The Jaguar Prince

Chapter 3

Callie backed out of her driveway and aimed for the nearest clothing store. She didn’t care about the cost, just as long as they came close to fitting him. She wanted Rogar, Prince of New Symtaria—yeah, right—out of her house and out of her life.

Besides, they wouldn’t cost that much. She was going to a resale store that was nearby. She shopped there all the time. If he didn’t like it, so be it, but she would insist he leave, no matter what. The guy was crazy.

She snorted.

An alien. Uh-huh, sure. And she was supposed to be one, too. She wasn’t any more an alien than…than that light post on the corner. So what if she had always felt like there was something different about her and…

Her body began to tremble so hard she could barely steer. The community park was only a block away. As soon as she came to the entrance, she pulled in and parked.

By now her body was shaking so hard she could barely catch her breath. She shifted the car into Park, then turned the key off before bringing her hands to her face.

“Oh, God, this isn’t happening. It can’t be.”

It wasn’t so much about Rogar being in her apartment, as it was the fact that she’d always felt different from everyone else. Not because she was an orphan, either. She’d always known there was more to it. What if she was as crazy as him?

“No, no, no!” She laughed hysterically. Was she really going to buy his story that she was part alien? Really? It was too preposterous. There was no such thing as aliens from other planets.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

She screamed and turned so fast she almost got whiplash. Her heart pounded inside her chest as she looked at the uniformed officer standing outside her car.

Just a cop. She’d thought it might’ve been an alien come to whisk her off in his spaceship and poke her with…probes or…something.

He motioned for her to roll the window down. She nodded and turned the key until she had power, then pushed the button to bring it down.

“You okay, miss?”

She nodded. He reminded her of Ben, very fatherly, gray hair, and with concern on his face. If the officer continued being this nice, she would totally lose it.

He suddenly sniffed. “What’s that odor?”

She sniffed.

Bleh! She knew exactly what it was. “Tuna fish,” she squeaked, then cleared her throat, and in a clearer voice, continued. “I guess I forgot to take it out of my car.” A few days ago.

He stepped a foot away from her car. “Do you mind stepping out of the vehicle?”

“Well, actually, I was just going to the clothing store…”

“Miss, it wasn’t really a question as much as it was an order.”

“Oh.” She opened her door, and got out. “Is there a problem?”

His demeanor had rapidly changed from concerned officer to suspicious officer. She barely kept herself from sticking her arms in front of her and telling him to take her to jail. Just lock her up, and throw away the key. That’s the way her day was going.

“Stand straight, then bring one finger to your nose, then repeat with the finger on your opposite hand,” the officer told her.

It took her a second to figure out why he was asking her to touch her nose. As soon as it dawned on her, her back stiffened. “You think I’ve been drinking!” Oh, God, this was priceless.

“Miss, just do what I asked,” he said the words slowly, as though he were talking to a child.

“Well, fine.” She stood straight, touched one finger to her nose, then the other. She repeated for good measure. “Would you like me to walk a straight line, too? I can, you know.”

Damn it! Could her day get any worse? She glanced toward the street. A gray land yacht was slowly going down the road. Oh, no, her landlady. Great! Just great!

“Your eyes are red-rimmed, and you were weaving before you pulled into the parking lot. It’s called probable cause,” the cop told her.

She sniffed, her bottom lip trembled. “Because I was crying, and I didn’t want to run over anyone, so I pulled into the parking space here, and I just wanted to get myself together so I could go shopping because he needs clothes and…”

“Boyfriend?”

“Alien from another planet.”

The officer frowned. “Yeah, some men can be jerks and you wish they were on another planet. I bet by the time you get home, he’ll be ready to apologize. Most men usually realize they screwed up.” He sighed. “My granddaughter just broke up with her boyfriend. ’Bout your age. You remind me a lot of her. She’s pretty, too, and could do a whole lot better in the man department.”

“You think I’m pretty?” She sniffed.

“Know so.” His face reddened. “For a kid, that is.”

Okay, she felt a little better. “Thank you.”

“Dry those eyes now, and when you’re out shopping for him, buy yourself something nice. If he doesn’t straighten up and act right, just call me and I’ll set him straight for you.”

“Thank you, officer.”

He walked back to his car and climbed in. She got inside her car, remembered the sandwich, and carried the brown sack to the Dumpster, dropping it inside. Ugh! It was pretty rank.

She kicked it into high gear once she was inside the store. She kept imagining Rogar causing all sorts of problems. He could destroy her things while she was gone. Not that she had that much.

