by Ann Gimpel
“Sir?”
“Find out what each of those people needs. Group them so I can see several at a shot. I’m ready for the first bunch whenever you send them my way.”
“I’m on it, sir.”
Hours later, Johannes ushered the last group of legislators and concerned citizens out of the office. Max got to his feet, went into the washroom, and bent to douse his face with cold water. It was just past seven. Maybe this would be a good time to leave. It would give him and Johannes an opportunity to eat something and get home in time for the meeting.
When he came back to his desk, Audrey stood next to it holding a piece of paper in her hand. She looked absolutely beautiful. Not a hair was out of place. She stood a bit stiffly, though. Max wondered what was wrong. “Did we miss someone? It’s okay, I can talk with a few more folk.”
“No, sir. That’s not it.” Her eyes glistened as if she were trying not to cry. “It’s just—aw hell, there’s no easy way to do this. I’m resigning, sir. Effective two weeks from today’s date.” She laid the piece of paper on his cluttered desk, spun, and walked out of his office, closing the door behind her.
Chapter 8
There. I did it. Audrey made her way down the back staircase to her office one floor below. Tears spilled down her face, but it didn’t matter. She had everything packed up and sitting on her chair. All she had to do tonight was get out of the building, and then she could cry her eyes out.
“You can’t do this,” her wolf snarled. “You have to go back up those stairs, and tell him you didn’t mean it.”
“I’m doing what I have to. I thought you, of all people—or animals or whatever—would understand I’m doing it for us. So we can be free again.”
“But he is one of us. Why won’t you believe me?”
“Because it would be too good to be true,” she muttered and made a blind grab for her purse, briefcase, and coat. Between her overflowing eyes and inattention, she pitched headlong into Loren standing next to her desk.
“Princess,” he murmured, borrowing her father’s pet name for her. “What the hell happened?” He drew her against his chest, and she sobbed helplessly, unable to hold onto even a semblance of composure in the face of his kindness.
“I-it’s nothing,” she managed finally. “Cumulative stress from the past couple of days. I-I can’t work here anymore. I just went upstairs and gave notice.”
Loren stroked her hair. “I understand. Place has turned into a real pressure cooker.”
She turned her tear-streaked face up to look at him. “Do you know where my daddy is?” His eyes narrowed. A muscle twitched beneath one of them. “Tell me,” she breathed. “Please.”
“I can’t. I promised him.”
“Surely you didn’t promise not to tell his children.”
“Oh, but I did. What you don’t know could make the difference between staying alive—or not.”
More tears cascaded down her face. Loss cut deep. First her family and now Max. I never really had him to lose. Loren drew her close again. “There, there. Hush. I’ll see you home.”
She shook her head. “No. I’ve got to get my car out of the garage. I’m taking up one of the charger spots. They’ll fine me.” Her voice sounded muffled against his chest. She was probably getting mascara all over his white uniform shirt.
“I’ll see they don’t.”
“What the hell is going on here?” Max burst into the foyer, with Johannes on his heels. He reached for Audrey, but Loren’s arms tightened around her. “Let go of her. That’s an order,” he barked.
“Sir.” Loren’s gaze sparred with Max’s. Audrey lifted her head and watched two sets of blue eyes, both like ice chips. Max looked as if he were ready to do battle for her. Even though she tried to stifle the feeling, his protectiveness thrilled her.
“Audrey is like a daughter to me,” Loren went on. “Her father and I used to be…friends. I told you that last night. She’s upset. I’ll see she gets home.”
“It’s all right.” Audrey levered herself out of Loren’s grasp and faced Max. “I’m not sure what it looked like to you, but he was comforting me.”
Johannes inserted himself smoothly between Loren and Audrey. “We’ll take care of her and see she gets home. I’ll text you once she’s settled.”
“I really can take care of it,” Loren insisted. “Audrey, what do you want to do?”
Sink through the floor.
Throw myself into Max’s arms and never let go.
Max’s blond hair had escaped its customary queue and hung around his face. His blue eyes held a wild note that sang to her soul. He was so exceptional, it was hard to tear her gaze away. She opened her mouth to say she wanted to drive herself home, and Loren could follow her, but what came out was, “It’s okay, Loren. Max and Johannes can see me home. I’ll text you, too, once I’m safe.”
“Are you certain?” Loren walked to her side. She nodded. “We never got to finish the part of our conversation about your father,” he went on. “Let me know when a good time would be to do that.”
“I will. Thanks, Loren.” She raised up on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. The older man colored.
“No problem, princess. Glad to have helped.” He turned and disappeared through the stairwell door.
“Looks like you’re ready to leave.” Max eyed the briefcase, coat, and purse still clutched against her body.
“I was on my way out when I ran into Loren.” She managed a wan smile and wondered just how blotchy her face was from crying. “Guess I sort of lost it. It’s been a tough couple of days.”
Johannes looked from one to the other. “How do you want to do this, sir?”
*
Max glanced at his wrist computer. Seven-twenty. What he wanted to do, and what he could do given the war council webcast meeting scheduled for nine were two very different things. “I’ll go with Audrey in her car, so long as it’s acceptable to her. You can follow us, and we’ll go home from there.”
