Serengeti Sunrise - By Vivi Andrews Page 0,6
in the pride though. I bet you’re the one who taught Ava everything she knows about diplomacy.”
“Something you never learned, apparently.”
Zoe’s soft laughter rippled out to fill the cab. Not the reaction he’d expected, but Zoe rarely conformed to expectations. The brim of her cowboy hat knocked against the window, tipping it back so he had a better view of her face and the easy warmth of her smile. A knot tightened low in his gut.
“I never did see much point in tact.” She linked her fingers over the knee wedged against his thigh, the backs of her fingers pressing into his leg. His jeans suddenly felt tight, but he couldn’t remove her hand without acknowledging her touch affected him, so he tightened his hands on the steering wheel, keeping his eyes locked on the road ahead.
“What I don’t get is why you need to be Mr. Diplomacy. Ava, I get. She’s tiny and that’s like tattooing kick me on your forehead in the prides. But you’re one of the biggest shifters I’ve ever seen. Why weren’t you the Alpha before Landon and I showed up? Are you just a really crappy fighter or something?”
His lion sent a growl rumbling out of his throat at the insult before he could swallow it down.
Zoe chuckled and her fingers uncurled to pet his thigh. “Down, boy.”
He wanted her hands on him, petting, stroking. Just a little higher. Her skin would be soft, her hands firm and capable. Stroking him from base to tip, wringing need from him in juicy drops…
Tyler grabbed her hand off his leg and flicked it away from him before he gave in to the urge to grind himself against her. “Not everyone wants to rule the world.” His voice sounded odd—too rough and low.
She folded her arms across her stomach, tucking her knees in so they no longer pressed against him. He didn’t suspect for a second he’d hurt her feelings with the rebuff. With Zoe, a strategic retreat was much more likely. Feint and parry. Retreat and advance. A constant campaign to test for weaknesses in his defenses.
She tipped her head and the cowboy hat slid back farther. “I get that you aren’t power crazy, but my impression is that pride life was pretty much hell under Leonus. I’m surprised you wouldn’t take him out just to improve living conditions. Seems like that kind of noble shit would be right up your alley.”
He could have explained. He could have told her that he was Alpha of his own pride: Caleb, Kane, Michael and Ava. Protecting his younger siblings had been his top priority since his father left. Being Alpha of Three Rocks would have made him responsible for ten times as many lions. He couldn’t care for that many and still look after his four the way he needed to, so he had ruthlessly suppressed his frustration at the way the pride was run under Leonus. His family came first. Always.
“I never claimed to be noble.”
Zoe hummed her agreement. “Tricky thing, nobility. The more claims you make to it, the less you have.”
“So I must be noble because I told you I’m not?”
She shook her head and the cowboy hat gave up the fight, tumbling down over her shoulder. She caught it one-handed and tucked it into her lap, running her long, slim fingers over the brim. “It doesn’t work in reverse,” she explained. “But if you’d said you were noble, I’d have known you were full of shit. Denial is a good sign.”
He flicked her a glance out of the corner of his eye and had trouble looking away. They were on the ranch drive now, so he didn’t really need to pay much attention to the road, but looking at it was safer than watching her. Zoe King was a hazard to his senses.
Curled in the passenger seat like the cat she was, her green-gold eyes never wavered from him as her fingers stroked patterns in the hat, teasing him with thoughts of those same fingers branding patterns into his skin with a touch.
God, she was gorgeous. Tall and strong like a Viking goddess, with curves just where he wanted them. Her face was so actively expressive it was easy to miss the sheer beauty of it—the high cheekbones and lush, inviting fullness of her mouth. Tyler often found himself captivated by her constantly changing expressions. He could sit and watch her for hours, sucked in by the way each thought and emotion tracked across