by Cara Carnes
Fuck. The last thing he needed was Ryker crawling down his throat—or ripping it out. The latter was definitely possible. No one fucked with the Enforcer. “What’s up?”
“I don’t even know how to explain it.” Eldan chuckled. “I’m thinking you didn’t tell me everything about your trip out East. Fucking prick, I was feeling bad for asking you to handle shit for me.”
“You owe me. Their Alpha is a ballbuster when it comes to negotiations.”
But securing an ally within the feline shifter packs on the eastern seaboard was critical. Drayce didn’t envy Drew his Alpha position within the Tao pack. His father’s ruthless reign had burned a hell of a lot of bridges. Rebuilding relationships would require patience.
Drew was the man for the job. He was a hell of an Alpha and had already turned the pack around. Drayce had hightailed it out of town during Magnum’s leadership. A man could only take so much shit before he cracked. Good soldier Wolves obeyed their leader without question. Back then, Drayce had danced the line and almost crossed into rebellious because of Magnum’s bullshit. Leaving had been the only option if he’d wanted to remain faithful to his pack. There’d been enough bad blood between the old prick and Drayce’s kin as it was.
A small crowd had gathered around the bar. Weird. He settled in an uneasy stance beside Ryker, who glared before commanding, “Handle her.”
His gut pitched as adrenaline surged. “Her?”
Ryker pointed up. Drayce followed the line of sight, and his brain froze on a pert ass shimmying into a window of the bar’s second floor. He knew that ass. At least, he thought he did. What the fuck?
He headed toward the roof’s lowest point. Why the hell hadn’t anyone gotten her down from there? Eldan moved in front of him, hands held up.
“Not a good idea, man. Otherwise, I would’ve done it myself. You know how rickety the roof of this place is. It’s on the list to get redone. We aren’t lightweights.”
“Don’t even think about it, Drayce. I’m heading down. Don’t move.” The silken voice lanced his insides. He peered up, his gaze sweeping across the fleshy swell of her gorgeous tits. Jesus Christ, she wasn’t even dressed.
He growled his disdain for the thickening crowd but remained silent and still, mainly to avoid any shit with Ryker—or Drew, in case he’d wandered out as well. An unknown human female wasn’t exactly a common occurrence in Los Lobos. The fact she’d clearly tracked him here settled a weight in his gut. How had she found him? What the fuck was he supposed to do now?
A couple of throats cleared, and he turned in time to see a breathless, sexy-as-fuck woman his dick still ached to slide into smile at him as though he’d hung the moon. She sped up, arms extended, and leaped into him. He braced himself with one footstep backward, his hands settling at her waist. Her hands drifted down his arms, across his chest.
“What are you doing here?”
She blinked up at him, her pink tongue flicking out to lick her full lips. Lips he remembered wrapped around his dick. Why the fuck couldn’t he remember her name?
“I’m here for you, silly. Why else would I be here?”
“How the hell did you find me?”
“Well”—she looked down as crimson spread across her cheeks—“I may have had my best friend do something not quite right such as, oh say, break into her dad’s office and gather some information.”
“Your best friend. Her dad?” He processed the bits of data, and his Wolf rumbled. “Lauren Jago?”
“Yes. She wasn’t exactly thrilled about my plan, but friends do for friends, you know?”
“Your plan.”
She sighed and patted him on the chest. “To win you over, of course.”
The pack tensed around him. He had to cut this off before it got any worse. Keeping their pack secret was critical to their security. They couldn’t have unknown humans traipsing in and out trying to win them over. Fuck, this sucked. His Wolf growled its disdain for the words he was about to lob at the sexy female he wanted more than the air settling thick in his lungs. “Lady, I fucked you. It was good, but damn. Get a clue. I left right after I was done having you. You tasted good and felt even better wrapped around my dick, but it’s done. I don’t even remember your name.”
