Protector of the Pride (Lions of Pride Island Book 3) by Terry Bolryder Read Free Book Online Page B

doubted either of them was thinking of this as a fake courtship anymore. As his lion chased hers in the dark, he was pretty sure whatever this was, it was real.
    She looked over her shoulder and laughed as she took another sharp turn through the woods.
    “You do this often?” he called after her.
    “Sometimes,” she says. “When I’m going crazy indoors.”
    “Why didn’t you ask me?” he asked.
    She snorted. “Obviously, because you would have said no. You’re uptight, and I wasn’t going to mess with that. Until now, I guess. Things are different.”
    “They are,” he said, catching up to her as they reached the edge of a pool of water surrounded by cattails swaying in the wind. She sat on her haunches, and he joined her, two big cats sitting together in the darkness.
    “It’s so beautiful out here,” she said. “I didn’t know what to expect, coming to work for the royal family. But I didn’t expect to fall in love with the grounds more than the castle.”
    “My dad designed them,” he said. “Because my mom loved to run as her lion.” Pain swept through him at that, and he wished he hadn’t brought up the topic.
    “What were your parents like?” she asked. “I mean, I read news articles growing up. Obviously, I’ve seen pictures.”
    “They were very much in love,” he said. “To their own detriment.”
    “What does that mean?” she asked. “How is that a detriment when you are married?”
    “Things aren’t easy in our world,” he said. “Sometimes I think it would have been better if my mom didn’t love my dad quite so much.”
    “Don’t you hope for a love match, though?” she asked. “Isn’t that why we’re doing this?”
    He raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were teaching me how to win over a girl, not how to fall in love with her.”
    “Well, I think you should do both.”
    He was sort of falling in love with her. Had been since he first met her. But that worked out, because in all likelihood, he wasn’t going to be allowed to be with her.
    “I just think it should stay more business when you’re running a country.”
    She gave him a sad look. “So you think you’ll just stay distant with whomever you mate? That’s really sad if you ask me.”
    “Not the saddest thing that can happen,” he said. “And besides, I’m getting my romance now.” He gave her a toothy grin and she gave him a small half smile in return and went back to looking at the pool.
    “You want to go for a swim?” she asked.
    He was grateful for the change in topic, but he didn’t know about the swimming. “Cats hate water.”
    “Not this kitty,” she said, leaping forward into the water. She was under long enough that he stood to pace uncomfortably. If she didn’t come up soon…
    When she surfaced, she looked like a mermaid, back in human form. Her bare shoulders glistened in the moonlight, the tops of her breasts rounded and gorgeous. Her hair was drenched and waving back from her face. Her eyes were almond, catlike. Green again.
    He paced once more.
    “Join me?” she asked.
    What to do? The night had taken a sexy turn that he hadn’t expected on the one hand. On the other hand, Lucy was naked in the pool and asking him to join her.
    Lucy. Naked. Asking.
    He jumped into the water, immersing himself in the cold. The shock of it made it easy to shift, and he felt his human hands stroke to the surface. As he broke it, shaking water off his hands, he locked eyes with her, just a few feet away. He swam straight to her, his body awake now, wanting her with everything he had.
    She easily fit in against him and wrapped her legs around his waist. Her warm stomach against his felt awesome, and she looked up at the moon and sighed. “Beautiful night, right?”
    “Right,” he murmured. But he wasn’t looking at the moon at all. Instead, he was looking at the woman in his arms, feeling his heart yearning for her in a way that shouldn’t have been possible.
    So beautiful in the moonlight.