Cool.
“Have a good night, Shyne.”
“Thanks, Michael. You, too.”
Gracing her with another of his killer smiles, he turned and walked out of the gym. She thought her heart might give out.
Glancing at the clock, she decided to call it a night and go get some man-trapping advice from Trav. Once she was home, showered, and wearing her comfy jammies, she padded across the hall to Trav’s apartment and found him watching a Family Ties rerun. Snagging some popcorn, she told him about Michael showing up at the gym and what she felt had been a good flirting session.
“So go for it. Next time he comes in, ask him out for coffee.”
“Coffee?”
He waved his hand absently. “Or whatever you straighties do on first dates.”
She hummed non-committally in her throat.
“What’s the matter, baby girl? You think he was just flirting for the sake of flirting?”
“I don’t know. He seems sweet. Genuine. And it was like I couldn’t help but go talk to him, you know?”
“Nope.”
She gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder and grabbed another handful of popcorn. “Maybe I’ll wait for him to make the first move.”
“Sounds brilliant, unless slutty desk girl gets to him first.”
“Good point. I’ll think about it.”
In the end, she did think about it, but way more than she should have, and she effectively thought herself out of asking him out for anything even remotely close to coffee.
The week eeked by. The only time that sped by was when he came in every day. She talked to him each day, and the very strangest thing that happened was that Cairo, Dante, and Mason started to get a little overly attentive toward her. Suddenly, she wasn’t just their friend, but it was like they were actively trying to get to know her better. But what might have been even stranger was that they seemed to be making a group effort. Once more her thoughts that they shared women came to the front, and that made any other thoughts that even touched on curiosity with them fade away to nothing.
Friday, when she was pathetically stalking Michael from the second floor while he joked around with his wolf friends and worked on various parts of his upper anatomy, making her want to see all of that anatomy up close and personal, she chewed on her lip in frustration. She didn’t want to go a whole weekend without seeing him, but was she maybe moving too fast or being desperate and clingy by asking him out? Hell, she was desperate, but did she want him to know that?
She jumped when Dante spoke into her ear, “Wolves aren’t known for being monogamous.”
She glanced at him in confusion. He shrugged. “The full moon makes them crazy. If they aren’t mated to a she-wolf they can fuck on the fly, they take the females in their packs. It’s why humans don’t stay with them, because of the cheating.”
She looked straight into Dante’s dark eyes. She remembered what she’d seen in Michael’s eyes every time she looked into them: honesty, truth, caring — all the things she wanted to see in a man’s eyes. In Dante’s eyes, she saw nothing close to that. Swirling in the depths of his eyes were anger and jealousy. She didn’t like either of those things.
“Goodbye, Dante,” she said firmly and walked down the steps to the first floor, now more determined than ever to ask Michael out.
“Hey, beautiful,” he grinned and put the bar down. “I was hoping you’d come down to see me instead of staring holes into my back from the second floor.” He wiggled his brows and gave her a pussy-melting smile.
She shrugged. “You’re cute, what can I say?”
“Cute?” Mock offense colored his features. “Bunnies are cute. Wolves are tough. Dangerous. Sexy.” His voice dropped low on the end, and it slid down her spine like a caress.
“Sorry, sorry. Mr. Tough-Dangerous-Sexy-Wolf.”
He barked out a laugh and shook his head. “You’re a trip. So I heard that there’s a holiday tomorrow.”
July 4th was tomorrow. “No shit?”
He smirked. “No shit. Apparently, people get together on this holiday and hang out. That sound like something you’d be interested in?”
Her heart stuttered. Was he actually asking her out? She licked her lips to buy herself some time. “Sure. What did you have in mind?”
He told her about a lake in Allen where his friends gathered in the summer to swim, barbecue and hang out. There would be fireworks when it got dark. He offered to come and get her or to give her directions, and she decided the better idea would be to drive herself.
