“You cowboys sure go through the change of clothes when you’re working.”
“We’re not cowboys,” Hunter corrected her. “We’re shifters.”
Drake took a seat across from Morgan. Both men avoided the couch where Morgan reclined. Drake thought her body looked awfully snuggly and wondered what it would be like to cuddle up next to her on that couch. He wondered if maybe he and Hunter had just become chickenshit around her. She had become their best friend, but she also scared them, too, because they were so damn attracted to her.
“You don’t know a lot about shifters, do you?” Drake asked Morgan.
“Not really.”
“Didn’t Nathan ever talk much about it?”
“We lived in Chicago together for two years, and he never shifted back there. Then when we moved out here, I always got the idea that he was embarrassed by it.”
“That isn’t us.” Hunter spoke up with pride. “I wake up every day of my life happy God made me a shifter.”
“You should come out with us some time and watch us shift,” Drake urged her. “You should learn about what your boyfriend is if you’re going to have a good relationship with him.”
“Maybe.” Morgan didn’t seem too convinced. Drake got the idea the whole concept of shifting made her uncomfortable. Her mood had turned somber. “I haven’t seen Nathan in over a month. I don’t know if he’s even still alive.”
“I’m pretty certain he’s still alive.” Drake wanted to make her feel better. He couldn’t stand to see her sad. Her face was just too beautiful when she smiled. “Maybe the next time you see him, Morgan…maybe he’ll be a man again.”
This did make her smile. She liked the thought even if she didn’t necessarily believe it. Drake had to wonder, too, because he didn’t really believe Nathan would ever be back.
Hunter made himself a sandwich after Morgan placed the makings for cold cuts on the deck table in her backyard.
Hunter had been in town with Drake that morning. They had to have a meeting with the boss of one of the unions that represented their workers at the lumberyard. The meeting had gone well. A new contract had been hammered out over a few drinks at the bar.
Now they had both returned to Morgan and were ready for a lazy Saturday afternoon. Overhead, big white fluffy clouds crawled over the mountaintops.
Hunter watched Morgan as she served them from a pitcher of iced tea. She was a doll in a short skirt and sleeveless top. Her long legs arched up into the folds of that skirt and were the picture of female perfection.
“Did you guys have a good meeting in town this morning?”
“I think we got another two-year deal with the union.” Drake always looked on the bright side of things. He was a glass-half-f kind of guy. That was why he clicked so well with Hunter’s somewhat darker outlook on life.
“Forget about that.” Hunter relaxed back into his deck chair and looked out at the mountains. It was too fine of a day to discuss business. Morgan looked too sexy. His mind would concentrate on nothing else except what was hidden between her legs under that tight little skirt.
“I’m going in town tonight to the county fair,” Hunter told them. “Either of you want to join me?”
“I suppose since our business has made so much money getting the county fair set up, we should be in attendance.”
“I wasn’t thinking about the money, but you’ve got a point.” Hunter met Morgan’s gaze briefly. He gave her a smile. Her sexy outfit made him do nothing but smile. She quickly looked away from him. But there had been one moment of blazing electricity.
“Do you want to tag along with us, Morgan?” Hunter kept his eyes on her until she met his stare again.
“That’s okay.” Morgan was quick to beg off anything that took her away from this house. She waited in vain for her lost man to come back. “You guys go on without me and have fun. I’m just going to make myself dinner and watch a movie on TV tonight.”
Hunter looked across the deck to Drake. Drake gave him a half smile. They couldn’t really expect anything more from Morgan. Yet Hunter thought it was time to press the advantage their friendship with the beautiful lady had gained them.
“Probably just as well.” Hunter watched her carefully for her reaction. “The county fair is the best place to pick up hot chicks. There should be a lot of them in abundance tonight. Remember last year’s fair, Drake?”
Drake laughed. “We picked up a city girl who was passing through from back east.” Drake, of course, could not have forgotten so soon. “She took us back to her motel room. The three of us spent the weekend in bed.”
Hunter gave a wicked laugh at the memory. The sex had been meaningless and mindless, devoid of any real connection save for the physical. The girl had only been a piece of ass for two horny shape-shifters.
Hunter supposed the girl had left pleased enough, and at the time it had seemed like enough for him. Now he wanted more. He looked back across the deck to where Morgan was lying on her deck chair, her long legs held out in front of her.
“Wish us luck tonight.” Hunter wanted to see how she would take this. He was probing her for a reaction.
She didn’t look at him and didn’t respond. He noticed she had gone stiff all of a sudden. There was a magazine on the table next to her, and she picked it up to flip through the pages.
“Morgan, did you hear me?” Hunter wasn’t going to stop. “I said please wish us luck tonight in connecting with someone at the fair.”
Morgan threw her magazine down on the table and got up from the deck chair. Her skirt billowed out around her thighs as she moved quickly away. Her tight little ass wiggled, and she turned her back to them.
“Good luck, guys,” she called over her shoulder and left them alone. Her voice was muffled, and Hunter could barely hear her. It was obvious that his words had made her angry.
Hunter smiled. The next few hours would determine the future course of their relationship with Morgan.
* * * *
Morgan went back to her room and shut the door. She was prepared to spend all night in there.
Hunter had made her angry. Drake had been no better. Normally he defended her from Hunter’s untoward remarks. Today he had been silent.
Morgan knew she was being unreasonable. She had no right to feel like this and no claim to either of the two handsome shifters. They were her friends. They had helped her when she most needed help. Still, every day they stayed with her was a great help. But she had never offered them more than friendship, though the whisper of more had always hung in the air between them.
