The Tempering (The Mackenzie Duncan Series) (24 page)

“What did you forget?” Amanda, one of the older women asked with a grin. Mackenzie couldn’t believe they were pressing the issue, until she felt his hand snake up her thigh with only inches to her girly bits and squeeze. Trying to hide her shock, not only from the group as a whole, but also from Liam, who sat to the other side of her, she too used her napkin as a cover for putting her hands below the table. She placed her hand on top of his and moved it away.

“Doesn’t matter. Pretty sure it’s gone now.” Mackenzie’s heart ached. She wanted to tell him that no, it wasn’t gone. But she looked over to Liam and then back to Geoff and she couldn’t tell him that. It wasn’t all gone, but part of it was given to someone else.

Losing her appetite, she sat back in her chair. If she got up and left, she would be followed. If she just sat there and waited for everyone else to leave first, she could manage not to have to talk about what had just happened.

As if he could tell that something was wrong, Liam looked to her questioningly. He mouthed the words “are you okay” and she shrugged. His hand too found her leg but it felt more comforting than anything else did.

“Come on, let’s go talk.” Liam stood and waited for Mackenzie to follow. She looked back to Geoff who was paying close attention to their conversation before sighing. She stood up and followed Liam from the room. She was very thankful for the fact that most of the pack had already left the dining room, and they were off doing their own thing. Perhaps they would find something besides her completely confusing love life to entertain them.

Wandering to the den, they sat together on the couch. Liam looked at her for a minute and Mackenzie could see the sadness in his eyes. He reached forward and ran his thumb across her jaw before pulling away.

“Do you wish last night hadn’t happened?”

His question took her by complete surprise. That was something that had never even occurred to her. Sure, she thought things would be simpler if just one man filled her night but she never wished it hadn’t happened. Shaking her head, she reached for his hand.

“Never. Last night was amazing. Best date ever. Promise.”

“So, is it Geoff? I thought you said you two weren’t a thing.”

“We aren’t but that doesn’t mean the feelings aren’t there.” Mackenzie then went into the whole conversation about Geoff being off limits. How he couldn’t be with her because of pack ways and because of the fact that she was a bitten were. She told him how intense she feels around Geoff, but in a completely different way than she feels with him.

Liam never spoke while Mackenzie explained herself. He listened to her even when Mackenzie could tell it was hurting him to do so.

“So what now, Mackenzie? Do we try to go back to being just friends so you can figure out if Geoff will ever buck tradition for you? I won’t be a back-up.”

“You aren’t a back-up! Never. I don’t know what to do now. I know that this, you and me, is something. I just can’t honestly be anyone’s girlfriend, mate, or whatever until I know with all my heart that I am with the right person.”

Liam didn’t say anything. He just tugged at her hand and pulled her into his lap. They sat together for a while and planned out what movies they wanted to see or places to go. It was obvious to Mackenzie that Liam was trying to give her exactly what she needed, time with him without the pressure of defining it.

“Mackenzie, may I speak to you in private?” Completely lost in her conversation with Liam, she hadn’t heard Geoff enter the room. Seemed Liam had that effect on her.

“Yeah, one sec.” Mackenzie looked to Liam with worry in her eye. He squeezed her hand briefly before letting go. Mackenzie stood and watched Geoff leave the room. She sent a quick goodbye wave to Liam before following behind.

~*~

Geoff didn’t look back at her to see if she were following. Mackenzie was certain that he knew she would follow him anywhere. What she wasn’t sure of was if that were a good thing or not.

When he passed the office and the deserted den, she knew that he was taking her to his room. Whatever he wanted to say, he didn’t want anyone to overhear it. Her heart raced at all the possibilities of the conversation, both good and bad. Truth be told, she didn’t know how she was going to react with either possibility.

The stairs creaked with every step, but she didn’t hear a sound. So wrapped up in her own head, going over all the ‘what if’s’ of the pending conversation, she marched on in a fog. It wasn’t until she ran straight into Geoff’s back outside of his bedroom door that she snapped out of it.