He disappeared into the locker room and came out with his bag, his cell phone in his hand. He took down her phone number and email address, promising to email the directions. He gave her a devastating grin that threatened to melt her sports bra off her body and left with his buddies. She wondered if he’d been waiting around for her to come down and talk to him? Wicked. Cool.
An hour later, she was freshly showered, wearing her psychotic bunny pajama shorts and tank and pressing the refresh button on her inbox repeatedly. “You’re going to get a muscle cramp from that,” Trav said, handing her a glass of wine.
She laughed, but it wasn’t real. She was too nervous to appreciate good sarcasm right now. Once he sent her the email, then she’d feel more confident. Right now she was feeling about as confident as a virgin on her wedding night.
Trav tried to distract her with tales of his latest obsession, the newbie firefighter, fresh out of the academy. He sounded right up Trav’s alley, and she’d probably be drooling over him too, if she didn’t have a serious thing for Michael.
“Do you think he’s gay?” She sat back with a sigh and took a sip of a sweet white zin. She swore she wasn’t going to check for a whole five minutes.
“I don’t know. Anything’s possible.”
“Do you suppose that even if he is gay that he might not be out of the closet because of the ultra-male way that firefighters can be?” She peeked at him through slit eyes. He leaned his head on his upturned hand, his elbow planted at the back of the couch.
“You could field him out for me.”
Now she really did laugh. Opening her eyes all the way, she said, “I will not confirm someone’s homosexuality for you. And besides, if he’s not gay then I’m going to have to be mean to him, because I’m into Michael. At any rate, I don’t date firefighters.”
Scoffing, Trav took a sip of wine. “Just because Brett was a dick doesn’t mean that all firefighters love the job more than they love their significant others.”
“He didn’t love the job more; he loved the money that came with working for two houses more.”
“I suppose you could do a lot worse than a small-town mechanic.” He made a gesture with his head toward her laptop, and there in bold was a brand new email. She squealed and slapped her wine glass down hard enough on the coffee table that some of the wine spilled across the scattered magazines.
From: Michael Garrett
Subject: Tomorrow
Shyne, although I have every confidence in your navigational skills, I think it would be easier if we met at the bar in Allen. You can leave your car there, and I’ll drive you to the lake. Getting to Allen is easy, but the back roads to the lake can be tricky, and I’d hate for you to miss all the fun. I’ve included a link to a map from Austin to the bar, and my cell number is below. Please call me if anything comes up. I’ll be waiting for you in the parking lot at 5:30. You don’t need to bring anything except your beautiful smile. And maybe a towel. Drive safe. Michael
She read the email three times before her brain was convinced it was real. Halle-fucking-lujah! After doing a little happy dance with Trav and toasting what she hoped to be the start of something amazing, she crafted a carefully worded email back to Michael, entered his phone number into her cell and sat back to bask in the glow of waiting for tomorrow night.
“You know what this means, right?” Trav said with a grin. “You need a bikini. We have to go shopping!”
By
the time she had cleaned her little apartment and got ready to go to the mall the next day, Trav was tapping his sandaled foot impatiently in the foyer between their apartments. “Come on, sweetness. Let’s go find you something so sexy that wolf won’t know what hit him.”
They skipped the department stores and went straight to the swimsuit store on the second floor of the mall. Like a rainbow of debauchery, bathing suits hung from the walls in varying styles from simple one pieces to tiny scraps with thread holding them together.
Right away she set the ground rules. “No thongs, I don’t know him that well yet. And nothing too indecent. There might be kids there.”
“Boo.” He thrust his lip out. “Fine, but I pick the color and style.”
She trusted Trav’s sense of style more than anyone else. He’d never steered her wrong yet, even if he did have rather expensive tastes for a guy that slung coffee all day.
She flipped through the suits but knew her opinion only mildly mattered. Shoving a handful of suits at her, he pushed her towards the open dressing room, and she went inside. After stripping off all but her panties, she began to try them on.
Too orange.
Too leopard.
Too tiny.
I said no thongs!
