“Nah, you didn’t.” He tried to act like he’d just had his hand in his pocket for the hell of it, but wasn’t sure if he succeeded. “I was just looking at your collage. What’s the Mickey Mouse thing about?”
“It’s just something I put together to remind me to never take myself too seriously. No matter how big the stories are that I write, every kid on the planet would rather meet Mickey Mouse than me.”
He chuckled. “You know, that’s not a bad way to look at the world.”
She walked into the kitchen. “Want another beer?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
Gage moved closer to the island separating the kitchen from the living room just in time to see her lean over to get something out of one of the lower cabinets. Her slightly wet hair fell forward over her face, and she casually flipped it over her shoulder as she reached in to get whatever she was after.
That’s when her scent hit him.
He couldn’t say why he hadn’t picked it up before—maybe it was the battle he’d been having with his hard-on—but he hadn’t. He inhaled even deeper. That wasn’t perfume or shampoo he was picking up. That was how Mackenzie smelled after a shower, with every scent but hers washed clean. It was so overwhelming that he had to grab the counter to keep from climbing over it to ravish the hell out of her.
Maybe all the crap Xander and the other young werewolves said about The One might be true. Because no other woman had ever made him feel anything like this.
Mackenzie popped up with a big spaghetti pot in her hands. “Chicken nuggets over angel hair pasta good for you?”
“Huh?”
She held up the pot, completely unaware that he couldn’t focus on a damn thing she was saying or doing at the moment. “Angel hair pasta with spaghetti sauce, topped with store-bought chicken nuggets. Like I said, it won’t measure up to Emile’s food, but it’s one of my specialties.”
“Um, sure. Sounds good.”
Gage watched in silent appreciation as she moved around the kitchen with practiced ease. She might have put on the shorts and tank top purely for comfort, but they let him drink in a serious amount of skin. Enough to get drunk from. He put down the beer so she wouldn’t see his hand shaking. He took a deep breath, getting himself back under control as she filled the pot with water and started chatting about the day’s training. He noticed she carefully avoided any mention of lunch.
She threw him a smile as she opened the fridge and pulled out a bag of frozen chicken nuggets. “These things are awesome.”
She dumped some into a glass bowl, looked at him, then dumped even more in the bowl. She filled a second glass bowl with an entire jar of premade spaghetti sauce that she took from an upper cabinet. Both bowls went in the microwave and Gage watched in awe as her fingers literally flew across the touch pad. By the time everything was ready, Gage had his wits back in order and was able to help her carry the food to the table. He even did a pretty good job of maintaining an intelligent conversation. He had to admit, the nuggets tasted good with the pasta, like bite-sized pieces of chicken parmesan.
In reality, it didn’t matter what they ate. He just enjoyed talking about the day’s SWAT training, and what they’d do tomorrow. He was looking forward to spending another day doing nothing more than distracting her.
But after the food was gone, and they’d discussed everything Mackenzie could possibly want to know about training, the subject they both wanted to avoid sat there staring them in the face.
“What are you going to do when Hardy sends his men after you again?” she asked softly.
She was really worried—he knew because he could hear her heart speed up. He was worried, too.
“If that happens—and I’m not necessarily sure it will—I’ll deal with them,” he said.
Gage was very sure Hardy would come at him again, but he wanted Mackenzie to at least think there might be a possibility it wouldn’t happen.
“Just like that? You’ll deal with them?” He didn’t miss the twinge of sarcasm in her voice. “That doesn’t seem like much of a plan.”
His mouth quirked. “Coming from a woman who’s made her living walking into dangerous situations when most rational people wouldn’t, you should appreciate when someone doesn’t overthink things. If they show up, I’ll let my instincts and training dictate how I react. Thinking too much about things like that ahead of time would just slow my reaction time.”
She picked up the plates and carried them over to the sink. “I usually don’t have much of a plan when I walk into those situations because I’m lousy at thinking too far ahead.”
“Maybe I don’t like to think too far ahead myself. Perhaps there are times I prefer to just be in the moment.”
She came over and leaned her hip against the edge of the table. She was so close they were nearly touching. “And is right now one of those times?”
He moved one hand over until his forefinger was able to gently caress her hand where it rested on the table. “Yeah, I think now might be one of those times.”
Her lips curved. “Then maybe you’d like to be in the moment over on the couch?”
“The couch would be nice.”
He followed her over to the sectional piled high with a crazy amount of pillows. Mackenzie shoved a bunch of them aside, making room for them both. When he sat down next to her, she immediately turned to face him, pulling her knees up so she was sitting cross-legged. The move was so casual it was hard to understand why he found it so sexual. Maybe because it was such a confident and relaxed pose.
Or maybe it was because the position provided
