Chapter 10

The weather forecast at eleven that night said the storm wasn’t supposed to move away until the next afternoon. The snowflakes had diminished in size and stung any exposed skin they hit. Riley huddled down inside her coat as she walked across the drive to the first barn, where JJ had said Calvin would most likely be. He’d also flirted with her, which had been amusing since she knew he was just teasing her.

Entering the side door, Riley used her cellphone flashlight app to find her way down a long corridor of stalls to the main barn floor. She located the tack room and cracked the door open. A small lamp sitting on a rectangular wooden table provided dim lighting. Riley didn’t see Calvin, so she stepped further into the room.

A cry burst from her when someone suddenly shoved her face-first against the wall into a couple of bridles. One of the buckles pressed painfully into her right cheek.

“Riley?”

Relief rushed through her when she recognized Calvin’s voice. “Yes, it’s me.”

His hand left her shoulders and he turned her around gently before backing away. “Sorry about that. Can’t be too careful and I didn’t catch your scent right away. Probably because your coat and hair are wet from the snow.”

His eyes were black in the low light and his bangs hung over his forehead. He wore a plain blue men’s robe that ended just below his knees, and she couldn’t help wondering what was under it. The wicked part of her wished that she hadn’t been so shocked earlier that day so she could remember what he’d looked like naked.

“You can smell me?” she asked.

“Yeah. Our sense of smell isn’t quite as strong in human form, but it’s still a lot more powerful than a normal human’s. No two people smell alike, not even twins,” Calvin replied. “What are you doing out here?”

The wariness in his eyes saddened her. “I came to see you.”

“Why?”

Riley put her hands in her coat pockets to keep from wringing them. “Delia told me some things about shifters and I’m trying to understand.”

Calvin sent her a wry smile. “It’s really not all that complicated, but I know it takes a while to get used to.” He motioned toward the couch. “Have a seat and I’ll try to answer any other questions you have.”

The tack room was warm, and Riley wondered at the heat source. Then she saw a small space heater underneath the table. She took her coat off and hung it up before sitting down. Calvin settled on the other end of the couch and looked expectantly at her, putting the ball firmly in her court.

“How old were you when you first shifted?”

“About four. I remember thinking that I really liked the ponies at the fair and wished I had one,” Calvin said. “I was playing outside by myself one day, pretending I was a pony and the next thing I knew, my hand became a hoof.” He raised his right hand. “I thought I was going crazy at first, but then it happened to my left hand, too.

“I was a little kid, so I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I changed and galloped all over the place. When I went back home and wanted to go in the house, I couldn’t figure out how to change back at first. Then I pictured what I looked like in the mirror and—poof! I was back to my old self.”

A chill went up Riley’s spine. “That’s incredible. Doesn’t it hurt?”

“It used to hurt a lot when I first started, but it got easier, and the pain changed. You know how good it feels when someone cracks your back for you?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

Calvin spread his hands wide. “It’s like that. It hurts in a good way, and you have a sense of freedom once you transform. There’s this other part of you that needs to get out and experience life, too. We get irritable and anxious if we can’t shift for a few days for some reason. We try to shift every day if possible.”

Riley couldn’t hold back a smile. “I have to admit that you ... what do I call it when you’re a horse?”

Calvin shrugged. “I just usually say ‘my stallion’.”

“Okay, your stallion is really impressive, and you ran a lot faster than any horse I’ve ever ridden,” Riley said. “And the way you jumped those fences? Amazing.”

Pride filled Calvin. “Thanks. I can run sixty miles an hour and jump a nine-foot fence.”

Riley laughed at his smug expression. “I can’t imagine going over a jump that high.”

Calvin grinned. “I’ve dumped a few people who tried it. I didn’t mean to, but when you’re coming down at that steep an angle, it’s pretty hard to stay on. Gemma’s really good at it, though.”

“Do you ever get hurt?”

“Yeah, but we heal fast when we’re in animal form. If I got a serious knife wound right now, I would just shift and it would speed up the healing process by about ten times, I guess. Maybe more,” Calvin told her.

Riley took a deep breath. “So, let me get this straight. You can take a bunch of different equine forms, run at super-speed, jump insanely high, and heal much faster.”

