Read Lowlander Silverback (Gorilla Shifter Royalty 1) for Free Online Page B

coffee? Or hot tea? I don’t really know what you can and can’t drink,” she murmured with a self-deprecating shake of her head.
    She was so fucking cute all shy around him now. Oh, she could charm customers at the bar when she had her bartender face on, but she’d never acted like that with him. With him, she seemed to walk on uneven ground, and he liked that she was off-balance when she was talking to him. He felt the same around her.
    “Uhh,” he said, searching the street for Rhett or Kirk’s cars. If they had seen him leave with Layla, they hadn’t figured out where she lived yet. “I probably shouldn’t.”
    “Right.” She nodded as though she’d expected that exact answer, and he hated himself for hurting her feelings again.
    “Fuck it,” he murmured. “Hot tea sounds good.”
    Her delicate eyebrows, just a shade darker than her blond hair, arched in surprise. “Really?”
    “One date is all we have.” And he wasn’t ready by any means to say goodnight—and goodbye—to her yet. What was the harm in one mug of tea with her?
    While she unlocked her door, he waited with his hands behind his back to fight the temptation to touch her.
    “Don’t judge,” she said. “I didn’t know I was going to have company or I would’ve cleaned up.”
    But when he stepped through the door, he had to check her face to see if she was being serious or not. The wood floors were swept and glossy under the pristine white couch. Colorful throw pillows were stacked neatly in place on the comfortable-looking cushions. There was a vase of fresh flowers on a coffee table that was made of planks of refurbished wood with iron accents. A small television was hung above the white brick fireplace, and on the small dining table off the kitchen was a matching vase of similar yellow flowers. Other than a stack of books piled off-kilter on the table, everything looked tidy.
    “Woman, you would feel a lot better if you saw my cabin right now. My roommates are slobs.”
    “You have a cabin?”
    He smiled at the genuine interest in her voice. “Yeah. I have a piece of land closer to Damon’s mountains.”
    “Is Rhett one of your roommates?”
    “Yeah, I live with Rhett and Kirk. Again, not my choice. Fiona assigned them to me when she chose me for the Kong.”
    “Oh.” Layla set her purse down by a stack of mail and padded into the kitchen.
    With a deep frown, Kong brushed the top letter away to reveal a red open immediately label on the next envelope. It was a late bill.
    “Do you have a preference in teas?” she asked, her back to him as she rummaged through a cupboard.
    “Uh, no. I’m not picky.” He thumbed away a few more, and all of them seemed to be overdue. “Layla?” he asked, holding up a stack of them. “What’s going on?”
    Turning, Layla gasped when she saw what he held. She sucked in air as if she was going to give him hell for going through her mail, but then in a huff, she turned back to a box of tea she’d removed from the cabinet. “That’s none of your business.”
    Kong tossed the mail back into the stack and strode for the kitchen. He pulled the half-wrapped tea bag from her fingertips and pulled her to face him. “Are you in trouble?”
    “No. Things are tight right now, but everything will be okay. I’m handling it.”
    “Handling what?”
    She sighed heavily and yanked her wrists from his grip. “I didn’t ask you to come in so we could discuss my finances. I wanted to get away from all of it for one night. Can’t you understand that?”
    Kong huffed a short breath. He understood the need for an escape more than she would ever know.
    Not wanting to see the disappointment swelling in her sad blue eyes anymore, he pulled her in close, careful to be gentle this time. She was soft against him. Soft tits against his hard torso, and his boner was raging between them, but who gave a shit? Not him. “Tell me.”
    Her rigid body relaxed by a fraction. “Mac was my neighbor growing up. He