Odd Coupling Read Online Free PDF

room if you feel up to taking a
shower.”
    “ I would like to
clean.”
    Thank god.
    On the way through her bedroom and
into the bath, Bethany avoided looking at him for as long as
possible. She let go of his arm, and he grabbed the countertop to
brace himself. One look at his big hand made her gulp. Four fingers
and a thumb rested on the granite top, human-looking, except for
his fingertips. Where fingernails should’ve been, he had long,
raised ridges of thick skin. She didn’t want to think about what
they might be hiding. She looked away when she realized they were
glazed with blood.
    While he waited, she started the
shower and then adjusted the water temperature. She had no idea if
he preferred hot or cold so she decided on warm. Come to think of
it, she didn’t know if he’d like to bathe in water at all. Her barn
cats certainly hated to get wet, but he hadn’t protested when she’d
turned on the water.
    The fact that she knew so little about
him made her nervous, especially since she was all alone with him.
He’d killed the dogs that had attacked him. Would he decide she was
dangerous and kill her too? Did he understand she wasn’t his enemy?
They’d exchanged pleasantries, and he’d thanked her. That had to
count for something, right? No matter how much she tried to
convince herself otherwise, a tiny bit of anxiety slipped in and
made her doubt her decision.
    “ Do not be afraid. I will
not hurt you.” His rumbling voice gave her a start.
    “ Okay,” she blurted, then
looked at him. It was a mistake. She drew in a sharp
gasp.
    He cocked his head. Curiosity shone
from a set of the most exotic green eyes she’d ever seen. They were
a little larger than a human’s and almond shaped with very
un-cat-like long black eyelashes that swept out sideways. His
pupils were vertical slits, slightly oval shaped at the moment
since the bathroom lighting was dim. He blinked and broke her out
of a trance.
    Her field of vision expanded to take
in his whole face. For a second, she wondered if a Bengal tiger had
escaped from a zoo and found its way into her shower. Bethany
identified familiar features while she struggled to comprehend the
rest. They were a mixture of feline and human. The coloring and
striped patterns were almost identical to the tigers she’d
seen.
    His chin, jawline and mouth looked
human, especially his very attractive full lips. She was a bit
surprised to see he didn’t have whiskers at all. His nose was
slightly flattened and somewhat cat-like, from the tip all the way
to the bridge between his eyes where it joined his forehead. Much
like a cat’s, his brow was almost non-existent. It seemed to start
at the juncture where the upper part of his nose flowed above the
most luminous eyes imaginable. At that point, his brow line faded
into the thicker fur on his forehead. A narrow strip of skin, which
formed an eyelid of sorts, moved in unison with his lower one when
he blinked. The movement was startling and very
un-human-like.
    Strong feline features took over from
there. Perfectly proportioned cat ears stuck out from his head, but
their tops weren’t rounded like a tiger’s or like most of the large
cats she’d seen in zoos and in pictures. The lynx sprang to mind.
At the moment, the two tufted tips were turned directly at her. She
couldn’t tell how large they were since the bases were embedded in
a mane of hair, which consisted of long and short strands in a mix
of colors. Most notably white, black, gold and a few strips of
orange.
    To her amazement, the skin on his face
and neck appeared suede-like, as if he had a micro-thin pelt of
hair on the surface. The tiger patterns were most pronounced on his
forehead and the sides of his face and jaw while his central
features were colored a solid tannish-gold shade. Near the back
edge of his jaw where a human’s ear would normally sit, a matching
short ruff of multi-colored hair grew and blended into the rest of
his very lion-ish mane. His overall