Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Tears on her face, Kate storms down the stairs and toward the front door with Simona hot on her trail.
“What the hell?” I grab Kate before she can run out. Kate does her best to get free of my grip as she rattles something about needing to go. Then she curses a blue streak at me.
Simona, looking particularly grim, says, “Mikail’s missing from the hospital.”
“Hold on, now.” I pull Kate in front of me so she can’t avoid looking at me eye to eye. “Calm down.”
Fighting like a hellcat, she tries to jerk free. Kate’s freak out is in full effect, like a switch has been flipped. Which makes my insides turn to ice and my fists ache to punch something. To hell with Mikail. I want Kate to fight to get to me like that.
It’s stupid, I know. But I’m fucking human. I want her to feel that way about me. Even if I don’t want to fall in love.
The kind of scars I have run deep. Time heals all wounds, they say. I say fuck them. Ten years has done nothing.
No man deserves to be left by his wife while he’s in war. Ever.
FUCK infidelity.
I’ll never trust Kate or myself enough for us to know what it would be like to be a thing. For a moment last night, when she was laying in my arms, I wondered if there was hope for this broken man.
But having Mikail looking at her the way he did… and her so desperate to get to him, I know that a relationship between us will never happen.
Yet, that doesn’t mean I’m going to let her foolishly thrust herself into danger. I spent my whole career keeping people safe. I’m not about to stop now. “No. You’re not going to look for him.”
“Please… what if—”
“It doesn’t matter. He told you to stay safe. Going out to look for him is a stupid risk that I won’t let you take.”
Pleading, she grabs my shirt. “Wolf! Please. He’s injured. I need to find him.”
The heat from her wrist jolts me when I wrap my hand around the narrow bones. Damnit.
Touching her wrecks me. Every. Damn. Time.
Simona tries to reassure her. “Marshall’s going to look for him.”
“I can’t stay here—”
I spin her around. “Go. Talk to Simona. Do something. Anything. But if you walk out that door, I’m bringing you right back in.”
And that would be bad for both of us. Because I’m teetering on the edge, and I might not be able to hold back.
* * *
Bang. Clunk. Bang. Clunk.
Scotch was right.
I should have put in earplugs or turned on something on my headphones.
Jesus. Listening to Simona and Scotch going at it is torture.
Kate’s barely twenty steps away in the guest room.
Close enough for me to smell the soft fragrant scent of soap and lotion after her shower.
But that’s not all of it. On top of all that, I get to listen to Scotch and Simona’s bedroom antics.
I lurch out of the bed and find myself with my hand pressed against my bedroom door. Fighting what I know is going to happen. Despite every bloody brain cell warning me off. It’s coming. And I’m not able to resist.
Kate is bad news.
She lied about who she was to Agile.
She’s tangled up with some kind of government mess, and has a bloody ring that heats up like a tiny sun in your hand.
And worst of all… I still want her like she’s the one and only thing that will ever satisfy this bone deep need inside of me.
Fucking. Fuck. Why me?
Snarling, I mutter, “Fate, you’re a mother fucker.”
I need to see Kate. Now.
The hallway of Scotch and Simona’s modern farmhouse is cool and dark when I step out of the bedroom. A tiny sliver of light leaks out from beneath Kate’s door.
Why I bother to knock lightly, I don’t know. Hell, I could bang on it and my sister and her husband would never know. They’re busy breaking the headboard.
The second Kate opens the door, every ounce of oxygen leaves my body. God!
She looks delicious. Blond hair spills around her shoulders. A simple white t-shirt grazes over her unbound breasts and skims the top of her thighs.
My eyes fall to the hem. Are there any panties below that fabric?
A growl vibrates in my throat.
“I take it that you’re not sleeping either?” There is a tiny curl to the corner of her lips.
The smile surprises me, but she cooled off when Marshall let her know that Mikail’s clothes, keys, and truck were gone as well. All of that was a good sign the man took off on his own and not under duress.
“Hell, no. Who could with the horizontal Olympics going on in there?”
The curve of her smile deepens on one side. “They’re enthusiastic.”
I step into the room and close the door with my heart staging a mutiny behind my bones. I have to touch her or I’ll snap. You could park a tank in front of me right now, and I’d tear the thing apart with my bare hands to touch Kate again.
The air between us vibrates as she stands there looking up at me with the pulse at her neck jumping in time to my own heartbeat. When I raise a hand, she steps into it, brushing her cheek across my palm.
Man down. I no longer have a say in what my body does. Sliding my fingers into her hair, cupping her head, I bring her mouth roughly to mine.
I’m a weak man when it comes to this woman.
Her hands flatten again my bare chest as I take a deep, greedy taste of her addictive mouth. God.
Anger flares inside of me, making my skin tighten. How can I be so enamored with this creature?
When she groans, I pull her into me. Molding her soft curves into the lines of my much bigger body.
As our kiss deepens, more rational thought evaporates and primitive hormones take the helm. They’re driving me to claim her. Own her. Make her bend to my needs.
Turning, I lift Kate off the floor, and set her on the dresser.
She presses her forehead against mine. “Damn you, Wolf. You wreck me.”
With my pulse pounding in my ears, I bite her neck. I trace my mouth against her ear. “I shouldn’t want you like I do, I cannot stand deceit.”
I clench her ass hard, which makes her moan. She nips at me as she replies, “I should send you back to your own room.”
“I should have let you leave to go look for Mikail.”
She shoves against my chest, but I don’t move. “I should have...”
I throw back my head, clenching my teeth. What a fucking predicament. Her touch wrecks me. And I can’t think of a single damned antidote but this. My voice is husky as fuck when I say, “I should forget your name.”
Flatly, she says, “Easy enough, since you don’t know it.”
Talk about fucking trainwrecks…
I shut her up with a rough kiss. When I break away, she’s shaking almost as much as I am. Fools. Bloody fools. “It seems neither of us can do what we should.”