“I’d really be okay driving by myself.”
“Not going to happen.” Johannes pushed the call button for the elevator. “You look like you’ve been crying your eyes out. The least we can do is deliver you to your door.”
Audrey squared her shoulders and looked at Max. “You can come with me under one condition.”
Max quirked a brow. “What might that be?”
“No discussion about my letter of resignation. My decision’s final.” Her voice shook, and her chin quivered slightly.
“All right. No discussion about that. At least not tonight.” A corner of his mouth turned downward. “No promises about tomorrow, though.”
“I’ll take what I can get.”
The elevator door opened. Max gestured Audrey through. His stomach was tied in burning coils. He wanted her so badly, he could hardly keep his hands to himself. He was painfully erect, and his wolf wouldn’t shut up.
“Let me out. Then her wolf will emerge, and we’ll get things straight.”
“Two wolves in the front seat of a car driving across town is not a good idea.”
“Fine, do it after we get to her home.”
“How do you know she’s a wolf?” Max was curious.
“Instincts. Mine are sharper than yours.”
The elevator opened onto a deserted garage. “Wait under the light,” Johannes snapped, “while I do a sweep.”
“Where’s your car?” Max asked.
“A couple of levels down where employees park.”
“Johannes, come back here. We’ll drive to her vehicle.”
Max was careful not to touch her for long when he helped her into the backseat of his car. He knew if his fingers lingered for more than the barest of moments, he wouldn’t be able to let go. They rode in silence to her car, an old two-seater. Audrey got out, popped her trunk, and dumped her things inside. She unplugged the car from the wall charger next to it and stowed the cord in the trunk along with her belongings.
“Usually, I keep ev
erything in the passenger seat,” she explained, “but that won’t work if you drive with me.”
Max wanted to divert her attention from her decision to allow him in her car. He was well aware Johannes’ magic had something to do with her capitulation upstairs in her office. “I haven’t seen one of these cars in a long time. Where did you get it?” He held the driver’s side door open for her, then went around and got into his seat.
“It belonged to my father. He used to like to work on it. Taught my brothers auto mechanics on this car.”
“Not you?”
She laughed, seemingly feeling a little more at ease, as she engaged the electric motor and punched buttons on the onboard nav system. “Me? A little. I was more of a nature-girl than a get-grease-on-my-fingers one.”
Max had intended to keep his distance, but he was so drawn to her, the plan went up like so much fairy dust. “I live in an arboretum. Maybe tomorrow after work you could come home with me and take a look. I keep greenhouses as well as outside plants, so something’s always blooming.”
He heard her suck in a breath. “Oh, I’d love to…but it’s not a good idea.”
“Why not?” Max chided himself the minute the words were out. He didn’t want her to feel boxed into a corner. “Um, sorry. Shouldn’t have asked you that. I respect your decision.”
They exited the garage, and Audrey turned the car over to its nav system. She repositioned herself so she could look at him. “No, maybe we do need to talk about it. I’m much too attracted to you for my own good. I’ll be leaving the area soon, and it’s probably better if we don’t spend too much time together.” The expression on her face made his heart ache. Bittersweet, resigned, and fatalistic, she looked like an ancient warrior preparing to engage in a hopeless battle but determined to see the thing through to its conclusion.
“I know I promised not to talk about your resignation. And I’m not, not exactly. I understand why you’d want to quit your job, but why do you have to leave Sacramento? If you weren’t working for me—” He bit back the next words. She’d obviously been sobbing her heart out in Loren’s arms. Not good to overload her with how much he wanted and needed her.
“I have something important I have to do. It’s why I quit.”
“What? Maybe I could help.”
She shook her head. In the muted glow from the car’s interior lights, her eyes looked haunted. “You wouldn’t want to.”
“Try me.”
“Look. Could we let this drop please? We’re nearly at my house. What we should be talking about is how you want me to structure the time I have left before I leave.”
Yes, but that’s not what I want to talk about. While he was working on what to say next, she pulled into a small parking lot adjacent to her building. With a mind of its own, Max’s hand covered one of hers. “Audrey.” His voice was raspy with denied need.
She turned to face him. Her full lips trembled. He drew her toward him in the small confines of the car and covered her mouth with his. She tasted sweet, like summer wine. Her arms twined around his neck, and she opened her mouth beneath his. Max’s heart rate accelerated. He held her as close as he could, given the console between them. The musk of their combined arousal was fragrant in his nose. He could have held her for hours, reveling in her taste and smell.
The lights from Max’s car lit the night when Johannes pulled up beside them. Audrey wrenched herself away and opened her door. “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m going inside now, and you’re getting into your car and going home. If you follow me into my house, we both know what will happen.” A catch in her voice contradicted the resolve in her words; she exited the car and latched her door.
If it weren’t for that damned meeting, I’d— Max unfolded his long legs and got out of the car. He caught up to her. “I’m not sorry, Audrey. You’re one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever known. Not only that, you’re bright and inventive and—”
“Stop. It will go to my head, and I’ll become insufferable. See you in the morning…boss.” She lengthened her stride and disappeared through a side door.
