The Tempering (The Mackenzie Duncan Series) (20 page)

“Is that right? All you have ever managed to do was ogle me or hold my hand. Prove me wrong.” Mackenzie spoke with such confidence. She knew she was pushing him, but if it got his lips on hers, she was all for it.

“Mackenzie,” he growled out. His eyes were fierce and the caramel brown color caught the light in such a way that had her transfixed. If she had been able to look anywhere else, she would have seen him wet his lips ever so slightly.

She couldn’t even form words in response, only a growl escaped her. Before she knew what was happening, Geoff had his hands in her hair, gripping tightly as he pulled their bodies together and smashed his lips against hers.

With a racing heart and flaming skin, Mackenzie pressed herself closer to him. Her hands began to explore the contours of his back and found their way under his shirt. She needed to feel his skin on hers. Geoff walked them backwards, never removing his grip on her or his lips from hers, insistent on tasting every inch of her mouth. When the counter dug into her back, she pulled away slightly, just long enough to take a breath and hop up, allowing Geoff the room to stand between her legs and press himself more firmly against her .

Instead of waiting for Geoff to initiate the kiss again, she pulled him in fiercely. The moment his tongue touched the tip of her lip, she opened wide to him. Their tongues tangled together as his hands explored every inch of her body he could reach. Moaning into his mouth, Mackenzie rocked her hips forward, encouraging him. He thrust back into her with every movement. She had never felt as alive as she did in that moment.

Geoff let his lips wander away from hers, kissing along her jaw, nipping the skin over to her ear, suckling her earlobe, and then trailing kisses along her neck. Mackenzie pulled her hands from his back to his chest, running her nails along his skin the whole way. His skin erupted in goose bumps under her touch.

Mackenzie gripped the bottom of his shirt and ripped it from his body, letting the tattered cloth remains drop to the floor. She retreated so she could take in his beauty and was met with a steely glare. Geoff took a deep breath and two steps back, leaving her sitting on the counter breathing heavily in a lust-filled stupor.

“I told you I wouldn’t be able to stop at just a simple kiss. You didn’t believe me. Mackenzie, this cannot happen yet. There are reasons we must wait that I cannot tell you. I’m sorry. You know I want to. God, you know I do. But this cannot happen again. We have to prove to everyone that we are more than just lust-filled Weres.”

“Are you seriously telling me you have never had sex? Not once?” She couldn’t believe they were having the conversation. He was two hundred and forty years old, for crying out loud. And a man!

“Of course, I have, but I was mated. She died in one of the pack wars.” Instantly feeling like a jackass, Mackenzie hopped off the counter and went straight to him. Placing her hands on his chest and looking up into his eyes, she could tell that he was telling her the truth. Why would he lie about that?

“Oh, Geoff. I didn’t know. Why didn’t you tell me? How long has it been?” Mackenzie realized that everything made sense. His standoffishness, his ridiculous no touching rules, his fear of commitment.

“It was a long time ago. Henrietta died over a hundred years ago.”

“That is a long time. So no sex in a hundred years?” Geoff gave her a little laugh before removing her hands from him and walking to the refrigerator.

“Not with another Werewolf. I am a male, Mack. Human or not, we do need something more often than once a century.” Instantly irritated again, she huffed. So it wasn’t the act that was out, it was the act with someone he actually had a future with.

“Uh huh. So while I am waiting around, if you get horny, you just go out and find some human girl? What about me, huh? What if I get an itch I need scratched? Do I get to go out, too?” Mackenzie could see his entire body stiffen. He didn’t like that one bit, but she honestly didn’t care.

“As much as I don’t like it, if we are not dating, I have no say in what or who you do, now do I?” Taking the milk from the fridge and drinking directly from the jug before putting it back, he turned to her again and said, “You know that I think we could be good together. It’s up to you if you want to wait for me or not.”

Mackenzie stood there and watched him walk out the door.