Standing in the open door, she popped her hip out and gave him what she hoped was a sultry smile. “Yeah?” she asked.
Although it looked ridiculous with her bikini panty hanging out, the sleek black suit was hot. The top was a string-tied halter with a twist between the soft triangle shaped cups that covered her ample breasts just right. The bottoms were matching triangles that covered most of her cheeks and tied on the sides.
“Oh yeah, baby girl. Can’t go wrong with basic black, and it looks awesome with your skin tone. Right, man?” He made a gesture to the man who was working behind the counter, and he leaned over, looked at her until his eyes bugged out, and nodded enthusiastically. “See? And he’s actually looking at your body. I’m just looking at the fabric and the design.”
Laughing as she changed back into her street clothes, she tossed the suit over the door to him, and it was waiting for her at the counter where she paid for it, took the clerk’s number on a slip of paper, and left. Discreetly tossing the paper in the trash on the way to the nail salon, Trav groused that she had all the luck.
While she got a mani-pedi and he got a man-medi, he said, “You sure you can’t dig into one of those beefy guys you work for? Is Michael that good looking?”
“Yep. You’ll see. I have a good feeling about him.”
After picking out cherry red with a glitter top coat for her sport length natural fingernails and toes, they stopped for lunch before heading home. She packed a bag with a change of clothes for after the fireworks. She wasn’t sure she wanted to sit in her bathing suit in the bar, if they ended up doing that, and she was all about being prepared for any eventuality.
She donned the bikini then slipped on a pair of jean shorts, a fitted red tank top, and a pair of casual red wedge sandals. She left her hair plain and long and slipped on her mother’s gold butterfly charm necklace.
Just before five, she stepped out of her apartment with a small duffel containing a change of clothes and shoes, a beach towel, her cell and wallet, and locked the door. She hoped his friends and family liked her, but she really only cared that Michael liked her and that he kissed her at the end of the night.
She was pretty sure that one kiss could change everything. For both of them.
Chapter 4
“Would you quit fucking pacing, man? You’re giving me a headache,” Bo complained. “I know she’s pretty, but she’s just a girl. It’s not like the queen is coming here.”
Michael spun with a growl. “She’s not just pretty, she’s gorgeous. I’m just nervous. I keep thinking she might change her mind.”
“You think those hyenas are going to try to win her over?”
“I don’t know. They have a lot more to offer her than I do.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, man. You’re a good guy. You’re honest and loyal, and you’ve been waiting for the right woman. If you think she’s your mate, then nothing those dogs say will change anything for either of you. Even humans can pick up on the mating lure when they’re with their wolf.” Bo leaned back against an old picnic table as they watched the wolves begin to gather for the cookout.
“True. That’s what Trick said when he met his wife Vanessa, right?” Vanessa was pack. Trick was human and also the town sheriff. He was a handy man to have on your side.
“Yep.” Bo pulled his baseball cap down further over his eyes and kicked his legs out and crossed them. He looked like he was going to fall asleep. Michael had just a moment to feel sorry for his friend. When he was fourteen he was struck by a car and nearly died. If he’d been sixteen and able to shift, he could have healed the injuries. But because he was so young, the injuries healed with human slowness, and they also didn’t heal quite right. He had a bad limp, and the pain kept him up at night. Human pain medication didn’t work on wolves. Eventually, he’d go the way of Michael’s grandfather and have arthritis in his joints bad enough he couldn’t shift.
Glancing at his watch, he grinned. “I gotta go get Shyne. Be on your best behavior.”
“Yes, Sir.” Bo gave him a mock salute, and Michael just laughed and headed to his motorcycle. He got to the empty bar parking lot with about ten minutes to spare. He wanted to be waiting for her, not the other way around. Debating on how to actually be waiting for her took some figuring out. Stay on the bike? Off the bike? Go sit on the curb? Lean against the wall? Finally, he worried she’d show up and he’d be twitching like a mental patient, so he stayed on the bike, pulled out his cell to check what he knew would be his empty email inbox except for her message, and leaned forward between the handlebars.
