The Snow Leopard's Baby (Glacier Leopards 2)

She did notice that Grey’s eyes were very similar to Jeff’s—more silvery in color, but almost the same. She wondered if that meant that Grey was a snow leopard, too. Would it be rude to ask? Probably.

“I’ll drop you both off at Jeff’s place, then—we can make sure that you two ladies are settled in okay, and then head into work. Jeff or I will get in touch with someone to tow your car back to a garage in town so that it can be looked at.”

“That sounds great,” Leah said. “Thank you so very much, both of you.”

“It’s truly no problem,” Jeff insisted.

Grey started up the SUV, then, and drove them a few more blocks to a very pleasant-looking little house at the end of a tree-lined street. Leah could imagine that in summer it would be leafy and shaded, but now the trees were all covered in snow, and sparkling in the sunlight. It looked like a scene from a winter postcard.

“Here we are,” Grey announced, and they all fell to the task of getting everything out of Grey’s car and into the house.

Inside, it was cozy and homey-looking, much more so than Leah would’ve expected from a single man. It was still obviously masculine, no pastels or frills or flowers or anything like that, but the living room had a warm rug in the center of the hardwood floor, with a luxurious-looking sectional couch and two armchairs. There were even end tables. Leah set Emily, still in her car seat with eyes starting to droop, down next to the couch and looked around.

There was a flatscreen TV mounted on one wall, but the furniture was oriented to cluster around the fireplace. It would be easy to sit on one side of the couch and watch a movie, but it would be easier to sit around a roaring fire and talk. Another thing she wouldn’t have expected from a single man.

Although when she thought about it...Jeff was such a practical, earthy man, he wouldn’t be likely to have a living room that was a shrine to the Xbox or the Playstation. The comfortable furniture fit him in a way that game consoles wouldn’t.

“This is a beautiful home,” she told Jeff, as he brought in the last of her things from the car and set them in the pile he and Grey had made in one corner.

A smile spread over his face. “Thank you. I’m really glad you think so.” He sounded genuinely pleased to hear it, too.

“Okay,” Grey said. “Anything you need? We really need to get going.”

Jeff glanced over at Grey—he almost looked annoyed, but then he shook his head and said, “Yeah, I know we have a ton to do. Okay. The bathroom’s right through there, and there should be plenty of food in the kitchen. Please eat some of it. No more trail mix, okay?”

Leah raised her eyebrows at him, using humor to cover her discomfort that he’d realized she wouldn’t want to take even more advantage of him by eating his food. “Or what?”

“I’ll make extra dinner and pile it twice as high as I would have otherwise,” Jeff said firmly. “So no trail mix for lunch.”

“No trail mix for lunch,” Leah promised.

“Okay. Make yourself at home. I’ll see you tonight, all right?”

“See you tonight,” Leah echoed, uncomfortably aware of how domestic that sounded. As though they were married, and Jeff was leaving for work on an ordinary morning.

Jeff seemed to realize it, too, because he was smiling a little ruefully. “Okay, let’s go,” he told Grey, and the two men headed out the door.

After the door closed behind them, Leah blew out her breath and let herself drop down to sit on the couch.

“Well,” she told Emily, “looks like we’re staying here for a little while.”

Emily yawned.

“Naptime for you, honey,” Leah told her.

She set up the Pack-n-Play in a spare room and laid Emily down in it. The baby was already half-asleep. Then she came out into the living room and surveyed her stuff.

“Better clean this up,” she said to herself, and set to it.

She quietly moved most of her things into the same spare room where Emily was sleeping, figuring they’d be out of the way in there. It just looked like a guest bedroom, so maybe she’d sleep in there tonight.

Although she guessed Jeff would probably want her to sleep in with him.

She wanted that. Oh, did she want that. The memory of last night—his big, warm body wrapping her up, his sweet mouth, how he’d felt inside of her...

And she’d never felt a connection like that during sex before. It was almost as though, just for a moment, they’d shared their very beings with each other, like they were two halves of the same whole.

And if she was going to be staying here anyway...why not do it again?