In Heat: Mating Call (In Heat Shapeshifter Romance Series #2) Read Free Page B

in slacking off when needs be.”
    He frowned, as though he didn't need the reminder of how busy he'd been recently. She was glad they had this time together away from the city and their work. She had to go back to the lawyer's office after Boxing Day, but then they were coming back here for New Year's.
    She jumped when he slapped his hands down on the arms of his chair and sat up.
    “I need a run,” he said and stood.
    She watched him, studying his back as he walked. She could spend hours just watching him walk around when he was nude. His body was a work of art.
    He opened the French doors that led onto the garden and a chill breeze blew in. It seemed the weather was finally giving up its battle against winter. Up until now it had been quite mild and there'd been no frosts yet. She looked at the garden, thinking about how beautiful it would look covered in snow, and then back at Erik.
    Her brow rose when he pushed his jogging bottoms down, exposing his bare backside for a brief second before he was suddenly in his panther form.
    He stretched, his long thick black tail swishing side to side, and then he was running out of the door.
    She got up and walked over to his clothes, picking them up as she watched him heading towards the maze. She hugged his jogging bottoms to her chest, breathing in the lingering scent of his aftershave on them, and smiled when he disappeared from view.
    One day she'd be able to do that.
    She'd never asked Erik how he did it. Maybe she should, just to be prepared for when she had to make her first change. She was ready for the pain. She'd seen Erik change a lot since the night he'd revealed what he was, and each time there had been a look of pain in his eyes. The clicking and cracking of his bones as his body distorted into another shape sounded as though it hurt a lot, possibly more than he was letting show.
    Walking out into the hall, she retrieved her coat and Erik's and carried them with her back into the living room. She put his coat and clothes down on the chair and slipped her coat on, not bothering to button it. She grabbed his clothes, and his trainers from beside the door, and followed him out into the garden.
    The air was crisp and refreshing, chasing away all the sleepiness that had been invading her body and mind. She hugged Erik's clothes to her chest as she walked slowly towards the maze, taking her time so he'd have a good run before she found him.
    The wind blew against her, cutting through her clothes and making her feel chill.
    Her gaze trailed over the low box hedges that formed the patterns on the gravel in front of the maze. The lavenders and annuals that had been planted in them were all neatly trimmed back and there were no insects to be seen.
    She smiled to herself as she thought about the first time she'd walked down this path. It had been the first time she'd seen Erik in his panther form, not that she'd known back then that it was him. She'd had her suspicions though. The fact that he'd always begun to change in her dreams and always purred in them gave her reason enough to believe that there could be a connection between the panther and him.
    To think, she'd soon be ready for the mating and then they'd be together for eternity. It seemed like decades since the night Erik had told her he couldn't go through with it. She'd tried to be okay with it, but it had been hard. She knew in her heart that in a way Erik had been right and she hadn't been ready then, but she didn't want to lose him and she had been desperate to make sure that he'd always be hers. Alistair's threat of killing him had shaken her up. In a way it still shook her up. The thought that Erik could've died that day made her heart ache and her stomach turn. She couldn't face life without him.
    She walked into the maze and began following the route she'd put to memory so she'd never get lost. How did Erik feel whenever he came in here? It had been at the centre of this maze that he'd killed his brother. Did he