Chapter 6

Gage drove Mackenzie home that night. She’d told him she was fine catching a ride with Zak, but after that episode at the restaurant, he felt better doing it himself. He didn’t have to try too hard to convince her. Just another indication of how upset she still was after the run-in with Hardy’s men.

It wasn’t just her, either. Regardless of how relaxed the team had seemed after Hardy’s thugs left the restaurant, they’d been anything but. Even after Mackenzie had allowed them to cajole her into taking Zak’s place as the hostage in the afternoon training session, his guys were on edge. They knew Hardy wasn’t someone to take lightly. If he wanted to come after any of them, he could do some damage.

“You don’t have to walk me all the way to my door, you know,” Mackenzie said as they stepped off the elevator on her floor. “Hardy’s not after me.”

“This has nothing to do with Hardy.” He sounded so sincere even he almost believed it. “I was just hoping that if I walked you to your door, you might invite me in again. I felt bad about turning down your offer last night.”

At least that part wasn’t a lie. He had felt bad about bailing on her last night, and had been thinking about rectifying that mistake during the drive over to her place.

Mackenzie laughed. “I’m not sure I believe that, but you’re welcome to come in if you want. I can even fix you something to eat, as long as you don’t expect me to cook like Emile.”

Gage hadn’t actually given dinner much thought, but if it gave him an excuse to hang around Mackenzie’s place for a while, he was all for it. Because regardless of how calm he’d been about Hardy’s thugs showing up at the restaurant, he really was worried—just not for himself.

He’d been expecting Hardy’s men, if not the man himself, to show up at some point. The thing that pissed off Gage—and scared him, too—was that Mackenzie was with him when they’d done it. What if they went after her to get to him?

He had no idea why he was even thinking that. It wasn’t as if Hardy’s goons had even noticed Mackenzie. And if they had, they wouldn’t know who she was or have any reason to go after her. But he still couldn’t shake the feeling Mackenzie was in danger and that he had to keep her safe.

“Come on. I’ll give you the nickel tour of the place,” Mackenzie said as he followed her inside. “Then I’m going to get cleaned up real quick. That last rescue your guys put me through would have been a lot more fun if I hadn’t been forced to low crawl halfway across the compound in order to get away.”

Gage laughed as he looked around the small apartment. It had a casual, eclectic vibe with a touch of class. “They didn’t want you to get your butt shot off with paintball pellets.”

She opened the fridge and took out a beer. “I’m pretty sure it had more to do with Becker and Cooper watching my butt than protecting it.”

His mouth quirked. “That’s a possibility as well. Though I can’t say I blame them.”

She gave him a heated look as she handed him the bottle of beer. “Two bedrooms that way, though I’ve turned one into my office.” She motioned toward a closed door on the far side of the living room. “The guest bathroom is through there.” She spun around in the tight space between the kitchen and living room. “And that concludes the tour. Impressive, huh?”

“It’s nice.” He took a swallow of beer. “This is good, by the way. Wouldn’t have pegged you as a beer drinker.”

“I’m not. In fact I never touch the stuff. I keep it in there for Zak. He’s over here a couple times a week.”

Gage felt the same twinge of jealousy he’d felt earlier when he thought about Mackenzie spending time alone with Zak—or any other man for that matter. The reaction was as unexpected as it was nerve-wracking. He’d known this woman for all of two days and she was provoking gut-level responses like he’d never experienced before.

The crazy part of it was that when he’d watched them interact this morning, his wolf instincts had told him she and Zak weren’t physically attracted to each other. Attraction was chemical and you couldn’t hide that from a werewolf. But that didn’t seem to matter to his inner lycan-influenced caveman. When it came right down to it, Gage didn’t like any man getting too close to Mackenzie.

He caged the animal inside and forced a smile to his lips. “Tell him that he has good taste in beer then.”

“You tell him. If I do it, he’ll never let me forget it.” She grinned. “The remote is on the table there. You can watch TV if you want while I clean up. I promise I won’t take too long.”

He opened his mouth to tell her to take her time, but she’d already walked into the bedroom. She yanked off her shirt just before disappearing inside. The barest flash of tanned skin and silky white bra was enough to make his cock go hard. He took a big gulp of beer, then exhaled slowly. Damn, he had it bad for her.

It was all he could do not to strip off his clothes and join her when he heard the shower turn on. He needed a distraction—fast.

But instead of grabbing the remote and turning on the TV, he wandered around the apartment looking at the various knickknacks, photos, and awards she had. Most of the awards were for her journalism work, but it was more than just a bunch of I-love-me stuff. Sure, there were some personal awards lined up neatly along the wall of the hallway, but more of the space was dedicated to the everyday people she ran into and the amazing places she’d been. A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.

He was still looking at her collage of news articles she’d written—arranged to look like a silhouette of Mickey Mouse—when he heard her coming down the hall. He glanced at his watch. Twelve minutes? Had she even gotten wet?

But Mackenzie’s long hair was still moist after a quick towel dry and her skin still blushed from the hot water. She wore a simple pair of workout shorts and a worn tank top with a picture of Snoopy on it. And she looked completely amazing.

