Roman
Roman kept his eyes on the road as he drove, but all he could think about was Everleigh.
Everything about her enticed him. Of course, she could never be his mate. It wasn’t possible. But there was no reason why they couldn't have some fun.
She drove him out to a parcel of land. He knew immediately it wasn’t right. He could see the roofline of other houses in the background.
"Too close to civilization," he said.
"Okay. You want more rural than this?"
"As rural as we can get."
"But I thought your pack wanted to be closer to the city," she said as they both got back in the car. She tapped her pen against her clipboard.
He couldn’t stop his grimace. "This is a subdivision."
"It's not a subdivision," she said. Then she seemed to catch herself and pressed her mouth closed, probably not wanting to correct the client. But he didn't mind; he liked her sass.
"What I mean is we generally categorize a subdivision as a plot of land that’s been divided up into smaller lots. This area has five to ten acres per home."
"But I can see the other houses."
"Okay, so I'll just make sure that I keep that in mind," she said.
He put the SUV in reverse. "Do any shifters live this close together?"
"Yes. Plenty of them."
"Why?" At a stop light, he turned to look at her pretty face. "Why would they do that?"
"I guess they like it. Some people find living in a clan suffocating."
"Are you speaking from experience?" he asked.
"No. But I've had a lot of clients. They end up saying more than they realize." She fidgeted a little as she said it, as if she didn’t want to answer.
He realized that was not an appropriate question to ask her, so he let it go. They had a professional relationship, that was it.
Even if he did want to ask her out, he wasn't going to do it yet because he didn't want to make her uncomfortable. "I don't want to know anyone else is near me," he said.
"So you prefer living in the wilderness."
"Absolutely. If it were up to me, I would never set foot in the city again."
"But you're doing this for your clan."
"My pack, yes. I ignored them for a long time and finally it came to my attention that if I didn't act, I'd be an Alpha with zero pack members."
Why was he telling her all this? He never talked like this. He'd said way more than he wanted to. Was he distracted by how hot she was? He cleared his throat. "But you don't want to hear about all that. It's boring."
"No, it's really not. We all think our packs and clans are the same, I'm sure. But, in fact, we are just as wildly different as humans."
"I guess that's true. Because if we were all the same, not a single one of us would be living in the city."
She laughed but didn’t say anything else. He wondered if he’d hit a sore spot.
"All right," she said. "We’re close to another property." She drove him down a winding road toward a crystal-clear lake. He parked the SUV in a clearing and looked around at the blue sky and the rolling hills. Most of them were still covered in snow.