Here Kitty, Kitty! (16 page)

“So you’re with my Nikky.”

Angie almost choked on her iced tea, “No…I’m staying with him temporarily.”

“In his bed?”

Angie put down her glass.  “No.”  She wasn’t lying.  At least, at the moment, she wasn’t.

“But ya wanna be.  In his bed.”

Angie just didn’t have the patience of Sara when it came to old women.  Her grandmother had been a saint.  A lovely woman who raised Angie even during those really dark high school years when all that pent up rage toward her parents found an outlet in random acts of violence.  To this day, it still cut her how much her violent years hurt her grandmother.

But other than that, she didn’t buy into the whole respecting one’s elders thing.  Of course she blamed that on Sara’s grandmother.  The whole town still talked about the time she decked Lynette Redwolf when she found her hitting Sara with a broom.  If it hadn’t been for Miki and Sara, she probably would have killed the old bitch.

“Look, old woman, what I do or don’t do with your adult grandson is my own goddamn business.”

“You’re an ornery big-boned gal, ain’t ya?”

“And you’re a cranky old bitch.  So I guess that makes us like sisters.”

Chuckling, the old woman turned back to her chicken.  “Well, my Nik’s in for a time with you.”

She moved the pieces of chicken around a bit, and put the top on and limped over to the table.  She sat down heavily, a sigh easing from her thin lips.

“So what do you wanna know?”

Finally
.  “The war between the Magnus Pack and the Withell Pride.  Know anything about that?”

“Sure.”

She said that awfully quick.  “Maybe I should re-phrase.  Do you know anything I’ll actually find interesting?”

The old woman leaned across the table toward Angie.  It took all of Angie’s ice-like demeanor not to shy away from her.  “Did ya know that those two bitches were friends?”

“What two bitches?”

“Annie Withell and Kylie Redwolf?”

No.  She didn’t know that.  And Sara definitely didn’t know that.

Grinning at her like she knew Angie would taste good with ketchup, Broyna took the bowl of beans and motioned to the section of the table where she’d already started the biscuits.  “Go finish up them biscuits and I’ll tell ya some interesting things about them stuck-up lions and crotch-licking dogs.”

Angie rolled her eyes. 
Tricky goddamn cats
.

***

Nik sat on his front porch, his feet up on the railing, a copy of
The Portable Mark Twain
on his lap.  He watched his brothers drive up toward his house in Alek’s Chevy pickup.  One of the few vehicles both men could comfortably fit in together.  His sister and cousin were in Reena’s Porsche.

They pulled to a stop in front of him.  Ban stuck his head out the window.

“You better come on.  We gotta rescue your girl.”

Nik swung his feet off the banister, a low growl emanating from his chest.  “What the hell are you talking about?”  Already his mind tore through all the different horrible scenarios.

“Momma left her alone…with One-Eyed Grandma.”

“Shi-it!”  He jumped over the railing and dived into the cab of Alek’s truck.

It was worse than he thought.

Chap
ter Ten

“Put this outside.”

With an annoyed sniff, Angie snatched the jug of iced tea out of Broyna’s hands.  “Any other orders, Mien Fuehrer?”

“I’m sure I’ll think of something,” she cackled.

Angie stomped outside, the jug between her hands.  As she walked to the porch stairs, a honey Porsche and a sweet pickup truck drove up.  As the vehicles came to a stop, Nik jumped out the back of the truck.

As soon as he saw her, he stopped.  And stared.  Her body immediately responded.  His gaze flickering across her flesh as if she were naked.

The jug slipped from her hands, and she immediately tightened her grip.  That’s when she realized Kisa had taken it from her.

“Afternoon, Angie.”  Kisa walked into her grandmother’s house.  The rest of Nik’s kin moved past her, none of them bothering to hide their smirk.  She wanted to be angry.  Wanted to believe they were sitting around having a good laugh at her expense, so that she could stop feeling this way about the man.  Especially when she knew he could never return it.  Not really.  But she knew better.  Nik hadn’t said anything to them.  He didn’t have to.  Their lust hung off them both in great slabs of heat.

Once they were all inside, Nik motioned to her with just a tilt of his head.  “Come here.”

“Not on your life,” she whispered with a hard shake of her head.  “I’ve had enough of your family finding me in difficult situations with you.”

His smile spread across her like a sunrise.  “If I have to come get you, I’ll make sure they find you in a
very
difficult situation.  Now, come here.”  His growl slid down to her stomach and right between her legs.

She glanced over her shoulder at the front door.  She could hear laughter and chatter from inside the house.  She walked down to him, but stopped on the last step.

“I’m waitin’.”

She folded her arms in front of her chest.  “You come the rest of the way.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m worth every step you’ll take.”

***

Hot damn
.  He did love a woman who didn’t make it easy.  He walked over to the steps and stared down at her.  Such a sassy little thing.

“Now what?”  He leaned in, sniffed her neck.  “I know, how about anything?”

“You had a shot at anything this morning, and from what I remember you blew it.”

A
damn
sassy little thing.

“Well, there’s anything, Sugar,” he licked her neck and she gave that sexy little whimper.  “And there’s anything.”

“My friend warned me about you cats.”

“The dog?”

“No.  The genius.”

“Interesting friends.”  He grazed his thumb across the pulse point on her neck.  “Did ya miss me today?”

She slapped his hand off.  “Yes.  I pined all afternoon.  Can’t you tell?”

“Hey, girl,” O-E-G barked from the house and Angie’s eyes rolled back in her head with serious annoyance.  “Get your butt back in here.  We ain’t done.”

“I’m so close to killing her.”

“I’ll go hide the steak knives.”

