“I’m sure Lydia won’t mind if we borrow one of her dresses,” Laura added diplomatically. “They look about the same size.”
Bastian realized that his mate was very scantily dressed, and that Wrench was trying very hard to keep from letting his gaze linger too long on the nearly-naked curves of her golden skin.
He managed not to bare his teeth at Wrench, appreciating his efforts, but when the other man offered to help carry her, Bastian simply gathered his mate into his arms and let Wrench and Jenny handle the doors and blankets.
As he settled her limp form into the bed, he smoothed her dark hair back over the pillow and lay a single kiss on her perfect forehead. Everything was right with the world, now that she was here.
Chapter 5
Saina felt better the second time she woke.
The pain in her shoulder was considerably less, and she didn’t feel as weirdly adrift and weak as she had before.
She was also in a much more comfortable bed, big fluffy pillows under her head. A tropical print quilt was pulled up to her shoulders, and she found that the distasteful lingerie had been replaced by a simple, comfortable sundress.
“You’re awake!”
A lovely, curvy black woman was sitting at a desk next to the bed, holding a sheaf of papers open in a manila folder. She looked friendly enough, but Saina knew better.
Saina struggled upright, as the woman rose and tried to stop her. “You’re hurt, stay still!”
But being upright gave Saina more breath, and she opened her mouth and sang a few notes of a love song lullaby.
“Easy nights,
Northern lights,
Open your heart,
The lines on your chart…”
The woman looked at her quizzically. “I’m Jenny,” she said, completely unmoved. “You shouldn’t be sitting up, but you do have a lovely voice.”
Saina blinked at her. Her gift didn’t tend to be as strong with women, but she hadn’t met a person yet that a simple sleep song had so little impact on. Jenny didn’t even yawn.
“I’m Saina,” she said uncertainly, abandoning her plan to put Jenny to sleep and try to escape. Her shoulder hurt wickedly. “Thank you?”
“You should lay back,” Jenny scolded her. “You don’t want to open the wound again. Saina is such a beautiful name!”
“It’s better,” Saina lied, but she let Jenny fluff her pillows and tip her back onto them. “Saina is Hindi for princess,” she added.
“We’ll let Bastian be the judge of how much better you are,” Jenny told her, unconvinced. “He’ll be so happy to see you awake.”
“Bastian,” Saina tasted his name in her mouth. “He’s the lifeguard with the golden eyes?”
Jenny’s smile was sparkling and oddly smug. “Yes. He found your boat sinking in the middle of a storm, lucky for you.” She had an easy Californian accent, and a kind smile.
Saina didn’t trust it for a moment.
She looked around the room. She was in a small, beautifully appointed bedroom with big French doors opening out onto a little porch. “Where am I?” There were, at least, plenty of exits.
“This is Shifting Sands Resort,” Jenny explained. “A shifters-only vacation resort off the coast of Costa Rica.”
Saina’s hands made fists in the tropical quilt. “Shifters?” she asked, as innocently as she could manage. It was unnerving not to have her music to simply make this woman automatically like and trust her. Maybe the pain of her injury was making it work incorrectly.
Jenny gave her an amused look. “You wouldn’t be healing that quickly if you weren’t one, too,” she said. “You don’t have to hide who you are here.”
Saina gazed back in consternation, not admitting anything. “What kinds of shifters?” she asked suspiciously.