a few nights. If I should decide to stay longer, I’m sure we can come to an arrangement that will benefit us both.”
Mrs. Winkle grabbed the money out of his hand, practically salivating. “I’m sure we can.” She sneezed twice before stuffing the money down the front of her dress.
“And you won’t mention that I’m here. The press can be quite annoying at times. I never seem to have a moment of peace when they discover my whereabouts.”
“My lips are sealed.”
“If you don’t mind, I need to get ready for work.” Callie looked between the two. It was nauseating watching Mrs. Winkle being reduced to a giggling schoolgirl as Rogar fed her ego and her bank account.
“Of course, dear.” She looked at Rogar as if she hoped he planned on lingering.
“It was nice meeting you,” Rogar said.
Mrs. Winkle held out her hand and Rogar kissed it. She blushed, then hurried back to her car, sneezing three more times before she got inside and drove away.
Callie thought she was going to be sick from all the sugar that had flowed between Rogar and Mrs. Winkle.
Bleh!
Chapter 9
“I need to get ready for work,” Callie said when Rogar closed the door.
“You’re really going to work? I thought you were lying to your landlady.”
Now he’d confused her. “Why would you think I was lying? I may be half Symtarian, but the Earthling side of me still has to pay the bills.”
“I have money.”
She threw her arms in the air. “Counterfeit! It’s illegal to make your own money. Which I’ve been meaning to talk to you about. You have to stop making money illegally. I’d rather not spend the rest of my life in jail as an accomplice, if you don’t mind.”
“Don’t you want to know about your ancestors?” He conveniently changed the subject.
Now he’d hit a sore spot. “Of course I do. Everyone wants to know where they came from, what their relatives were like. I won’t deny I’ve had questions over the years.”
“Then stay with me.”
“Ten years ago I might have jumped at the chance.” She shook her head. “I’ve been on my own for a long time now and I’ve learned to make my way without any help. My job probably doesn’t seem like much to you, but my dream has always been to work with the big cats. There’s an animal keeper job opening up soon and I’m next in line. I’ve worked hard for that position, and I won’t let anything jeopardize it.”
“You’re from another world.”
“Only part of me, the rest is from right here on Earth.” She tilted her head and studied him. “I’ve never shifted until last night, and I had to think about it before I could. Can I control it? Keep from shifting again?”
He took a step back and Callie knew she’d shocked him.
“You would give up that part of who you are?”
“Then it can be done?”
“You would be killing a part of yourself.”
“Just like my parents killed off a part of themselves when they dumped me at the orphanage?”
“You don’t know their reasons.”
“And the next verse is, I don’t want to know.” She looked at her hands, gathering her thoughts. “What if the truth is worse than I could imagine?”
“What if it isn’t?”
“Maybe I don’t want to take that chance.” A long time ago, she’d created a fairy tale in her mind that her mother and father had to leave her because they were dying of some horrible disease. The lies she told herself were so much better than facing what the truth might actually be—that she was dumped because she’d become a burden. She just wasn’t sure she wanted to face the truth.
Rogar raked his fingers through his hair, clearly frustrated. “Let me explain what a guide means. At least, give me that.”
Didn’t he realize it wouldn’t make any difference? She still wouldn’t go back to his planet with him. She’d finally adjusted to this one, and she’d been born here! No, Callie didn’t want to walk into the unknown and take a chance it was worse than Earth.
She sighed. But Rogar had traveled a great distance, and he was starting to grow on her.
“We’ll talk after I get off work,” she conceded.
He finally nodded.
She hurried from the room, more to get away from Rogar. She wanted to tell him that he could be waiting for her every night, but it wouldn’t do him any good. It was as though all her life she’d been working toward this one job. The dream was as much a part of her as breathing, and she wouldn’t let anyone or anything stand in her way.
She stumbled as she went inside her bedroom. Dizziness washed over her. It hadn’t been her thoughts. It couldn’t have been. She’d been dreaming of working with the big cats since going to the zoo on a field trip when she was nine. It was the first time she’d felt whole.
Damn it, Rogar was making her think things she didn’t want to think. She brought her hands to her face. And feel things she didn’t want to feel.
She grabbed a uniform out of the closet, and undergarments out of the drawer, then marched to the bathroom. She refused to think about anything to do with him, or shifting into another form. That was his world, and she wanted no part of it.
She showered, then dressed, before going to the other room. “I’ll need a ride to work,” she said. He’d changed clothes. He must have gone on his own little shopping spree with his counterfeit money.
He didn’t say anything. Just walked to the door.
The silent treatment?
“I’m…I’m sorry that I’m not what you were wanting,” she told him as guilt flooded her.
He turned around, his expression puzzled. “Not what I wanted?”
He ambled over to where she stood. She swallowed hard, looking everywhere but at him. He raised her chin and forced her to meet his gaze.
“Not what I wanted? How can you say that? You’ve been everything I could imagine. I love watching the changes happening in you. I love when you laugh. I love mating with you.” He lowered his head, his lips brushing against hers before he deepened the kiss.
Heat flared inside her. He slid his hand down her back, cupping her butt, pulling her closer to his need. His tongue stroked hers, then sucking. Her pleasure centers exploded. She wanted him, she needed him. He pulled away, looking as shaken as she felt.
“That…that won’t change my mind. I still won’t go with you,” she said.
“Then I’ll stay just long enough to tell you the story of our beginning.”
Would he really do that? Tell her the Symtarian history, then leave, letting her live her life as if nothing had happened? She studied his face, not quite trusting him.
“And you won’t speak again about me leaving with you?”
“If that is what you want.”
“It is.”
He opened the door and she walked outside, feeling as though she was entering into another phase of her life.
“But it doesn’t mean that we won’t mate again,” he said.
Oh, she was counting on that, but she chose to keep her thoughts to herself. This was all too new.
