by Meg Ripley
A ripple of heat surged in the lowest pit of her abdomen and spread over her body as she recalled that kiss. It shouldn’t have affected her so much. It wasn’t as though they’d gone tumbling into bed together. But the way his hands had wrapped possessively around her body—not to mention the hardness in his jeans—told Sabrina that he would’ve been happy to do just that. It was no great stretch of the imagination to visualize exactly what they would’ve done. In her mind’s eye, she could feel his deft hand slipping the soft fabric of her robe aside, cupping her exposed breast as he continued to claim her mouth. Max had always been an incredibly passionate tiger, and a generous one, too. Sabrina knew he’d have made sure she got every bit of pleasure she could stand before he took his own. She also knew it was an ego boost for him to know he’d thoroughly satisfied her, but that was one aspect of his arrogance she could handle.
“Stop,” she muttered as she slipped into her shoes and headed to the bathroom to put her hair up in a braided bun. “You’re an educated woman who people entrust with their lives every day. Surely you can handle an awkward situation like this.”
A few minutes later, she breezed out of her bedroom and barely gave Max a glance on her way to the kitchen for some coffee. Sabrina always had it pre-programmed and ready to go the night before so she could enjoy the smell of fresh brew as soon as she got up in the morning. “There’s plenty of coffee if you want some.” It was only good manners to offer; it wasn’t as though she were serving it up for him.
“Yeah. Thanks.” He took a mug from the rack.
It irritated her that he looked so at home there, as though he already knew every square inch of the apartment. Then again, maybe he did, considering he’d probably stayed up all night. His clothes were wrinkled, his dark hair rumpled. Stubble dotted his strong jawline. But for all the exhaustion he might’ve felt from staying up all night to work his shift as a bodyguard, she could still feel his eyes observing her.
“Bagels and cream cheese, oatmeal, cereal… help yourself.” She grabbed an everything bagel, something she’d taken a recent liking to. There was something about a savory breakfast that was so much more satisfying than a sweet one. After covering the bagel in cream cheese, she parked herself at the breakfast bar where she could look through the patio doors.
Max moved through the kitchen behind her. Sabrina didn’t turn around to see if he needed any help or find out what he was doing. She didn’t need to. She could sense him in the most indescribable, primal way. The nerves on her back reacted to every move he made, sending a picture of the movement behind her to her brain. It was like painting a picture without being able to see it. Sabrina had to smile to herself a little over that one. If she’d ever brought up such a thing in one of the many medical conventions she attended for humans, she’d be laughed right out of the business. It wasn’t logical or reasonable. The shifter community, on the other hand, would know exactly what she was talking about.
He was next to her on the other barstool a few minutes later with a full mug of black coffee and a bowl of blueberry oatmeal. She tightened her jaw as she waited for him to bring up last night, to question her, even to tease her about the way she’d reacted to him.
Fortunately, he decided to go a different route to start the day. “I suppose if I’m going to be guarding you, I ought to know what it is I’m guarding you from. The only thing I’ve been told is that you’re a key witness in some trial. Can you tell me about that?”
Good. He’d decided to be just as professional as she had. A small part of her, the one she often shoved to the back of her mind and told to stay put, was a little disappointed. Too bad. “Yes, I think I can do that. I was attending a medical conference for the shifter community. We’d organized at a shifter-run hotel on the outskirts of town, nothing fancy, with the idea of staying off anyone’s radar.”
“We?” he asked, poking a blueberry with his spoon.
“Yeah. I’ve been trying to set up a better system for shifter medical care. As it is, the clans just call in whomever they happen to know, and treatment takes place in a kitchen or bathroom at best. It’s not right, and we deserve more. The challenge is that we can’t be open about it.” She frowned at her bagel, calling back to mind all the trouble she had just getting representatives from all the local clans and packs to come together and at least start talking about it. Of course, that meant she also needed other doctors and nurses to be on board, and they had to be ones that were safe to talk to about such things. “It’s been much more of a project than I’d anticipated, and it hasn’t been easy to do all that on top of my normal work, but I think it’s something worth doing.”
