Born Cheetah Read Online Free Page B

menu. “I rarely tease. I flirt, I play, but I don’t tease.”
    “Good do know. Now...let’s pretend that we don’t know each other. This is a first date.”
    She raised a brow. “A first date where I rode you naked across a field and licked you until you asked me to stop?”
    He cleared his throat, and his eyes took on a heavy-lidded aspect. “Right.”
    “Well, my name is Rayna Baker. What is yours?”
    “Gregory Daywell.”
    The drinks arrived, and she ordered a salad with chicken while he opted for a burger and fries.
    “Well, Gregory, where did you grow up?”
    “A small town.”
    “Large shifter population?”
    He grinned, “The largest shifters were my parents and my brothers and sister. Most of the locals were otters and ducks.”
    “That is amazing. I grew up in a similar community.”
    He blinked and was wary when he asked, “Were you and your parents the largest predators in the region?”
    She bit her lip. “No. My parents died when I was ten months old. Car accident. I was raised by my parents’ best friends, the Samuels.”
    “Cheetahs?”
    “Otters. It was a good thing that I was a late shifter.” She grinned. “Things could have gotten messy.”
    “Wow. Okay. Any questions for me?”
    She nodded. “Sure, why did you come here? A guy like you could have any girl for the asking, human or otherwise.”
    He inclined his head. “Thank you for the cockeyed compliment. I haven’t found a woman who feels right yet. I thought I met one when I was still in school, but she was young and we were thrown off by the machinations of another.”
    She took a sip of her cherry cola. “Really? That sucks. How did that happen?”
    “Well, I didn’t find out the details until a few months after it was too late, but when I slipped a note into the girl’s locker, her older sister opened the locker and stole the note. Because I hadn’t put a name on it, she said I had put it in her locker and that her younger sister wasn’t interested in herd animals. When the girl I meant to give the letter to left town, their other sister explained things, but by then, it was too late. She was gone, and I was too gutless to go after her.”
    She sipped again, slowly. “Why?”
    “She had enough confidence for someone four times her age. I was always in awe of her mastery of herself and those around her.” He took her hand and rubbed her palm with his thumb. “I have hoped that one day I could meet her again and we could start over. I have fobbed off my family as long as I could and here I am.”
    She coughed to cover the lump in her throat. “That seems a good reason.”
    “What about you?”
    She blushed. “Well, my older sister just had a baby shower and a transporter showed up with instructions from my mom. My original mom. If I was still single at this time in my life, I was to have an unlimited account and all the time I needed to find a man that my beast and my brain could agree on. It has been quite tricky. There was only ever one man that we were in consensus on and my older sister stole him.”
    “She borrowed him. He is now firmly in your possession.” He clenched his fingers over her hand and lifted her fingers to his lips.
    “Ah, but do I get to keep him?” Her tone was wistful, even to her own ears.
    “I have always been yours. It just took us a while to get here.” He kissed her fingers again and their food arrived.
    She smiled. “So, when did you first notice me?”
    “The track tryouts. You ran with such grace, I just knew you were a gazelle. Imagine my surprise when I caught your scent and it was all predator.”
    “Puberty is always rough on the scent glands.” She blushed. “I remember watching you do the hurdles and not being able to take my eyes off you.”
    “So, love at first run. It was meant to be. I have dreamed of running with you.”
    She stabbed the salad with her fork. “Oh, yes. Me too. Running.”
    He laughed, “And sex, of course, but as you know, someone to really