Gavin opened his arms and Mac stepped into them. Again, he said nothing. He just held her while she fought to get ahold of herself.
“Hey, you two, we’re all going—” Zach bounced into the room but stopped when he caught sight of Mac’s sad face; or maybe it was the fact that she was in Gavin’s arms, but she suspected it was the former given that she was such a pretty crier and all.
“I think I’m just going to take Mac home,” Gavin said.
“Gotcha. Man, what is that stank?” Zach sniffed the air and did a quick check of the bottom of his shoes.
“Yeah,” Mac said. “It’s me.”
“Oh.” Zach cringed. He looked as uncomfortable as the officer had and Mac figured if she could bottle this blotchy face, runny nose, and whiff of dog doo-doo she’d have herself some damn fine man repellent.
Zach was made of tougher stuff than she gave him credit for, however, and he stepped closer and awkwardly patted her back. “It’s going to be okay, Mac. We’ll get her back somehow.”
Mac stepped away from Gavin and gave Zach a watery smile. “Thanks, dude.”
Zach winked at her. “I’ll go get everyone out of your way, okay?”
“That’d be great,” Gavin said.
“If you change your mind it’s two-for-one pitchers of our very fine Bluff Point Ale at Marty’s,” Zach said. He paused and looked at Mac, and said, “But you might want to shower and comb that.” He pointed to his head and then hers. “And maybe wash this.” He circled a finger around his face and then pointed to her.
“Good night, Zach,” Mac said. She used the hem of her shirt to wipe her eyes and when she looked up he was gone.
“You ready?” Gavin asked.
“Yeah,” Mac said. “If you want to join the others feel free. You don’t have to give me a ride home. I can call the aunts.”
“Please, stop the crazy talk,” he said. He picked up her bag where it sat beside him on the floor. “Officer Morgan let me collect your stuff for you. I think they all feel pretty bad about what happened.”
“You should have seen it,” Mac said as she draped her bag over her shoulder. “Lester’s got her chained in the backyard. She didn’t have food or water. There’s no shelter. She looks sad and lonely and scared. I can’t bear it, Gav. I can’t bear to leave her there.”
“I know,” he said.
He put his hand on her lower back and ushered her through the door. The main room of the small-town police station was empty except for the officer on desk duty. He glanced up at them as they passed but one look at Mac’s face and he glanced away as if desperately hoping for an emergency call on his radio.
Sheesh, did the women in these men’s lives never cry? As Gavin led Mac out the main door, the officer looked infinitely relieved.
“Do I really look that bad?” she asked.
“There is no right way for me to answer that question,” he said.
“Oh, my god, that bad?”
“See? No right answer.” He opened the passenger door to his pickup truck, which was parked out front, and she climbed in.
Mac resisted looking at her reflection in the mirror on the back of the sun visor for about three seconds. Then she flipped it down and the built-in light switched on. Mac shrieked.
Chapter 25
“Oh, you looked,” Gavin said as he climbed in on the driver’s side.
Mac turned to face him. “No one said anything. I was in a jail cell with my three best friends and not one of them suggested I try to spit shine the dirt off my face or finger comb my hair. Really?”
“Well, things were a bit chaotic,” Gavin said.
“We were in there for two hours,” Mac protested. “I need three new best friends. Oh, man, I can’t go home like this. The aunts will think I’ve come back from the dead or worse.”
“You can clean up at my place,” he said. Not giving Mac any say in the matter, he drove through town and parked on the street in front of the clinic.
Mac would have argued or just bucked up and gone home but she didn’t have an ounce of fight left in her and she really didn’t want the aunts to see her like this, looking like she’d been hog wrestling in the dirt. Okay, the dirt they could handle no problem but the misery that seemed to be etched in the filth on her face, yeah, that would break their hearts and she’d rather see them when she wasn’t feeling quite so raw.
When they walked into Gavin’s she saw the remnants of the poker game the boys had been playing when Emma called them to be busted out of jail.
“I hope you weren’t winning,” she said.
“Nope.” He picked up his hand and showed it to her. It was a random assortment of throwaway cards. “Your arrest probably saved me from losing my shirt.”
“Well, there’s that,” she said.
“Go. I’ll make some tea.” Gavin handed her a towel and a robe and pushed her in the direction of the bathroom. “And throw your clothes in the hall so I can put them in the washing machine.”
Mac dropped her bag on the floor and went without argument. The robe was huge. In a manly shade of charcoal gray, it was soft and fluffy and smelled like him. Mac wanted to climb inside of it and stay there until her heart healed but she feared that was going to be a long time coming and he might want his robe back before then.
She stripped down and dropped her clothes right outside the door. She couldn’t blame him for wanting to get them in the washer as fast as possible. She imagined they could stink up his apartment in no time.
She turned the shower temperature to smoking hot as if she could fry the anguish right out of her pores, then she stood under the jets trying to get the image of Tulip being left behind out of her head. It didn’t work and she started to cry, again. She figured this was it, the last time she would let herself fall apart tonight, so she let it break her down all the way to a cellular level.
