Page 55 of Her Purr-fect Christmas Mate

True.

Or should I be hurt? Maybe I’m hurt. Terribly hurt. In my dignity.

Mordecai snorted gently. She caught his eye in the rearview mirror, and he tried to smile at her, only to realize he was already smiling.

“Thinking happy Christmas thoughts?” she teased.

“I’m thinking about the fact that we’re visiting your family.”

She sighed. “Do you want me to reassure you that it won’t be as terrible as meeting your dear grandmamma? I don’t think I can. My family is huge and wonderful, and you’ll probably regret ever meeting me after two minutes in their welcoming presence.”

“Your mother did sound excited on the phone.” Peony had called her before they’d left, reassuring her family that she was on her way.

And that she was bringing someone.

“That wasn’t my mother sounding excited. That was my mother repressing 99.9% of her excitement so as not to scare you off. And here you are, in the car, so I guess it worked.” She flicked him a glance. “Last chance to run away screaming. Trust me, by the time they lay eyes on you, it’ll be too late. You’ll be in their clutches.”

“I prefer being in your clutches.”

Her happiness bubbled through the matebond, feather-light and shining. “I’m not planning to let you go. You’d have to take me with you as you ran away. I’m just saying, the option’s there.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting your family.”

She gave a choked giggle. “All right. On your head be it.”

“Every aspect of it appeals to me. Hordes of relatives descending on me. A labyrinth of exactly how everyone is related to you and to one another to unravel. Names to memorize. And the questions.”

“The questions!” Peony’s groan came directly from her soul. “Don’t worry. I’ll field most of them. You can stand back and look mysterious.”

“An activity at which I excel,” he said gravely. “I expect the majority of the questions will be for you, anyway. ‘What is your shifter form?’ ‘Under which excruciating circumstances did you first shift?’”

Peony groaned again. “We’ll have to get our story straight. I amnottelling them what actually happened. That particular can of worms can stay shut.”

“Don’t worry. If all else fails, I can distract attention by shifting. It should be quite the spectacle. I haven’t shifted in so long. I might need your help to think of some human thoughts to shift back.”

“Promises, promises.” She yawned. The reminder of how late they’d been up, and why, made his dragon let out a smug puff of smoke. “And of course, to shift into your animal form in the first place, you’ll have to rustle up some appropriately… um… some thoughts typical of, er…”

“Yes,” he said gravely.

“Um.”

“We’d better get that part of the story straight as well,” he deadpanned. “What sort of a shifter I am.”

“You—!” Peony winced and pressed her balled fists against her forehead. “This isnoton me.I’ve stolen everything else I wanted out of you from your mind or your body. I thought I’d leave you the secrecy around your inner animal out of respect.” She dropped her fists and raised her chin with a sniff. “I didn’t think it polite to inquire.”

Her imitation of his own fastidiousness was so perfect that he laughed out loud. A smile twinkled on her face, perfect as starlight.

“Really, though.” He took one hand off the wheel and twined his fingers through hers. “Have you no idea?”

“I have ideas!” she protested. “I’ve been thinking about it. Constantly. With only very frequent and effective distractions.”

“I wondered if you could sense it the way I can your cat. Your cat makes its presence very known. I can feel it flexing its claws when it thinks I’m not looking.” He sent a flicker of awareness through their connection and got an indignant bristling in return.

Peony hooted. “Oh god! It’s true! I didn’t know you could feel when it did that, though.”

“Can you…?”

She opened her mouth before she’d lined up her words in the order she wanted them. He waited, enjoying the view. Her full lips with the echo of her laughter at the corners, the way she pressed them together, unselfconscious and sincere, as she harried her thoughts into place. The deep concentration as she figured something out.

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