“Okay, so you were at a conference. And?” he prodded.
“Oh. Sorry.” She focused on the smooth lines of the cream cheese. How had she slipped into such normal conversation with him? If anything, she should be angry at him for agreeing to take this job when he must’ve known she was the witness. No, wait. Those weren’t the thoughts she was supposed to be having right now. She was cool. “Anyway, there were a lot of different representatives from different groups, shifters from all over the place. I was trying to sleep because I had to get back to work the next morning, but I couldn’t because everyone was getting so wild. For some reason, the hotel management didn’t make any complaints. But the guests in the room below me were thumping their bass so hard it made my bed vibrate.”
Max snickered. She ignored him.
“My room was right by the stairs, so I skipped the elevator and headed down there to tell them to turn it down. But when I opened the door to the stairwell, a man lay at the bottom covered in blood. A wolf stood over him with blood all over his fur. He looked up at me.” She paused, remembering that night. Her brain screamed at her to run down the stairs and help the man, but her instincts told her to run away as fast as she could before she became the next victim. The wolf had been massive, his amber eyes intense.
“So the wolf is the killer,” Max concluded. “Sounds pretty straightforward to me.”
“Unfortunately, no. The man killed was Isaac Rutledge. He is—was—the Alpha of a local bear clan, and a very well-respected member of the shifter community. I have no idea who the wolf was, but I’ve heard that he’s from a pack that’s taken up issue with Isaac’s clan.”
“What kind of issue?” Max had finished his breakfast and got up to rinse his bowl in the sink.
Sabrina shrugged. “Something about them having rival companies that were getting into each other’s territories. Nothing that I would think validates a murder.”
Max let out a harsh laugh. “You’d be surprised what groups will fight over and the extent they’ll go to in order to make their points. I’ve done a lot of work like that lately, and I have a feeling there’ll only be more.”
This brought up a point that somehow hadn’t occurred to Sabrina thus far. “So who, exactly, is it you work for? I thought it was some sort of high-end security company, but you make it sound otherwise. And the last I knew, you were working for Luxury Air Tours.”
“I didn’t get fired, if that’s what you’re thinking. George might not always like my attitude, but he needs a pilot who’s not afraid to go out in iffy weather. The biggest threat is always the passengers, anyway.” He leaned casually against the breakfast bar, the edge of a tattoo peeking out from under the sleeve of his t-shirt. “More recently, though, I’ve been recruited for an elite team of Special Ops Forces vets who all just so happen to be shifters. When the clans and the conclaves can’t handle their business, they call us.”
“Sounds like a good job for you.” Max had never been completely satisfied with giving air tours, she knew. But a second position that relied on his Army skills just as much as the first one sounded right up his alley.
“Mostly, yes.” He took a long and thoughtful sip of his coffee as he turned his head slightly to look out the window. It made him look like an advertisement for whiskey or beard oil.
Sabrina waited, thinking he might continue. When he didn’t,
she asked, “Mostly?”
His shoulder twitched in a partial shrug. “It’s not always easy doing something that reminds me of the service.”
She didn’t ask for anything more after that. When the two of them had gotten together, he’d told her about his military experience with a distance that indicated he didn’t want to talk about it in detail. She’d seen the medals he earned, but she didn’t ask how he’d gotten them. She never asked about how many people he might’ve killed or what it was like living among people from such different cultures, though she was secretly curious. Occasionally, when the moment was just right, Max would open up and share one of his experiences with her. Afterward, he would sink into a sullen silence that told her his mind was still on the subject. She’d always skirted carefully around the issue, not wanting to upset something that had to be so difficult for him. “I see.”