“Sorry.” It was the only thing she had managed to say after agreeing to follow him when he walked in and saw her sitting on Liam’s lap. She had meant it just for running into him, but once the word was out, she wasn’t sure what else she was apologizing for, or if she even needed to apologize

“Come on,” he said as he opened his bedroom door.

Once they were inside, all sounds ceased. Geoff’s room and Margret’s office were the only two rooms in the entire house that were completely soundproof. She didn’t know the mechanics of it, and had never asked, but they were the only places that it was truly silent. If only the door had been fully closed the night she slept in his bed, no one would have heard her moaning in her dreams.

“Are you and Liam a couple?” Geoff stood in front of her, his arms crossed and his shoulders squared. His body language screamed out power and confidence. His eyes, on the other hand, were desperately seeking validation. They darted around her face, before locking in on her eyes. She could see right through his act.

“No. I told him how much I care about you. But I also care about him. I am a confused mess right now. You are hot one second, cold the next. You keep things from me and expect me to wait around. To top it all off, I was told that because of your position in the pack, we can’t ever be mated. So I am supposed to fall for someone who can never actually be mine?”

His stance visibly relaxed. When he stepped toward her, she felt herself move toward him without even thinking about it. He placed his hands on her arms, and rubbed them, looking down to where he touched her.

“I didn’t tell you because I was trying to find a way around it. I want you. I want you more than anything and I will find a way to keep you and my position with the pack.”

“You don’t act like you want me. Everything you say and do feels like you don’t want to lose me, but not like you want me. There’s a difference.”

“I want you.”

Geoff closed the small distance between the two and grasped her firmly in his arms. His lips found hers in a hungry passion as his hands kneaded whatever flesh they could find. Walking them backward over to his bed, they tumbled down, bouncing together as they tore at one another’s clothing.

Mackenzie’s shirt ripped open, exposing her lace-covered breasts. A growl resonated from deep within Geoff’s chest as he took in her glorious body. Mackenzie was lost to all reason as she relished in the attention Geoff was giving her body. He nipped and kissed along her jaw and down her neck, making his way to her hard nipples that were pressing against the fabric of her bra. His mouth enveloped one nipple while his hand sought out the other.

Moaning loudly at the contact, she needed more. She needed skin on skin. Clawing at his back, she was able to tear his shirt from him. Geoff pulled back long enough to remove the torn fabric from his body and stare down at her. A smile played at his lips. With a single flick of his hand, he unclasped her bra, freeing her breasts and showing him how absolutely stunning she was. Mackenzie had never been more grateful for front clasp bras in her life.

Geoff, covering her body with his own, returned to kissing her. It was rough and it was glorious. She had never had someone take charge as he was. Except for the other night with the magical kiss between her and Liam.

Liam. How could she get so caught up that she had forgotten about Liam? As Geoff lavished her chest with his mouth, his hands began traveling south. No longer completely in the sexy time haze, Mackenzie stopped his hand and sat up.

With one hand over her chest, the other reaching out to Geoff, she took a breath.

“Wait. We can’t. You said so yourself, and I told you. I am so confused.”

“We can. We just don’t talk about it. What happens in here stays between us. I can work with that. You have wanted this since the first day we met, and now you can’t?”

“That’s not fair.”

“You’re right. Sorry. Is this about us or about Liam?” He sounded annoyed. She knew that he would be. Hell, she was irritated with herself for not giving in. It had been a very long time since she had been intimate with anyone.

“Both. You say that you want this, us, but we need to do it in secret. I understand that you have a pretty important role in the pack and that you want to keep it. And how can I sleep with you if I have feelings for someone else? I can’t do that to him or to you. I can’t believe I am saying this, but can we just slow down and make sure of what we want? In a month’s time you may decide that I am nothing like you want for a mate and if we are already sleeping together, isn’t that like cheating on the were-woman who you do end up mated to or something?”

