PrimalFlavor by Danica Avet

each other like opponents, which Zach supposed they were since they
wanted different things for the same woman.
    “Mr. Robicheaux,” he greeted Colette’s father politely and
glanced at the men on either side of him, acknowledging them as well. “Can I
help you with something?”
    The man in the center opened his mouth, but before he could
say anything the front door of the bakery slammed open and a familiar female
voice shouted, “Daddy!”
    Zach’s tiger went from mildly interested to eager, tail-twitching
excitement. His eyes went to the empty space behind the men, his senses
expanding as though he could feel her approach. He caught a scent carried in by
a sultry breeze from outside that made his tiger purr and his cock threaten to
leap out of his jeans. The luscious scent that haunted his dreams, making him
come all over his sheets like a teenager for nearly a full week, preceded Colette’s
reentrance into his life.
    And then she appeared behind her relatives. Sort of. He saw
the top a white-blonde head over the middle man’s shoulder before a pair of
anxious violet eyes peeked over it, searching out and finding his. Since this
was his first time seeing her without the shadows of the swamp or her baseball
hat, Zach felt as though someone had just slammed him right between the eyes
with a two-by-four.
    She wasn’t pretty. Not in a classical, or even in a
girl-next-door way. She was so much more than that. She looked exotic and wild,
the features and colors that made up Colette Robicheaux appealing to his tiger
on a visceral level. It started with her unusual eye color combined with her
darker skin and ended with the shock of white-blonde hair she had pulled into a
sloppy ponytail. The silkiness of the strands straggling down the sides of her
face and along her slender neck told him it was her natural color. He’d seen
plenty of women who’d bleached their hair to get the same color only to end up
with strands with the consistency of straw.
    There was no way Colette Robicheaux would ever pass for drop-dead
gorgeous by society’s standards, but then Zach had never followed the herd. If
he had, he would’ve done like every other male tiger shifter he’d ever met and
set out for a nomadic lifestyle. Instead, he returned to his hometown and became
a chef, a very domestic career choice for a cat species known for wandering far
and wide. And he was fine with that. He enjoyed his career, enjoyed being his
own man and not following trends. It was what made him a good chef. He did what
he wanted, not what current fashion or trends demanded.
    Colette was not the kind of woman who’d ever grace a
magazine unless it was about women and guns or hunting. She wouldn’t prance
around in a bikini or spend hours looking for the perfect pair of shoes to go
with a purse. When her dad shifted to the side, allowing Zach a better look at
her, he almost smiled. She was a fashionista’s nightmare and if his friend
Kitty saw the human in her current getup, she’d probably faint dead away. The
woman who’d been haunting Zach’s dreams for the last week wore a sleeveless
t-shirt with the acronym B.A.S.T. on the front, another pair of tattered jeans
and boots that belonged on a construction site. It was over a hundred degrees
outside and sweat clung to her skin, giving it a glittery quality that left him
with a sudden hunger to treat her like a salt lick, yet she didn’t seem fazed
in the least by the heat.
    The hesitancy in her gaze disappeared when she saw him, replaced
by the same hunger and determination he’d seen on her face that day in the
swamp. “Daddy,” she said to the man standing in front of her. “I know Mama said
she wanted that special cake from here, but I don’t think she meant you had to
go in the kitchen to get it.” She flicked a curious glance around his spotless,
busy workspace, sniffing the air curiously, and wrinkled her nose. Then she
settled a decidedly disinterested look on him. “I don’t see