True mates belonged together…supposedly. If they had crossed paths, even as children, they would never be happy with someone else. Which proved my theory that Hank wasn’t my true mate. If he had been, he couldn’t have cheated on me. It was a virtual, medical and erectile impossibility for a male Were to cheat on his true mate. Junior was full of crap. There was no way in hell Hank the Tank wasn’t getting some. He was the most over-sexed Were I knew…not that I knew about any other Weres sex lives. I’d only ever been with the smug buttknuckle who was staring at me. I was pathetic. I just needed to get back out there. It was beside the point that I hadn’t dated or even shown a modicum of interest in anyone since I’d left him…but I’d been busy. Extremely busy. Becoming a killing machine for WTF had been a ton of work and then I…
“Look,” Hank said, thankfully cutting my ridiculous thought process short. “I don’t want you here because it’s not safe. As much as I want to take you over my knee and spank the hell out of you for leaving, I don’t think I could go on if something happened to you. So you will report your every move to me or I will be on you so fast it will hurt. Do you understand?”
“Do you understand that I’ve done things far more dangerous than this?” I shot back, ignoring the fact that the spanking thing was kind of a turn-on.
“Considering we don’t know what we’re dealing with that’s a bold and risky statement to make.” He crossed over to me and obliterated my personal space. Short of straddling the newspapers in a miniskirt to back off of them I was stuck. I hated being wrong, but I was smart enough to admit when I was. Cocky got you killed. I had no plans to die anytime in the near future.
“Fine,” I said and tried to push him away to little avail. “That was stupid and arrogant. I will go into this carefully and I will take as few risks as possible. As far as constant communication…I’ll do my best, but you have to let me do my job.”
“What exactly do you plan on doing?” he demanded. The thick muscles in his neck were taut and I knew it was taking everything he had not to run my Wolfy ass out of town.
“I plan to fly by the seat of my pants,” I explained logically as his jaw clenched along with his fists. “Since we don’t know who or what we’re dealing with yet, I can’t give you solids. However, I do promise if it looks dangerous I won’t go in without backup.”
“I call bullshit.”
“What?”
“You’ve gone into situations four times in the last year without backup. The last time you were almost killed.”
“Do I look dead to you?” I hissed. He had some nerve. I’d done all that because lives were at stake. Twice it had been children’s lives.
“You were lucky—and luck runs out.”
“I beg to differ, butthole.” Damn it, butthole made me sound like an incompetent child. I should have said asshole… “Luck had nothing to do with it. I’m skilled and I made all of those sons of bitches hurt bad. And how in the hell do you know all this?” I barked.
“Essie, I am always aware of what belongs to me.”
“Well, as lovely as that is,” I sneered, “I don’t belong to you. I belong to me and me alone. You need to move before I introduce your nuts to my fist. I’d use my knee on your man bits, but I’m wearing a miniskirt and I refuse to flash my goodies at you. I did my research and wore something model-y because that’s how I roll. Plus, I’m more apt to get the gig if I flash some leg and tit. So move. Now.”
Hank yanked me to my feet and flush against his hard body. “You will wear a wire.”
Gritting my teeth and forbidding myself to rub all over him like a cat in heat, I nodded curtly.
“I will wear a wire.”
“Lift your shirt and unbutton that scrap of material you call a skirt,” he instructed.
“Not on your life.”
He gave me a lazy grin and shrugged. “Fine. Can you wire yourself?”
“Of course,” I snapped. How hard could it be to hide a damn wire? I snatched the pack from his hand and went to work. He stepped back and watched with interest.
I shoved the pack down the back of my panties and clipped it. I then wound the wire around my body with shaking hands. I eased the cord and mic under my bra and attached it to my bra cup.
“Done,” I said triumphantly.
“Look in the mirror.”
I glanced over at my reflection and realized someone would have to be blind not to know I was wearing a wire. Crapcrapcrap. It was a mess.
Sucking in a huge breath and remembering why I was actually here, I gave in. “Help me.”
“Please?” He gave me the sexiest evil grin and cocked his head to the right.
“Please,” I ground out between clenched teeth.
“My pleasure. Lift your shirt and unbutton your skirt.”
I did.
His warm calloused hands on my bare skin as he readjusted the wire and taped it to my body were a mixture of heaven and hell. His clean sexy scent invaded my nose and I held my breath. It was all I could do to not turn around, slam him to the ground and have my way with him.
“I need to move the pack lower,” he said gruffly and slid his hands into the back of my panties.
We both froze and I gasped. Air hissed from between his lips and it burned my neck. A small fire had ignited low in my belly and began to travel quickly through me. His hand slid down and cupped my bare ass and his head dropped to my shoulder. His lips grazed my neck and I shuddered. I was quite sure this wasn’t a normal cop procedure, but I couldn’t bring myself to make him stop. It was the first time I’d felt alive in a year and I hated that he made me feel this way. My gums ached and I knew my fangs were very close to the surface. His had arrived and I felt them scrape my skin.