She sobbed, she wailed, she cried, and she didn’t stop until she felt as if she’d wrung every bit of angry frustrated grief out of her system. She suspected there’d be more tomorrow but for now she was an empty vessel, a shell, with no purpose except to survive until she could figure out how to free Tulip from her prison.
• • •
Gavin sat on the couch, flipping through channels with the remote. His walls were thin, which with no neighbors wasn’t usually a problem, but even with the steady beat of the water in the tile shower, he could hear Mac crying as if someone had reached inside her chest and ripped her heart out.
Twice he got up to go comfort her, but sanity kicked in and he realized charging into a bathroom where there was a naked woman working through her grief was awkward at best and creepy at worst. So he sat, nursing his beer and feeling like a little part of himself was dying with each sob that she heaved.
Finally, the crying stopped and so did the water. After a few minutes the door opened with a plume of steam and Mac stepped out. Gavin had his beer to his lips when he saw her and he froze, unable to remember if he was taking a drink or finishing a sip or what as his brain turned to mush at the sight of her.
She was towel drying the ends of her hair, which was wet and combed back from her face. Whether her cheeks were pink from the heat or scrubbing he didn’t know, he just knew that she looked charming and alluring all at the same time. He shifted in his seat against the sudden tightness in his crotch and felt immediately guilty for thinking that she was hot when she was clearly still struggling with her emotions.
When she looked at him, he saw a flash of sad in her eyes but she soldiered on, not letting it take over. Her big brown eyes looked soft surrounded by her water-soaked spiky lashes and he had to resist the urge to pull her close and kiss each one.
His robe on her was huge. Given that her clothes were currently spinning in his dryer, the knowledge that she was likely naked or near naked under the robe did not help his sudden shortness of brea
th.
“Here,” he said as he stood. “I can get you some tea, cocoa, warm milk, scotch?”
“I don’t want to trouble you,” she said.
“No trouble,” he said, which was a blatant lie because her state of undress was causing him no end of serious freaking below-the-belt trouble.
He crossed the living room and went to pass her on his way to the kitchen, but when he got into the same breathing space as her, he lost his sense of purpose. He took the towel she held in her hands and threw it on the floor and then he backed her up against the wall and put his mouth on hers.
This. This was what he’d wanted to do since he’d seen her sad face at the jail. He wanted to hold her and comfort her, he wanted to kiss the hurt away just like he had all those years ago.
He wanted to strip her naked and he wanted to bury himself inside of her until they were one. But for now, he kissed her, slow, openmouthed deep kisses that made her hum in the back of her throat like a cat purring.
“Stop me now,” he said. “If you’re going to, do it now.”
He was pretty sure that if she did, he was going to die, but at least he’d die in her arms with his lips on hers and his erection pressed up against her.
“Can’t. Stop.” Her breathy words rocked him like a one-two punch to the chest.
Gavin didn’t hesitate. He shoved the robe aside and sucked in a breath when he saw she was just in a bra and undies. Pink. Silky. History.
He slid his mouth over her skin to the breast that had taunted him before and he pulled the delicate fabric aside and put his mouth over the hard bud and bit down. Mac moaned and her legs buckled, so he grabbed her hips and jacked her up against the wall, shoving his thigh between her legs to brace her.
Her hands gripped his shoulders and tugged at his shirt until he paused to yank it over his head. He unfastened her bra and it went the way of his shirt. Then he pressed his chest against hers and they both hissed from the contact. When his hands slid up her sides to cup her breasts and her head fell back on a grunt of pleasure, yeah, he was pretty sure he was going to die.
How many times had he pictured her just like this, coming apart in his arms? Her brown eyes looked smoky with a fire banked in their depths. He was determined to turn up the heat and make her feel the burn for him, just him.
He slid his hands down to her hips and hoisted her up against him so that her legs locked around his waist. His own knees almost buckled when her hot spot cupped his hard-on, making his heart thud in his chest and his ears ring. The connection was positively combustible.
He slanted his mouth over hers and kissed her as if she were as vital to his survival as the air that he breathed. He was pretty sure she was. She responded by digging her fingers into his hair and pulling him even closer.
It felt as if they couldn’t ever be close enough. He cupped her bottom and turned away from the wall, striding over to the couch, where he dropped back in a free fall that pulled her down on top of him, making all of her girl parts line up perfectly with his boy parts. Bliss.
This was it. He couldn’t take it anymore. He hooked a finger into her silk bottoms and pulled them down just far enough to give him access. Then he slid one finger right up and in, making Mac buck against his hand. He used his thumb to hit that deliciously sensitive nub, and Mac cried out in a hoarse shout as she began to convulse around his fingers, making him damn near come in his jeans.
When she finished riding out the orgasm and stopped grinding against his hand, Gavin planted a kiss on her that left her panting in his mouth.
That about destroyed him and he decided it was time for her to lose the undies completely. He grabbed the satiny string at her hips with every intention of ripping them off. And then his phone began to buzz and beep.
“Huh . . . what?” Mac broke the kiss but he had her by the panties and he wasn’t letting go.
“Phone,” he murmured against her neck as he reached for his cell on the coffee table.
He would have happily, oh so happily, ignored it, but it wasn’t the ringtone for family or friends. Oh, no, this was his emergency vet number. Damn it!
