“Oh crap,” she breathed.
“Yeah, no kidding.” Becker shook his head. “One second I’m sitting there talking about the high-quality printers, and the next I have half a dozen weapons pointed at me. I didn’t even have a chance to shout out the code word for a compromised operation before they started shooting. I managed to take down three of them before I passed out from blood loss. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in the hospital.”
“As a werewolf,” she said.
“Yeah. I didn’t realize that’s what I was until I met Sergeant Dixon, though.”
“Why didn’t you stay with the Secret Service?”
“We got the bad guys, but the agency took a lot of heat over the body count—and the injured newbie. Even though I took full responsibility for things going bad, the task force leader was the one who paid with his job.” Becker sighed. “I was pissed that I’d gotten made, pissed that I’d gotten shot, pissed that I’d gotten the guy who’d given me a chance fired, and really pissed that no one even thought I had enough experience to warrant listening to me when I tried to take the blame. I said some things I probably shouldn’t have and was told to sit at my computer and be quiet. But I couldn’t see myself doing that anymore, not after everything that had happened. I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do when Gage—Sergeant Dixon—showed up and offered me a job with SWAT.” He shrugged. “After that, it didn’t take me too long to get comfortable with being a werewolf. Who doesn’t want to be faster and stronger, right?” His mouth twitched. “I can’t turn into a full wolf yet, but I’m working on it.”
She blinked in confusion. “What do you mean, a full wolf?”
“You know, a wolf, with fur and stuff.”
She stared at him for a long time. “We can do that?”
He nodded. “About half the guys in my pack can.”
“Wow,” she breathed. “That’s kind of cool. I had no idea werewolves could do anything like that.”
He chuckled. “Finally something I know more about when it comes to being a werewolf than you do.”
Jayna laughed with him. “Well, as strange as it sounds, I guess I should be happy you were shot and turned into one, or I wouldn’t be here with you right now.”
Becker grinned back. “Being here with you makes getting shot worth it.”
She caught her lower lip between her teeth. “Does that mean I can go back to doing what I was doing before your heart started racing? Because I was really enjoying myself.”
He wanted to say yes more than anything. But then he’d be right back where he’d been—on the edge of losing it.
“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” he said. “I like to think that I have better control over myself than most of the guys in my pack, but I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you how difficult it is to keep it together when you start doing certain things.”
Her lips curved. “Maybe I wouldn’t mind you losing it…just a little.”
His heart started thumping again, and his cock hardened painfully. “But maybe that might lead to places you don’t want to go.”
Her smile disappeared, replaced by a serious little pucker between her brows. “I know you’re trying to be careful around me, and I appreciate that. But when I told you about my past, it wasn’t so you’d run around treating me like some kind of porcelain doll that has to be handled with kid gloves. When I said I had problems getting physical with guys in the past, a lot of that was because I didn’t feel a connection with them. They were just guys. That’s not the way I’m feeling with you, not even close. So, if you don’t mind, I’d like you to forget what I told you about my issues for the time being and let this go exactly where I want it to go—to your bedroom, where we might discover there’s something interesting in there after all.”
Becker gazed into her green eyes for a long time, trying to make sure he wasn’t misjudging what was going on here. But she never looked away, never gave a hint that she wasn’t one hundred percent sure of her decision.
He slowly slipped his hand into her long hair, then carefully pulled her close and kissed her. God, she tasted so damn sweet.
He carefully let his canines slip out ever so slightly. Jayna’s moan almost made him lose his tenuous grip on his inner werewolf, but he determinedly tamed the beast. This first time with her had to go perfectly, or there’d never be another.
Jayna broke the kiss, her eyes glowing. “Ready to show me that boring bedroom of yours now?”