Tropical Panther's Penance (Shifting Sands Resort 6)

Wrench exchanged a look with Lydia.

“Yeah,” he said reluctantly when Lydia nodded. “My niece. Thought she’d be safer here.”

“You were wrong!” Gizelle said sharply, drawing away. Wrench balled helpless fists at his side. Any calm he was supposed to have gotten from his meditation was long gone.

Lydia held a sarong out to her and Gizelle stared at it a moment before accepting it and folding it around her naked form. “Honey, do you know who the cobra is?”

Gizelle looked at her blankly.

“The danger,” Lydia pressed gently.

“The danger is waking,” Gizelle said softly. “It shouldn’t wake. It should sleep, and it wakes and it tickles and whispers and the island will break and fall into the ocean and the world will burn.” Her voice rose as she continued, until she was crying hysterically and falling into Wrench’s arms.

He patted her awkwardly, meeting Lydia’s eyes over the crown of Gizelle’s white-streaked head.

Lydia was swift to reassure her. “You mean the earthquake? Oh, it’s okay, Gizelle. It just happens sometimes. It’s over now, it can’t hurt you. It’s just the ground shaking a little.”

Gizelle cried harder, clinging to Wrench.

“I been through lots of them,” Wrench added in a manner he hoped was comforting. “They’ll wake you up, but mostly they just get your blood going and nothing’s hurt.”

Gizelle sobbed on him for an awful moment that seemed longer than the endless ten minutes of silent meditation, then abruptly relaxed in Wrench’s arms. Then she was pushing back onto her heels. “I smell chocolate,” she said eagerly.

“I think Chef is making cake,” Lydia said coaxingly.

Gizelle seemed completely unaware of the tears that were still on her cheeks as she bounced to her feet. “Maybe he’ll let me lick the batter,” she said enthusiastically, then she was scampering off, bare feet silent over the grass.

“That girl ain’t right in the head,” Wrench said, baffled.

Lydia laughed weakly. “No, not entirely.”

Wrench brushed himself off and stood. “Can’t figure why she had to weep all over me,” he said, frowning down at the tears on his shirt.

Lydia smiled. “I figure you must remind her of Neal. He bonded with her a bit before leaving with his mate a few months back. You have sort of the same look to you.”

“Must be,” Wrench said briefly.

He hoped he wasn’t going soft.

Then he wondered how bad that would actually be.

Chapter 38

“You did great,” Lydia promised, laughing. “My toes are all still attached.”

Wrench managed to look some strange mix of pleased and offended behind his gruff facade, and Lydia loved the feeling of his hand at her waist. It was strong and sexy, and she wanted to drag him straight back out on the dance floor, even if he didn’t once use anything except the very basic forward and back. He had a sure sense of rhythm, and if he wasn’t creative on the dance floor, he was at least steady. Lydia had danced with far worse partners.

“Look out,” she teased him. “Scarlet’s watching. If you do too well, next time she’ll badger you to go dance with all the shy ladies sighing in the wings. These dances always draw more women than men.”

Adding weight to her threat, Travis and Tex were trotting dutifully around the room with eager partners while Jenny and Laura laughed together behind the bar. Breck was dancing seductively with a blushing middle-aged woman and Bastian was doing something elegant with the mink shifter while Saina seethed from the side of the room. Even Chef had been dragged from the kitchen and was dressed up and dancing elegantly with Dot, the old woman with short white hair. Magnolia blew him a kiss from the chairs at the edge of the room.

Scarlet was acting as DJ; the loss of their boat gave them no way to get the usual band from the mainland for the event. Lydia felt like it wasn’t quite the same as live instruments, but having Wrench at her side more than made up for it.

As Lydia glanced over at her, Scarlet raised her eyebrow and tilted her head towards the few single men standing awkwardly to the side of the dancefloor.

“Ah,” Lydia said. “I’m not going to be so lucky. But this is a lovely opportunity to get some more information.”

Wrench’s hand at her waist tightened possessively and Lydia let him draw her in closer. With heels, she didn’t have to stand up far to kiss him lightly on the cheek. He growled so quietly that she could only feel it through their body contact, not hear it.