Chapter 22

After the most amazing kiss and most irritating conversation with Geoff, Mackenzie decided to give him plenty of space. The next morning she went for a run with Natalie, ate breakfast with Liam and Mason, then hid away in her room reading her books until the late afternoon. When she couldn’t stand to sit still for another moment, she went downstairs and sat in the game room while the boys all fought over controllers and players in some video game.

Liam sat next to her, and by the end of the game, he had stopped flinching every time his arm grazed hers. She smiled to herself, taking it as a good sign. She couldn’t think of any friendship where the people involved were terrified of touching the other.

“Mackenzie?” Teresa’s voice yelled over the obnoxiously loud television set and hollering boys. “Are you in here?”

Mackenzie smiled picturing Teresa on her tiptoes looking around the room for her. There was no way that she would be able to see her sitting on the couch surrounded by all the male pack members. The boys were all hooting and hollering and bouncing around playing whatever shooting game had been on the television screen for the last hour.

“Yeah, T, Gimme a sec.” Climbing out from behind and between the others was no easy task, but she did laugh a few times when she fell or accidentally knocked one guy into another’s lap. 

Smiling when she reached Teresa, she realized that she was actually happy. It may have taken her a while to get to that point, but knowing where she and Geoff stood, having Liam talking to her and having a group of people to not only call friends, but to call a loving family was amazing. Yeah, the Werewolf thing sucked ass and she wished that she could have all of it without the beast, but that just wasn’t possible. If she could just keep working on it, maybe the next cycle she would remember more, and by the next maybe all of it. Who knows how long until she could control her wolf?

“Hey! What’s up?” “Margret came back early. She and Geoff are in her office. She wants to see you,” Teresa said.

“Hmm.” She didn’t know what else to say to that. Why had Margret come back early? Had Geoff told her about their little (okay, not so little) moment in the kitchen? Or about her memory of the last cycle? Sighing, she knew the only way to find out was to go in there. She hadn’t done anything wrong, so why did she feel like she was being summoned to the principal’s office?

“Good luck,” Teresa said with a chuckle as she ran up the stairs. Mackenzie rolled her eyes and turned down the long hallway that led to Margret’s office.

The large wooden door stood wide open and Mackenzie could hear Geoff and Margret talking happily inside. Apparently, the California house was doing well and some member named Jamie has found a mate.

“Knock, knock,” Mackenzie said, poking her head into the room. Margret looked up with a wide smile and raised her hands, beckoning her into the room.

“Come in. Come in. Geoff called me and told me about what tremendous success you had at the last cycle. That is just so wonderful, Mackenzie!” Margret enveloped her in a hug.

“I thought so. I don’t remember everything, but a little bit here and there. I thought it was a good start.” Mackenzie released her pack leader and pseudo-mother figure to sit in the chair that was on the opposite side of the room from Geoff. She hoped it wasn’t too obvious, considering the chair was the more comfortable out of the two in the room.

“A good start? Mackenzie, that’s a GREAT start! Most bittens don’t remember anything for at least a year, some take longer. How did you do it? Maybe we can train the others.” Margret had grabbed the other chair and dragged it right in front of Mackenzie’s chair. When she sat, she leaned forward with her elbows on her knees and her hands curled up under her chin. For the first time, Mackenzie saw another side to Margret. She wasn’t sitting like the regal woman she had come to know, but more like a schoolgirl eager to learn. 

Glancing up at the large painting of Margret’s mother, Mackenzie could imagine how the beautiful woman had looked down at her own child all those years ago. Smiling at the thought, she turned her attention back to Margret and gave her all the details.

“So you didn’t fight the change and just thought of important human memories? That seems really simple. Can you think of anything else? Maybe you did something, ate something, or drank a new herbal tea? We have tried everything from supplements to hypnosis and none of it has worked.”

“No, none of that. Geoff just told me not to fight it and try to hold onto my human thoughts, so I did. Except I didn’t think I want to be human, I just thought about the special parts of my life. Nothing else was different.”

“That is amazing. How did you just give into the pain of the turn?”

“I don’t know. I just did. I guess it’s like when you go in to get a tattoo. You know it’s going to hurt but you are hopeful that the end result will be worth it.”