Her mouth formed an O, her eyes widening slightly as she looked up at him. She took a deep breath, drawing his gaze to her tits. Why the fuck hadn’t she put a real shirt on? Jesus, he could see her nipples through the thin, white spaghetti-strapped excuse for clothing. “First of all, it was more than good. I wouldn’t traipse across the country for good. Secondly, I figured out why you ran the next morning when Lauren walked into my place hissing because the room smelled of mangy mutt.” When someone growled, she shrugged and held up her hands. “Her words. I’m personally more of a canine lover myself.” She ran her hand down his chest. “Thirdly, you don’t remember my name because I never gave it to you.”
“Man, you need to move this inside,” Eldan whispered. “Shit is about to hit.”
His neck tingled with foreboding when talon-like fingers raked down his back. Grabbing the human female and shoving her behind him, he turned and faced down hell. “Step away, Tricia. This doesn’t concern you.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Tricia growled.
“I’m Kinsey.” She peeked around Drayce, hands settled on his biceps. “I’m sorry, are you a friend of Drayce’s?”
“Friend?” Tricia smirked. “Seeing how his dick has enjoyed my orifices, I’d say I’m more than a friend.”
Chapter Two
The woman with the foul mouth, poofed hair, and gargantuan breasts almost on full display thanks to a top several sizes too small was not a foreseeable obstacle Kinsey had prepared for. Possessive jealousy chummed the raging emotions in her belly.
Before Kinsey could spew words past the shock lodged in her throat, Drayce blocked her view and growled. “Back off. This doesn’t concern you.”
“Doesn’t concern me?” the blonde countered. “You left me to come over here.”
“You really want to air this shit in front of everyone?” Drayce shouted the taunt.
Kinsey suspected the answer should be no, but airhead didn’t get the memo. The woman tensed, got closer—what an idiot—and softened her voice. “Dray, what is this about? You know I’m proud to be your woman.”
“Tricia, you are not, nor have you ever been, my woman.”
Tricia mimicked a blowfish a couple of times before spewing her outrage. “You’re choosing her? A hu—”
“Leave. Now.” Ryker’s voice boomed over the top of hers.
The crowd cleared quickly. Fortunately, Ryker left as well. The man was brute, growly sexiness personified, but not as much as Drayce since he didn’t send her bits and pieces into a spin. Not that she was biased or anything. Okay, she totally was.
She looked around at the mostly vacated area and assumed it best to head back upstairs, but a hand landed on her shoulder.
“Not you,” Eldan said.
“Oh.” She shifted from one foot to another under Tricia’s intense scrutiny.
“Don’t make this shit any harder than it has to be,” Drayce stated as he crossed his arms and regarded the furious woman. “You knew where I stood before I fucked you.”
“But it’s me, Dray. I get you. I get why.”
“No. If you got me, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. You would’ve moved on after I scraped you out of my bed.”
Ouch. Showing up here was possibly a bad idea. Clearly, he had unresolved issues she hadn’t expected. Then again, what kind of woman would she be if she gave up easily? The best things in life had to be worked for.
“Maybe we should let the two of them sort this out,” Kinsey suggested.
“Bitch, back off. I’ll handle my man.”
Drayce lunged, grabbing Tricia by the scruff of her hair. “Don’t ever speak to her again.”
Kinsey’s girly bits woke with the protective display. Maybe coming here wasn’t such a b
ad idea after all. She must’ve gone into some dreamy space where none of the ugly stuff happened because, when she blinked to awareness, she was standing there alone with Drayce. Her pulse quickened when he closed the space between them until the heat from her body tempted her to take a hesitant step forward.
“It seems I created a mess. I didn’t mean to,” she whispered into the silence ticking between them.
“Why did you come?”
“I-I wanted to see if I imagined it.”
“Imagined what?”
“What I feel when I get lost in you.” Embarrassment made her falter. “I didn’t mean to projectile vomit that quite so bluntly. I tend to speak my mind. It’s totally Lauren’s fault. Her den always speaks its mind, no matter how rude the thoughts may be.”
“I’m well aware of their bluntness,” Drayce grumbled. “How did you come to know about them, what they were?”
