending the moment. And he hid his disappointment by sipping his tea. They would have time for their relationship, he promised himself. He hadn’t been lying to his brother about wanting Rose back. He just had to prove to her that she could trust him.
To do that, he had to make sure Zoe was safe.
“If I can find a female to help us, someone I can trust with knowledge of Zoe, would that be easier?” he asked.
“Do you know someone? Wouldn’t that alert your brothers?”
“The person I’m considering wouldn’t go to my brothers.”
“But?”
He sighed. He should have known Rose would hear his unspoken worry. “But she doesn’t necessarily like me. It’ll take some convincing to get her here.”
“If she doesn’t like you, how can you trust her?”
“I trust her to consider Zoe special and to be protective of her.”
“Who is this person?”
“She’s a close friend of my sister’s fiancé.”
“The sister you just met?”
“Yes.”
“Are you friends with her fiancé?”
“No.”
“Then why would his friend help you?”
He still had so much to explain to Rose, about his people and the tiger community that Zoe would have to learn to navigate. Explaining Nila’s relationship, explaining who Alexis Tarasova was and how he could trust her with Zoe, were difficult things to do without Rose knowing more.