Margret stood then and started pacing the room. Mackenzie took that moment to look to Geoff, to get a read on him. Would he act any differently now?

His body was angled away from her, his head slightly down while listening to Margret mumble as she paced the room. But his eyes were not were she expected them to be. No, he was looking at her and when he realized she had seen, a smile played at his lips that he quickly licked.

Just seeing his tongue dart out made her mind dizzy with thoughts of what it could do to her. Then she remembered more than just the hottest kiss she had ever had the pleasure of being a part of but the conversation that followed. They were years off. It did her no good to get hot and bothered when nothing could or would come of it. That is, unless she cornered him again.

Lost in her own naughty thoughts, she nearly missed the excited chatter between Margret and Geoff. Snapping her head back up to pay attention, she only caught part of the conversation.

“I knew it. I knew she would be different!”

“Margret, maybe we should talk about this in priva...”

“Don’t you see it’s in the blood? The blood!”

The two of them were standing very close to one another and Margret looked wild with excitement while Geoff just looked plain old nervous. He kept glancing between Mackenzie and Margret and trying to get Margret to listen to him. Whatever they were talking about was important but not to be spoken of in front of her.

“Hey, guys, still here. What blood? Why am I so different?” Mackenzie stood herself and waived her hands around a bit to gain their attention. When Margret looked at her, she was white as a ghost.

“Oh, I just had a feeling you would be amazing as a wolf. Sometimes gut instincts are a strong and reliable source.”

“Okay...” Mackenzie wasn’t buying it, and Geoff hadn’t offered any explanation himself. He refused to meet her eyes and when Margret finally took notice of the body language between the two, her eyes narrowed at Geoff.

“Mackenzie, you should be celebrating with your friends. I hear that you and Liam are finally talking. Why don’t you see if he wants to go to a movie or something? Invite a few people. Just grab some money from the kitchen.”

Knowing she had been dismissed, she said a quick thank you before giving a small wave and a smile to Geoff. She knew that he was about to get a lecture about being inappropriate with the pack members without mating and blah, blah, blah. She felt bad for him, but only slightly. At least it wasn’t her.

~*~

Mackenzie left the office and heard the door being closed as she rounded the corner to collect some people to go to the movies with her. She wasn’t really interested in going, but she figured it was better than sticking around and getting pulled into the “this is inappropriate” conversation.

Liam was more than happy to go as long as they didn’t go to the closest theater, which was in his hometown, but instead went to the one that was over an hour drive in the opposite direction. Teresa and Natalie jumped on board, and as they were walking out of the house, Geoff was released from Margret’s office.

“Hey, you want to come?” Mackenzie asked as she pulled on her coat.

“Can’t. I have things to do. But Mack, just remember, long term.” He reached out and grabbed her fingers for just a second before disappearing down the hall. Slightly flustered, she watched him go.

“Earth to Mackenzie!” Teresa was snapping her fingers in front of Mackenzie’s face and laughing all the while.

“Yeah, sorry, let’s go.”

They all walked out the door and piled into the small two-door car that was in the garage for the pack’s use. Teresa was driving and Natalie had called shotgun, forcing Liam and Mackenzie to squeeze into the back together.

The only way the two could manage to fit comfortably was with his long legs in both floorboards and hers lay across the tops of his thighs. She thought that it would be awkward or just emotionally uncomfortable for Liam, but he actually just went with it. Not once adjusting or flinching away, and by the time they had reached the theater, his hand was actually resting on top of her thigh.

“Hey, are you and Geoff together?” Liam whispered once the girls had gotten out of the car to stretch. They had yet to pull the release lever to allow Liam and her to move from their tangled position in the back seat.

“Not really. There is something there, but as of right now and the immediate future, nope.”

“Oh. I just thought with the time you to spend together and the kitchen thing last night, that maybe...” Instantly on high alert, she tried to sit as upright as possible and look at him.

“Last night? You, uh, you saw that?”

“You mean the kiss worthy of a late night pay-per-view movie? Oh yeah. I had come back to put my plate away. Then instead, I made a quick exit.”