Desperately Seeking Shapeshifter by Jessica Sims Read Free Book Online

if I see you having trouble changing, I’m going to step in and help.”
    “Fine.” I didn’t want to walk around with a wolf snout. And I was still a little melty from the “perfect” comment. “We’re good, then.”
    A slow grin began to slide across his rugged face, transforming it from harsh and forbidding to . . . blatantly sexy. Inviting. Delicious.
    I cleared my throat and glanced toward the house, trying to distract him. “So do I get to go inside? Or are we bunking on your porch for the next few weeks?”
    His mouth twitched. “House is all yours.”
    Oh, goody. I ducked under his enormous arm. I had a fascination with old houses, and it was obvious that this one was well past its expiration date.
    It was even worse inside. The paint was peeling, and tattered wallpaper hung from the walls. I glanced up at the staircase, where pretty much every other step was broken. Upstairs, I could see a hole punched through a wall and more ragged wallpaper hanging down.
    Ramsey paused behind me and I felt his presence on the back of my neck, a subtle prickle.
    I felt like I had to say something. “You sure you’re not into fixer-uppers?”
    “No.”
    Alrighty, then. “Did you just move in?”
    “Twelve years ago,” he said in the same gruff tone.
    My eyes widened and I moved away from the wall, which looked like it was in danger of crumbling. I regarded the wallpaper more closely. Hadage made it fall to tatters, or were those claw marks?
    “Okay,” I said. I could handle this. Given some time and some effort, this could be a home. Even if it was a dump, it beat living as the wolf pack’s bitch. I took a few steps forward and put my hand on the banister, which wobbled, as if it was about to fall over. I glanced over at Ramsey. “I assume we’re going to clean up if we’re going to be staying here?”
    He hadn’t moved from his spot in the hallway, perilously close to a hole in the floor and far more comfortable with it than I was. As he leaned one meaty shoulder against the wall, I expected to hear the entire house creak and groan. “We?”
    “Yes, we,” I agreed. “You and I. The wonder duo. We’re supposed to be mated, and I’m not about to clean this heap by myself.”
    Ramsey just stared at me with those too-serious dark eyes.
    “And any woman in her right mind would not live in this sh—uh, place. It’s a mess. It’s like it gave birth to a mess. The original mess.”
    His eyes had narrowed to dangerous slits. “I don’t normally stay here.”
    “Duh,” I said before I could help myself. I wasn’t staying in this shithole if it continued to be a shithole, but that was a battle I could fight in the morning, when I wasn’t so tired.
    I continued to make my way through the house, hoping to see an improvement on one of the upper floors, but they were all as wrecked as the first one. Ramsey followed me up the stairs like a grim specter,and I paused in the hallway, kicking aside some rubble and broken glass before I moved forward.
    “Our room’s down the hall,” he said, then turned and left.
    Well, okay then.
    There were several rooms down the hallway, but I peeked into each one. Empty. No furniture, so obviously not our room. I pushed open the last door at the end of the hall, but it stuck on the hinges, warped. Lovely. I shoved it twice before it opened halfway and then got stuck on the floor again. I shoved it once more, but it wouldn’t budge, so I squeezed through to get a look around at my room. A bed sagged at the far end of the room, the blankets neatly made but covered in dust. Leaves and debris peppered the floor, and I glanced upward at a hole in the ceiling—an impromptu skylight. I hoped it didn’t rain during my visit.
    I sat down on the edge of the bed and ignored the dust cloud that puffed up. The fixture overhead didn’t have a lightbulb, and I wondered if this heap even had wiring. I didn’t see a light switch anywhere.
    If Ramsey wanted to ensure that we had