“My Nans. Our family has aided their den for over a hundred years. Nans made me promise to carry on the tradition when she passed. My brother and sister never knew—she said they didn’t have the heart.” She shivered as a brisk wind whipped through the buildings.
“Let’s get you inside.”
She followed even though what she really wanted was to maintain the status quo. Being alone with him had been a brief luxury. The bar hummed with revelry and conversation. A few people turned and stared, but for the most part, they’d moved on from the drama outside.
Her lone hamburger grumbled for companionship. She smirked when his eyebrows rose. “I don’t think my tummy appreciated Gee’s burger.”
“No one’s does.” He settled a hand on the small of her back and guided her to the lone empty stool at the edge of the bar. He whistled. Gee looked over.
She wasn’t dressed for any bar, especially a shifter bar in the middle of nowhere. “Quaint little town you have here.”
“Kinsey, this isn’t going to work. You wasted your time coming out here. I never wanted more than a night.” His low, rumbly voice caressed her throat as he leaned in. “It was the best night I’ve ever had, but that’s all it can be.”
She turned on the stool, spreading her legs to frame his powerful thighs. Heat drifted off him when he stepped closer, bracketing his hands on the bar behind her. Partially leaning back, she looked up into intense mocha flecked with gold. “Why?”
“Why?” he repeated.
“Why is one night all we can have?”
“I’m not the man for you, for anyone.”
“Why?”
He looked away, his sexy square jaw twitched.
She grasped his face and pulled until his gaze caught hers. “I’ll back this play of yours, for now, but the first thing you’ll learn about me is I’m a bit stubborn. I’m not giving up because you say so.”
“You aren’t leaving in the morning?”
“I’m not leaving in the morning,” she confirmed.
A throat cleared behind her. Drayce stood and chin lifted to Gee. “Two beers and some pickles.”
Gee grunted and departed.
“He’s a man of few words.”
“Most of us are.” Her nipples beaded under his intense perusal. “Jesus, don’t ever wear this in front of anyone again.”
“You have a problem with the way I look?”
“The only problem I have is I want to strip off those clothes with my teeth, bend you over, and fuck you all night.”
Her pulse pounded its approval; moisture pooled between her legs. His gaze swept downward, a slow, sensuous glide. The deliberate perusal warmed her insides, made her skin tingle and her nipples harden. She caught his chin in her palm and lifted. She smirked when his eyebrows rose.
“You show it off, I look,” he said.
Desire flared. She shifted on her stool. This wasn’t good. The last thing she needed to do was surrender to the need for wild monkey sex. Even though they’d both collapse in pleasure afterward, they’d be right back to where they started. Phase one was establishing limits.
“Well, I was going to wait until we were alone to discuss this, but now is as good of a time as any I suppose.” She took a sip of the water Gee had dropped off at some point without her noticing. “I came here for you, for us. But I see we need boundaries.”
“Boundaries.”
“Yes.” She reached into her purse and pulled out her list notebook. Retracting the pen from its perch in the spiral binding, she clicked it open and flipped to the index. Her heart beat wildly under Drayce’s intense scrutiny. She scrawled Boundaries on the next available page and flipped to it, repeating the title at the top. “Now, we establish the rules.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“My Nans always said all good relationships understand the boundaries. Great relationships are dynamic and have breathable borders as they grow. So, yes. We need boundaries because I know we can have the real deal.”
“Jesus.” Drayce ran his hand through his hair, putting his other on his hip. His lips thinned to barely visible lines of displeasure. “You’re crazy.”
“Maybe.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t make me wrong though. And by the way, my first boundary will be you always having my back, never saying those sorts of things about me around others. It’s okay with me, but no one else.”
Her hand trembled slightly as she wrote the first boundary. No name calling around others.
Gaze narrowed, he read what she’d added and studied her a moment. He grabbed the pen and scratched out “around others.”
Her breath held, she read as he added to the list. Think before we speak. “I’m a gruff son of a bitch, but I’d never intentionally degrade you, Kinsey.”
