Go Fetch ! (6 page)

“Would you just go?” Sara spun her around and shoved her toward him. She saw that predatory gleam in his eye, but she wouldn’t let him see her being weak. Not if she could help it anyway. So, steeling her resolve, she marched over to him.

“All right, Viking, a few ground rules.”

He seemed curious. “Such as?”

“No inappropriate touching. No grinding yourself into me. No leaning back into me. No doing stunts on your bike so that I have to grip you tighter. Are we clear?”

Conall
chuckled. “I keep forgetting you were raised around bikers.” He leaned in to her. She recognized his scent from the comforter. She really liked that scent.
Damn him
. “Look, sweetness, just get your tight ass on the bike.”

Miki glared at him. “Maybe I don’t want to go.”

His head was so close to her it was almost touching her cheek. Almost. “We can stay here if you want. I’m sure we can come up with all sorts of things to do in this big house. Alone.” Then he leaned in closer and sniffed her neck. She felt a bolt of electricity going right from her groin up her spine and landing somewhere in the back of her neck. “God, woman, you smell good.”

She stumbled back away from him but he caught her arm. With a firm grasp on her, he straddled his bike and gently pulled her close. “Get on.” She forced herself to slide in the seat behind him and took the helmet he handed to her.
Bastard
. He was getting to her and he knew it. She put the helmet on her head, tightened the strap. He kick-started his bike and waited. She knew he was waiting for her, but she didn’t know why. “What?” She demanded over the roar of the chopper’s engine.

“You going to put your arms around me or what?”

“I was thinking ‘or what’.”

He leaned back against her and immediately her nipples hardened. Already he was breaking one of her rules. “Either you put your arms around me or I start
poppin
’ wheelies on this thing.” And she knew he meant it.

With a silent groan, she wrapped her arms around his waist. He pulled her tighter; making sure her chest was right against his back, which didn’t help the hard nipple situation one damn bit. He pulled out of the driveway and followed the rest of the Pack that had left a minute before. This was so much more difficult than she thought it would be. The guy was like a dog with his bone. He was holding on even though she kept saying, “Drop it. Drop it now.” She needed to get to Seattle. And she needed to get away from the Viking before she did something that she would regret the rest of her life.

His bike pulled up beside Zach’s as they cruised down the street. Miki watched Sara. Her friend was finally in her element. She had her arms wrapped around Zach and was yelling something to him over the roar of the motor that was making him smile… well, actually, it was more of a leer. The two seemed to truly enjoy each other’s company.

Miki sighed. She suddenly realized that she was jealous of her best friend. “You okay back there?” Again with the wolf hearing. How did any of them feel comfortable doing anything in that house when they could hear everything? “
Mik
?”

“I’m fine. I’m fine.”

“Liar.” He kept one hand on the handlebars while he used the other to rub her arm. “What’s up?”

“Just got a lot on my mind.”

“You need to learn how to relax. You know, I’m pretty sure I can help you with that.”

She just bet he could. “No thank you.”

“Really? You sure?” Miki crossed her eyes, but couldn’t help but smile. The man really was shameless. “
You
really don’t need to do anything for me. Ever.”

“Spoilsport.”

Chap
ter Three

Miki didn’t know a
shapeshifter
could be so boring. The man was just rambling. About himself. Even his name was boring. Bob. She silently began to call him Bob the King of Boring. She let him ramble as she looked around the club.

True, it wasn’t much. But that was because wolves didn’t need much. A dark, moody room, with a big bar, room to dance, and some alcoves where they could make out with the fellow
shapeshifter
of their choice. This was neutral ground. A place they could all get together, dance, and have a great time.

Of course, this wasn’t the entire club. This was just the wolf part. Just one flight down was one of the hottest clubs in Northern California. A place where the rich and famous met up with the vapid and thin. She read about Sara’s club in one of the magazines at the bookstore. The place wasn’t only hot it was making money hand over fist, starting new trends. All that shit.

And Miki was finally coming to a realization that she was still having a hard time dealing with.

Sara was fucking rich. Not a little rich. Not sort of rich.
Fucking
rich.

According to Kelly, her new little confidant, Sara not only had Pack money access, she had money left to her by her parents. Her grandmother had refused to touch it, forcing her granddaughter instead to work for every little thing she ever got. Although, she was kind of glad the woman had. She could just imagine a rich, snotty
shapeshifter
Sara. She probably wouldn’t be friends with that Sara. But cool, still wearing her
Jockey For Her
underwear Sara was definitely her friend. Her best friend. Just like Angelina.

And it was apparently this Sara that had become quite the truce maker, able to pull together Packs that at one time couldn’t stand each other.

Miki’s eyes searched the dance floor until she found her. It was hard to believe that six months ago the girl could barely walk. She had been in constant pain and lonely beyond belief. And as much as Miki envied her now she felt overwhelming happiness for her too. She watched as Sara, her favorite black cowboy hat in place, moved her body against Zach’s. She moved with grace and precision and, not surprisingly, Zach couldn’t keep his hands off her.

Bob was still rambling. And the tragedy with her brain was that she could still listen to him even when she was thinking about twenty different other things. Her grade school teachers told her mother it was a gift. Gift her ass; if she had to listen to Bob talk about how great he was all night. Thank god he wasn’t part of Sara’s Pack.

She suddenly realized that Bob was moving in on her. He’d gotten closer and she didn’t like it one bit. She felt naked with only her steel-toe Docs. Because she had to take a plane into Northern California, she had to leave all her precious weapons back home. And Miki had learned a long time ago that a woman her size definitely needed an advantage.

