Ice_Reaux - Laura Wright Page 0,31
snorted. “Can you believe that shit?”
“No.” She stood, legs still unsteady. She didn’t know what to make of any of it. “I’m going home. I’m really tired.”
“Sure. Call me if you need me, okay?”
She gave her friend a quick hug, then left the office. Now she understood. He’d thought she was reacting to his musk. She had to convince him that wasn’t true. Because it didn’t matter what scent he was throwing off, or who he didn’t treat. She needed him. With a little kindness and care, he’d broken down something inside her. Maybe, just maybe, he could help her rebuild it. Twice as strong. So that she could hold on to the child she had, find the two she’d lost, and ultimately be the mother each deserved.
***
Shirt off, sweat glistening on his skin, Reaux lay perfectly balanced on his back on a tree branch, under the late afternoon sun and overlooking the rushing bayou. He was exhausted. Quinton and Via’s session had been in the water today. There was no other way to get them out of their cats and into their human forms. They’d been stuck that way for a month. Too much damn rutting. Not to mention the constant need to remain on guard.
No longer were the enemies of the Pantera residing outside the borders of the Wildlands. More and more, they were breaching and coming to either take or destroy. Reaux had refused to visit either the flames of the bombed Headquarters or the start of the rebuild. Anger was always something to be feared with him. It seemed to intensify his musk. And with so many females around, he didn’t want the attention to be taken off what was vitally important. Seemed he was retreating deeper and deeper lately.
Just as he was nodding off, the sun penetrating his skin, the scent of sweet mint rushed his nostrils. Immediately, his weary body stirred. In both defense and in awareness. His jaw tightened and his nostrils flared. What the hell was she doing here?
“Stay where you are,” he growled low and fierce. “Not another step.”
The sound of footfall ceased, then a weary voice responded, “Okay.”
It bothered him, that thread of emotional and physical exhaustion in her tone. Made his awareness vibrate. Made everything inside him ache to help. It was why, long ago as a young cub, he’d hoped to become a Healer. Finding the reasons behind pain and working with the individual to push through it. It’s what his own Healer had done for him back when his curse emerged. That, and made him feel like less of a freak.
“Why are you here, Karen?” he demanded.
“I need to talk to you.”
“I told you—”
“That you only treat couples. I know.”
“If you know, then you should be back at the clinic with another Healer.”
“I also understand why you work with couples.”
He sat up, turned to face her. “You do?”
She nodded. Standing several feet below him, surrounded in green foliage and dappled sunlight, her red hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, she looked disturbingly pretty. She’d changed clothes and was wearing dark gray jeans and a white tank top. She had a lush, very female body; tall, strong, with incredible curves. She was human, true. But she was built for a Pantera male. To both ride and be ridden.
That thought had Reaux snarling at himself. The last thing he needed to do was have physical opinions about this woman. “You need to go, Karen. Now.”
She shook her head. “No.”
She was stubborn as hell. “If you understand about me, then you know you shouldn’t be here. Shouldn’t be anywhere near me. And why I absolutely can’t treat you.”
“But—”
“No buts.”
“I’m not sexually interested in you, Reaux.”
He stilled, his ass digging into the branch. What had she just said? He stared down at her. At first, curious. Perhaps even hopeful. Then, disbelieving.
She took a step forward despite his warning. “I’m serious.”
He snorted.
“There’s no desire here.”
“Impossible.”
“Wow.”
He sighed. “I don’t mean that in an arrogant way, I assure you. It’s fact. A lifetime of it.”
“That may be,” she said, hands going to her hips. “But it has no effect on me. You have no effect on me. Maybe it’s because I’m human.”
He jumped down from the tree branch, landing a few feet in front of her. He was surprised and intrigued when she didn’t startle. Especially when she lifted her chin at him.
“It doesn’t matter what blood courses through your veins, Karen. Or any female’s, for that matter. What