Jace (River Pack Wolves 2)(27)

“You know that’s not what he meant.” Piper’s dark eyes were on fire with anger.

Daniel dismissed that with a wave. “I’m going back to work. If I still have a job after what you pulled this morning. You can chase your fantasies all you like, Piper.” Then he turned on his heel and stormed out of the warehouse, fists clenched.

Jace looked at Piper, but she was too busy burning holes in Daniel’s back to notice. “Ignore him. Trust your instincts on this. But we need to get out of here. We can’t help your brother if we get caught in an ambush.”

She gave him a sharp nod, and they headed out after the rest of the pack, giving Daniel wide berth. But as soon as they were clear of the door, Piper pulled off to the side, heading in the opposite direction.

“Where you going?” Jace turned to trot after her.

She stopped and let him catch up. “I’m going to figure out what happened to Noah.”

“Maybe it’s not the Senator. This looks military to me.” Jace tried to soften his voice and reached for her arm, but she pulled away. “Is it possible your dad is involved? Agent Smith was on his turf. There’s a connection there somehow.”

“I’m following the clue Noah left for me.” Determination was a cold fire in her eyes.

“We can get the witches to help again,” Jace tried.

She scowled. “Your witch is a novice.”

“She’ll get closer this time. At least give it a chance. If you take off again, how am I going to convince the pack you’re not just a loose cannon?”

“I’m sure you can be convincing when you want to be.” Then she reached up and grabbed his cheeks and pulled him down to kiss her. It was hot and fast, her tongue demanding a response from his, and he was crushing her body to his before he knew what he was doing. Just as lightning fast, she pulled back and smirked at him.

When he tried to bring her close again, she just pulled further out of reach.

“You’re just trying to distract me,” Jace said, breath already heavy from that one kiss. He wiped the taste of her off his lips with the back of his hand—not that he exactly minded that method of distraction.

Her smirk grew wider. “Yes.”

“Is arguing just foreplay for you?” He was hoping that foreplay meant there would eventually be more play, but mostly he wanted to keep her from running off to do some dangerous solo mission again.

“Yes.” Her smirk was so flirtatious now, it was all he could do not to force her up against the wall and give her a dose of her own medicine.

“It’s not going to work,” he said instead.

Her smile tempered a little. “The distraction or the foreplay part?”

“The distraction.” This time, he did move a little closer. Maybe he could kiss his way into convincing her to stay.

She looked him up and down in a way that made his wolf surge up—and the man in him wanted to do all kinds of naughty things, right here, right now, forget the rest of the pack. They were all headed back to the van anyway.

Her roaming gaze finally found his eyes. “Where I need to go, you can’t come. There’s no way you can get into the Senator’s office like I can.”

Dammit. She was probably right about that. And yet he had absolutely no desire to let her go. “I don’t like this, Piper.”

“You don’t have to.” The warmth in her eyes cooled, like those brief moments of openness and flirtation had passed, and she was building up all her emotional walls again. Keeping him out; keeping him at a distance. She did it with everyone in her life. He’d only known her for a short time, but he’d already figured out that much.

He leaned in close, finally pushing her back against the rusty, corrugated wall of the warehouse, one hand on either side of her head. He was close enough to kiss, but instead he just whispered softly, “I want you to come back. Without handcuffs this time. Don’t make me come rescue you again.”

He thought she might kiss him, but the walls were already firmly back in place. And his words just conjured a cold fire in her eyes. She put both hands against his chest and shoved him away from her.

“I didn’t need rescuing! I could’ve taken care of that myself. I don’t need your help, Jace River. Or anyone else’s.” Then she wrenched away from him and stormed off.

Other than physically grabbing her and locking her in the van, he couldn’t think of any way to stop her. He banged his head softly against the wall… and prayed she would make it back safely from whatever foolishness she was determined to do this time.





Piper hiked up the long stretch of white stone steps to the capitol building in Olympia. It had taken her over an hour to get there, but she could still feel Jace’s lips on hers—that hot kiss outside the warehouse lingered long past the few seconds his mouth was actually on hers. It made her momentarily forget her brother had been kept inside that dingy medical prison, with people doing who knew what to him.