Page 102 of Bria and the Tiger

“Yes.”

“You look pretty happy with her. You guys have been attached at the hip, and she seems to know a lot about you.”

“We’re pretending.” He was suddenly very tired and feeling a little sick to his stomach. “Mom, stop worrying, okay? Bria is just a friend.”

Both his parents continued to give him worried looks. It had been a mistake to bring Bria here. What the hell was he thinking? His tiger made a low call of distress and a dark cloud settled over him. He should never have –

“Jace?”

Bria’s soft voice made his tiger purr. It sat up, its distress gone immediately. Bria slipped her arm around his waist and gave him a hesitant smile. “Hi.”

“Hi.” He put his arm around her shoulders and held her close. He could smell fresh misery pouring off of his mother. He hated that he was upsetting her, but he couldn’t stop touching Bria.

She made the darkness retreat.

She made him feel…right.

“Everything okay?” She was giving him a worried look and he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

“Yes, but I was just telling my folks that we were going to head out. I know you have that…thing tomorrow morning, so I don’t want to keep you too late.”

“I appreciate that.” Bria immediately played along with his lie. She smiled at his parents. “It was nice to see you again, Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd.”

“Nice to see you too,” his father replied. His mother didn’t say anything.

Bria squeezed his waist. “Should we say goodbye to Ashley and Reggie before we go?”

“Yes. I’ll talk to you guys later, okay?” Jace hugged his mother.

“Bye, son.” His father patted him roughly on the back as his mother clung to him.

“Jace,” she whispered into his ear, “I love you. You know that, right?”

“I do,” he said. “Don’t worry. Everything’s fine.”

* * *

Jace parked his car in front of Bria’s apartment building. They had spent most of the ride home in silence. He hated the awkwardness between them. Desperate to spend more time with her, he’d tried to convince her to go for dinner once they were back in the city. She turned him down politely. She gave him a startled look when he shut the car off.

“I’ll carry your bag up for you.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to.” He got out of the car before she could keep arguing. He wanted to see Bria’s apartment, wanted to feel close to her for just a little longer.

They walked into her building and took the elevator to the tenth floor. She was pale and fidgety, but she tried to smile at him as she opened the door to her apartment. “It’s a bit messy.”

“That’s okay.” He followed her down the hallway, checking out the small living room as they passed it, and set her bag on the kitchen floor. Her place was small, but he liked the way she had decorated it and told her that.

“Thanks.” She took off her jacket and draped it over a chair. She was still wearing the blue dress he had bought, and he studied the way it clung to her perfect breasts. God, he wanted her. He wanted to take her to her bedroom, peel off that dress and make love to her until she was moaning his name.

Instead, he said, “I guess I should go.”

When she didn’t reply, he gave her a faint smile. “Thank you again for your help. I really appreciated it. I’ll see you on Monday at the office.”

“Jace, wait.”

He turned around, his tiger purring and his heart thud-thud-thudding in his chest. “Yeah?”

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