Free Along Came a Tiger (Tiger Shifters) by Kat Simons

embarrassment. She was acting silly. “I believe you.” She did, even if her tone didn’t make it obvious.
    Shit. She really did need some air. “Will you trust me to walk around outside or do you want to come with me?”
    “I trust you not to run away now.”
    Now because he was taking her to find evidence against Williams, she realized. If not for that, he wouldn’t have trusted her.
    “Do you want company?” he asked more quietly. “Or do you need time alone?”
    She needed time alone. “I’d like the company.”
    He hesitated and then followed her to the mudroom off the kitchen and the door that took them into the open yard.
    In the daylight, she could see the property better and spotted the horse barn a few hundred yards from the house. The area was mostly grass and dirt. The house sat atop a small rise, the barn on the same hill. At the base of the hill, a little stream cut through a meadow that was edged by a few trees. Not enough to hide a hunting tiger, but enough to provide shade on a hot summer day.
    It was still early enough in the day that the temperature was reasonable, the humidity down. The air currents carried a strong scent of grass. The sun warmed her skin. The place was peaceful. A kind of sanctuary, with the nearest neighbor barely visible in the distance.
    Sarah’s own retreat was significantly smaller. She made good money, but she’d only been able to afford a little cabin in the woods while still paying rent on her apartment in Philly. The retreat was her territory, the place she went when she needed peace and freedom. She was surprised she felt a similar peace in another woman’s territory.
    “It’s beautiful here,” she commented.
    Daniel grunted.
    She wanted to laugh. Not much of an answer. For a tiger, he’d always seemed so unaware of the beauty of nature surrounding them. Her Mate Run took place in an isolated, hard to reach part of the central Appalachians where they were unlikely to come across any humans. It was beautiful and primal. But Daniel had always seemed oblivious to the scenery.
    He’d been fully focused on her.
    Her heartbeat jumped and she cut a look at him. In the sunlight, his dark brown hair showed a few lighter highlights. And his eyes …His eyes were stunning, such a surprisingly vivid blue, surrounded by thick, dark lashes.
    When he shifted to his tiger form, his eyes stayed blue. That didn’t always happen with other tigers. The human appearance didn’t predict the tiger shape. But Daniel was a rare white tiger, and he took the stunning color of his eyes into that shape.
    He paused when he caught her staring. “Everything okay?”
    She nodded, but her throat was dry. Remembering their kiss in the kitchen only increased her need for him. The part of her feeling guilty for her desire seemed to sink farther away, growing dimmer and dimmer as she eased closer to Daniel’s heat.
    Her nose filled with his unique scent. Delicious. A scent that made her want to bury her face in his neck and just soak him up.
    “Sarah?”
    She licked her lips. She finally understood why females weren’t allowed to be around the males once they started running. Resisting temptation was impossible. She stepped close enough they were touching, her breasts brushing just barely against his hard chest. He was so tall she had to drop her head back to catch his gaze.
    To her surprise, he didn’t step away. She’d expected him to be strong, to insist on the self-control they needed to exercise. Instead, his chest rose and fell a little faster as his breathing increased. His desire spiked and added an element to his scent that called to her lust. Their scents started mingling. Oh, she loved that smell, the combination of flavors that was theirs, and theirs alone. So perfect and so wonderfully delicious.
    He stared down at her without moving to take her in his arms, without dropping his mouth to hers. He was waiting for her, she realized, waiting for her to decide what happened next.