by Reina Torres
She nodded. “People who are considered different always have to prove themselves more. Do better. Take more crap than others.” Maggie looked into his eyes and smiled. A moment later her face flushed with heat. “But I knew you were special,” she almost sighed the words, “I knew it from the first moment I saw you.”
He heard the words and found himself catapulted back in time. Thinking back to the first few weeks of his ‘encouraged’ enlistment. He hated everything back then. The military, the food, the officers, every damn thing. And he’d shown it in his way. And that way usually ended up with him being punished for something. “I was in trouble a lot back then.”
“But think of what you did with it,” she smiled at him. “You found a way to make it work for you. You became a leader. You became an example to the others in a good way.”
She looked off into the corner of the room as if she was waiting for something to happen.
“Maggie?”
She blinked a few times and he saw the shimmer of tears on her lashes.
“What’s wrong?”
He reached out for her, but she sat back a little bit, putting her just out of reach. He wondered if she was pulling away from him or protecting herself. He didn’t like either option much.
“I saw you and thought I’d never find a way to be like you, sure of yourself, skilled.”
“You were young, Maggie. Still in school.”
“A teenager,” she groaned, “awkward all over and given the order to stay far, far away from my father’s soldiers.”
“Did he think we would hurt you?
She shrugged. “You were all dangerous as far as the military was concerned. I could understand why my dad wanted me to stay away, but he should have known that when he told me to stay away, it was only going to make me even more curious.” She got a far away look in her eyes and her smile was almost wistful.
“What was that all about?”
She shook herself and focused back on his face. “What was what?”
“That look on your face.” He saw the languid smile stretch across her lips and he was near desperate for a taste.
And given the look in her eyes, the dilation of her pupils had nearly turned her eyes black and his jaguar was eager for a peek. He had to hold back a little while longer.
“I guess,” she looked away as if she was afraid to say the words, “I’m just happy that I get to spend this time with you.” When she met his eyes he saw a dangerous spark in her eyes. “I’m just waiting for my dad to realize what he’s done and tell me to stop.”
His jaguar didn’t like that idea at all. Then again, neither did he.
“Would you,” he wondered aloud, “stop if he asked you to?”
I could stop him, his jaguar volunteered.
No you won’t, he groused right back.
“I can’t believe that you think I would stop just because he said so. I’m a woman now. I’ve got my own life that I’m leading where my father doesn’t get to tell me how to act or who to stay away from.”
“I like that.” Cage nodded. “You’re not afraid to speak up.”
She winced and let out a little sigh. “Is this where you tell me I’m ‘high maintenance’?”
He saw the expression on her face change a moment later, a little lift of her eyebrows and a widening of her eyes to match the surprise parting of her lips. It wasn’t until he felt her fingers press back against his that he realized he’d taken hold of her hand.
Deep inside of him, his cat purred like a kitten and he knew he was in deep trouble.
“Babe, you’re as far away from high maintenance as you could get,” he heard laughter in the air before he recognized it as his own. “You’re a hands-on kind of girl with a solid grasp of reality.”
Her laugh was a little pinched in tone. “So, I’m like a mechanic with good common sense?” She shook her head and sighed. “Does that mean I get to charge you for a tune up on your daddy skills?”
It wasn’t the words she said. No. There was something about the way she said the words that twisted him up inside.
He felt her fingers move against his, and when he looked her straight in the eyes she gave him a little smile and then a wink.
“Don’t worry, Cage. I offer installment plans.”
Her thumb rubbed up under his palm and the knot in his stomach released, sending his blood flooding south. He had to resist the urge to move on the sofa.
And he couldn’t. Shifting on the couch, he felt something stretch inside of him. It twisted and turned like a key, and when she wet her lips he felt like something broke open down in his soul.
But Maggie wasn’t like him. She wasn’t a shifter and she didn’t know what being with him meant, at least what he wanted from her.
“Maggie, I shouldn’t stay here with you. Not alone.”
“I’m a big girl, Cage. I’m a woman who knows what she wants.” She sighed, and he watched her chest rise and fall with every breath.
“What would your father think?” He tried to draw his hand away, but she didn’t let go. “I don’t want to get between the two of you.”
She laughed, a soft breathy chuckle that tickled over his skin. “You’re acting like this is something different than what it is.”
For the first time he felt thrown off balance but in a different way than before. He had been pulling himself away from her, only to realize she might just be pulling back from him.
And he didn’t like it, not one fucking bit.
Knowing he’d likely made a fool of himself already, he forged on ahead choosing to walk through the onslaught of fire rather than stand there and take the hits.
“What is this, Maggie?”
“My father already knows how I feel about you, Cage.” She blushed a little bit, but she didn’t let go of his hand. “I’ve been crushing on you since the first time I saw you. I’d walked by the training facility a hundred times or more waiting for a chance to see what all of you looked like and finally got my chance. Everyone was lined up and staring straight ahead as my dad shouted orders. Every one of you were so different from the other, but you were the one I saw.
“The only one I saw.” She lifted their joined hands and pressed a kiss to the tip of one of his fingers. “It was crazy, I know. But I took one look at you and something inside me said that you were mine.” Laughing a little, she let go of his hand and stood up in front of the couch. “I knew it was a daydream. I knew I was insane to believe it. You’re this amazing man. You’re built… boy howdy are you built. You could bench-press a truck if you had a mind to do it. And you’ve got this… heat about you, the kind that radiates like a solar oven and makes me warm and achy all over, but it’s okay, Cage. I get it. I’m the Colonel’s little girl, I doubt you’d ever see me as a woman you could be with, so I’m happy to do what I can to help you… just for the chance to be close enough to-”
He pulled her down, stealing the words from her mouth with a startled gasp. Sprawled on top of him, he felt her brace herself. “Don’t, Maggie.” He filled his hands with the full curve of her backside and pulled her up a little more to feel her heat pressing down on his throbbing erection. “Don’t sell yourself short like that. I see you as a woman. With you pressed all up against me, there’s little left working in my brain that would tell me to let you go.”
“Then don’t,” she relaxed against him and he slipped his thigh between hers. Her hands grabbed at his shirt and tugged at it enough to strain the buttons, “don’t let me go.”
Chapter Five
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?”
&
nbsp; 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.
