Three Shifters for Sarah (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (7 page)

He watched her retreating figure until it had been gobbled up by the crowd of foot traffic shoving past and knew the minutes would hang heavy until five fifteen.

* * * *

The Friday afternoon dragged by for Sarah. She couldn’t concentrate on her work and the digital clock on her computer screen seemed to count off the seconds in slow motion. Anticipation, anxiety, fear, along with jumbled other emotions that she couldn’t put a name to tore at her nerves as she waited for the end of the work week.

At last she heard the welcome sounds of her peers saying their “Have a good weekend” to each other while they headed for the elevator, and she realized her time had finally arrived.

She didn’t have time to be angry or to question where this unexpected meeting might lead. Locking her computer for the weekend, she caught the next elevator and headed down to the lobby. Rush-hour traffic was its usual aggravating headache, but she worked her way through the maze of people and down to the pedestrian benches where she ate lunch.

“I didn’t know if you would come.” TJ had one of his cowboy boots hiked up on the armrest as he waited for her arrival.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“You have a way of getting away from me.” His smile was so sexy it should have been illegal. However, Sarah steeled her resolve. She wasn’t going to crack that easily. This cowboy still had a lot of explaining to do.

“I want to talk,” Sarah told him as she fell in beside him. They had started to walk north on Broadway past Trinity Church. “I want you to tell me about shape-shifters. But I don’t want you to lie to me this time.”

“I never did lie to you, Sarah. None of us did.”

Sarah wasn’t too sure what to believe, but had to admit inwardly that it felt good to have his tall, gallant presence escorting her down the busy street. She liked TJ’s company and still found it hard to believe that he was here in New York City with her, found it impossible to believe he had come all that way from the Circle T just to see her.

“TJ, I saw all three of you turn into wolves out on the prairie last week.” Sarah spit out what had been bothering her ever since she had seen the horrifying sight.

“We do that all the time,” he told her as if there was nothing to it.

Just to hear TJ speak openly about it made Sarah feel relieved and put the whole terrible scene into a new perspective. “So I’m not losing my mind then? I really did see what I thought I saw out there?”

“You sure did.” TJ’s hat rode low on his brow, and he looked down at her with bright-blue eyes she wanted to get lost in. “I reckon an apology is sort of in order for that. We sure didn’t mean to scare you none. In hindsight I realize you had no way of knowing just exactly what you saw and must have been scared half out of your mind.”

“You can say that again.”

“We don’t mean anyone harm, certainly not you, Sarah.”

They walked another block in silence. A group of foreign business men in thousand-dollar suits rushing to an early dinner pushed past them, and TJ wrapped an arm around her to keep them together. Sarah didn’t object. New York was going crazy at this time of the evening, and his arm secured around her waist was an introduction of sanity into the reckless world unfolding around them.

TJ brought them to a halt at the curb and held his hand in the air for a cab. He seemed to have learned a lot about big-city living after only a single day. At this time of day it was hard to find an empty cab, but TJ had succeeded in spotting one, and it was already pulling up alongside them.

“Where are we going?” Sarah hesitated. Getting in a cab with a strange man was a definite no for any woman in The Big Apple even if the guy happened to be as cute as TJ.

“Don’t you trust me yet, Sarah?” TJ seemed to be hurt by her reticence.

“I can’t think of any reason why I should.”

“Come on, Sarah, we can’t talk here. I have a lot to say to you, and I’ve come a long way to say it.” Then he devastated her with that sexy smile again, and Sarah found her knees going weak. “Besides, you promised to be my tour guide if I ever made it up to the city.”

Still Sarah hesitated. She didn’t know what to do. This man and his two companions were out of her league, and she wasn’t certain she even wanted to try and understand them.

“Hey, do you want a cab or not?” the driver yelled out his open window to TJ through some kind of thick foreign accent.

“I’m sorry for the trouble, mister.” TJ handed a twenty to the driver. “Just keep the meter running while I talk with my lady friend here, will you?”

The driver gave what sounded like a curse in his foreign tongue, but took the money from TJ’s palm anyway and waited.

“If you give me a chance, Sarah, I’ll explain everything to you about shape-shifters and about the pack I come from.” TJ’s face was so open and honest, more authentic than any other she would see in New York City that night. Suddenly Sarah didn’t feel tired from her long work week anymore, all thoughts of going back to her apartment and sleeping forgotten. She wanted to learn everything she could about this fantasy that had become a reality for her.

“All right, you’re on.” She gave TJ a smile and slid inside the cab in front of him, off for a Friday night of adventure with a Montana werewolf in Manhattan.

TJ gave the driver instructions to take them to Central Park.

“Why are we going to the park?” Sarah was a little apprehensive around the strange cowboy.

“I want to take you on a carriage ride.”

“No, TJ.” She put her hands on his arms without realizing what she was doing. He felt solid, his biceps clearly defined under his snug-fitting shirt. A thrill of electricity ran down her spine, and she immediately let go of him. “Those carriage rides are very expensive. You don’t have to take me on that.”

He looked at her with a sheepish grin that highlighted the features on his handsome face. “Don’t worry about it. I’m rich.”

“You’re rich, too?” Sarah’s jaw dropped a few inches. “You never told me that either back in Montana.”

“Well you never asked me.” TJ still wore a friendly expression, but his smile had turned mischievous, playful. “It isn’t a secret. I recollect I did tell you I own the Circle T along with Ryan and Lance. It’s a lot of land and a successful business. Also, my parents left me well off after I lost them.”