“Something like that, but I won’t. I am just glad that being with him doesn’t mate you to him the way it would to me. Bittens don’t get pack positions so their loyalties do not have to be tested and proven time and again. I couldn’t stand to see you out of reach forever.”

Mackenzie leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips before attempting to put her bra back on. He had broken the clasp.

“Shit. That was my favorite bra!” The two laughed and she stole a tee shirt from his drawer to cover up with seeing as how the buttons on her shirt had been popped off, too.

“We’ll talk later?” she asked before opening his door.

“Yeah, we will.” Smiling at him, she stepped out and ran for the stairs. For whatever reason, luck was on her side and no one roamed the halls to see her ‘walk of shame’.

Chapter 26

After Geoff returned to Alaska, the house was in full gossip mode. Did he leave again because of Mackenzie? Did he leave to begin with because Liam was moving in on his girl? Did Margret force him to leave to keep the two lovebirds apart? It didn’t matter how many times all three of the parties still at the house protested; no one wanted to believe the truth. The stories seemed to be much more entertaining.

After two weeks of listening to the comments and speculation, Mackenzie went from annoyed to pissed off. She stayed in her room whenever possible and with Liam, Teresa, and Natalie. When it wasn’t, she avoided all conversations regarding her love life, or lack there of.

The best way to avoid it all together was to go out for a run. Only a few members in the house enjoyed running as much as she did, so when it all got to be too much, she just laced up her sneakers and hit the road.

The freezing wind whipped around her and not for the first time did she appreciate the amount of heat generated by her Werewolf body. When winter temperatures could drop below zero, the added ten degrees internally helped tremendously. Taking in all the bare trees and piled up snow along the sides of the road, she was able to ignore everything happening in the house and in her heart.

Finally slowing down as the large log house came into view, she saw a car pull into the driveway that she had never seen before. When the driver exited the car, she stopped completely in her tracks.

It had been so long, she had thought he wouldn’t have remembered her. How the hell did he find her? But there he was walking up to the front door of the house that she had thought was her safe haven. It was the park ranger.

Had she actually harmed a person on her first night as a wolf? She hadn’t seen any evidence that said she had, but then again, she was in such an emotional state she could have missed it.

Quickly ducking behind a large tree, she watched as the man went right up to the front door and rang the bell. He looked around and shifted from side to side while waiting until finally, the door opened and he went inside.

What was she going to do? Hide in the forest all day and hope he left? Sure, that would make her seem perfectly innocent. As far as she knew, she was innocent, at least from the first full moon. What if he had been tracking her since she left and found the site in Granby where she had buried whoever it was that had been unfortunate enough to cross her path?

When he hadn’t left the house after an hour, she knew she had to go in. She needed more information and she needed to talk to Margret. They might not agree on everything, mainly Geoff, but Margret was the pack leader and she would protect Mackenzie as one of her own. At least, she hoped so.

~*~

Tiptoeing through the front door, Mackenzie craned her neck around, looking in every direction, hoping not to be spotted by Margret or the ranger. When she knew the coast was clear she ran up the stairs, not stopping until she was safely in her bedroom. Slamming the door behind her, she slid down and sat with her back pressed up against the wood that separated her from what could be a really bad situation.

A soft knock from the other side made Mackenzie nearly jump out of her skin. The voice that followed, however, instantly calmed her.

“Hey, open up.” Liam whispered. Crawling away from the door just enough to allow it to open a crack, she grasped the knob and pulled. Liam stood there with worry painted clearly on his face, looking down at her. “What’s going on?”

“Come in and shut the door.”

Liam looked around, obviously not sure if he should listen to her or not. It was against the rules for the boys to be in the girls’ rooms after all, but Mackenzie tried to look as desperate and pleading as she could manage. It worked.

Once the door clicked behind him, the two took a seat on her bed. Taking a deep breath, Mackenzie looked up and saw him staring intently at her. She had been able to talk to him before. She explained how she couldn’t control herself when she bit him. But she never told him about the moon before him. There really is never a good time to say something like ‘by the way, I killed someone before I turned you into a blood hungry monster just like me.’