“Right. Plus, our hearing, sight, and sense of smell is way beyond a normal human’s,” Calvin said. “I heard you coming through the barn, but I couldn’t smell you. That’s why I wasn’t sure if you were friend or foe. Sorry about the rough treatment.”

Riley smiled. “It’s okay. I understand. Do people come after you a lot?”

Calvin wanted to tell her that associating with him and his family was safe, but he couldn’t lie. “It’s happened a couple of times before, but not for several years.”

“Who are the people after you?” Riley asked.

“We’re not really sure. We’ve been working on that, but haven’t found anything concrete yet,” Calvin answered. “We mostly stay to ourselves, but there are people who know we exist. So, it’s possible that someone wants to grab at least one of us or wants to kill us for sport.”

Riley’s blood turned icy at the thought of someone killing one of the Lightfoot family. “Why can’t they just leave you alone? You’re not hurting anyone.”

Calvin smelled her fear. “Riley, it’ll be okay. We’ll be fine. Most likely whoever it was is long-gone by now and won’t be back.”

“You don’t know that.”

“You’re right. I don’t, but, either way, you’re safe. A few of my brothers and sisters did some investigating tonight and no one was at your place after we left,” Calvin said. “There were no vehicle or human tracks, the house was still locked, and there were no other scents besides ours. So, there shouldn’t be any reason that I can’t run you home in the morning and—”

Riley moved closer to him, her eyes boring into his. “No way. I’m not going to stay home all alone, trapped by the snow. What if they decide to search the places out my way? I hate to say it because I’ve always been independent, but it scares me. I’ve never been involved in something like this before and I’m pretty rattled.”

Without thinking, Calvin took her hands, seeking to reassure her. Her hands were cold, and he closed his fingers around them. Gazing at her, he couldn’t deny that she was right. The danger to her, at least at this point, was very real. Leaving her alone and defenseless would be beyond cruel.

“We won’t let anything happen to you, Riley. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Riley looked at their joined hands, then back into his eyes. The conviction she saw there was mesmerizing and so was he. His fingers loosened, but she grasped his hands tightly.

“What really happened with your fiancée?”

Calvin sighed and she felt bad for upsetting him, but she had to know. He rubbed the backs of her hands with his thumbs and a little thrill ran up Riley’s arms.

“I made a huge mistake with Jenny.” Calvin steeled himself. “I slept with her before she knew what I was. I thought that if she loved me, it wouldn’t matter. I was dead wrong. That’s why she didn’t show up for our wedding. She couldn’t handle the fact that she’d been with ... an animal.”

Riley’s heart filled with sorrow for Calvin. She’d been doing a lot of thinking that evening and couldn’t imagine how it would feel to be rejected for something that wasn’t your fault. It was almost the same thing as being abandoned because you had a medical condition.

“That’s why you wouldn’t go home with me last night.”

Calvin squeezed her hands. “Yeah. It’s also why I’m glad we were interrupted in my office. I couldn’t stand to go through something like that again, Riley. It almost killed me. That’s why it’s better that we part ways now before we get attached. As soon as it’s safe for you to, you can get on with your life and I’ll stay out of your hair. All I ask is that you don’t tell anyone about us.”

The contact with his rough palms sent Riley’s pulse rushing through her veins. Looking down at his hands, she wanted him to run them over her body. Would it feel as good as she imagined if he touched her everywhere? She searched for some sign of the hooves they could become, but all she found were his strong hands that were twice as large as hers.

Riley turned his right hand over, brushing her fingers over his wide palm. Then she examined his long, masculine fingers and pronounced knuckles. Lightly, she traced the most prominent vein along the back of his hand to his wrist. She looked up when he shivered and felt some sort of vibration coming from him.

As their gazes met and held, his nostrils flared and his lips parted. “Don’t, Riley.”

“Don’t what?”

Calvin couldn’t tell her to stop smelling that way, the way a mare did when she was in heat. That just wasn’t something you said to a woman. “Stop touching me like that and looking at me like that.” His temperature had risen a couple of degrees. “I can’t think straight when you do.”

“Maybe I don’t want you to,” Riley said.

Calvin pulled his hand out of hers. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You think you do, but—”

Riley straightened her spine. “I want to see you shift.”

He stared agog at her. “What? You were totally creeped out earlier today.”

“That was then,” Riley told him. “I want to see you shift now that I understand a lot more.”