“You do have a lot of surprises in store for me tonight, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but only the good kind. I’m going to be completely honest with you about everything.” TJ looked out the window at the passing skyscrapers, seemed to reach a decision, and then looked back at Sarah, deciding on still more candor. “And the carriage ride is also to romance you some. You can’t object to a little romance while I fill you in on the lore of the shape-shifters, can you?”

In spite of her earlier anxiety, Sarah indulged in a happy laugh. “You’re crazy, TJ.” But even as she said it she realized she had started to trust him.

However, she decided she was going to withhold full judgment on TJ’s virtue until she’d had a chance to hear his entire story.

The carriage in the park was waiting for them when they got there. TJ went over and had a brief talk with the driver and gave the bay a rub down. The horse took to him immediately and purred at his touch.

“You had this all planned?”

“I had all afternoon to wait for you. I had to do something. Setting up an adventurous evening for my first full night in New York City was kind of fun.”

TJ held out his hand and got her settled in the carriage. He was oh so cute and oh so near, and his arm briefly encircled her waist as he helped her up. Sarah knew it was going to be a battle to keep her wits about her that night, but after her irresponsibility out on the prairie it would be a battle she wouldn’t lose.

“It’s been over two years since I’ve been on one of these things,” she told him as she got comfortable in her seat and gazed out at the landmarks of the park. “So now are you going to tell me what shape-shifters are and how it is that you and your other two buddies can turn into wolves?”

“I come from a pack of one thousand shifters. They all live around the county the Circle T is located in. Ryan is the pack Alpha.”

“So Ryan is the boss?”

“That’s right.” He seemed so eager to tell her everything. He was like an open book when he talked about his ability and that of his people, and Sarah had the feeling she could have asked him anything and he would have answered her directly. “Lance and I are Betas. That means we’re second-in-command.”

He went on to explain how they shifted into their wolf forms and what it felt like and how he had been scared as a boy the first time the transformation had come over his body. TJ was so thoughtful when he spoke, like he didn’t want to leave anything out or forget an important detail. It was like he was weaving a mythical tale for her except it was all real, and when he was finished Sarah felted enchanted by all she had heard.

The shadows slanting across the park told her it was getting late. A check of her watch showed they had been talking for over two hours. She hoped TJ was as rich as he said he was because he was going to owe the carriage driver one whopper of a fair.

“You know, TJ, you didn’t have to tell me all of this.” Sarah looked down and tried to choose her words. “I didn’t mean to imply that you owed me anything. But thanks for sharing what you have with me.” Then she brightened and gave him a smile. “And the carriage ride has been awesome.”

“But the night’s not over yet.” TJ rested his arm behind her on the back of the seat, not really touching her but close enough to make Sarah feel very warm, almost too warm, and she knew she had to watch out for that dangerous animal magnetism of his. “I’ve made reservations at a seafood place just down the street from Central Park South.”

“How do you know about restaurants here in the city and making reservations?” Sarah asked him doubtfully.

“I read about it in this magazine during the flight from Chicago last night. I got my phone out and made some calls and wound up with a table for two reserved at nine o’clock. The review in the magazine said the food’s pretty decent, too.”

Sarah laughed at his ingenuity. He was always surprising her.

“I figure now that we’ve got proper introductions out of the way we have a lot more to say to each other, and I don’t know about you but I’m pretty hungry.”

“I am hungry, and dinner sounds nice.”

TJ’s face darkened. “Only thing is you might have to tell me where we’re going. I have a feeling I could get lost real fast up here on these city streets.”

Sarah laughed and took him by the hand to help him down off the carriage. “I won’t let us get lost, TJ. I’ll be our tour guide tonight.”

* * * *

So far, so good. TJ was satisfied with the way his last-minute plans were coming together. He had always been good at making the sparks fly with women in the past. But he had never put much effort into it and always relied on his good sense of humor and even better looks. The problem was with those other women he was just having fun. They hadn’t really mattered to him. With Sarah it was different. He wanted everything to be perfect for her.

The waiter poured Sarah’s wine. TJ was amused that she had ordered the cheapest glass on the menu. For his tastes he had just stuck with a bottle of domestic beer.

“Are you going to tell me why you freaked out and abandoned us like that last week?” TJ finally got up the courage to ask her a question he didn’t think they had fully touched on yet.

Sarah sighed and for a second he knew her thoughts were back at the Circle T and that eventful night. “I want you to know I had a great time on your ranch,” she told him and flipped some errant hair out of her face as she smiled. “For me the Circle T was like a dream come true.”

“Then why did you get scared? Why couldn’t you have come and talked to us?”

“I thought I was losing my mind when I saw you all shift. That night is still kind of like a blur to me.”

“I thought we were all having a pretty good time by the campfire.”

“Yes, we were,” Sarah admitted. “I was…” She floundered for a moment. “Well, Ryan and I were waiting for you and Lance to come back with the horses.”

TJ could see she was reluctant to talk about having sex with Ryan and maybe a little embarrassed. He didn’t get that because as a shifter he was very open about sex and considered it just another part of life. Uptight humans in the big city and their many hang-ups were something he just didn’t understand.

“That was after you made love with Ryan,” he coaxed her.

She turned as red in the face as the shrimp sauce the waiter had just placed on their table. Instantly TJ regretted his choice of words.

“That bastard!” Sarah exploded. “He told you all we had sex?”

TJ just shrugged helplessly. “He told us when he sent us away with the horses he was going to have sex with you. We were hoping we could be next when we came back. I’m sorry, Sarah. I certainly didn’t think it would lead to us losing you.”

“Did he brag to you about fucking me? Because I hate it when men do that.” Sarah was still offended.

“You know Ryan, Sarah. He isn’t the type to brag about anything, and certainly not anything as important as loving a woman he cares about.”