Nights of Roshan by Billy London Read Free Book Online Page B

feet.
    “Come on.” He held out his hand to her and pulled her away from the oven to set the timer. “The food will take about a half hour. Come and sit with me for a bit.”
    Not giving her the chance to refuse, he nudged her into the living space. Moonlight spotlighted the whole room, even overpowering the fairy lights on the tree. Roshan sat her down, then wrapped a large, cashmere throw around the both of them. Neiri tucked herself closer and he tightened his arms around her. He’d always thought of Christmas as entirely overrated. With Neiri quiet in his arms, he understood it. Finally.
    “When you say grandchildren,” Neiri said into the lull, “you’re serious? Truthfully, deadly serious?”
    “Why wouldn’t I be?”
    “Because you barely know me.”
    Stubborn female. “What do I need to know about you that would make you a bad person to parent with? And what do you still need to know about me that would make me a terrible father?”
    “Well…”
    “Is this about you being sneaky around my pool?”
    “My pool and no.” She rubbed her face against his neck. “Mmm. You smell nice.”
    “Thanks,” he said warily. “Why are you changing the subject?”
    “Because it’s getting a bit intense and I really, really want those king prawn tempura bites.”
    With a laugh, Roshan placed a kiss on the top of her head. “All right then. We’ll leave it until after you’ve had some food.”
     “Can we go for a swim instead?”
    He was in no mind to refuse her just to discuss a direction they’d already taken. Neiri collected a bikini and then they swam for an hour in contentment. Neiri floated on the surface, sunglasses on her face. The pleasure it gave him to be able to change into his beast and swim beside her, seemed endless. She grazed her nails through his fur when he passed by her, and even dived to the bottom of the pool with him.
    “Synchronised!” she claimed when they surfaced. He allowed her to wrap her arms around his neck, the length of her body pressed to his arched feline back as he floated through the water, diving every so often with random abandon.
    “You’ve got markings on the back of your ears,” she told him, as he rested his paws on the side, and Neiri tickled one ear as she stroked her thumb over it.
    “Like a fingerprint,” he replied, eyes closed in delight. “Everyone’s different.”
    “You’re a very pretty cat.”
    He would have wriggled her from him for such insubordination, but her nails were scratching his G-spot, just underneath his ear. The alarm for the garage entrance sounded, wailing through the pool. Roshan shifted and gently removed Neiri from his back. “Stay here ... I’ll be back in a moment.”
    Roshan strode to the underground garage. He’d told his mother no; under no circumstances were any of those drain-clogging hair fluffs to come anywhere near his building today.
    Tapping in the code to open the doors that sealed the garage from the rest of the building, Roshan poked his head through, glancing on either side.
    “Come out!” he snapped. One by one, they began to appear from behind concrete pillars. He felt a poke in the chest and looked down. His mother was shorter than him by a scant five inches, but that poke hurt.
    “I told you it is our turn.”
    “You cannot be here!”
    She edged past him. “Nonsense. Come along, pri atama !”
    Roshan caught her back. “I have someone here.”
    His mother stared at him with suspicion swirling in her charcoal gaze. Perhaps the defensive tone in his voice gave it all away. “A what?”
    “Someone.”
    “Important if you want me to stay away. Let me look.”
    She wriggled out of his grasp and as soon as he turned to follow, the family scampered inside, rushing past in streaks of orange and black. “Stop!” he roared. The shifted tigers all froze, shoulders hunched in anticipation of more shouting. “Wait here. If any of you moves a single claw, I will rip you to pieces and ship you off to the