***

Angie reached across the table to put down a bowl of green beans and both Nik’s brothers tilted their heads to get a good look at the long legs stretching out from her shorts.

He slapped both of them in the back of the head.  “Stop doing that.  Now.”

“A man can appreciate a view.”

“A man can also lose both his eyes in a tragic tiger mauling.”

His brothers snickered and he felt his annoyance grow.  Hard not to let it happen when he was as horny as a dog.  Just watching her move had his mouth watering.  Classy.  Sweet.  Funny.  A real lady.

Angie evaluated the table, then stepped back.  “
Dinner!”

All three brothers jumped.  A real lady who could out-scream a football stadium.

His parents showed up as they made their way to the table.  His mother stormed out of Boris’ pickup truck, slamming the door behind her.  She looked angry as hell, but she still had a hickey on her neck.

“Good,” Boris boomed.  “I didn’t miss momma’s fried chicken.”  He smiled at Angie.  “Best fried chicken in the entire South.”

Boris stood at one end of the table while Nik helped his grandmother into a chair on the opposite end.  His father pulled out a chair for Angie and then another for his mother.  Angie sat while Natalia slapped Boris’ hand away, re-adjusted the chair, and sat down.  The fact his mother agreed to stay for dinner at his grandmother’s house was quite a feat for his father.  No wonder the old man beamed like he bought another company.

Nik settled his grandmother and walked down to the seat beside Angie.  Ban already took Nik’s seat next to Angie, so he grabbed the chair his brother sat in, lifted up both, and moved him closer to Reena.  He grabbed another chair and sat down beside her.

Angie shook her head, “And to think I used to wish I had brothers and sisters.”

“What do you mean?  I love my family.”

Angie simply snorted in response.

Nik pushed a stray hair behind Angie’s ear, “So, Sugar, why exactly are you here?”

“Spending quality time with the Clampetts really can’t be beat.”

His hand strayed down to her bare leg, caressing it under the table.  He loved that she jumped at his touch.  “Still think you’re better than my family?”

“Oh, honey.  I don’t think I’m better than your family.”  She lifted his hand and placed it on the table.  “I think I’m better than you.”

Nik smiled as his father slammed his fist down on the table.

“I
do
like this girl!”

***

Well, Angie had to admit it.  She
liked
these people.  They were funny and interesting.  They kept her laughing all through dinner with stories of their other relatives and the people from town, shifter and human.  Broyna said very little except for the occasional snide remark about a cousin or local.  She seemed simply to enjoy having her grandkids and son around.

Of course, Angie found none of this surprising.  Southerners always did tell the best stories.  Of course, they were also the ones with relatives named Big Earl and Jackie Ray.

After dinner, things slowed down a bit.  The family wandered from the table, Ban and Alek helping their grandmother back into the house.  Reena and Kisa went off to talk to Natalia while Boris stepped away to check his messages on his cell phone.

All of which essentially left her alone with Nik.

He grabbed hold of the chair by its legs, turning it, and her, around so that she faced him.  He pulled the chair in close to him, so that his big legs ended up bracketing hers.

She expected him to say something, but he didn’t.  He simply stared at her face.  After two minutes of that, she grew considerably uncomfortable.

“What?”

“Nothin’.”

“Then stop staring at me.  You’re freaking me out.”

“Everything freaks you out.”

“Not true.  I have a very high tolerance for weirdness.  I have a high tolerance for you, don’t I?”

“And my family.”

“They’re nice.”  She always wondered what it was like to come from a big family.  Angelina didn’t know.  Her parents were never close to their few siblings and other relatives.  And once they dumped her off in Texas it was like she no longer existed to the rest of her family.

He rubbed her legs with both of his hands, stopping to touch a rather long, simple scar cutting across her right knee.

“How’d ya get this?”

She glanced down at it, “Knife fight.”

“A knife fight?”

“Yup…well…I didn’t have a knife.  I’m not really good with knives.”

“I see.”

“I had a baseball bat.”

She looked off down the path that led to the house.  Headlights headed their way in the murky light that came before it went pitch black.

“I guess you learned to use that from the baseball player.”

“Nope.  He taught me to pitch.  The head of the motorcycle club I dated when I was sixteen until Marrec found out…He taught me how to use a baseball bat.  I don’t think he expected me to use it on him, though.”

She glanced at Nik, “Hey, don’t look at me that way.  He’s back on solid food.”

“You gonna tell me what happened?”

“What’s there to tell?  He was mean to my friends.  That’s all I needed to know.”

He grunted and, for some unknown reason, seemed satisfied with her answer.  Maybe it was a shifter thing.  She’d stop telling her dates that story long ago.  They’d go to the bathroom after dinner and never return.

“Someone’s coming.”

Nik nodded, but he seemed eternally interested in her legs.  “I know.”  His hands wrapped around her knees and she marveled at the size of them.  “Do you have a boyfriend, Angelina?”

Why did the men in his family insist on asking her that question?

Angie thought back on the rodeo clown.  He’d wanted to be her boyfriend.  At least, he did in the beginning.  But like all the others, he soon realized her friends were the most important thing to her and she really didn’t want anyone touching her unless it involved fucking.  That last bit seemed to be the biggest problem for him.  She had no idea why.  He still would have gotten laid.  But instead he got needy and possessive.  She hated that.

“No.  I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Good,” he squeezed her knees.

Suddenly, the man’s hands were on the move, sliding up her legs, his thumbs disappearing between her thighs.  Angie jumped, practically off the chair, as a little whimper escaped her throat.  Her hands grabbed his wrists and he stopped moving.  But she knew he could have kept going if he wanted to.  His arms were like big, thick steel rods.