Zan rubbed his chest. “It’s not every day.” He muttered.
“Ah!” Jackie threw up her hands and stormed out of the room, hating Zan for not seeing her reason and hating herself for needing him to change for her. She was a selfish bitch and she just couldn’t get past it. It was a no-win situation.
Zan caught up to her in the living room and blocked her from entering the kitchen. “I understand your concerns, angel, I do. I hear it from my mom all the time. I see it in the eyes of the wives of soldiers who’ve died in battle. If the situation was reversed, if it was you doing what I was doing, I’d lock you away in bubble wrap to keep you safe and I’d never lose you.”
Jackie’s muscles locked in shock and burgeoning hope. “What are you saying, Zan?”
“I’m saying,” he paused. Stopped. Something flashed in his eyes before they shut down, leaving them void of any emotion. He let go of her and backed away. “I’m saying, I don’t know. I can’t make any decisions right now. I have too much going on in my head as it is.”
Baffling Jackie even more, Zan walked past her and right out the front door without another word. For several seconds she just stood there, staring after him. Her lips pursed in thought. Instinctively Jackie knew Zan hadn’t said what was on his mind. What she didn’t understand was why.
Was he playing another trick?
Jackie could deduce that he was the kind of man accustomed to making snap decisions because he observed and analyzed the world and those around him at all times. His mind was sharp and fast and always working. When he made a decision, he had enough confidence in himself and enough honor to follow through with that decision to the best of his ability. As for their budding relationship, hadn’t he only days ago denied Jackie’s claim they were moving too fast? Hadn’t Zan flat out told her that he knew her? He’d fibbed about his wound to get her to come to him, beat five men to a bloody pulp defending her honor, and then broke into her house to pleasure her senseless. And in a short amount of time, he would be dragging her across the country in order to keep her safe.
Jackie crossed her arms and leaned her shoulder against the wall, blindly staring at the closed front door while she tried to figure out what the crazy wolf was trying to do now.
She didn’t have long to contemplate. Two car doors slammed and she retreated to her bedroom to finish packing. Minutes later they were on the road, Jackie with a silent Zan in his rental car and Joe and Scott following behind in theirs. Jackie asked Zan to stop at the McDonald’s on the way out and loaded up with artery clogging goodness. While it filled the hole in her belly, nothing could ease the nagging ache that she’d missed something important. Something vital. And if she couldn’t figure it out soon, this, whatever it was she had with Zan, would wither and die.
She should just let it go. Just get through the next couple of days and then get her butt back home, where she belonged, and leave Zan in Virginia, where he belonged. Her aunt had suffered greatly over the years, every time her husband deployed, every time he re-enlisted to fight in the front line of battles he was long overdue to retire from. He could have stayed in the military, taken a safer position closer to home, but he needed the action, the adrenaline rush. He loved that more than he loved his mate. His mate! And then her son had followed in his father’s footsteps.
And while her aunt was proud of her men for serving their country, pride couldn’t keep them safe and it sure didn’t ease the emptiness that came with their deaths.
Out of the corner of her eye, Jackie watched Zan drive, the occasional lights from oncoming traffic throwing his features into sharp relief. Lines bracketed his mouth. His hands clenched on the steering wheel, not with his usual confidence but with tension. His eyes were focused dead ahead, as if their very life depended on him getting them to Denver in one piece. And while that might be true to a certain extent, Jackie had a feeling some war was going through his mind, much like in her own. Traffic was minimal, the moon bright enough to lighten the darkest roads and with Joe and Scott behind them, they had safety in numbers.
Still. She reached up and pulled out the tight band holding her hair off her face, letting the heavy weight fell around her shoulders. Before she could knead away the sharp little aches from released nerve endings, Zan tunneled his right hand through the strands and did it for her. Her chin dropped and she closed her eyes to relish the gentle coaxing of his fingers, letting out a soft moan of pure pleasure.
“You’re exhausted, Jackie. Why don’t you try and get some sleep.”
His clever fingers were working some kind of dark magic, putting her into a trance-like state. In the dim interior of the car, his scent surrounding her, his touch soothing her, she felt safe. When his hand dropped to her nape to knead the muscles there, she felt herself almost nodding off.