He slugged back the last of his coffee and waved off her solemn comment. “Don’t worry about it. It’s fine. And it’s a good job that I couldn’t get anywhere else. It’s even gotten me a better place to live. Nothing like this, of course…”
Oh, here they went again, with him ragging on her just because she had a nice place. It wasn’t like she wore designer clothes or drove an extravagant car. She shot him a look.
He put up his hands in a defensive gesture as he returned to the sink to rinse out his coffee cup. “Hey, I’m just saying it’s not like this. They’d have been crazy to make it this nice, since it’s just a group of bachelors living there.”
Well, that was another question answered, even though she hadn’t thought to ask it. Sabrina hadn’t bothered to look for a wedding ring or ask about a spouse or girlfriend. She’d just assumed everything about him had stayed the same, as though her memory of him were the only reality possible. How could she be so selfish to imagine his life hadn’t changed, especially when hers had so much? “Well, I’m glad it’s been good.”
Perhaps he sensed that she needed to change the subject. “So about this trial. What makes you or the conclave think the wolf is after you?”
They’d lost track of that conversation, hadn’t they? It was proof of exactly what she’d experienced with Max previously. They spoke to each other like the ebb and flow of the tide, moving back and forth in whatever direction the current took them, and they always ended up right back where they belonged. It was part of what had let her know they belonged together, another aspect of the bond that told her their tigers were fated.
She polished off her bagel and licked a spot of cream cheese off her finger. “I obviously reported what I saw to Isaac’s clan and to the conclave. I knew I’d be called on to testify should it come down to it, but I didn’t think much more of it than that. Then the death threats started showing up.”
His eyes changed, flashing yellow. “Death threats?”
Sabrina shook her head as she put her plate in the dishwasher. “Yeah. I reported it because it felt like I should, but I didn’t think much of it. The conclave thought enough of it that they assigned me a guard and then you guys. I wish they hadn’t. It’s been awkward having someone following me around at work all the time, taking note of my every move and listening in on every conversation. The only time I’ve been able to get away is when I’m in the operating room, and even then, I sometimes wonder if they’ve replaced one of my surgical techs with an extra set of eyes.”
Max seemed oblivious to her concerns about being constantly on display. “Exactly how were these death threats delivered?”
She sighed. She didn’t really want to go into it, but she had a feeling there wouldn’t be any way around it. “A phone call here. A mysterious note there.”
“And have there been any more of them since the conclave assigned you a guard?” He was no longer leaning against the counter, but standing at attention, poised to jump into action.
“Just one or two, but they seem to have stopped now. As a matter of fact, you’d think the conclave would’ve just left me with the guards they had on hand if no one was actively threatening my life anymore.” She wasn’t concerned about it, especially since no one had actually made an attempt on her life.
Clearly, Max didn’t feel the same way. He came around the breakfast bar toward her, and when he put his hands on her arms, it was only to emphasize what he was saying. “If anything happens, I want you to tell me right away. A weird phone call, a text message from a new number, a note, someone following you that you don’t recognize. Anything.”
“Max, I don’t think you get it. This whole bodyguard business is just the conclave taking extra precautions. The case has been blown out of proportion because Isaac was such a prominent guy. If people lose their faith in the conclave president to protect our people, then he might lose out on the next election.” The conclaves assembled every five years to choose their new leaders, and the politics of shifter life were just as involved as those in the human world.
He backed off a bit, but he still didn’t look convinced. “Who is the president right now?”
“Whiteside. Harris Whiteside.” Sabrina hadn’t known much about him at first, but she’d involved him in the idea of a shifter hospital. Now because of the trial, she’d had even more contact with him. He seemed like a nice guy, but the look in Max’s face made her uncomfortable. “Why?”
“Nothing, really.”
“Do you know him or something?”
“No. I’m just naturally suspicious. Anyone who’s involved in this, as far as I’m concerned, is guilty until proven innocent.” Max took another step backward and began tapping his fingers on the counter.
