Tarian Outcast (Page 7)

Oh, he had a single small tattoo on his inner bicep, a perfect set of washboard abs, impeccable pecs, and the sexiest happy trail leading from his belly button down, down into his pants. He also had light silver slash-mark scars all over his arms and torso, but it only added to his appeal. Apparently, she liked bad boys.

He pulled a water out of the minifridge and opened it and took a drink, his profile to Katy. A bead of sweat trailed down his arm.

“This is like a movie,” she murmured, and suddenly, she was no longer sitting in her chair but was smashed up against the window glass watching Kannon’s one-man show.

He drank half the water bottle down and then poured the rest over his head. It splashed onto his face and ran down his shoulders and chest.

“Are you serious right now?” Dillon griped.

Was that her moaning?

Kannon was fighting a smile as he grabbed a towel and dragged it over his wet skin, across his chest and down his stomach, and then he toweled off his hair until it stuck up just perfectly.

Was that her sighing?

And then he did the sexiest thing yet, made his way over to a recycling bin. He met Katy’s eyes and held her gaze as he dropped the plastic bottle inside.

“Oh, he even recycles,” the lady plastered to the window glass next to her murmured.

“So freaking hot,” Katy agreed.

A crowbar went sailing at his face, but Kannon caught it easily. He cracked up as Dillon stomped out of the garage and yelled, “I hate you, man!” over his shoulder.

The gentleman waiting on the other side of the room for his tire to be changed sighed the most annoyed sound Katy had ever heard, but that was okay. He just couldn’t appreciate the gift of hormone surges Kannon had just given the ladies. Unlucky him.

Ten minutes later, Kannon had the tire changed and rang up the grump across the room. “You ready?” he asked her with a wink.

Unable to find a single intelligent thing to say, she said, “Me hungry.”

Kannon snorted and ran his hands through his still-damp hair. “Me hungry, too.”

“I’m hungry, too!” the lady with the dog informed them.

“Get your own,” Katy muttered as she sidled around her and followed Kannon out the door.

“Dillon, can you ring up the inspection?” Kannon asked. “She’s all ready to go. I pulled her truck out front for her. I’ll be back in an hour.”

“Oh, sure, just leave me and the boys to do all of the work,” Dillon said.

“You haven’t done anything all day,” Kannon retorted without missing a step. “Earn your paycheck, or I’ll start looking for someone who works more and complains less.”

“Wait, are you the boss here?” she asked as she jogged to catch up.

“Head mechanic. My boss, Jimmy, owns this place. I’m not head honcho, but I run that team back there for him. The garage is mine to run during the day shift, and he handles the evenings so I can get back to Tarian Territory at a decent hour.

Kannon’s stride was really long, and he had the grace of a predator, while Katy was much more like a petite rhinoceros that had stepped on a thorn. She had to keep jogging a few steps to catch up when she fell too far behind.

“I like your tank top,” he murmured, glancing down at it.

Katy scrunched up her face as she looked down at the black shirt with the gold logo that said I like Sax with an outline of a saxophone under it.

“Remember when I told you it was laundry day when I packed for this trip? I only have ridiculous clothes here. I’m going to go shop for some souvenir T-shirts after I meet my friend, Drea, today. I bet she’ll come with me. We used to shop all the time.”

“There’s some cute boutiques on Main Street.” Kannon’s dark eyebrows lowered. “Not that I pay attention to that stuff.”

She laughed and slid her hand into the crook of his elbow. “I’m not making a move on you. I’m just training you to walk at a human pace so I don’t trip and die trying to keep up with you.”

“Oh, sorry.” He cleared his throat. “Not used to being around humans like this. I work at the shop, but we don’t have humans in the Pride, so I don’t spend time talking to them outside of business. Or walking with them.”

“Why no humans in your Pride? Are they not allowed?”

“Nope. There hasn’t been a Tarian human since the Pride began. To us, humans are the outcasts, not the other way around.”

“Oh.” Katy gripped his arm a little firmer as the reality of his words hit her. They might be eating lunch together, but they were from two completely different worlds.

“A big tough lion shifter who knows where the boutiques are in town.”

