Vivi Andrews - Jaguar's Kiss

She must’ve run for an hour, taking a wide loop through the northern pride lands before circling back to the main complex. The activity hadn’t abated. If anything there were more shifters on the paths now, getting settled themselves or helping others move in. Lila threaded around their ankles, careful not to trip anyone as she darted through the crowds.

This was what it was going to be like in the pride now. Crowded, with everyone smelling slightly of tension and fear.

“Lila.”

At the sound of her name, she darted off the side of the path, twisting to see the speaker.

Roman. Standing on the porch of one of the bungalows with a pair of elderly lynx. The older couple waiting patiently as Roman paused his conversation with them to call out to her.

“Come by my office later, if you would. We should talk.”

She bowed her head in assent and leapt back into motion, rushing off. Now the tangled, amorphous nervousness she’d woken up with had a point to focus on.

Roman wanted to talk to her. Roman never wanted to talk to her.

What had she done wrong? Well, obviously she knew what she’d done wrong. She’d made out with Santiago like a cat in heat, but could Roman know that? Sure there were times when it seemed like he was omniscient when it came to the pride, but usually he didn’t pay much heed to who was sucking face with whom. Though it might make a difference if one of the face suckers was his fiancée.

How was she going to face him? What was she going to say? She hadn’t been this nervous the one and only time she’d been called in front of the pride school’s principal. Of course, in that case, she’d known she was in the right. Patch had been being bullied and Lila had gotten in that fight because she needed to. She didn’t have an excuse this time. This time she was fully in the wrong. And somehow Roman knew.

How could he know? Did Santiago tell him? No. Lila was certain the jaguar wouldn’t have done that. Roman had probably just walked past the infamous fence post and smelled the two of them all over it.

She would explain it. Wild oats. Bridal jitters. Alcohol. It was perfectly understandable. Roman was a reasonable mountain of muscle and authority. He would understand. She hoped.

By the time she’d shifted back, showered again and changed into fresh clothes—which necessitated a good hour of primping until her nerves were diminished enough for her to leave the apartment—it was lunch time, so Lila stopped off to grab a couple of sandwiches at the commissary to take to Roman. Maybe if she fed him it would remind him that his fiancée had virtues to counterbalance the tendency to make out with strange jaguars immediately after the announcement of her wedding.

Roman’s office was in the middle of a housing cluster. Since the Alpha’s office was part of the main house, off on its own up on the hill, Roman had decided that the Alpha’s heir and second-in-command should be more accessible to the pride, to give him a chance to get to know his cats on a more casual basis before he became their master.

Lila agreed with the policy, but it meant she was ducking through more crowds as she made her way to the low-slung building that was Roman’s den. She scratched on his door, half-hoping he wouldn’t be in, but his deep baritone promptly called out, “Come in.”

Lila shoved open the door and he looked up from the file on his desk. “Lila. Thank you for coming.”

He was alone. Just the two of them as she let the door fall closed behind her. She should get used to it. When they were married, she was going to have to be alone with him.

“I brought you a sandwich.”

“Thank you. I’m starving.” His gaze flicked to the side, so rapidly she almost didn’t catch it, but when she looked over she saw the remnants of a massive meal piled on the sideboard.

She blushed. “You ate already. I should’ve known—”

“No, this is perfect,” he cut her off, rising and rounding his desk. “I’m always hungry. Something you’ll doubtless need to know about me.” He took the sandwiches from her hands and drew her to the chair beside his desk—not the one opposite, but a small one she’d never noticed positioned next to his throne-like one. “More food is always welcome. Drink?”

He sat in his chair and stretched out one long arm behind him to pop open a mini-fridge, stocked to bursting with Gatorade, bottled water, and, surprisingly, vanilla Coke.

“Water?” She cleared her throat when her voice came out a squeak.

He grabbed them two bottles of water and closed the fridge. Twisting off the tops on both, he set one in front of her and another at his elbow and reached for one of the sandwiches. Lila began slowly unwrapping her own.

“I wanted to talk to you because we haven’t talked in…well, ever. I think it’s past time we get to know each other, don’t you?”

“I’m sorry for ditching you with Patch last night and forgetting to come back,” she said hurriedly, starting with the easiest of the apologies. “I’d had a little too much to drink and—”

“No. No, it’s okay.” Roman was suddenly fascinated with his sandwich. Was he blushing ? What would make the big, bad Alpha-in-training blush?

His voice was rough when he began again, “I’d like us to be loyal to one another. Once we’re married. I think it would be best for the pride if there aren’t any perceived cracks in our relationship—”

“Right, of course.” Lila couldn’t agree with him fast enough. She needed him to know that what happened last night with Santiago, however Roman had found out about it, had been a fluke. “I’d like that too. I love loyalty.”

“And I thought perhaps it would be best if we got to know one another a little better.” He sounded so stiff and formal, just as uncomfortable as she was.

“I’d like that. Brilliant idea.” This was just what they needed. To get to know one another. Spend time together. Of course she had jitters about getting married, she didn’t know the man she was supposed to fall in love with, but if they could just talk…

“So.” Roman cleared his throat. “Ah, what kind of movies do you like?”

“Anything with a romance in it. Romantic comedies, romantic tragedies—as long as someone is falling in love, I’m hooked. You?”

“Action, mostly. Especially World War II. Strategy, life and death, honor being tested. What about books? Do you read a lot?”

“I love to read. Romances, again. And you?”

“Non-fiction.”

Lila forced herself to smile and nod. Lots of people had very happy marriages who had nothing in common. Lots of people.

Lila should not have been so relieved when their sandwiches were gone and she could make her escape. She glanced at her watch. Twenty minutes. She’d only been with him for twenty minutes, but they were among the longest twenty minutes of her life. They’d both been trying so hard and it had just been awkward.

Maybe next time would be better. Because there would be a next time. They were on a mission to make this marriage work and neither of them gave up easily. She was more resolved than ever. Roman may not be her soulmate, but he was perfect for the pride—more perfect than she could have imagined—and together they would make this work.

Climbing the external stairs to her apartment, she saw Patch bounding down them two at a time.

“Hey!” Patch leapt down the landing at her side. “I was just about to go looking for you.”

“I was having lunch with Roman.”

Patch’s eyes went wide. “Oh? How was it?”

“Awkward. Excruciatingly awkward. We’re trying to get to know each other. It’s like some bizarre Victorian courting ritual where we only talk about the most inconsequential things. By the end we were actually discussing the weather. Though, on the plus side, I now know that he likes thunderstorms, so there you have it. True love is right around the corner.”