Maggie was halfway crazy with need by the time the clock on the wall pealed out the classic top of the hour chime. And while she had every nerve ending firing along her skin and Cage Gamble’s thigh clamped between hers, she rode the wave of adrenaline through her veins, a chemical high that had her believing this was more than just a hot make out session with a man she couldn’t quite measure up to.

She knew that the hard ladder of abs under her hands would likely make her so horny she’d beg to lick them top to bottom, and lower.

But she also knew the time, and as much as she wanted to get naked and sweaty with Cage, this wasn’t the time.

Pulling back, she dodged his hands and bit her lip when she saw the hard ridge of his erection tenting the front of his dark jeans. He sat up with some effort and gave her a look that said he wanted to strip the clothes off her body. And she wanted to let him, just, “Not tonight, Cage.”

She saw the words hit him like a wall of air, pushing him back, she tried to explain.

“Goodness knows I want you… I want you so bad I can taste it on my tongue, but not tonight.”

She heard herself saying the words and knew that she was trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince him.

“I’ve got work in the diner tomorrow morning and we have this meeting for Frances in the afternoon, and honestly, I don’t think I could look her in the eye if the two of us-”

“If I spent the night inside of you,” he got to his feet and pulled her against him one more time, “and made you scream my name?”

“Yeah,” she was nearly breathless, “that. If we did that.”

“And we will do that, Maggie. We’re going to do that a lot.”

Those words, that voice, the whole package got under her skin, made her shiver with anticipation. “I really hope so,” and the ache between her thighs throbbed with need, “but not tonight.”

“Are you trying to be my conscience, Maggie?”

“Nope.” She shook her head and meant it. “I still have to work daily on my own moral compass, you should know that. Recovery is a day by day exertion.

“But Frances is a concern for both of us. Even after the few hours that I’ve known her, I know that I want to help her. And for the immediate future, until we put this plan into action, we should probably not get wrapped up in this.”

She saw a flicker of something in his eyes and then he was kissing her again. It wasn’t a sweet kiss or even one with a hint of passion. This kiss was slanted lips, teeth glancing off each other, gasps of breath and just as quickly as it began, it stopped.

Cage stepped away from her and slowly dropped his hands back down to his side with a knowing smile still on his lips.

“We’re going to get wrapped up, Maggie. I’m counting the moments until you beg me to take you over the edge and bury myself inside you, but I hear you. And I owe you my thanks for helping me with Frances. So, I’m going to go back to my apartment now and when I’m gone,” he gave her a slanted grin as his eyes crawled over her from head to toe, “you’re going to get some sleep.”

“Oh, I am, am I?” She tried to keep her tone light, but she felt her skin burning all over her body and heat escaping from every pore. “And how do you know what I’m going to do?”

“Because you’re a good woman, Maggie Fordice. And you’ll need your rest, because as soon as we figure out how to help Frances, you and I… are not going to get much sleep.”

Cage moved to the door and set the lock to stick in place before he stepped outside. “Good night, Maggie. I’m glad you’re just across the street, if I can’t have you in my bed.”

She stared after him even after he closed the door, the lock setting into place. “Good night, Cage,” she whispered to herself, “It looks like you’re going to spend the night in my dreams, like you always do.”

Taking hold of the fabric near her shoulders, she pulled her shirt away from her body a few times, trying to ease the unspent heat that was threatening to engulf her.

Helping Frances was going to be rewarding in and of itself, but if it gave her the chance to spend time with Cage, it would be the answer to her prayers.

* * *

Up before dawn, Maggie was thankful that she’d said goodnight to Cage instead of letting him stay. She wasn’t a morning person by nature, so it took three alarm clocks all over her bedroom to get her backside out of bed most mornings. And this day wasn’t any different.

She’d let Cage leave, but she’d had a few dreams that made her feel like he’d spent the night.

Not an unpleasant feeling at all.

Still, she was up and ready early enough that the boy delivering the newspaper rode by on his bike and set the paper directly into her hand.

The coffee pot was on, and the gravy on the stove, when the front door opened, jingling the bell above the door. Turning around, Maggie smiled. There was no way to mistake the couple standing just inside the Diner’s front door. “Well, hello!” Tying on her apron she stepped up to offer her hand to the petite woman before her. “You must be Willa.”

“Yes, I am,” she returned the smile and shook Maggie’s hand, “it’s good to finally meet you in person, Maggie.”

The large bear of a man behind Willa set a hand on her shoulder and leaned forward to shake Maggie’s hand as well. “I’m Boone.”