“Good. This is a great start.” She closed the notebook, but he grabbed it and thumbed through the pages. His eyebrows rose as he flipped each page.
Unease settled in her belly. No one had ever read the things she wrote there, seen the need she had for order. Hell, Lauren didn’t even know she kept the lists. Her Nans knew because she’d taught her how, to keep the jumble out of her head.
“You’ve got a lot of lists here.” He set the notebook down on the bar and turned to the next empty page. “I’m thinking you missed one.”
She read his chicken scratch. Apparently, Wolves didn’t bother with good penmanship either. Reasons to leave Los Lobos. Scrawled beneath was number one—because Drayce isn’t for you. Her heart sank into her toes. What had ruined this handsome man’s belief in himself? Ignoring the tremble in her hand, she took his pen and filled out the header of the next page. Reasons to fight for Drayce.
His eyes flared. “You are stubborn.”
“You have no idea.”
Gee arrived with a pile of fried pickles and a couple of beers. Drayce snatched one of the slices and popped it into his mouth. When he reached for another, she slapped his hand. “Mine.”
He smirked as he took a drag off his beer. Looking at the meal before her, she sighed and glared at Gee. “Let me guess. No ranch dressing for these.”
“Nope.” The man walked off.
“Don’t take it personally. Gee keeps to himself.”
She suspected most of Drayce’s pack did when it came to strangers, especially humans. The Jago Den had rules about visitors and other things. “You won’t get in trouble with your Alpha for my being here will you?”
“Drew has more important things to worry about. So does our Enforcer, Ryker. He was the one who walked away earlier. The stunt you pulled on the roof wasn’t good.”
She chewed a pickle slice. “Yeah, it wasn’t what it looked like. I hung on rooftops with Lauren; she had this thing for heights. I guess it was her inner animal or whatever. Anyways, being up where I can’t see anything but the beauty of the wilderness, nature, calms me.”
“So, you were up on an old, unpredictable roof to relax?” His stance tensed as he prowled closer to her. “I’m thinking you need a new list for things you aren’t allowed to do when relaxing.”
“Oh? What wo
uld you suggest I do instead?”
Awareness singed her skin. The slight burn blazed to an inferno when he leaned forward and feathered a kiss along her jawline until he reached her ear. “I have some ideas.”
But he didn’t want a commitment. And wasn’t that the rotten fly in her pickles? Yuck. She shoved the bar food aside. At least she’d lose some serious weight while here. She’d intended to leap first, second guess her intent never. The blonde floozy with the huge rack had served as a cold ice bath, though.
Drayce wouldn’t be swept into an us easily. The burden resided with her to prove they could be an awesome us. Of course, she had to believe it herself. Attraction wasn’t a cornerstone for forever. It ensured a sweaty, mind-numbing melding of bodies, a brief merging of souls. But hearts didn’t get sweaty and bleary eyed with arousal. They swelled and bled for life-altering love.
Sitting on a stool in a shifter bar clear cross-country from home, she reached an epic realization. In the matter of finding him, she’d been a smidge impulsive. She’d been so ravenous for another taste of the soul-wrenching chemistry between them she’d failed to consider him, or the effects his rejection would have on her.
Damn. She hated doubt. Confidence moved mountains. Doubt dug trenches too deep to crawl from. Right now, she stood at the ledge and could tumble either direction.
“You should eat.”
“It’s been a long day. I think I’d rather do something else.” She reached up and ran her hand along his chest. “Come up with me. We can chat.”
“Chatting isn’t what’d go down, and we both know it,” he whispered.
“I’m not ready to let you go. Please, give me tonight.” She licked her lips, too aware of his molten gaze. “Stay with me.”
Indecision reflected in his stance, resonated in his eyes. She held on, unsure whether it was better for him to win or lose whatever battle raged within him. All she knew was she was all in, either way.
“Let’s go.”
He dragged her through the bar and up the stairs. Her heart pounded anticipation through her veins when they entered her room and the door slammed shut. Suddenly, the room shrank; the bed loomed behind her.
