Wild Invitation

their arrival. She raised an eyebrow. “Keeping secrets?”
    He had the grace to look a little sheepish. “To be honest, I didn’t think anyone would realize or even care. You told me they were math and physics people.”
    “My father knows everything about everyone. And a Ph.D. is a Ph.D..” She rapped a fist gently against his chest. “If you’d told me you had one, I wouldn’t have worried so much about my mother’s reaction—even she can’t argue against a doctorate.”
    “Your mother’s not the one whose opinion I care about. Does the Ph.D. matter to you, Annie?” The look in his eyes was guarded.
    The hint of unfamiliar vulnerability caught her unawares. “Zach, if degrees mattered to me,” she said honestly, “I’d have married the triple-Ph.D.’d physicist my mother picked out for me when I was twenty-two. Or the MD with more letters after his name than the alphabet. Or the multipublished grand pooh-bah who stared at nothing but my breasts for the entire meal.”
    His smile creased his cheeks. “The man had excellent taste.”
    “Stop making me blush.” But she wasn’t, not any longer—somehow, Zach Quinn had earned the trust of her vulnerable feminine heart.
    It startled her, made her afraid.
    But before the dark emotion could grow, Zach bent to brush his lips gently over hers, acting in the way of changelings, not caring that they had an audience. When he drew away, she leaned into him, fear—if not forgotten—then at least temporarily caged.

Chapter 8
    TWO AND A half hours later, Zach found himself on the balcony sipping coffee while Annie stood inside, chatting with her cousin. God, but she was beautiful to him—all he wanted was to take her home, hold her safe, and keep her just for himself.
    It was an unalterable part of him, this possessiveness, coming from the cat and man both. But no matter his primitive instincts, he wouldn’t do that to Annie, wouldn’t contain her that way. Still, he needed to mark her—to take her until his scent was embedded so deep into her skin, no one would dare question his right to her. An animal desire. Yet often, the animal’s heart was far more pure, far more honest, than the thinking man’s.
    “Mr. Quinn.”
    He glanced at Kimberly Kildaire. “Please call me Zach.”
    “Zach.” A regal nod. “Let me get straight to the point—from the instant Angelica told me about you, I was prepared to dislike you.”
    “I guessed.”
    “I’ve changed my mind.”
    Zach raised an eyebrow. “The Ph.D.?”
    “No. In certain departments, any monkey can get a Ph.D.” It was a gauntlet.
    He picked it up. “Good thing I’m a leopard, then.”
    Her lips threatened to smile. “I’ve always pushed Annie toward men who are more cerebral than physical.”
    Zach waited with a predator’s quiet patience.
    “It was a conscious choice,” Kimberly said without apology, “my way of ensuring she would never again be put in harm’sway. I even rejected a brilliant engineer as a possible match because he frequently goes off to work on projects in remote locations. His humanity mattered less than the danger he might’ve exposed Annie to.”
    Her eyes met his. “To be quite blunt, changelings take that possible danger to the nth degree. Your very nature is one filled with the violence of the wild.”
    He was floored by her candor. “You’re very aware.”
    “I know others might say I’m intellectualizing away prejudice, but I’m no bigot.” She held his gaze with a strength he suspected had been honed by surviving a lifetime of hurt. “I simply want my daughter safe. I saw her almost die once—it’s not something I want to witness ever again.”
    His cat detected no lies in her. “I’ll keep her safe.”
    “I have a feeling you will. It seems I made a critical error—in thinking about how you could lead her into danger, I forgot that predatory changelings are also known for their willingness to protect to the death.” Her eyes—Annie’s eyes—clashed with his. “But that’s not why I’ve decided for you.”
    “Oh?”
    “It’s because of the way you look at her, Zach. As if she’s your sunshine.” Her voice caught. “I want that for my daughter. Don’t you ever stop looking at her that way.”
    Zach reached out and touched her lightly on the arm, sensing how very brittle her composure was at that moment. “I give you my promise.”
    A sharp nod. “Excuse me, I should go mingle.”
    As she walked away, Zach blew out a slow