It had taken him a half hour to write the email to her. He wanted to sound sweet and witty without being sarcastic. She seemed to have a good sense of humor, but you never knew how people would take something in an email so he erred on the side of sweet instead. The crunch of gravel alerted him to her arrival. She pulled into the far parking space in a two-door older model sporty Miata.
Her high-heeled sandal-clad foot stepped out of the car first, and she swung the door open wider, pulling a small satchel over her shoulder and standing up.
Great mother of everything holy.
Thank you whoever invented short denim shorts.
The red tank top showed off her navel, where a belly button ring shone in the sunlight. Her hair was even more gorgeous left hanging long and plain than up in the high ponytail she always wore at the gym. He was one lucky fucker.
“Hey, Shyne.” He got off the bike and took her bag, popping open the storage container on the back of his bike and handing her a spare helmet. He bought it for her that morning.
“Hi, Michael. Thanks for meeting me.”
He smiled at her, shut the storage container, and swung his leg over the bike as she clicked the buckle on the helmet. After he put his own helmet back on, he took her hand, and she slid easily behind him. “It’s not too far to the lake. Ready?”
Her hands slid around him slowly before clasping firmly together just under his arms. Leaning her cheek against his shoulder, she said very close to his ear, “Ready.”
Stifling the groan that the whisper of her breath against his skin had elicited in him, he headed towards the lake. Never had a ride been both so fast and so slow. He couldn’t decide if having her on the bike was heaven or hell. Heaven – her arms were around him. Hell – he couldn’t touch her without crashing the bike and possibly killing her. Heaven – he could feel the heat of her body through his clothes. Hell – he really wanted to touch her.
It was almost a relief when he pulled into the grassy area near the man-made lake that sat back on a large farm belonging to one of the wolves. Immediately, even in the July sunshine, he felt chilled when she let go of him and eased herself off the bike, flashing a lov
ely bit of inner thigh with the motion.
When she took the helmet off, she ran her hand through her hair and gave it a tousle, and he pictured it tickling his knees as she rode him with her head thrown back in ecstasy.
“Michael?” She nudged him with the helmet.
Was he blushing? Shit.
“Sorry. Did you say something?”
He got off the bike and growled internally at his cock that had remained rigid since the first glimpse of her as she climbed from her car. Stowing the helmets, he got their towels from the storage container as she said, “I was just asking who this lake belongs to. It’s really pretty here.”
“Glad you like it. It belongs to a friend of our father’s, a wolf named Robert. He farms the land around it but has always let the pack use the lake.”
He offered his hand, and she took it. He struggled not to let the happy growl rumble from his chest. In the short distance it took to walk from where he parked to the lake, he found out that she had just gotten her certificate to teach fitness classes, had grown up in Tennessee, and lived across the hall from her best friend who, she assured him, was as gay as the day was long.
He introduced her to Jason and Cadence first, finding them standing near one of the large folding tables set up with food. Cadence was working her way through a plate of ribs when they walked up.
“Jason, this is my friend Shyne that I told you about. Shyne, this is my brother Jason, pack alpha.”
“Hi, Shyne,” Jason extended his hand with a genuine smile. “This is my wife, Cadence.”
“It’s nice to meet you both,” Shyne smiled, shaking both of their hands once Cades had found a napkin to wipe her sauce-covered fingers.
He took her around to meet his friends, starting with Bo who was on his best behavior, then Linus and Karly, his parents, and the rest of the pack that were gathered. While he was giving her the introduction tour, he found it increasingly difficult to watch her even shake hands with the unmated males in the pack. He had an entirely new appreciation for how much his brother had gone through before he and Cades had mated. He’d only known Shyne for a week, and he didn’t want anyone else touching her. Jason and Cades had been dancing around each other for years.
The Wolf's Mate Book 4: Michael & Shyne Page 4