He pulled Mac close and she sagged against him in the aftermath of his lovemaking like a shadow hugs the ground. How he wanted desperately to bury himself deep inside of her, but the text message on his phone ended that.
Gently, he pushed her hair back from her face and kissed both of her eyelids, her nose, and finally her lips.
“I have to go,” he said.
Mac looked at him, her brown eyes unfocused and dreamy, and he remembered that look. He had seen it on her face just once before. It was his look. It belonged just to him.
“The Marcels’ boxer just had a seizure,” he said. “I have to go and check on him.”
“Oh,” Mac said. Then her eyes popped open wider and she jumped off of his lap. “Oh, I’m sorry. Go! You need to go.”
“I want you to stay here and wait for me,” he said. He cringed when he stood up. Vet with a raging stiffy, coming through.
She opened her mouth to protest but he kissed her, effectively stopping her argument. Huh. He’d have to remember that. Then he scooped up the robe from the floor and wrapped her in it.
“Make yourself at home,” he said. He yanked on his T-shirt and grabbed his wallet, phone, and keys. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Okay,” she said.
Gavin paused by the door for one last look. Her hair had dried in thick waves about her shoulders. Clutching the front of the robe together, she looked fragile and a little lost. Oh, hell.
He strode across the room with one purpose in his every step, to kiss away the vulnerable woman and bring back the hot siren who had tortured his unconscious for seven long years. His mouth took hers ruthlessly and when she grabbed his shirt and pulled him in close, he knew he had her.
When he stepped back, breathing hard and feeling like he was going to bust a seam on his jeans, he was pleased to see that she was looking at him like she was planning to eat him for breakfast. Yes, he’d let her.
“Wait for me,” he said. He turned and left the apartment as fast as he could, knowing that if he looked at her for one more second, he’d have her naked in his bed riding his cock until he was completely drained, which judging by how hard he was at the moment, would take a week, possibly two.
Chapter 26
Mac stood in the center of Gavin’s living room, feeling like she’d just jumped off of a high-speed train and it was not the aftereffects of the orgasm making her feel like that. Oh, no, it was the shame.
Shame cloaked her in an acid bath of self-loathing. She had almost gone full frontal. She glanced down; who was she kidding? She had gone full frontal with Gavin. Gavin! The guy she was only supposed to be cheering up, although in her own defense he’d looked pretty cheery there until the phone rang.
She slapped her hands to her face, which was suddenly eight shades of fiery hot embarrassment. What the hell had she been thinking? She had promised herself she wouldn’t do this. If Emma found out . . . oh, god, she might oust Mac right out of the wedding party.
She let out a little shriek. She had to get the hell out of here, before Gav came back, before she slept with him, because she would. She knew that now. There wasn’t enough willpower in the world to make her not crawl all over him if he crooked his little finger at her. Crooked his finger. Sigh. Mac dropped her head to her chest as the memory of the havoc his fingers had managed to wreak upon her invaded her brain space.
In seconds, she was dressed in her still damp clothes. As she pulled them out of the dryer, she didn’t care that they were more wet than dry. She didn’t even bother to put her bra back on but shoved it in her bag, which she threw over her shoulder. She hurried for the door, but then paused.
This was Gavin. She had run out on him once before. Could she really do that to him again? He had been very
specific that he wanted her to wait for him.
A note. She’d leave him a note. Notes made everything better, right?
She hurried over to a small desk in the corner where he had his laptop. She searched the top, which was bare, and then opened the middle drawer, thinking it would be the place for paper and pens. Jackpot!
She grabbed a pen and then reached for a pad of sticky notes. The corner of a photo caught her eye. She knew she should ignore it, but, yeah, she didn’t.
She pulled the photo out from under the pad and there was Gav, smiling not at her but rather lovingly at the woman in the picture with him. Her breath caught at just how handsome his profile was; truly, the man did not have a bad side. From the background, she gathered the picture was taken at his clinic and he was leaning against the front counter and a pretty redhead was tucked under his arm gazing up at him and he looked besotted with her. Mac frowned. She did not like this picture.
She flipped it over. Scrawled in a woman’s hand were the words:
Gavin and Jane 2016
She flipped it back over. So, this was Jane. Mac moved closer to a light so she could really examine the woman’s features. She had a prominent nose and chin and her eyes, which looked to be a very bright blue, were set far apart. Her red hair was long, covering what Mac suspected were sticky-out ears. Overall, she was okay. Nothing special.
Yeah, right. She glanced in the drawer and saw there was a whole stack of photos of Jane and Gavin: riding bikes, hiking a mountain, on the beach, and dressed up for a formal date. In every one, Gavin looked smitten with the redhead. Clearly, they had enjoyed each other’s company quite a bit. Mac felt a clawing inside her chest and realized it was her old friend jealousy. She hadn’t felt that since Jessie had made off with her fiancé.
If Jane hadn’t been special to Gavin then why did he have all of these pictures, and why didn’t he ever talk about her? She’d seen his face when Jane’s name came up; it was so neutral it was clearly not neutral. Oh, crud, that meant that Mac was most definitely his transition woman. Ack!
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