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“It’s okay, Anita, I understand you don’t want to see me right now.”

“No,” I said, “no, it’s okay. Come in.”

I could almost feel him hesitate on the other side of the door, and then I heard the door click open. I couldn’t see it through the shower’s frosted door. I heard him walk, and then the door moved, but not to open. He must have sat down on the floor beside the shower, his body bumping part of the door.

“Hey, Anita,” he said.

“Hey,” I said, back.

“Is it okay if I open the door a little?”

I thought about that, too. Finally, I said, “Yes.”

He opened the back edge of the door, away from the water. I moved my head so I could see him. I was hugging my knees to my chest, my cheek resting on my knees. He’d put on one of the robes. I looked into his blue eyes; his silky yellow hair stood out around his head in an odd way. I’d seen his version of bedhead, and his hair was too straight to stand up like that.

“What’s wrong with your hair?” I asked.

He almost smiled, then sort of grimaced, then said, “There was something on my pillow, and then I ran my hand through my hair.”

“Something what on your pillow?”

He gave me a long look.

“Oh,” I said, and looked away again. I no longer wanted to meet his eyes. “Was it yours?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

I huddled around myself in the hot water. If we’d been home I’d have used up all the hot water by now, but the hotel had more.

“You need to clean up,” I said.

“Yeah, but it can wait.”

“Did the other man wake up yet?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Who is he?”

“He’s a reporter.”

“Shit.”

“Don’t worry, he’s deep in the closet and doesn’t want to be outed. This is one story he can’t afford to report.”

“Name? His, I mean.”

“Alex Pinn.”

“Short for Alexander?”

Jason made a movement as if he wanted to ask something, but just said, “According to his driver’s license, yeah.”

“You wondered why I cared what the name was short for, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Just seems like I should at least know a man’s full name if I just spent the last two days fucking his brains out.”

“Anita…”

“Don’t try to make me feel better about it, Jason.”

“That’s why I came in here.”

I turned so I could see him again. “I missed a pill while we were trapped in here. The pill.”

He did a long blink, but his face remained neutral. His reaction told me it wasn’t a surprise. “We couldn’t help overhearing some of what you said to Richard before the water turned on. You were sort of yelling.”

“So the tigers know, too.”

He nodded.

I closed my eyes. “How did they take it?”

“Crispin was thrilled.”

That made me open my eyes. “What?”

“Apparently, it’s the duty of every good little weretiger to make more little weretigers. Every woman is expected to have at least one child, and two is preferable.”

“So he’s happy about this.”

“He says it would bring great honor to his clan if you were his wife and bore a white tiger child.”

I sat up a little. “Did you say wife?”

“Yep,” Jason said.

I frowned at him. “Not that I don’t appreciate the sentiment, but Crispin didn’t strike me as the type to marry a girl just because he knocked her up.”

“If you’re with child, he’s honor-bound to marry you and bring you and the child into his clan.”

I stared at him. “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Jason said.

“Fuck,” I said.

“Yeah, that’s about what Richard said, though he used lots more words.”

“What did this Alex Pinn say?”

“Apparently, he’s spent most of his adult life trying to avoid being a member of the red tiger clan. He broke with them years ago, but if he got you pregnant he’s willing to give you the chance to be taken back to his clan and introduced to them. He says if the child is truly his, it will need the other weretigers around it as it grows to make sure it gets all the training it needs.”

“Training?”

“You know how none of the other wereanimals can carry a baby to full term because of the violence of the change?”

“Yeah.”

“Apparently, the tigers do it routinely. They’ve just never shared