Silver Fox (Silver Shifters 2)

“Race ya to the Jeep,” Vanessa said to her brother. Then halted. “Wait. Are either of you coming with us?”

“We’re going to ride back in my car,” Isidor said from Xi Yong’s side.

Doris turned wide eyes toward Joey.

“What is it?” Joey asked.

Doris gave a laugh, then said in a voice of awe, “I just figured out what nine-tail foxes really are. Actors!”

“That,” Joey said, kissing his mate, “is the best compliment I’ve had all day!”

In the adrenaline-crash aftermath, he became aware that his head ached. It had taken a lot of concentration to keep his distraction going while also listening for Mikhail—and making sure Cang didn’t figure out something was up on the mythic plane.

Except it hadn’t quite worked. He and Mikhail had both felt someone make contact with Cang just before Mikhail would have caught him. Cang had a partner, and they would have to find out who.

But not now.

Doris’s warm body pressed against his side. Already he felt better.

Xi Yong and Isidor walked around the side of the house toward Isidor’s car. Joey suspected they would be fully mated by morning, and it couldn’t happen to two nicer people.

He turned to Doris, careful not to let his own hopes show too much. She would be ready when she was ready. “Shall I ride back with the twins, or would you like company?”

But she faced him squarely, and said only one word, “Stay.”

“Later!” Vic called, and the twins’ footsteps crunched on the snow as they raced around the other side of the house, heading up toward the Jeep.

“We’re alone at last,” Joey said to Doris. It was meant to be a statement, but it came out a little bit of a question as he cupped her face gently with his hands.

She slid her hands up his arms, her touch filling him with a breath-stealing tingle of heat.

He said, “I’ve never known anyone in all my life who could remain as unflappable as you, after everything I’ve thrown at you. At the same time dealing with a number of lively personalities.”

Her gaze slid away, which surprised him. “Well, it comes with the territory. K-18 teachers get used to sudden changes. One moment everything is fine, then someone slips on the soccer field and breaks a leg in three places. You plan an outdoor activity for weeks, and that day it rains for the first time in months. The classroom is quiet, then two best friends suddenly get in a knock-down, drag-out fight. You have to be able to ride the white waters, or drown.”

Joey smiled as he earnestly searched her eyes, and he heard the wistful note steal into his own voice as he said, “Is that what we are doing? Riding the white waters?”

Doris’s honest gaze flicked to him, and he sensed her thought down the mate meridian, We’re two consenting adults who . . . consent. Out loud, she said, “As long as I’m in the canoe with you, I’ll go anywhere.”

Was this it? Before they went any farther, he felt he’d better explain. “There’s another thing I have to tell you,” he admitted.

“Besides your being a shifter?” she asked.

“It’s about being a shifter. If we are lucky enough to find our mates, we mate for life.”

She blinked at him, her eyes wide. “What?”

His fingers slid down to her hands. “The moment I saw you, I fell in love. For us, it’s like that. Profoundly simple, and yet simply profound, a friend once said. But for humans, it’s not just like that. Or rarely is. So . . .I love you. And I will wait however long it takes if there’s a chance you will love me back. ”

Doris looked up at the sky, then away, then back to him as her shoulders squared. “I’m sixty-two. And I’ve never been coy,” she stated, with the tiniest tremor in her voice that endeared her to him all the more. “Love was always a word that seemed to belong to other people. That kind of love, I mean. I love my family, and the kids I teach, and a lot of other things. But love love, I always believed it was either a shared illusion that everybody else had, or a shared delusion. Whatever it was, I wasn’t one of those who had it, or got it, or felt it.”

“All right,” he said, holding his breath.

“Until I met you.”

And the sun rose inside him.

She said quickly, “I think I realized it was love when we were cooking together in the kitchen, and it felt so natural, like something we’d done forever, and I wanted it to be forever. It was not just fun, it was . . . sexy. At least, what I define as sexy. Which brings me to my full disclosure.”