Page 33 of Midlife Shifter Unexpected

I sat bolt upright from a sound sleep as the sun was setting through the window. I was lying alone in Matheus’s massive bed where we had luxuriated the afternoon away, making love until I had fallen asleep.

From the smell of pancakes and rattling of pots and pans I could tell Matheus was in the kitchen cooking something.

“I have to check on the dogs.” I muttered to myself. Not just them but I needed to check in with Sheriff Ted, with Jane, with Mae. I suddenly felt completely overwhelmed. I had abandoned my entire responsibilities for the day and instead spent it in bed with a man.

No. A half-man. He was a satyr.

I couldn’t even begin to describe how incredibly sexy it was. His arousal in the bedroom made my knees weak just thinking about it.

I wrapped a sheet around myself and made my way towards the kitchen area. “You should never have let me fall asleep.”

“I assumed you needed the rest.” Matheus looked up from the salad he was making to give me a smile that made me blush. It was an intimate smile. A smile that said he knew what I sounded like when I had an orgasm. I smiled back.

“Just because someone is asleep does not mean they should be asleep,” I said. "Didn’t you pick me up from a crime scene where I have friends? Don’t you think I should be with them right now?”

“Last time I checked they were fully grown women and can pretty much handle themselves,” he said.

“Did you ever think maybe I am one too?”

He gave me a grunt and moved over to kiss me on the cheek. “No, because you’re mine, and my woman requires being taken care of by me.”

I took a deep breath, not sure how I felt about that. There was something incredibly sexy about being called his woman and I wanted to fall into that, but then there was a whole other part of me that was like ‘wait a minute, I’m forty-five years old.’ I’d been a woman on my own for the last twenty years and I didn’t need any man telling me what to do or helping me do things.

He stood there; his arms folded over his chest.

“Done processing all that now?” he asked with a smile.

“Not even close,” I said.

“Well, you go and get that processed and I’ll just keep making you something to eat,”

“I don’t have time to eat. That’s what I keep telling you.” I wasn’t sure if I was more exasperated or charmed. Probably more frustrated. I couldn’t just spend all afternoon with him having him take care of me. “I have to go and check on my friends.”

“Your friends are not more important than you having a healthy nutritional start to the evening,” Matheus said with a grin, placing a salad with little strips of grilled chicken on the table for me.

“You made this?”

He looked at me then rolled his eyes. “It’s just a salad. I am not thirteen. I know how to be a man.”

“Men have changed so much since I was dating men your age.”

“You’re still dating me irrespective of my age,” Matheus said. “I insist.”

I shook my head at him. “Are you sure you really want to date somebody my age?”

“I don’t care how old you are,” he said. “You’re amazing. You raised your kid on your own, you worked two jobs, you stayed in one place your whole life.”

“No, I traveled with my husband years ago,” I said. “Just to be clear, but it wasn’t for me.”

“Cougar Creek was for you,” he said.

“That’s why I’m sure we’re so much alike, because I feel the same way about Cougar Creek.”

Matheus pulled me towards him and gave me a cuddle. “I have a good feeling about us.”

The way he said that, his positivity and excitement, made me so nervous. I’d never been that great in relationships though I only had my ex-husband for comparison.

“You don’t have a girlfriend around here? I asked. “Do you?”

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