By the time she arrived back home, which was still standing, and she would be eternally grateful for that, she had convinced herself that DeeDee was the prankster. Why else would she call early this morning? DeeDee thought sex was the cure for everything, and Callie needed to get more of it. Which Callie thought was crazy, of course. Not that she was a virgin or anything.

That was another area she knew she was different from everyone else. She would never admit it to anyone, but sex just wasn’t that great. Everyone else seemed to enjoy the hell out of it, though.

Where was this fever, this uncontrollable passion everyone spoke about, or that she read about in her books? If it was out there, she certainly hadn’t found it. She really had her doubts that she would ever have an out-of-control sexual encounter.

She turned the key off, and as soon as the car finished coughing and sputtering, gave its death rattle, then died, she grabbed the packages off the backseat and went inside.

All was quiet.

Too quiet.

Had he left? Maybe he hadn’t existed in the first place. This might go back to her thoughts that insanity probably ran in her family.

An unexpected flash of disappointment swept over her. He’d been really sexy, and it had been cool watching him transform into a powerful jaguar.

Right there, that should tell her something. No one could change form. She’d imagined the whole thing. And now she had all these men’s clothes. Callie supposed she could donate them to the shelter. For now, she let the bags drop to the sofa, then walked to the bedroom. She glanced toward the bed. It had been a great fantasy.

She turned to go back to the other room just as the bathroom door opened. She screamed.

“I apologize for scaring you. I washed,” he said. “It wasn’t the same as standing beneath a waterfall and letting the water cascade over me, but it was pleasant.”

Oh, right, she wanted that image in her head! She could see he’d taken a shower, his hair was damp. Rogar had no right to be this hot. Not when she knew what she had to do. Her line of charity had gone way past the limits of her comfort zone.

Not that it would be easy. A lock of his hair fell forward. It looked sexy lying on his forehead. Her gaze wandered down his body, the hard ridges, the six-pack abs. Thank God he had on the towel or she would be tempted to ravish him.

“I’ll get your clothes.” She hurried out of the room and grabbed the bags, taking them back to the bedroom. He still stood by the bathroom door looking like a friggin’ god that had come to Earth to tempt mortal women.

She tossed the bags on the bed. “As soon as you’re dressed, we need to talk.” Without waiting for his reply, she hurried out of the room.

Callie paced the living room while she waited for him to join her. She turned when she heard his footsteps. It was so not fair that he looked almost as good with clothes as he had without them. The dark slacks fit him as though they were tailor-made. She’d chosen a maroon knit shirt and a size ten shoe. She’d guessed at the shoes.

“Do the shoes fit?” She pointed to his feet.

“Everything fits.”

She drew in a deep breath. “Then you need to leave. You can’t stay here.”

He took a step nearer, his intense gaze studying her. “You would deny who you are?”

She turned and walked to the door. “I’m not who you think I am. I didn’t come from another planet, and I don’t think you did, either.”

“Would you like me to change form again?”

“No!”

“But if it will prove to you that what I’ve told you is true…”

“I’ve seen magicians perform the same trick lots of times. It only proves you know magic.”

“I’m the only one who can tell you where your ancestors came from, Callie. I know you have questions.”

She did. How many times had she wondered who her parents were? Why they had abandoned her. Why they hadn’t loved her enough to keep her.

A familiar, lonely ache engulfed her. All her life she’d felt rejected. No matter how often she told herself her parents were the problem, not her, she couldn’t quite get past the hurt.

She drew in a deep breath and squared her shoulders. No matter how badly she wanted answers, she knew she couldn’t be part alien. She stiffened her spine and looked him in the eye. “I think you’d better leave.”

He was thoughtful for a moment, and she wondered if he might refuse to go.

“If that is what you wish. Good-bye Callie Jordon.”

“Good-bye.”

He went out the door.

At the last minute, she hurried to her purse and grabbed what little money she had left from her check—her last bill—a twenty. There went her lunch for next week. It would be PB&J sandwiches.

She ran out the door. “Rogar,” she called.

He stopped and turned. “You’ve changed your mind?”

She shook her head, then shoved the bill in his hand. “You might need some money. I’m sorry I don’t have more.”

He studied the bill, turning it over in his hand, before stuffing it in his pants pocket. “Thank you.”

“Good-bye.”

He smiled. One of those crooked half smiles that sent her pulse racing. Before she did something foolish, like ask him to stay, she turned and hurried back inside, shutting the door firmly behind her. She closed her eyes and willed herself not to open the door to see if he’d really left.