Glancing around for a beer bottle to smash and then use on Bob should it be necessary,
Conall
suddenly stalked out of the crowd. He grabbed Bob by the back of the neck and slammed his head down on the bar, then he lifted him up and tossed him, sending the man flying across the floor and hitting the opposite wall.

Conall
grinned as he sat his big body down on the stool next to her. The one he’d just forced poor Bob to leave. “So, you having a good time?”

Apparently, they wouldn’t be discussing
Conall’s
way of getting a man to back off. She wondered briefly if he’d done that because Bob was making her uncomfortable or because Bob was making him uncomfortable being so close to her. She hated herself for hoping it was both.

“Yeah. Downstairs sucks, but this place is great.”

“This is for family only.” And she knew that he saw all wolves as his family. For some unknown reason she liked that.

“You want something to drink?”

“Water.” Miki watched as he leaned over and spoke to the bartender. Man, was his body long. Long and big. He’d taken off his jacket and stowed it along with hers behind the bar. He wasn’t dark like Zach. But at the same time he wasn’t pale. His black T-shirt was sleeveless and she marveled at the size of his shoulders and arms. She focused on the thin black bracelet he wore on his wrist. It looked like something a kid made. It was just a couple of pieces of wool braided together. Yet, it had to be the sexiest thing she’d ever seen
in her life
. She couldn’t explain it. It just was.

Okay. She needed to stop this right now.
Right now
.

Miki slid off the stool she’d been perching on and stretched her neck. Her whole body was tight. Tight and cranky. Angie was right. She was a tense mess. But she had so much on her mind. She hadn’t been bullshitting when she told
Conall
that. She had more on her mind than anyone would imagine.

A bottle of water suddenly appeared in front of her face and she realized that she’d drifted to stand in front of
Conall
. The thought of him watching her stretch her neck and shoulders made her warm. Again. She needed to get control of that. She had enough on her mind without worrying about uncontrollable hot flashes.

Miki grabbed the water and looked up to find
Conall
hovering over her. “Christ, you’re tall. Is everyone in your family so
fuckin
’ tall?”

“It’s the Nordic thing.”

It was funny, the music was amazingly loud, but the wolves had no trouble hearing each other. She, however, couldn’t hear shit over the industrial techno blasting from the speakers unless someone was screaming at her.

Miki drank some of the water and tried to ignore
Conall
standing behind her. She could feel the heat coming off his body. And it was starting to feel really nice.

***

Conall
stared at the back of Miki’s neck. Watching her stretch the tight muscles in her neck and shoulders almost sent him over the edge.

She was wearing a tight tank top that showed how long and refined her neck was. Her shoulders were small but strong, her back straight and lightly muscled. He could tell that she was a girl that knew how to handle herself. He liked that. Liked the fact that she wasn’t a little wimp waiting for some knight to come rescue her. By the time the knight made it up to the tower of the castle, she’d have devised an elaborate pulley system to extract herself to safety. He found her brain so sexy. Well, her brain and that ass.

Unable to resist, he took his thumb and stroked the back of her neck. She stiffened but she didn’t knock his hand away. Taking that as a good sign, he continued to knead the muscles of her neck and watch her body’s response. It didn’t take her long to relax a little, so he let the rest of his hand settle against her throat. His fingers spread out across her collarbone, gently stroking the sensitive flesh there.

Her back was still to him, but he was almost positive she’d closed her eyes when she dropped her head forward. He massaged other areas of her neck where he felt tightness. He kept it up until he heard her moan. And that sound almost killed him.

Gently
Conall
pulled her body into his, her back against his chest. She was wearing her Doc Martens and in the low-heeled boots the top of her head just about reached his chest. Yeah, he could make that height work quite nicely for them both.

He leaned down next to her ear, “
Wanna
dance?”

She turned and stared at him. “Are you kidding?”

He wondered if she was concerned with the fact that she was an amazingly lousy dancer. “What’s the problem?”

“I’m not even 5’5” and what are you? Nine feet or so? We’ll look like idiots.”

“I am
not
nine feet.” He moved around in front of her, finally releasing the hold he had on her neck. For a split second, she actually appeared disappointed.

“You know Kendrick, I’m unimpressed.”

“With what exactly?”

“I thought you brilliant types were a lot more creative.” She frowned but that quickly changed into a look of surprise as he bent down, slid his hands under her ass, and lifted her off the floor. She was wearing a sexy leather miniskirt and he could feel the panties she was wearing.
Satin. Nice
.

“Are you nuts? Put me down!” But she was smiling and didn’t seem all that pissed.

“No way. We’re going to dance. Wrap your arms around my neck.” She did that quickly since he pretended to almost drop her. “Good girl. And wrap your legs around my waist.”

She raised an eyebrow and smirked.

“Get your mind out of the gutter, Kendrick.” She rolled her eyes, but wrapped her legs around him just the same. Her ankles locked at the small of his back and her pelvis pushed against his groin. And he wished with all his heart that they were back in his room doing this. Naked.

***

Miki couldn’t believe she hadn’t punched him yet. She should have. But, she grudgingly had to admit, he felt really good between her legs.

He was staring straight at her as he walked them both to the middle of the dance floor. It was awkward for Miki, his heated gaze tearing right through her. No one had ever looked at her like that before. At least not so she’d noticed. She didn’t know what to say or do in such a situation, so she glanced around the room instead. She felt him move and her eyes almost rolled into the back of her head. She
liked
how he moved. She briefly wondered if he moved like that in bed.

Bad thought. Bad thought. Bad thought.

She caught sight of Sara watching her. She expected her to be all cocky and triumphant, but instead she gave her the sweetest look, which only made it worse. She didn’t want to get Sara’s hopes up over nothing.