“Are you going to just stand there all night?” Johannes called.
Max sighed, walked toward his waiting car, and got in. “No, but I’d like to.”
“Did you ask her about—?”
“No. Tonight wasn’t the time. It’s only a ten minute drive from the office to her house, and I knew we needed to hustle home for the meeting you scheduled.”
“You’ll have more opportunities to talk with her.”
“Not all that many. One of the things she told me is she’s leaving town.”
Johannes’ forehead creased as he ferried the car back onto the city streets and told the computer to take them home. “Not sure I like that.”
“What do you mean?”
“You won’t appreciate this, but hear me out, anyway. It seems she can shift when she shouldn’t be able to. And now she’s leaving town right after a couple of attempts on your life. Do you suppose she’s working for whoever’s out to get you?”
“Not possible,” Max blustered.
“Oh, but it is. I knew you wouldn’t take it well. When you’re a little calmer and not so aroused, you can roll it around in your head.”
“If she’s working with any of the shifter groups, they want me alive.”
“Not all of them. Some blame you and the underground for the increased surveillance and those elite tracker task forces that have been rounding us up and killing us. This is a relatively new development and one of the things we’ll be talking about tonight.”
Max inhaled and blew the breath out sharply. Audrey couldn’t be working for the enemy. She just couldn’t. He turned an ear inward, expecting to hear a protest, but his wolf was silent.
*
Audrey barricaded herself behind her phalanx of deadbolts. Her heart was light, her body delightfully provoked. She could still feel the pressure of Max’s mouth on hers. Her lips tingled from the aftermath of their kiss. Maybe we could make love before I have to leave.
“Yes. Call him. Get that other shifter to turn the car around and leave Max here.”
Audrey laughed as she pulled pins and clips from her hair. It cascaded around her body. “You’re incorrigible.”
“No. I just know what I want. We need him. He’s our soul mate. Our mated one.”
Audrey moved into the bedroom and got out of her clothes. After washing her face and brushing her teeth, she snugged a soft, synthetic robe around herself and brought the vid feed to life, intent on continuing the research she’d begun the previous night. After she’d gotten credits ready to transition to black market cash tomorrow and checked a few more sources for the location of the underground’s headquarters in Berkeley, she crawled into bed.
Her body still vibrated with need from Max’s kiss and his hands as they’d stroked her back and shoulders. His touch had been electric and full of promise. In an odd way, she felt he’d branded her as his. Her fingers slipped between her legs and found her swollen clit. She’d barely touched herself when one of the most intense climaxes she’d ever experienced rocked her. The spasms traveled all the way to her toes. Her back arched, and she cried out in delight.
Audrey wanted more. She wanted Max’s hands and mouth on her, wanted his cock buried deep inside. Her fingers worked her clit. It stiffened under her fingers like the miniature penis it was. She imagined Max’s mouth on hers again and then a string of lush kisses trailing to her breasts. He tongued them and sucked just the way she liked. The way that made her womb contract in delight.
Her other hand found a breast and rolled the hard nipple between thumb and forefinger. She rubbed her clit harder. In her fantasy, Max moved lower on her body and positioned himself between her legs. When he closed his mouth over her sensitive nub, she exploded again, writhing against her hand.
“Holy crap,” she moaned. “How am I going to get through two weeks working next to him without dragging him into a broom closet and fucki
ng his brains out?”
“If you’re smart, you won’t.” The wolf sounded smug.
Embarrassment flooded her. She’d forgotten all about her new sidekick who, apparently, missed nothing. “I guess you were, uh, watching me?”
A whuffling sound that might have been lupine laughter sounded inside her mind. “Better than that. When one of us comes, both of us do. Just wait until you’re inside me, and we have sex with his wolf. You’ll be amazed.”
“Stop it. We probably won’t even have sex with him as a human. I’m sure he’s not a shifter. Christ! He’s the California governor. People have to go through extensive background checks. They’d never have even let a shifter run for office. He took his oath six months after the government decreed all of us needed to go to prison.”
“I know what I know. You’ll trust me more as time goes by.”
Audrey’s eyes felt heavy. She closed them, and an image of Max danced in the darkness. She started to lecture herself on how it would be really stupid to get involved with him but gave it up for a lost cause. She could have the strongest intentions in the world, but once he trained his incredible blue gaze on her, she didn’t think she’d have the strength to resist.
She considered just taking personal time off to cover her last two weeks. She had more than enough hours accrued to cover it. If I did that, I could leave tomorrow night. She mapped out the possibility but ran into a major stumbling block.
I couldn’t do that to Max. He needs me. At least this way, there’ll be time for Human Resources to find a temp I can train.
Chapter 9
Max sat in the shielded upstairs study with Johannes picking over the remains of dinner. Johannes had been busy at the vid feed, so Max worked through e-mails and documents on his wrist computer while he ate.
“It’s nearly time,” he said, glancing at an antique grandfather clock. “What are you up to over there?”
Johannes looked up. The skin around his eyes was pinched with worry. “Take a few deep breaths, friend.”
Max straightened from where he’d been slumped in his chair. “What?”