After a few deep breaths, she went to the kitchen. There was an empty cereal box on the counter. Darn, that had been her breakfast for next week. At least she had coffee. She could live without a lot of stuff, but never her coffee.

Her cell phone began to ring. She hurried to the other room and unearthed it at the bottom of her purse.

“Hello?”

“Me again.”

“Hi DeeDee.”

“Did your friend leave?”

“Yes, why?”

“Just curious.”

“No, I wasn’t lying, and no, we didn’t have sex.”

“I didn’t really think you had,” DeeDee said, sounding disappointed. “But a girl can hope.”

Callie laughed. “You know, the world does not revolve around having sex.”

“It does if you do it right.” She paused. “Come out with me tonight. It’s Saturday. We’ll go to a club and see what we can drum up.”

Callie almost said yes, but then she remembered she was broke until next Friday. “I can’t this weekend. How about next?”

“I can spot you the money.”

Callie cringed. Her friend made a lot more money, plus her parents were loaded and doted on their only child, but Callie refused to borrow from DeeDee. She made her own way in this world. Always had. She wouldn’t change now.

“Can I take a rain check? There are some things I need to get done around the house.”

DeeDee’s deep sigh came across the line. “If you insist.”

“I’m afraid I have to.”

Callie closed her phone a few minutes later, after DeeDee told her about the guy she’d met at a club last Saturday. DeeDee led an eventful life. Her motto was live while you’re young. She also thought Callie was old before her time. Maybe she was. Sometimes Callie felt older than her twenty-six years.

The next morning Callie stretched her arms above her head and yawned as she came awake, then stilled. Cautiously, she glanced around the room.

No one there.

She’d half expected to see Rogar sitting on the end of her bed, legs crossed, and stark naked. She was almost disappointed that he wasn’t. DeeDee was right, her life was definitely lacking male companionship.

The weekend dragged at a snail’s pace. She cleaned everything there was to clean, and still found herself going to the window and looking out.

Was Rogar okay? Had he found another female more willing to let him crawl into her bed? One who was more willing to believe his far-fetched stories?

She was glad when Monday morning came so she’d at least have her job to occupy her mind. The petting zoo wasn’t so bad. She enjoyed working with the baby animals. The kids that came to try to torture the animals were another matter.

If she was honest, most of the children weren’t that bad. It was just that there was always at least one monster in the bunch who thought pulling the goat’s tail was great fun.

Callie was tempted to visit Sheba first. Her place of Zen, gather her Chi, but she knew that would make her late so she headed in the opposite direction.

“Hi, Callie,” Gail said as Callie joined her coworker.

“Morning.”

Gail critically eyed her. “Rough weekend?”

She walked into the small enclosure that would hold the baby animals when they brought them out. “Do I look that bad?”

“Not that bad. You could never look bad. Just tired.”

“I read a book I couldn’t put down.”

Gail nodded, knowing Callie was addicted to books. “Yeah, I get pretty caught up in them, too. Give me a sexy hunk over a boring rerun any day.” She laughed.

The phone rang in the small building next to the enclosure.

“I’ll get it,” Gail said.

Callie began to bring the animals to the enclosure. They had quite a few. A miniature horse, a lamb, a potbelly pig they called Morris, a duck, the goat, a very fat cat that wasn’t really a baby, to name a few. They were sweet, but they weren’t the big cats that she longed to take care of.

She looked up when Gail returned. “Everything okay?”

“You’re being pulled.”

Callie groaned. When someone didn’t show up for work, she was the one who got pulled to do their job, and why not, she had done everything at the zoo, from driving one of the tour buses, to mucking stalls—oh, God, she hoped it wasn’t that. She loathed cleaning the stalls, especially the elephants’.

She knew the only reason they had stuck supervisor on her name tag was so she would stay. The quarter an hour raise had helped, she admitted to herself, but it wasn’t like she would get rich from it or anything.

“You’re supposed to go to the main office.”

Callie’s smile was weak at best.

“The secretary said it had to do something with a private tour. Hey, don’t feel too bad, we have three classes of first and second graders scheduled to go through this morning.”

Callie was thoughtful for a moment, then she nodded. “You’re right. Nothing could be as bad as that.” She grinned, then made her way to the main office.

Still, she wasn’t particularly fond of private tours. If someone could afford the cost of a guide, and an open minibus or Jeep, that usually meant their kids were spoiled rotten. The last time she had chauffeured one, she’d ended up with a giant sucker stuck on the back of her uniform, and cotton candy in her hair. The generous tip had only mildly soothed her ruffled feathers.