“All right. I’ve already got them making a far bigger deal out of it than need be. I don’t need you to do the same thing.”
He gave her a smile and a careless shrug. “Too bad. Max Jennings is on the case now.”
“The only thing you need to be worrying about it getting to work. Let me just brush my teeth and I’ll be ready to go.” The very last thing she needed was Max getting any more involved in this than he already was. Wasn’t it enough that he’d be taking her to and from work every day and lurking around her place at night? Wasn’t it enough that she had to deal with all her feelings, past and present? Apparently not. The sooner this trial got over with, the better.
A short time later, as they flew back toward the hospital, Sabrina knew she had to say something. What had happened between them was a mistake. She’d known it at the time, and that was why she’d pulled back, but it was crazy to tease herself by even entertaining the idea of the two of them again. It would just open her up to getting her heart broken again. “Max.”
“Yeah?” He flew so easily, his hands and feet moving of their own accord. It made him look like even he was along for the ride.
“I want to talk to you about last night. It was a mistake. A big one.” He didn’t respond right away, so she continued. “I’ve got a lot going on with my career and my other projects, and I don’t need to mess that up. Or mess up your life, either.”
His hands had tensed on the controls, his knuckles white. “I’m not sure why you think you need to say this now.”
She huffed out an impatient sigh. Max never liked talking about anything that made him uncomfortable. “I’m just trying to be practical, and I think we should be on the same page before either one of us gets the wrong idea.”
The chopper was plenty noisy, but the silence that came through her headset was difficult to listen to. “And what, exactly,” he finally said, “makes it the wrong idea?”
“How could it not be? I mean, what do you think is going to happen when this job of yours is over and you’re not assigned to me? Are you just going to fly off into the night without saying a word like you did the last time?” All the pain and rage she’d felt before came bubbling to the surface, spilling over without any way of stopping it. “Why should I be expected to open myself up to that when it hurt so bad last time? Why would anything be different now?”
His jaw was tight, his brows drawn
down. “I guess it wouldn’t be.”
“All right then. I’m glad we understand each other.” Her body was tense, every muscle fighting the urge to move. She hated to be confined, just sitting there waiting for the ride to be over. Sabrina liked to be productive, especially when she was irritated. She tapped her foot against the floor.
Max said nothing further for the rest of the ride. She should be glad he was letting the subject drop instead of arguing with her any further, but she wasn’t. She wanted him to launch into a speech about why they should be together and how much he needed her; how his inner animal couldn’t possibly live without her. She’d reject him, because it was the only practical thing to do, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be nice to hear.
As they neared, a man stood waiting on the roof of the hospital. Sabrina didn’t know him, but given that Max didn’t voice any concerns, she had to assume he was another member of the Force. His belt buckle winked in the sun over his bootcut jeans, and he held his Stetson on his head with one hand to keep the downdraft from taking it. He smiled and gave a nod and then stepped up to open the door of the helicopter and let Sabrina out. “I’m Vance Morris. I’ll be working with you today.”
She shook his hand, which was rough and callused. “Sabrina Barrett. Nice to meet you.”
He leaned toward the pilot. “Everything go all right last night? Anything I need to know about?”
Max just scowled at him and grunted.
Vance seemed to take this in stride. He nodded again and escorted Sabrina inside the building.
When they’d gotten to the surgery floor, Sabrina gestured toward one of the restrooms. “Excuse me for just a minute.”
“Of course.”
The fluorescent lights weren’t flattering as she braced herself against the sink and leaned forward to look in the mirror, focusing on her own eyes as she tried to look inside herself and figure out just what the hell was going on. She’d overreacted when she’d finally told him what she’d been thinking, and the words had been an unstoppable flood from her mouth. It was no surprise that he was pissed, even though he wasn’t entirely in the right, either. She just needed to get through this week and the trial, and then life would return to normal. Of course, that meant she had to put up with Max for that time.