His cock got hard all over again, and he had to turn away from her so he could adjust himself into a better position.

She came up next to him just as he got his hard-on pointed in a direction that wouldn’t totally cut off the flow of blood. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Nah, you didn’t.” He tried to act like he’d just had his hand in his pocket for the hell of it, but wasn’t sure if he succeeded. “I was just looking at your collage. What’s the Mickey Mouse thing about?”

“It’s just something I put together to remind me to never take myself too seriously. No matter how big the stories are that I write, every kid on the planet would rather meet Mickey Mouse than me.”

He chuckled. “You know, that’s not a bad way to look at the world.”

She walked into the kitchen. “Want another beer?”

“I’m good, thanks.”

Gage moved closer to the island separating the kitchen from the living room just in time to see her lean over to get something out of one of the lower cabinets. Her slightly wet hair fell forward over her face, and she casually flipped it over her shoulder as she reached in to get whatever she was after.

That’s when her scent hit him.

He couldn’t say why he hadn’t picked it up before—maybe it was the battle he’d been having with his hard-on—but he hadn’t. He inhaled even deeper. That wasn’t perfume or shampoo he was picking up. That was how Mackenzie smelled after a shower, with every scent but hers washed clean. It was so overwhelming that he had to grab the counter to keep from climbing over it to ravish the hell out of her.

Maybe all the crap Xander and the other young werewolves said about The One might be true. Because no other woman had ever made him feel anything like this.

Mackenzie popped up with a big spaghetti pot in her hands. “Chicken nuggets over angel hair pasta good for you?”

“Huh?”

She held up the pot, completely unaware that he couldn’t focus on a damn thing she was saying or doing at the moment. “Angel hair pasta with spaghetti sauce, topped with store-bought chicken nuggets. Like I said, it won’t measure up to Emile’s food, but it’s one of my specialties.”

“Um, sure. Sounds good.”

Gage watched in silent appreciation as she moved around the kitchen with practiced ease. She might have put on the shorts and tank top purely for comfort, but they let him drink in a serious amount of skin. Enough to get drunk from. He put down the beer so she wouldn’t see his hand shaking. He took a deep breath, getting himself back under control as she filled the pot with water and started chatting about the day’s training. He noticed she carefully avoided any mention of lunch.

She threw him a smile as she opened the fridge and pulled out a bag of frozen chicken nuggets. “These things are awesome.”

She dumped some into a glass bowl, looked at him, then dumped even more in the bowl. She filled a second glass bowl with an entire jar of premade spaghetti sauce that she took from an upper cabinet. Both bowls went in the microwave and Gage watched in awe as her fingers literally flew across the touch pad. By the time everything was ready, Gage had his wits back in order and was able to help her carry the food to the table. He even did a pretty good job of maintaining an intelligent conversation. He had to admit, the nuggets tasted good with the pasta, like bite-sized pieces of chicken parmesan.

In reality, it didn’t matter what they ate. He just enjoyed talking about the day’s SWAT training, and what they’d do tomorrow. He was looking forward to spending another day doing nothing more than distracting her.

But after the food was gone, and they’d discussed everything Mackenzie could possibly want to know about training, the subject they both wanted to avoid sat there staring them in the face.

“What are you going to do when Hardy sends his men after you again?” she asked softly.

She was really worried—he knew because he could hear her heart speed up. He was worried, too.

“If that happens—and I’m not necessarily sure it will—I’ll deal with them,” he said.

Gage was very sure Hardy would come at him again, but he wanted Mackenzie to at least think there might be a possibility it wouldn’t happen.

“Just like that? You’ll deal with them?” He didn’t miss the twinge of sarcasm in her voice. “That doesn’t seem like much of a plan.”

His mouth quirked. “Coming from a woman who’s made her living walking into dangerous situations when most rational people wouldn’t, you should appreciate when someone doesn’t overthink things. If they show up, I’ll let my instincts and training dictate how I react. Thinking too much about things like that ahead of time would just slow my reaction time.”

She picked up the plates and carried them over to the sink. “I usually don’t have much of a plan when I walk into those situations because I’m lousy at thinking too far ahead.”

“Maybe I don’t like to think too far ahead myself. Perhaps there are times I prefer to just be in the moment.”

She came over and leaned her hip against the edge of the table. She was so close they were nearly touching. “And is right now one of those times?”

He moved one hand over until his forefinger was able to gently caress her hand where it rested on the table. “Yeah, I think now might be one of those times.”

Her lips curved. “Then maybe you’d like to be in the moment over on the couch?”

“The couch would be nice.”

He followed her over to the sectional piled high with a crazy amount of pillows. Mackenzie shoved a bunch of them aside, making room for them both. When he sat down next to her, she immediately turned to face him, pulling her knees up so she was sitting cross-legged. The move was so casual it was hard to understand why he found it so sexual. Maybe because it was such a confident and relaxed pose.

Or maybe it was because the position provided a view of a tantalizing expanse of inner thigh.

“What should we talk about, now that we’re in the moment?” she breathed.