She went inside the air-conditioned private office.

“Go on in, Mr. Campbell is expecting you.” His secretary waved her inside.

She took a deep breath. She always hated going inside his office. It wasn’t that she disliked him. Okay, maybe she did. He was superficial and pretentious, nothing like his father. If it made him look good, then he was happy, no matter whose toes he stepped on along the way.

She opened the door and walked in. Mr. Campbell was seated at his desk. The office was done in dark, rich wood—only the best, of course, but it was rather like walking into a cave. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust. When they did, she saw the man who sat across from Mr. Campbell. From the back, he looked familiar. Dark hair brushed his shoulders, he wore a deep green shirt and dark slacks.

“Callie, come in, come in. I want you to meet Rogar Valkyir, you’ll be giving him a private tour of the grounds. Mr. Valkyir, this is Callie Jordon.”

Rogar stood, then slowly turned.

She tried to swallow, but couldn’t. She choked instead. Rogar quickly poured her a glass of water from the pitcher on Mr. Campbell’s desk, then handed it to her. She gulped half of it down as she pulled her thoughts together.

“Are you okay, Ms. Jordon?” Rogar’s words were soft and silky, like a caress.

“Fine, thank you very much. I swallowed wrong.”

“Miss Jordon.” Rogar bowed slightly.

“Mr. Valkyir.” She said between gritted teeth. She didn’t know what the hell his game was, but she was damned well tired of playing!

“Callie is probably the one person who knows everything about the animals we have at the zoo,” Mr. Campbell continued as though the temperature in the room hadn’t suddenly dropped ten degrees. “He especially wants to see the big cats. I’d like for you to give him anything he wants.” He didn’t smile, he beamed.

“I’m anxious to see the park,” Rogar said. “Are you ready?”

No, she wasn’t, damn it! How the hell had he maneuvered his way in here and gotten Mr. Campbell to bend over backward and arrange for a private showing? And where did he get the new clothes? His clothes cost way more than the twenty dollars she’d given him. She had an awful feeling that she’d had the wool pulled over her eyes. Fury did not begin to describe the emotion she felt right now.

Don’t make a scene, she told herself. “Yes, of course, Mr. Valkyir.”

“Rogar, please.”

Her blood pressure shot up a couple more notches. “Rogar.” She smiled sweetly, trying not to bare her teeth.

Before she reached the door, he was there, opening it for her. The guy moved fast. Yeah, right, he definitely had some fast moves. Like convincing her he could change into a jaguar. Correction, almost convincing her. She hadn’t realized getting laid had taken on this degree of finesse. The guy was a master at it. And to think she had almost fallen into his trap. God, she was such a moron.

“What are you thinking?” he asked as they walked toward the covered carport where they kept the zoo vehicles.

She wondered if his sexy accent was even real. And that name, Rogar Valkyir. It had to be phony, too.

She glanced his way, her eyes narrowing. “You don’t want to know.”

He put a hand out to stop her. She could feel his strength, his heat, through the cotton of her shirt. Against her will, tingles of awareness rippled over her.

“Yes, I do want to know. You look angry. Have I done something wrong?”

She snorted. “Angry? Angry doesn’t even come close to what I’m feeling.” She jerked out of his grasp, which wasn’t difficult since his hold had been light.

“Then I will try to make it better. Just tell me what I need to do, anything at all, and I will do it for you.” He smiled and for a moment she was lost.

She quickly cleared her mind. “You’re going to be my hero, huh?” She drew in a shaky breath. He had the looks of a hero.

“Is that what you want? A hero?” His voice caressed her.

She aimed her thoughts down another road. “If you want to do something, tell Mr. Campbell you’ve changed your mind about the private tour, then go back where you came from. I don’t need a hero, nor do I believe you’re an alien either. Good line, though. It almost worked.”

“Line?”

“Yeah, so you could have…sex…with me.” She looked away as heat rose up her face.

“You think that was what I was trying to do?”

Her spine stiffened. “Weren’t you?”

“Everything I told you was the truth.”

“Sorry, I’m not buying it this time.” She opened the Jeep’s door and climbed in on the driver’s side. “If you’re going, get in.” She turned the key, not waiting to see what he would do. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him climb inside.

This was going to be a very long day.

She smiled to herself.

And she was going to make it just as boring and painful for him as he would be making it for her. She was going to hit every speed bump, take him past the area where the refuse was dumped…

He was going to be so sorry he showed up today.