Maggie laughed with a soft chuckle. “I would have known you anywhere by the size alone, but also the smile on Willa’s face.”

The big man actually blushed, and she offered them their choice of table amongst those that had been cleared of boxes and ready for customers.

“Why don’t I come into the kitchen with you and see what you’re working with.”

“Sure,” Maggie was delighted to have the other woman in the kitchen with her, “wonderful.” She stepped to the side and gestured for Willa to precede her into the kitchen. “Come on in.”

Willa moved well for someone more than five months pregnant and as round as she was. “It’s been awhile since I’ve been in a kitchen like this,” she admitted as she looked about the room, taking in the atmosphere around her, “I have to say I miss it from time to time.”

“My dad said you used to be a chef in a diner.”

Rubbing her hand over her belly, she smiled. “Chef, server, everything,” she sighed, “I thought I’d never get off my feet. It was all worth it in the end, it’s how I met Boone.”

Maggie watched as Willa turned back to look at the large man sitting at a table by the window. There was no mistaking the beatific smile on the other woman’s face. “You’ll meet the boys before long.”

“Boys?”

“When I met Boone, he was fostering a bunch of teen shifters, a motley crew of the most amazing young men.” Willa crossed to the pot on the stove and lifted the lid off to take a long sniff of its contents. “That’s some gravy, Maggie.”

Maggie’s face warmed at the compliment. “I’ll make you up some plates.”

“They’re all over here from time to time. Your father lets them exercise at the gym and they have an appetite.”

“That’s why my dad said I should talk to you.” Maggie made up a plate of biscuits and gravy for each of the Waylands and gestured for Willa to precede her into the dining area. “I need to know what it’s like to serve shifters.”

Boone was up on his feet as soon as Willa appeared, holding out her chair like a true gentleman. And Willa, she enjoyed her mate’s attentions.

“I have a feeling that there are some foods that will work better for shifters than my strictly human customers.”

“Your dad worked with shifters for years in the military, but I’m guessing he didn’t handle the dietary aspects of their lives.”

Maggie shook her head. “That was left up to one of his men for the most part. He didn’t tell me you had a bunch of teens, that’s got to be like having your own platoon at home.”

The couple shared a little smile and Maggie couldn’t help the little pang of jealousy that hit her straight in the chest. The two were the picture of happiness and normally, Maggie would just have ignored it, but even though she’d only spent a few hours with Cage, it hadn’t been the disillusionment that she’d hoped for. It had only made her want him more. It didn’t help that he saw her as a woman now, rather than the troubled teen she’d been before.

Shaking herself from her mood, she looked up and saw Willa’s curious gaze focused on her. “Have you met Frances?”

Maggie felt her blush deepen and she saw Willa’s smile deepen. “Yes, it’s kind of like looking into a mirror when I was her age, but she’s having a harder time in her life. Losing both her parents at one time,” she shook her head, “has Cage talked to you about having her meet the boys?”

The Waylands shared a look and Maggie felt like she’d missed something pretty damn important.

“What?”

Boone answered the questions while Willa took a strategic bite of her biscuit. “Cage told me to keep the boys away from her or he promised to turn them all into eunuchs.”

Maggie couldn’t help the stare she leveled at Boone. “He what?”

“It’s safe to say he doesn’t trust the boys anywhere near Frances.”

She blinked back at Boone. “That sounds like a fair assessment if he’s threatening their manhood, but it also sounds a little over the top. I seriously doubt you’d raise a boy that could hurt her like that.”

Willa gave her mate a warm grin and turned back to Maggie. “True, but Cage is just being protective. Frances is his cub now. Shifters are bound to be a little irrational when it comes to their little ones.”

Boone set his arm over Willa’s shoulders and gave her a warm squeeze. “You should’ve seen her when someone at the school wanted to segregate the boys from their classmates since they were open about being shifters.” He pressed a kiss to Willa’s temple. “She went straight down to the school board meeting and ripped them all a new one.”

Maggie looked at Willa with open admiration. “And the Board?”

Willa smiled back at her. “With the new laws declaring shifters as equal to humans, they couldn’t dare follow through on the demand. Especially since the boys weren’t trouble in school.”

Maggie blew out a breath. After talking with Cage, she knew the trouble that led up to her trip to the juvenile court. Frances wasn’t using her lion on any of her classmates, but she also wasn’t even trying to fit in anymore. She was withdrawing more and more. She wasn’t a lost cause, not by any means, but Maggie knew it wasn’t going to be easy. It didn’t matter to her how much work it was going to take, she was determined to help the young woman realize that there was something worth fighting for, instead of against.

