Wolves at the Door (11 page)

Zack stepped into a pair of jeans, then shuffled to the closet where he chose a white button-down shirt. I sighed as he covered up that beautiful, flat, firm stomach. Such a shame. Grabbing a pair of socks and his sneakers, he sat on the bed next to me and put them on.

I scanned his face, noting a trace of stubble around his chin and over his lip. My stomach dipped. He looked sexy as hell. I hoped he didn’t plan on shaving.

“You ready to go?” he asked, running his fingers through his hair.

Go. Right. I reined in the lust. “Yeah.” I followed him to my car, Zack fully dressed and me in my PJs. A minute later we arrived at my house.

“We should arm wrestle again,” Zack said once we went inside. “While we’re here.”

I paused halfway up the stairs. “We just did that yesterday. You think I’d change in twenty-four hours? Or do you just enjoy whipping me?”

He shrugged. “Humor me.”

I tromped down the few steps, flopped into a kitchen chair and slapped my elbow on the table. His hands wrapped around mine and our gazes locked.

“One…
,” he said, “Two… three.”

As our forces clashed, our hands trembled and our elbows pressed into the hard surface of the table. Heat flooded my body and I struggled against Zack. As the moments stretched on, our arms frozen, he growled. “I don’t know if I can take you.”

We may have been equally strong, but I didn’t have his werewolf stamina. My muscles slowly turned to jelly and my knuckles gently hit the table. “You won again.”

“Barely. Impressive strength increase for just one day.” Zack’s eyes thinned to slits. “I wonder why.”

“No idea.” I lifted a shoulder, then let it fall. Zack couldn’t be right about shifters being weaker or when I’d plateau. Since I was already this strong, I must have already peaked. “I’d better get dressed.”

I didn’t bother closing the door to my bedroom since Zack was still downstairs. I stripped off my pajama bottoms and walked to my closet, wearing only my panties and pajama top.

Hospitals were cold, so even though it was supposed to reach nearly ninety degrees today, I chose a faded black T-shirt instead of a tank top. Still in only my panties, I draped the T-shirt over my arm and shifted to face the pile of folded pants on the shelf.

A tingle danced up my spine and I spun to find Zack sitting at the foot of my bed,
watching me. Just like I’d watched him when he’d dressed in his room earlier. “I thought you were downstairs.”

“I’m glad I’m not.” He grinned.

“Um…” Grabbing a pair of jeans, I pulled them on as quickly as I could manage, nearly tripping myself in the process. “Wouldn’t you be more comfortable in the living room?”

“Nope.”

“Are you sure?” I bit my lip.

“Positive. You watched me dress. Now it’s my turn. And don’t be sneaking into the bathroom to finish.”

“Fine.”
In my rush, I stumbled to the top drawer of my dresser. Selecting a lacy pink bra that matched my underwear, I snatched it and held it to my stomach, hoping he wouldn’t see.

“Nice choice.”

Damn.

Ignoring him, I darted back into the closet and angled my body so he could only see my back. Shrugging off my pajama top, I put my hands through the arm holes of my bra and reached behind to hook it.

“I’ll get that for you.”

Zack’s warm breath on my bare shoulders had my every nerve at attention. I held absolutely still as he found both ends of the strap. The back of his hand was warm against my skin, but I couldn’t see what he was doing. Or
not
doing. It became harder to breathe as I waited for him to either finish or…

“Are you going to hook me up?” I asked, my voice unsteady.

“I’m thinking about it.”

What did that mean?
He couldn’t be considering discarding the bra altogether. Though I secretly hoped he would.

As he and I had gotten know each other over the past weeks, he’d held back every step of the way, afraid that the legend of mixing species was true. Even if it was,
that wouldn’t stop me from being with Zack. We just had to be careful. But with Charles dead now, I only had Renzo to worry about. For all I knew, he’d only been passing through and was long gone now. If we did get weaker, maybe no one would be around to know and we’d have time to recover.
If
werewolves and shifters recovered from that kind of thing…

Whatever. I couldn’t think about any of that. Didn’t want to. All I wanted was for us to be together, however we could manage it, and damn the consequences.

A second later, I felt a slight tug on one side of my bra strap, then the other, as Zack connected the ends. Disappointment mingled with relief and I told myself it was for the best.

With him fully clothed and me in only a bra and jeans, I felt underdressed. I’d never been without a top in front of him — or any guy, for that matter. Except in a swimsuit, but this felt totally different. A wave of shyness washed over me.

His hands slid around my waist to my stomach and he pulled me against him. I leaned back and let my head loll to the side. He kissed my shoulder, then my neck as his hands traveled back to my hips and up my sides. A delicious shiver coursed through me. Then he gently turned me around to face him.

“
God, you’re amazing,” he whispered into my ear.

Hope renewed, m
y heart pounded in anticipation as I unbuttoned his shirt and slid it past his shoulders, then tossed it across the room. He growled, scooped me up and laid me on the bed. The mattress dipped as Zack moved over me, his gaze wandering to the swells above the lace of my bra. When his warm, soft lips covered mine and our tongues tangled, electric fingers of pleasure spread from my stomach and out to my toes.

I
arched toward him, my body straining to get closer as my fingers dipped past his waistband, my thumb brushing his zipper.

