Making Promises by Amy Lane Read Free Book Online Page B

stopped.
    Mikhail was wearing the black shirt with a turquoise huntsman and new black trousers and he looked….
    “Handsome as a cat,” Shane said without meaning to, and then he wanted to smack his head against the four-by-four post holding the entire tent up.
    “One that chases worsted balls of words,” Mikhail finished for him, looking pleased. “And your sister—she is proud of her life here. Kurt is…

    he is not a good part of it, but he is only a part. She wants you to see that she’s happy. That is all—you don’t need to love the only addiction she still has, yes?”
    “I still haven’t met the guy,” Shane said, looking around. The entire tent—every wall—was filled with clothes neatly hung on dowels suspended on the support bars. All those clothes and not one damned leather jerkin.
    “We need to go somewhere else for trousers,” Mikhail said judiciously, and Shane looked down at the loose-fitting pair he’d just pulled up.
    “What’s wrong with these?”
    “They are baggy.”
    “They’re comfy,” Shane said, shifting his hips inside the roominess and deciding that this could be a very nice way to be costumed.
    Mikhail scowled at him and pulled at the sides of fabric at Shane’s hips, making the pants taut around his crotch. He looked up at Shane and smirked.
    “There is another style that is fitted—you will look very good in them.”
    “I don’t like to flash that around,” Shane grunted, jerking the loose fabric out of Mikhail’s hands, and Mikhail grinned at him.
    “I should think not, if you’ve only had one lover.” He grinned then with all his teeth, and Shane rolled his eyes.
    “One man ,” he said with emphasis. “I’ve had women too.” Mikhail’s eyes narrowed as though he didn’t like the thought of competition. “Did you like them?” he asked tauntingly, and Shane felt the need to clarify a few very personal things about his life.
    “I liked them fine,” he said firmly. “I’ve just got an equal opportunity pecker, that’s all.”
    One corner of that sulky little mouth came up in a pure sneer of scorn. “Then why so few lovers?”
    Shane grimaced. “Because I’ve got a one-chance heart, okay? Now let me go put on my jeans, and I’ll buy our clothes.” 36

    Mikhail opened his mouth in surprise and then something like outrage. “I’m not going to sleep with your ‘equal opportunity pecker’ just because you buy me clothes!” he protested, and Shane rolled his eyes.
    “I’d be disappointed if you did. I just feel like being nice. Now shut up or that urge will pass right quick.” And with that he stalked into the stall to change.
    By the time he’d gotten situated with the clothes (kept the tunic on, took the trousers off, put the jeans on, folded the T-shirt) several things had settled themselves in his mind.
    One thing was that Kimmy needed him. She might not have admitted it—and she might not even be prepared to act on it—but he knew without a doubt that she needed him. He was her only family, and there was a reason she’d started keeping contact and a reason she hadn’t asked for help when she’d had a tough time, and he needed to be there for her just like Deacon and Crick were there for him.
    Another thing was that he was way out of his league with Mikhail.
    The man was… beautiful, and quick, and funny, and very, very full of himself. How he could make arrogance appealing was beyond Shane, but Shane liked it very, very much.
    And the third thing—the thing that didn’t occur to him until he was approaching his sister and Mikhail as they held up the faerie wings and little girl dresses and big girl dresses that he wanted to buy for Parry Angel and Benny—was that Mikhail knew exactly what Shane had meant when he was thinking kittens and yarn.
    He wondered if he could clone that quality and inject it into someone who was not so beautiful it made his breath stop in his chest.

    She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t