her shoulders, put the memories back where they belonged. “Mei. Wow…I can’t believe this. It’s good to see you. How have you been?”
Mei looked down at her napkin. “I wish I could say I was great, but…not good. Homeless for the past few months. I got my GED for high school, but no college. I really wanted to go to college, but…” She shook her head. “No training for anything. It’s tough, ya know?” She raised her chin defiantly and stared at Eve for a moment. “I worked in a couple of fast food places.” She smiled crookedly. “Jobs were okay, managers had too many ideas and too many hands.”
Eve could understand that. Mei practically pulsed with sensuality. Her clothing might be torn and ragged, but her hair was shiny and clean, her skin clear, her tall, lean body absolutely gorgeous. She moved with a sinuous grace, an innate passion that spilled over onto Eve. Aroused her even beyond the frustrated desire she felt night after night.
Eve squeezed her legs together and felt an answering shiver race along her spine before it arrowed directly to her clit. She took a deep breath. For the first time, Eve noticed Mei’s eyes. Dark lashes surrounded perfect, almond-shaped, green eyes. Eyes the color of summer grass with specks of amber scattered throughout. Eyes almost like the other Chanku shapeshifters Eve knew.
Almost, but not exactly. She took another bite of her sandwich and concentrated on Mei. Concentrated on her thoughts and tried to find an answer to her sense of the almost familiar.
The frisson of awareness intensified. It was there, just beyond reach. Alien, unfamiliar, suffused with sensual needs almost completely overwhelmed by fear and loneliness. Still, she felt the connection to another mind, to another’s desire. Mei raised her head. Looked long and hard into Eve’s eyes. Brushed her hand across her forehead and blinked.
“What are you doing?” Mei’s whisper radiated confusion and desire. “I feel you.” She tapped her temple lightly with her forefinger. “Here. I feel you here. And here, as well.” She swept her hand along her torso, paused at her small breasts, then roughly grabbed herself between the legs. “Here, most of all. What the fuck are you doing in my head?”
Chapter 2
“I wondered if you could feel my thoughts. My arousal.” Eve slowly gathered up the papers and crumbs from her meal to give herself time to think.
“You a lesbian?”
Eve smiled at the challenge in Mei’s voice. “When the company suits me.” She stood up and walked across the room, dumped her garbage in the small trash can and grabbed the bottle of brown capsules Anton had given her. She sat down again and smiled at Mei, pushing gently with her mind. Sharing her growing arousal. “What about you?”
“Sometimes I like women. Mostly I dig guys, ‘cept when there’s not one around.” She was watching Eve now with more than a little interest shining in her green eyes. Watching the pill bottle Eve had set on the table in front of her.
Somehow, Eve had to get Mei to take Anton’s pills. The big, ugly capsules were filled with a mix of dried grasses specific to the Tibetan steppe, the Chanku ancestral home. The nutrients in the pills activated a small gland lying dormant near the hypothalamus of a latent Chanku. It was the only way, she knew, to find out if Mei shared the same genes.
If Mei was merely human, the pills would have absolutely no effect on her. If she was Chanku, she would have the ability to shift from woman to wolf within a week.
Eve took a capsule out of the bottle, popped it in her mouth and downed it with a swallow of coffee. “They’re vitamins,” she said, holding the bottle out to Mei. “Nutrients and stuff to keep me healthy. I get them from a good friend. Do you want one?”
Mei eyed the ugly pills suspiciously. “I don’t do drugs.” She took one out of the bottle and sniffed it. She raised her head and frowned. “Smells like weed. Really expensive stuff.”
Eve laughed. “I don’t do drugs either, and these are most definitely not marijuana. Never mind. I don’t have all that many of them anyway. I just figured your diet’s probably not been all that healthy. These are a good supplement.”
Mei gave her a crooked grin. Instead of replacing the capsule back in the bottle, she popped it into her mouth and swallowed it down with a gulp of orange juice. “Last night’s dinner came out of a dumpster near that hamburger joint on the corner. I’ll take your pills.”
Eve grinned broadly as she took another sip of her rapidly cooling coffee. “You need to find better quality dumpsters. That place has lousy hamburgers and really greasy fries.”
Mei laughed out loud this time. “Yeah, well…when you’re on the streets, you don’t always have much of a choice.” She pushed her chair back and stood up. “Thanks for the meal. I better get going. I don’t want to impose.”
Eve reached across the table and touched Mei’s hand. “Stay. Please?”
“Why?” Mei paused. Her dark brows scrunched up in a frown. “You hardly know me.” Then her eyes narrowed with suspicion and she glared at Eve. “You want sex? That’s it, isn’t it?”
Eve shrugged. “Sex is always an option, but only if you’re interested. You’re a link, Mei. Someone who knew me when I was a child. I have so few memories of friends from my childhood. In a way, you’re the closest thing to family I’ve had since I left my last foster home. Stay, please?”
Mei cocked her head to one side. Obviously she still wasn’t buying it. “Do you live here? In this motel?”
Eve shook her head. “No. I came back here on business, but I had car trouble. My friend is on his way to fix the truck. I expect him in a couple days.”
“Boyfriend?” Mei pulled the chair out and sat.
“Could be. Some day.”
“What happens when the truck’s fixed?” Mei twisted a strand of her long, dark hair. Her constant motion told Eve a lot more than mere words. Her eyes, hands, smile…all spoke volumes of Mei’s nervous energy and lack of trust. “Where will you go then? Where do you live?”
“Nowhere, right now.” Eve sighed. “Montana, maybe. I’ve got friends there. Friends who want me to live with them, but I wasn’t ready. Like the boyfriend. I think he loves me. It scares the crap out of me, that kind of relationship. I needed time to figure out what I want to do with my life. What I really need.”
“Yeah. I wish I knew what I wanted.” Mei laughed. “Other than a bath and a clean change of clothes.”
Perfect! Eve stood up. “That I can do. We’re about the same size. You can borrow some of my things for now. Get a shower, some clean clothes. Later we can get a cab and go shopping.”
Mei blinked, but for the first time since entering the room, she sat perfectly still. Eve realized she was fighting tears.
“You’d do that for me? Buy me clothes?”
“Of course. You were my friend years ago, Mei. I’d like to think we can be friends again.”
Mei nodded. Then she grabbed her purse. She didn’t hesitate when Eve pointed her toward the shower. Nor did she seem to realize her thoughts were growing clearer by the minute as Eve consistently probed her mind. She had to be Chanku. Could Mei be the reason Eve had been drawn back to Florida? It was too perfect to be purely coincidental.
Anton was going to love it! His ongoing argument with Stefan over fate versus coincidence was gaining credence by the day. Eve almost picked up the phone to call Anton. Almost. She hesitated, fingers spread in the act of grabbing her cell phone off the nightstand.
How easy it had become, to think of Anton, of Keisha, Stefan, and Xandi when she had something to share. Already she thought of them as family. Why hadn’t her thoughts rushed to Adam? Or even to Oliver?
Because they scare the crap out of you. She wasn’t ready for the powerful connection she felt with both men, but especially