The two men were young and healthy. They wanted a woman, probably needed one. Morgan had no right to be angry with them for acting perfectly normal.
Yet she was. She could not overcome her hurt feelings.
The mere thought of Drake and Hunter attempting to pick up a woman at the fair tonight drove her mad, with what she could not say. Was it jealousy? Surely not. But there it was. She had to admit it to herself. She was jealous when Hunter had mentioned other women to her.
What could she do? She was powerless to stop them. They were not hers.
Her thoughts turned to the one man who was hers beyond any doubt.
“Oh, Nathan…” she sobbed as she sat down on her bed.
She asked herself what Nathan would think of the two men. The one brief moment he had met them back in the winter, he had not liked them at all. He had almost killed them, in fact. Yet those were under far different circumstances and before he had gotten sick.
She remembered what Nathan had told her the last time she spoke with him. He was a shape-shifter and thought differently about these kinds of things than other people did.
Nathan wanted her to find other men to comfort her and take care of her while he was away.
She had found two very nice men, and they had been comforting her and taking care of her while he had been away.
It was hard for her to forget her traditional upbringing and think like a shifter. However, she determined to start.
She needed Drake and Hunter, needed them as more than just her friends. There was no way she was going to let them go to another woman tonight without putting up one hell of a fight.
Morgan dried her eyes and looked at herself in her bathroom mirror. Reasonably pleased with what she saw, she brushed her hair a few angry strokes and headed back out.
Drake was in the living room going over a spreadsheet on his laptop when she approached.
“What time are the two of you heading for the county fair tonight?”
“About seven I imagine.” He gave her a weary look. His gaze lingered overly long on her legs. This sent a thrill of satisfaction through Morgan.
“I’ve changed my mind. If that offer to ride in with you guys is still good, I’d like to go.”
Drake gave her a smile. She thought he was about to explain something to her.
Just then Hunter came down the hall. Fresh out of the shower, he was wearing a towel around his waist and nothing else.
“You changed your mind about tonight?” he asked her.
Morgan tried to avert her gaze. He looked good enough to eat, standing in her living room in that towel. His body was still wet, and his smooth, well-tanned skin glistened.
After a couple seconds to catch her breath, Morgan finally responded. “I want to go to the fair tonight.”
This was complete honesty. Going to the fair with them sounded like it would be the most fun she’d had in months.
“We’d love for you to join us.” Drake set aside his laptop and seemed enthusiastic. “Have you ever been to one of these things before?”
“No. Nathan and I moved to town just a couple weeks too late for the one last year. Nathan told me the fireworks at the county fair are better than what they have in Chicago.”
“Sure are.” Drake gave her a smile. “It’s because the sky is so clear out here. No city lights, no smog or pollution. When they set those fireworks off tonight, you’re going to think they’re the prettiest things you’ve ever seen.”
“I look forward to a night out. Should I make us dinner before we go?”
“No. We’ll grab some dogs and burgers at the fair. So I hope you bring a good appetite as well.” Drake looked over to Hunter, who was drying his hair as he channel surfed on the living room TV. “Go put some clothes on,” he told his friend.
Hunter ignored him and turned back to Morgan. She had to fight the butterflies in her tummy. He was practically naked in front of her. God, why did he have to look so good? His body was so inviting. She just wanted to run her hands up and down the tightly packed muscles of his chest, slip her fingers beneath that towel, and…oh, she had to stop.
“You’re not going to cramp our style tonight, are you, Morgan?” Hunter never gave away whether he was being serious or not.
“Cramp your style?”
“In meeting women.”
Drake threw a sofa pillow across the room at Hunter and told him to shut up.
Morgan only stared at Hunter. His deep-blue eyes caught her attention now, and she didn’t focus on his body. “You really want to hook up with a woman tonight?”
“Of course I do. So does Drake.”
She could have let her pride get the better of her and made some smart remark as a comeback. But she knew these men well enough. She knew what they really wanted tonight. They wanted her.
Drake drove the three of them to the fair that night. Morgan was perched between him and Hunter, her body not touching but mere inches away from him, her fresh feminine scent proving to be quite a distraction.
Once at the fair, neither man would leave Morgan’s side. They showed her everything, knowing the Wolf Creek county fair well because they had been coming to it since they were boys.
Morgan laughed and had a good time at the fair. It was good to see her get out into the world and live again. Drake knew she had been through a nightmare, and he wanted to change that course for her.
“I like those wolves.” Morgan had run ahead of them to a shooting gallery. The price for hitting ten bull’s-eyes was a giant stuffed wolf. “They have such wonderfully expressive faces.”
Drake knew he had a fight on his hands. Hunter wanted to win her the wolf she loved, and so did he.
“They’ve upped the stakes this year.” Hunter frowned at the old guy behind the shooting gallery. “It used to just require five bull’s-eyes to win the top prize.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Drake pushed his friend out of the way and grabbed a plastic gun that shot toy bullets. “I’m going to win the wolf for the lovely lady.”
“Not if I can win him for her first.” Hunter made it a challenge.
“You’re on.”
Morgan pushed between the two of them. The brief contact with her lithe body at the side of his own sent a shock wave through Drake. He had never really touched her before. He had been a gentleman for once in his life while he’d been with her. Now his body had been awakened with a jolt of electricity at a simple touch.
“Guys, I didn’t mean for either of you to try.” Morgan shot them each a troubled look in turn. “I like the wolf, but remember, I haven’t had such good luck with wolves. I’m happy to just stroll through the fairgrounds with you two.”