Abel had to back to the door, one step at a time, before he finally turned and fled. He ran into Jeanne, who was plastered solidly against the crack in the door. They tangled a moment; then Abel fled and Jeanne slammed the door, leaving Kim and Liam alone again.

Chapter Fifteen

Kim took Liam out for lunch. Liam enjoyed riding in her small car, watching her gray businesslike skirt riding up her thighs. As he’d guessed, she wore stockings with lacy tops, held in place by garters. Thinking about skimming off the skirt and looking at her in only the garter belt and stockings didn’t do his rising erection any favors.

What deflated his arousal was being turned away by the first restaurant they reached. The hostess took one look at Liam’s Collar and got the manager.

Kim stormed away, furious, but Liam didn’t know why she was surprised. Shifters hadn’t been welcomed in most places for twenty years.

The next two restaurants wouldn’t let them in, either. They ended up at a greasy spoon close to the north Austin Shiftertown, where the owners had figured out that Shifters paid for the food and didn’t cause trouble, unlike the gang kids that roamed the nearby neighborhoods.

“How can you stand it?” Kim fumed as she dumped sugar into her coffee. “I never realized how blatant it was.”

Liam blew on his coffee to cool it before he sipped. “Bans against Shifters? If you never witnessed it firsthand, I’m guessing you frequent places Shifters don’t even bother trying to go to. But it doesn’t much matter to me where I go. I don’t really want to eat at a place where they don’t serve Shifters.”

“Stop being so blasé. They treat you like animals.”

“We are animals.”

“Be serious.”

“Kim, sweetheart, I’ve lived a hundred years under various and sometimes nasty conditions. This life isn’t so bad. There are certain people I keep out of my bar too. I’d ban Lupines altogether, except Ellison and Glory would try to wipe the floor with my butt.”

“Be serious,” she repeated.

“What for?” Liam looked straight into her blue eyes, trying to calm her rage. He liked her anger, though, because it meant she cared. “The way people treat Shifters can be amusing.”

“Discrimination is never funny.”

“You’re a righteous woman, Kim. I like that.”

“How can you just sit there?”

“I usually sit when I’m drinking coffee. Or I lean against something. If I lie on my back, it goes down the wrong way.” Kim started to rage, and Liam reached over and took her hand. “I’m sorry, love. I’m glad you care so much. It’s sweet. But I’m not bothered.”

“How can you not be bothered to have people walk all over you? Abel acted like you were behind a viewing wall in a zoo.”

“Because they don’t walk all over me.” He glanced around, but they were relatively alone in their corner of the restaurant. “We don’t ever let them. Do you understand?”

“Not really.”

Liam lifted his coffee again. “Neither does Fergus. That’s why he chose the Shiftertown out in the desert. He can’t stand for anyone to bruise his ego.”

Kim sat in silence, running her finger around the rim of her cup. She spoke carefully, as though she had to choose each word. “What you mean is, you don’t get upset when they won’t let you into restaurants or forbid you having cable, because those things aren’t important to you.”

“Now, you’re catching on.”

“And Abel doesn’t bother you because you don’t value his opinion.”

“Not really. On the other hand, he says anything nasty like that to you again, I’ll crush him.”

Kim had a sudden vision of a lion lying on a veldt in complete relaxation, swatting an obnoxious fly with his tail. The fly had Abel’s head. The same lion would have cubs climbing all over him, which he’d turn and greet with a lick.

“It’s like we live in a different world from you,” Kim said. “And we don’t even know it.”

“Something like that.”

The look she gave him was stunned. “I’ve been feeling sorry for you.”

“Don’t worry about that, love.” He grinned. “If last night was a pity f**k, I’m all for them.”

She turned bright red. “It wasn’t. And don’t talk about sex while I’m trying to get my head straight.”

“I was thinking about doing more than talking about it.”

“Stop.” She pressed her palms flat on the table. “When you do that, I can’t think.”

“I’m glad. Thinking, it’s an overrated activity.”

“Liam, where does Fergus get all his money?”

Liam managed to look blank. “Does Fergus have money?”

“You know he does. There’s that underground complex for one, and all that artwork for another. It didn’t spring there overnight.”

“Shifters live a long time, and some are good with money.”

“But Shifters aren’t supposed to have much money.”

“No.” Liam took a calming sip of coffee. Trust Kim to pry at their most basic secrets, leaving Liam to have to think of ways of explaining. He didn’t want to lie, not to the woman he’d chosen as mate, but at the same time she wanted to rip the lid off everything they desperately needed to keep protected.