Kannon pulled his arm closer to his body, squeezing her hand in place. “Honestly, it’s because there’s this hot outfit on a mannequin in the front window of one. Skinny jeans with all these rips across the thigh and this looser shirt but it has these little thin straps… I don’t know. It’s silly.”

“Why aren’t you paired up?” she asked suddenly.

“Whoa, nosy,” he said, shaking his head.

“Well, you know why I’m not paired up and it’s super embarrassing. So why can’t I ask what happened to get you to three point five decades old and no wife. Or…mate?”

“It wasn’t for lack of trying up until a few years ago. I wanted one. My lion wanted one. But then we were in war after war and fighting all the time, and what kind of life is that for a woman? None of the girls in my Pride stuck, and what right did I have to drag someone into what happened to the Tarians?”

“What happened to them?” she asked.

He looked like he would tell her for a moment. For a split second, he stared down at her and parted his lips. His eyes were so raw. But then he asked her instead, “Where are you meeting Drea?”

The change in direction happened so fast she stammered her answer until she could find her balance again. “I-I umm, think she s-said something about a Swampy Frog Saloon.”

“That place is good,” he murmured quietly as he led her to the taco truck.

She didn’t understand him. His mood had changed. He’d been easy-going until she’d asked about his Pride. Maybe there was some rule that he wasn’t allowed to talk about his people or something. Maybe she’d crossed a line. But then again, she hadn’t known she was doing anything wrong. She didn’t know the rules with shifters. All she knew is that she wanted to find out more about Kannon. Not because she was nosy, but because she liked him. Or…found him interesting. Yes, that. Because liking him was dangerous.

They didn’t match.

Just like she and Dayton hadn’t matched, and she would be damned if she went through all that again.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she slowed to a stop in front of the taco truck and checked the text.

“Think of the devil, and he shall appear,” she muttered, narrowing her eyes at the message.

I’ve been thinking about you all night.

“I want him to stop,” she said. “I want him to leave me alone.”

Kannon murmured, “Truth. You meant everything you just said.” He pointed to his ear and said, “I can tell.”

“What do I do?”

“You block him, or I can get involved and make it stop for you.” His tone had gone low and dangerous on the last part. “This is how he is, right? That’s how he kept you on the line for so long. A woman like you. You’re leagues above him, but you stuck around because he got you addicted to the little amount of attention he would give you in the good times…right?”

Katy’s eyes had gone so wide they were drying out in the stiff wind. “That’s right.”

“He’s one of those men who doesn’t take care of his toy, but gets possessive if someone else plays with it.”

“So it seems.”

“Katy? You know you’re not a toy, right?”

“I…” Katy frowned. Did she? For so long, she’d breathed for any kind word from him. Praised him when he decided to take her on a date in public. Thought well of him when he actually paid for their movie tickets. Lit up for two days when he threw a half-assed compliment her way.

“I used to think I was, but I’m starting to feel differently now. I think I’m really damaged, but it’s my own fault.”

“How so?” he asked.

“Because I allowed him to treat me like that for so long. I didn’t fight it. I just thought that was the most I deserved and accepted all the crappy things he did to me. In a way, I trained him to treat me like that.”

“Nah, it’s on him for being a shitty man.”

“But I can’t control his actions, or his feelings. I can only control mine, and I told him it was okay to treat me like that instead of telling him no or leaving.”

“Katy, that’s you being sweet and having a heart of gold. You are a woman who checks yourself and owns your own shit, but you can’t own it all. He also treated you like that because he’s a user, and you’re nice, you’re light, and sometimes people are attracted to the light ones because there is darkness in them they don’t know how to fill. So he drained you trying to make himself feel better, but it’s not your job to be a man’s medicine. Do you understand? He has to be your partner, have your back, show you how important you are, because you’re really important. You’re rare. The world needs more nice people like you. More light ones. A weak man uses his woman to make him feel better about the areas he’s failing, so he doesn’t have to work any harder on himself. A strong man lifts his woman up, shows her she’s never alone, builds her confidence and trust in him, treats her like his queen. Now tell me, which one do you deserve?”