“I’m sure Cage will relax a bit once we get things sorted out.”

“We?” Willa’s pointed look made Maggie squirm the littlest bit in her chair.

“I’ve known Cage since I was a teen. And most of my father’s men settled here in Sylvan City near him. So, it’s kind of like having an extended family.” She nodded her head, probably a little too much, and then managed to swallow the lump in her throat. “So, yeah. We. See?”

The Waylands shared a look between them and then turned back to Maggie with matching grins. “Right,” Boone agreed.

And then Willa added, “Absolutely.”

Maggie felt all the color drain from her face. Was she that transparent?

Like a miracle, Willa took pity on her. “So, let’s talk menus.”

“Yes,” Maggie’s shoulder sagged in relief, “let’s.”

* * *

It took three days for everything to settle into a schedule that worked for everyone. Between school and her work in the diner, Frances was having just as many successes as she was challenges, but it was the challenges that seemed to have more of an effect on her moods.

Slamming down a tray in the kitchen, Frances let loose a string of profanities that would have made Maggie’s father blush.

And Maggie didn’t have to look out at the tables to know that the men in the diner heard what she’d said. Luckily, none of them were going to gasp and grab for their pearls, they were likely still shoveling down their meals before they had to get back to work.

“What’s wrong?” Maggie still hadn’t figure out how to read the teen.

“What isn’t wrong?” Frances snapped up a rag to wipe the tray she’d just smacked down on the counter. “I hate my school, I hate the stupid people there. They make fun of everything about me. My hair, my accent, the way that I dress, how stupid I am. I hate going there and I have two more years of it.”

She was wiping the tray so hard with the rag, Maggie was fairly sure there would only be threads left when she was finished.

Before Maggie could say something, Frances added one more irritating fact of her life.

“More if I cock-up another of my classes.” Turning, Frances leaned against the counter as she kept punishing the tray. “How did you get through it?”

Maggie winced. She flipped a grilled cheese sandwich on the flat-top and gave it a good press with her spatula. “All the wrong ways at first. My mom walked out on us when I was a little girl. She didn’t like the life of a military wife and liked being a mom even less. And I didn’t have a choice to keep my dad from flying off to parts unknown on his missions, but when I was a few years younger than you are now. It really hit home. I was a girl with a constant stream of nannies and housekeepers that were more like drill sergeants than parents.” She picked up a plate off the shelf above the stove top and set it down beside her.

Out of the side of her eye she saw Frances automatically reach for a bowl off another shelf and grab the ladle for the chili pot.

“I thought, and I have no idea why, that the worse I did in school, the more horrible my behavior was, it would force my dad to come home and deal with me.” She shook her head and her laughter seemed harsh and dry to her own ears. “It worked at first, when he was home for that first year, but then when he was assigned to lead the unit that Cage was in, they were gone out of the country for months on end, and at some point, I realized that what I was doing to hurt him was only hurting me… and my relationship with my dad.”

Maggie put the grilled cheese on the plate and handed it all over to Frances who set the bowl of chili on the other side and took it out into the dining area. The warehouse worker that got it looked up and smiled.

“Thanks.”

Frances froze for a second and Maggie wondered if she was just realizing what she’d done all on her own. Wiping her palms on her apron, Frances nodded and took a step backwards. “You’re welcome.”

When the young girl was back in the kitchen, Maggie gave her a smile. “You okay?”

Frances didn’t make a sound. She just picked up the pan she’d been wiping before and took it over to the sink for a wash.

She wanted to say something more to the girl, but the bell sounded over the door and Maggie headed in that direction. “I’ve got it.”

The man that came through the door looked more like a wall than a man, but the smile he offered her was easy and genuine. “You Cage’s girl?”

Maggie gestured toward the kitchen. “Frances is in the kitchen.”

“I know who Frances is.” The wall leaned forward and looked her square in the face. “But I can see that I was wrong too. You’re not his girl, you’re his woman.”

He took the menu out of her slack hands and grabbed a seat at an empty table. “Coffee, please.”

Maggie managed to answer him. “Coffee, coming right up.”

Coffee was easy enough to serve up, but as she poured the cup, she heard Frances behind her whispering. “That’s Truck. He works for Cage.”

“Oh,” was Maggie’s only reply.

“Sounds like he’s been talking about you at work as much as he does at home.”