There was some tiny part of him—the part that agreed with Mike and Xander about his needing to be on guard around her—that warned him he was on dangerous ground. But he ignored that part and instead listened to the one that’d known this moment was coming from the second Mackenzie Stone had stepped into the operations vehicle.

“I’m fine with not talking at all.”

She smiled. “Works for me.”

Gage leaned forward at the exact moment Mackenzie did. He absently wondered how that could be comfortable with her legs crossed like that, but she was clearly very flexible. He was still pondering the potential benefits of being that flexible when their lips met. There weren’t any fireworks or sparks, or any of that silly stuff young werewolves insisted happened when you kissed The One.

But that didn’t mean kissing her wasn’t amazing.

Gage slipped his tongue into her mouth, teasing hers to come out and play. Mackenzie was more than willing, even moaning a little as their tongues tangled. He slid his hand into her hair, growling as he pulled her closer. She tasted so damn good. Like strawberries on a hot summer day, only sweeter.

Mackenzie pulled away with a husky laugh. “Never had a man growl while he kissed me before. I think I like it.”

Reminding himself to keep his inner wolf in check, Gage tugged her close, trailing kisses from her mouth all the way down her neck and back up again. Mackenzie’s heart was beating out of control, thudding in his ears. Her pheromones filled his nose, evidence of her arousal.

Mackenzie slowly and sensually uncoiled from her cross-legged position and straddled his lap. His hands slid down her back to rest on her hips. He could barely think, much less maintain control. And it only got worse when she started grinding against his hard-on. He swore he could feel the warmth of her pussy through his uniform pants. He couldn’t believe how badly he wanted to let his claws slip out so he could rip off her tank top and shorts and eat her up.

Gage didn’t know how he managed to keep it together. But he had to—he had to protect his pack. He wanted to think Mackenzie was focused more on him than the story she was chasing, but he couldn’t be sure. Until he knew for certain his pack wasn’t in danger of being exposed, he couldn’t afford to let himself be distracted by her searing-hot kisses, soft skin, or enticing curves.

That was easier said than done. Resisting her would have been hard as hell if he’d been a normal man, but he was a werewolf, which meant he had to battle the added temptation of her arousal, too. The scent engulfed him, making it hard to remember the reason he couldn’t lose himself in her.

It took everything he had to stop her when she reached down to grab the hem of her tank top. He couldn’t go that far and still stay in control.

She blinked liked she was confused. He knew the feeling. “Don’t you want to?”

Gage stifled a groan. “More than you know.”

He really should get a medal for this much willpower. Grasping her ass in both hands, he picked her up and got to his feet. She wrapped her legs more tightly around his waist and draped her arms behind his neck. Her smile faded when she realized where he was heading.

“You’re leaving?”

He helped her slide gently down to the floor. While her legs weren’t wrapped around him anymore, her arms were still around his neck, which meant her body was still pressed up against his. Forget a medal. He deserved a freaking street named after him.

“If I don’t leave now, I might not get out of here at all,” he told her.

She grinned. “Would that be such a bad thing?”

The sultry look she gave him almost weakened his resolve. But he forced himself to stay steady. This was for his pack. “No. But I think we both know we have something good going on between us. We don’t need to rush it.”

She slid one hand down to place it on his chest, right over his heart. He doubted she needed werewolf senses to feel the pounding going on under her palm.

“I don’t want to rush it, either.” She laughed. “Well, maybe rush it a little.”

He put a finger under her chin and tilted her face up for a slow, lingering kiss. Maybe he was being too cautious. But while his body told him to sweep her into his arms and carry her to bed, his head was telling him to get out of there…while he still had the strength.

“The first time we’re together, I want to make sure we have all the time we need. I don’t want to get interrupted halfway into making love because the alarm clock went off in the morning.”

Her eyes opened wide as his words slowly sunk in. “Halfway?”

He kissed her again, then leaned over to whisper in her ear. “Halfway.”

He felt a shiver pass through her body. “I suppose a promise like that is something worth waiting for then.”

He brushed her silky hair back from her face. “See you bright and early at the compound tomorrow?”

She nodded, but then frowned. “Well, maybe not too early. About nine?”

“Nine o’clock is fine.”

He opened the door, but Mackenzie yanked him in for another hard kiss before he could leave. He buried his hand in her hair, returning the kiss with an intensity that confused him. Why the hell was he so out of control around her?

Thank God she was the one who broke the kiss this time. He wasn’t sure he would have had the fortitude. “There’s more where that came from,” she whispered. “Don’t make me wait too long, okay?”

Gage felt Mackenzie’s eyes on him as he walked down the hall to the elevator. Risking a glance in her direction was dangerous, but he pushed the button and did it anyway. She was standing in the doorway, her face flushed, her eyes full of desire. How could he walk away from her?

He was on the verge of telling his conscience to go to hell when the elevator doors opened. He stepped inside and pushed the button for the lobby, then leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. He only prayed Mackenzie Stone, the journalist, would drop her story and be content to be Mackenzie Stone, the woman. And soon. Because he didn’t think he could hold out much longer.