This girl was more interesting by the second. Torren told her, “You have a lot more to you than I thought you would.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you’re a bad girl in the ways I like, but then you surprise me because you’re a good girl, too. Perfect balance and so damn interesting. You make me want to watch you.”
“Like a stalker?”
“Don’t give HavoK any ideas. No, I mean you make me want to figure you out.”
“You mean you want to study me.”
“No. Study is the wrong word.”
“What’s the right word?”
“There’s no single right word. You make me want to be around you so I can figure out your secrets. You make me want to be around you so I can feel…”
“Feel what?” she murmured, stroking the hair at the back of his head with gentle fingers.
“Maybe just feel anything. Confusing woman. I’m supposed to be numb right now. I’m supposed to stay steady, and then you came in, and sometimes I want to test myself and see if I can stay steady around you.”
“Maybe you can.”
“Until our first fight. Until you do something that upsets me.”
“Like what?”
“Like leaving. You’ll get me hooked, won’t you, Wildcat? Get me hooked and then leave, and I’ll spiral so hard I won’t get to make it to my sister’s surgery. You’re dangerous to a man like me.”
“And you’re dangerous to a girl like me.”
“Good girl,” he said. “Now you’re getting it. I’m not a safe man to be friends with.”
“I don’t mean like that.”
Baffled, Torren shook his head slightly.
He was about to ask how he was a danger to her if she didn’t mean physically, but she picked up a remote off the couch cushion and turned the TV on behind them. Then plopped back against the leather cushion and slapped the seat beside her. “Come here, Prince Kong HavoK Danger Monkey. I stole us a bag of Skittles to share from Carl’s candy stash. I’m greedy though and like the reds, but dislike the yellows, so guess what you’re getting?”
Torren chuckled and sank onto the couch beside her. “I don’t mind the yellows.” Actually, they were his least favorite, but his voice had come out completely honest. Huh. Really, he just wanted her to be happy and comfortable, and he would’ve picked the reds out of five bags of Skittles just to make a whole bag of them for her.
“Watch this,” Candace said with an overly bright grin. She clapped twice, and the lights dimmed.
“Gross,” he said with a laugh as he imagined all the gyrating that had happened in this room at the dimming of the clap lights.
“Super gross, but I kind of want that in my house someday.”
The beginning credits were playing on the television, but Torren didn’t even know what they were watching because his attention was taken by Candace. “Do you live in a house now?”
“Tiiiiiny apartment a few blocks away.” She scrunched up her cute little nose. “It has roaches when it’s hot.”
“I can get rid of them. I’ll spray them.”
Her face went comically blank. “Really?”
“Yeah, really. It’s easy. I’ll probably have to come out and do it a few times, but I’ll get rid of your pest problem.”
“Huh.” She stared at the television for a few seconds and then asked again in a higher pitch, “Really?”
“It’s not a big deal. Any friend would do it for you.”
“Can I tell you something?”
“Tell me anything. No judgement. I’m a bigger devil than you.”
Candace hesitated, then laid back on the couch, rested her head on the armrest, and draped her bare legs across his lap. Now he was damn-near purring like a cat. He dragged his fingertips down her smooth thigh and rested his hand on her bent knee. “Did you change your mind?”
“No, I’m just thinking if I want to tell you or not. I don’t talk about this stuff. Not with anyone.”
“Well, the benefit of having a crazy acquaintance who is about to be put down is your secrets will go to a grave, and quick.”
“Don’t ever talk like that,” she said, her eyes blazing a lighter gold. “Even if that’s what you think will happen, don’t talk about it.”
“So we’ll pretend this can go on forever?”
“Yes. And now I have decided I will tell you, because you of all people should hear.”
“Okay. I’m ready.”
“I dance to pay off my dad’s medical bills. He was an older shifter when he had me. He got sick.”
“What kind of sick?” Shifters didn’t get sick often, but they also weren’t supposed to be born deaf, and Genevieve, his sister, had been.
“It was a degenerative disease. The doctors couldn’t figure it out. It took his muscles and bones over time and was very painful. He was eighty pounds soaking wet when he died last year. He was in hospice for seven months, and it was expensive. I took care of him with a nurse. We took shifts, and to pay her and the medical bills, I started dancing at nights because what else could I do here? What could I do with my skillset that would bring me cash everyday? When I needed to pay a bill fast, I just picked up double shifts at Jem’s. Before he got sick, I used to come here to spend the summers with him and then go back to my life in New York. I wanted to be a dancer. A real dancer. I auditioned for fancy schools, but even if I had gotten in, we couldn’t afford them. So I worked at this bar, doing these shows. Dancing with other girls. I choreographed everything for them, and when I had enough money saved up, I bought this little rundown studio, and I taught dance classes to kids. I was happy, except I missed my dad. And then he got sick, and I came home. Things got worse, and I sold the studio to pay some of his bills. You know from your sister shifters don’t get health insurance. And then he passed away, and I still had all these loans under my name, so I’m just trying to tread water until I can get everything paid.”
“So you’re stuck?”
Candace’s eyes held phantoms as she nodded once. “Stuck like I’ve been buried alive. Most days I feel buried. So, look at me now. A trained dancer who had achieved her dream, owned a studio, found happiness, and now I’m here, scooping dollar bills off the ground in a negligee and ‘stripper glitter.’”
“Fuck,” Torren murmured, feeling sick to his stomach. He wished with everything he had that he could yank her out of here and fix her life. Make it better. Make it happier. Make it brighter before she got crushed by the weight of the world. “Come here.” He held out his arm and waited while she sat up and snuggled against his ribs. God, she felt like she belonged there, like she’d been made to fit right against him. There was nothing he could say to make it better, so he propped his feet up on the small table in front of them and leaned back. With a sigh, he rested his cheek on the top of her head. And after a few minutes, he said, “I’m gonna take you somewhere tonight.”
“On a date?”
“No,” he murmured. “You won’t like this, but you’ll watch it and you’ll witness it, and you won’t feel so alone. Okay?”
She looked up with those pretty tiger eyes and clutched his T-shirt right over his pounding heart. “You gonna show me your demon’s now?”
He nodded. He’d never invited anyone to watch what he was about to do.