Sawyer sat up and shucked his tactical vest, then his uniform top, leaving him in the T-shirt he wore underneath. Slipping it on her, he buttoned it up. The thing was so large it draped down to midthigh, and she imagined she looked ridiculous. But she couldn’t care less as he caught her hands and pulled her against his chest. This was much better. No MP5 magazines poking into her breasts. Only nice, strong, muscular pecs.
“I won’t ever apologize for loving you,” he whispered, brushing his warm lips across her jaw all the way to her right earlobe. “And part of that means doing anything I have to when it comes to keeping you safe, even if that isn’t what you want. With this soul mate thing, I get the idea that protecting you is hardwired into me now.”
Harley pulled away, ready to tear into him as rage reared up inside her. “So, what? You think I don’t feel the same way? That I don’t love you just as much? That I won’t risk my life for you without a second thought?”
He hugged her close again, his big, warm hands on her back calming her, and almost against her will, she turned to Jell-O and relaxed against him. “I’m sorry for scaring you, and for taking away your freedom to make your own decision about the risks you’re willing to face for me and for your job.”
“You can’t ever do that again,” she whispered, running her fingers through his hair and burying her face in the junction of his neck and shoulder. “I won’t let this thing be one-sided. If we’re going to do this together, you have to accept that.”
There was silence for a time, the sounds of sirens in the distance and people murmuring in excitement somewhere on the far side of the complex, intruding on their moment.
“I know.” He sighed. “I doubt it will be easy, but I promise I won’t do anything like that again. But you’ll have to keep me straight, okay? Having a soul mate—having you be The One for me—is all new. It might take me a little while to get it right.”
She nodded against him, loving the way one hand slid lower to settle possessively on her hip. “We have all the time in the world to figure it out.”
More silence followed, but the sound of sirens was getting closer, and Harley could smell several of her teammates moving closer to them. She guessed her nose was working better now that she and her inner wolf knew each other better. Or maybe it was finding her soul mate. Someone who would always accept her—fangs, claws, and all.
“So how is this going to work?” she asked. “Are you going to join STAT, or should I see if MI6 is hiring?”
Sawyer chuckled. “I think you already know the answer to that.”
She waited for him to finish that thought but was interrupted by the sound of heavy boots treading on concrete, followed by a snort of laughter.
“Seriously?” Caleb said from behind her. “All of your teammates are out here searching for the two of you, worried both of you are either dead or glowing in the dark, and instead, you sneak out to get naked in the grass? What the hell has this British werewolf done to you, Harley? You were never this irresponsible before you met him. I think he’s a bad influence.”
Harley didn’t turn around. Instead, she laughed and snuggled tighter against Sawyer’s chest. “Yes, he’s a bad influence, but he’s my bad influence now. All mine.”
Chapter 21
“And this is the mandatory selfie from the top of the Eiffel Tower,” Harley said with a laugh, leaning over the granite island that separated Jake and Jestina’s kitchen from the living room, turning her phone around so the beta werewolf twins, Zoe and Chloe, could see the photo of her and Sawyer. “If you look in the background, you can see the club in the Bastille District where Sawyer and I first met.”
Tall and slim, with long, straight, platinum-blond hair and light-blue eyes, the eighteen-year-old identical twins shared a knowing look as they oohed and aahed over the picture in the same way they had all the others she and Sawyer had showed them as they waited for everyone else to show up for the team party. Chloe grabbed the phone and started flipping through the pics, pointing things out on the screen to her sister without ever saying a word out loud.
From the corner of her eye, Harley saw Sawyer fighting to keep a straight face. She could totally understand why. The twin werewolves Jake had taken into his pack after their parents had been killed were unique. Though no one ever said as much, Harley was convinced Zoe and Chloe could actually talk to each other in their heads, like mental telepathy. And it was scary how fast they picked up on certain things most everyone else missed. Admittedly, it took a while to get used to them. Even Jes, who’d moved in with Jake after coming back from saving half the world from nuclear disaster, admitted the twins baffled her sometimes.
Sawyer was taking it all in stride, even if he was embarrassed with all the oohing and aahing. Even though the twins had met Sawyer about two weeks ago when he and Harley had first gotten back from their impromptu vacation, there hadn’t been time to talk much. But the moment they’d gotten to the apartment, the girls had demanded to see every picture they’d taken on their getaway.
“How long did you get to stay in Paris?” Zoe asked, always the more practical one of the two. When it came to hearing about the little vacation Harley and Sawyer had