Well that was a revelation. Maggie saw Truck’s little smile as he sat at the table and she was tempted to remind Frances that as a shifter Truck could easily hear her whispered comments, but shifter or not, Frances was a teenage girl. Whispering gossip was a necessary skill.

“You want me to take his order, Maggie?”

Trying not to react to the shock of Frances volunteering for the work, she shrugged and smiled back at her. “Sure! Thanks.”

The rest of the afternoon continued on much in the same vein, and as they went along, Frances would ask her questions about her life, and in turn Frances revealed little bits and pieces of her own.

By the time Cage came in for dinner, Maggie was beginning to feel like she had things under control.

That was until her teenage crush and adult fantasy walked in with his hair still damp from a shower and his shirt sticking to his shoulders.

And what shoulders they were.

As if it wasn’t completely embarrassing to be caught staring at him in the center of her diner. “Hey, Cage.”

He walked up until he was just a few inches away from her, lifting his chin he looked right into her eyes and made her melt with just that look. She swore she could read longing in his eyes. Deep in the darkness of his gaze she felt another consciousness looking out at her. And when he reached out a hand and touched her arm she felt his power crackle and jump from his skin to hers.

“I’ve missed you, Maggie.”

She took in a quick breath and struggled to make her voice sound even. “I saw you this morning.”

His smile was slow and when his lip lifted she could swear she could almost see a fang just beneath the edge of his lip. “Still,” his indrawn breath made her skin tingle with anticipation, “I missed you. Don’t you?”

“Hmm?” She was lost in his eyes and confused by the way she wanted to lean forward and fall into his arms.

“Don’t you… miss me, Maggie?”

The ache inside of her said hell yes.

The frightened woman inside of her wanted to take a few steps back.

But the woman she’d become after so many years fighting the dark side of her mind, was ready to step off the cliff and plunge into the depths.

“Yeah,” she lifted her free hand and touched it to the side of his face, “I missed you, Cage.”

She felt his hand tighten around her arm and every other inch of her skin felt hot and tight. If that’s what he could do with just a touch-

“I need to spend some time with you tonight, Maggie. I need to hold you before I lose my mind.”

Well, what could she say to that?

She opened her mouth and then swept her tongue over her lips to ease the sting, and that’s where his gaze flickered to before he looked back up into her eyes.

“I, um, -”

“Hey, Cage!” Frances’s voice broke through Maggie’s haze. “You’ve got to try the meatloaf!”

Maggie stepped away and smiled at her helper. Leaning closer to Cage, she told him, “Frances made it herself.”

Frances stopped just shy of the counter. “Why is your face twisted up like that?”

Turning toward Cage, she saw that Frances’ comment was true. Cage’s face looked ashen.

“When it was meatloaf night at the mess, I opted for extra duty. I couldn’t stomach the grey bricks of whatever it was they were trying to serve us. Paulie’s weren’t that much better.”

“But this is my recipe for meatloaf and Frances made it, so I’m telling you right now, Cage, you better sit down and try some or there’s no pie in your future.”

She saw his wary look but when he saw Frances he put a smile on his face. “I’m game.”

Frances set down the 9x9 baking pan and lifted the spatula like a rapier. “Be prepared to be amazed!”

She set out a large square on each plate beside the mashed potatoes and the corn on the cob. “Go ahead,” she told them both, “have a seat and taste it.”

Maggie felt a little sympathy when she saw the green under his normally tanned complexion. Picking up his fork, she picked up a good-sized bite and told him to open up.

She thought he’d balk at the request, but he surprised her. “Promise me that you’ll let me come to your apartment tonight? Let me hold you in my arms.”

She lifted the forkful of meatloaf closer to his lips. “You eat this like a good daddy shifter and I’ll let you do more than hold me.”

The bite of food disappeared into his mouth and he chewed with a singular determination that would have made her laugh if it wasn’t for the remnants of fear in his eyes.

“Well?” Frances was back in the doorway, holding a pitcher of water and a stack of glasses. “What do you think?”

Maggie could tell the very moment that the food actually touched his tongue. Fear turned to confusion and melted into pleasure.

He swallowed the first bite and looked over at Frances. “It’s really good.”

Beaming, the young woman set down the cups and poured water for all of them. “I was gobsmacked when I had my first taste too. Make sure you eat up.” She gasped in surprise. “Napkins!” She disappeared back into the kitchen leaving them alone for a bit.

“And I,” he leaned closer and pressed a slow kiss on her lips, “am going to eat up tonight, too.”

When Maggie sank onto the stool, it was only because she wasn’t sure her legs would hold her up any longer.