Zack
sucked in a breath.

I bolted upright, planted my hands on his hips and gently pushed him back against the mattress. When I straddled him, his face was unreadable, eyes dark. Had I gone too far?

And then I was flat on my back again and he was on top of me, his mouth devouring me. Just when I didn’t think I could hold back another second, he blazed a trail of kisses down my neck then settled on the exposed flesh around my bra, the stubble on his chin sending little goose bumps over my skin. Sliding a thumb underneath the bra strap, he dragged it over my shoulder.

I wanted Zack and had no doubts about my feelings for him. 
We’d never said those three words before, but they were hovering on the tip of my tongue now, begging to be set free. But did he love me back or was that just wishful thinking on my part? Did I really want to find out too late that he didn’t feel the same way about me?

Zack whispered another kiss at the hollow of my throat. But n
ow that my brain was working again — for the moment — I couldn’t push those questions out of my head.

He didn’t seem inclined to put on the brakes. In fact, he’d gone further than ever before. If neither of us stopped, how much f
urther would we go and how weak would we become? How long before we regained our strength? Just a moment ago, I’d been willing to risk it all, but would a morning of bliss with Zack be worth risking our lives?

I wouldn’t have him at all if we were both dead. But even if we lived, I couldn’t predict the future and had no idea how long Zack was going to stick around. Not only that, he’d never even admitted he liked me. It was obvious he
lusted
me, but one L word was not exchangeable for the other. I knew he cared, but if he couldn’t say it out loud, he wasn’t ready to take the next step.

The room spun and I desperately wanted to stay on the ride. But we couldn’t. I knew we shouldn’t. “Zack…”

“What?” His eyes had a faraway look. “Did I do something wrong? Tell me what you like.”

I laughed nervously as I extricated myself from him. “Oh, I like all of it,” I said in a trembling voice. “A lot.”

He blinked. “Then what’s wrong?”

I couldn’t believe he had to ask.
Why wasn’t he being the sensible one like usual? I pointedly put my palms on his face, lifting his chin and bringing his gaze above my neck. “Zack. We can’t do this, right?”

“What?”

“We’ll get weaker, remember? What if that guy at the coffee shop comes after us? Or werewolves come looking for Charles? We have to be able to protect ourselves.”

Zack leaped off me and flattened himself against the far wall. Putting his head down, he squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. “Oh, God, you’re right. I’ll wait for you in the car.” He grabbed his shirt off the floor and disappeared.

“Uh, okay.” Yeah, I was trying to be practical but he didn’t have to run from me like I had the plague.

I hurriedly finished getting ready, locked up the house and got in the passenger side of my car.
After putting on my seatbelt, I glanced his way when he still hadn’t started the car. “Are you upset with me?”

His jaw tightened. “No,
of course not. I’m the one who let it go too far. God, I can’t believe that I have so little control that I almost put us in a vulnerable position.”

“Zack, it wasn’t
all
your fault. I was there too, you know.”

“But I started it. Autumn, we can never be alone in your house again.”

Damn, we had zero privacy anywhere else. “You’re missing the point, though. We
did
resist and we’re okay. Everything’s fine.”

“Next time might end different
ly though.” He started the car, shaking his head. “Never again.”

I flinched at
his tone, then turned to stare out the window. It was a ten minute drive to the hospital and we spent half of that time in silence before he pulled over and pivoted in his seat. Looking down, he absently scratched on the fabric of the car seat with his index finger.

“I want you, Autumn. Like
really
want you — as you could tell. So this isn’t me trying to push you away. But it’s just plain stupid to risk our lives this way. I can’t put you in danger like that.”

Fresh from my bedroom victory — I mean, what girl wouldn’t want
that kind of a reaction from a guy? — I shouldn’t have been so sensitive to what sounded like a prelude to dumping me. Again.

I stiffened.

~~~

Chapter Ten

“Where are you going with this, Zack?” I wasn’t sure I really wanted the answer.

“We’re in too deep. We have to stop.”

Not even a week had passed since he’d agreed not to push me away again. “Zack, you promised!”

“That was before we killed a scout,” he said. “When Charles doesn’t check in, others will come looking for me. I’ll plead ignorance and point out how much weaker I am, that I couldn’t have killed him. They’ll buy that. But with more werewolves around, your chance of being discovered increases dramatically.”

I held up a hand and glared at him. “I’m sorry, but I’m still stuck at the part where you broke your promise.”

He turned away and leaned against the headrest, sighing. “That’s not it at all. I’m still here, and I still want to be with you. I just think we need to do things differently from now on.”

“And how’s that?” I tilted my head, narrowing my eyes.

“For one thing, we shouldn’t go running together anymore. Telling Charles we were there to make out worked with him, but it might not work on the next guy. I’ll run alone from now on.”

“Okay.” I didn’t love the idea, but if only one of us could go, it needed to be Zack. I didn’t know how long I could stay in my human form, but I had a feeling it was a while. “What else?”

“People can’t know we’re together.”

My brows scrunched in the middle and I twisted in my seat to face him. I really didn’t like where this was going. “Because of Charles? He’s dead. We don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

“No, but there will always be other werewolves. Renzo is proof of that.” He bumped my knee with his knuckle and softened his voice. “All Charles had to do was get close enough to you and he figured it out.”