Page 33 of Her Purr-fect Christmas Mate

“Did you mean for me to hear that?”

“… Yes.” He rose slowly. “How do you feel?”

Achy. Delicious. Maybe ready for round two?“Um. Good?”

He narrowed his eyes.Does he not believe me?she wondered, amazed.Did… Was he not here last night? Did he not see me have the most incredible orgasm of my life?

“We should—” A muscle ticked in his jaw. He continued with barely a pause, but she got the strong suspicion that he had veered away from what he’d been planning to say. “It’s Christmas Eve. What do you want to do?”

“Normally I’d head to work…” She swallowed and looked at the clock beside the bed. “I would have already gone to work.”

And she didn’t know how she felt about that.

No more bookstore.

No more Hypatia.

No more—

She took a deep breath.That was the prologue of my life. Remember? It was a placeholder. It doesn’t matter.

Mordecai was watching her closely. “Peony?”

“Breakfast,” she said firmly. “I’d like breakfast. And a shower. And—” She grimaced. “I suppose I’d better take you up on your offer to get me some more clothes.”

“I don’t understand why you sound so resentful about that.”

Because clothes shopping is the worst.Could he hear her think that? No, he couldn’t hear her thoughts clearly when she was human. They’d established that last night.

“I hate online shopping,” she said at last. “Even if clothes have measurements on them, they always fit weird, or the fabric isn’t right, or they send the wrong thing anyway.”

“I’ll call my tailor.”

“So I can stand around in my underwear while someone runs a measuring tape around me?” His eyes flashed, suddenly and gratifyingly possessive. “No, thank you. I’ll risk buying off the mystery rack.”

“Hmmph.”

Wow. Did he just huff at me?The full strangeness of the situation hit her again. She was in bed with her mate. The next chapter of her life—thefirstchapter of her life—wasn’t just about to start, it was here. She was living it.

Her chest twinged.

And she was a shifter. She had found her inner animal, and there it was, inside her, making the odd attempt to convince her to tickle her fingernails along Mordecai’s ribs but otherwise apparently content to nap.

She was a new person. This was the rest of her life.

But…

“There is one other thing I’d like to do,” she said. Mordecai’s eyes pinned her. She resisted the urge to flex her claws. “The bookstore.”

“Of course.” He sounded calm, but hefeltas though he was bracing himself.

“Christmas Eve is a big shopping day for us. I’m not… I’m not saying we should open the store. But a lot of our regular customers were expecting to pick up their orders today. In the name of tying up loose ends, I’d like to make sure they all get their books.”

“That’s all?”

“Yes.” Of course it was. This was the rest of her life they were talking about. The bookstore was part of her prologue—but leaving things undone there wasn’t a satisfactory ending.

That was the only reason.

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