License to Shift by Kathy Lyons

Author:Kathy Lyons
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2016-10-04T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Julie watched Mark settle back in her father’s recliner, looking like a man facing a firing squad.

“I don’t know what they are or why they attacked,” he said. “We have guesses, but nothing for certain.”

“And they are?”

He huffed out a breath. “Complicated.”

She matched him with her own heavy exhale. Julie had one goal this evening: to get answers. At least that’s what her tequila-sloshed brain told her. Sadly, that goal seemed to be at odds with what her body wanted.

Her body was all about noticing that Mark had shaved and changed, which made him look kind of dashing. Especially since he’d put on dark jeans and a plain black tee that hugged every ripped inch of him. No tats. Clean nails. And eyes that looked straight at her even as he seemed to be apologizing without even opening his mouth.

Weird. What did he have to be sorry for? Saving her life? Giving her great head? Or maybe it was that other part. The part about being a freaking bear. And since she’d just consumed enough tequila to wash away the filter between her brain and her mouth, questions just spilled out.

“Are you ashamed of being a bear?”

“Grizzly,” he corrected. “And no shame.”

She narrowed her eyes, trying to gauge if he lied. Men were notoriously clueless about their own emotions, but there seemed to be no half measure in his answer. And when she looked at him—evenly shaved and neatly dressed—she could sense the animal just below the surface. It was in the way he moved, she thought, or didn’t move. Right now, he sat with an animal stillness, a wary patience broken only by the occasional twitch of his nose. And when he moved, it was smooth and substantial. She’d assumed it was because he was a large man, but now she saw it as more. He carried the bear’s weight even as a man. The sheer power of a large predator, raw and untamed.

“Are you ashamed?” he asked.

She frowned. “Ashamed? Of what?”

“Going to bed with me? Of letting me—”

“No,” she said, cutting him off. The last thing her semi-drunk mind needed was a reminder of what they’d done this morning. Of how thoroughly he’d gotten her off and how much she really wanted to do that again.

“Repulsed, then,” he said, not even expressing it as a question.

“No,” she repeated more firmly. “I’m freaked, that’s for sure.” But still thoroughly aroused. “I mean what if you’d…you know, changed right in the middle?”

He shook his head. “Doesn’t happen.”

“Really? Why not?”

“Don’t know. I mean, sure, if it’s two shifters—usually teenagers—they’ll do it simultaneously. I think they feed off each other somehow. But the magic doesn’t work when intimate with a human. I don’t know why. And believe me, people have tried.”

“Magic?” Not a word she could possibly use as simple fact. And yet, the way he spoke, it was like he completely believed in fairy dust and magic potions.

He arched a brow. “Yes, magic. Energy. Whatever word you want to use. Just the weight differential alone can’t be explained by science.

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