“This has nothing to do with Hardy.” He sounded so sincere even he almost believed it. “I was just hoping that if I walked you to your door, you might invite me in again. I felt bad about turning down your offer last night.”
At least that part wasn’t a lie. He had felt bad about bailing on her last night, and had been thinking about rectifying that mistake during the drive over to her place.
Mackenzie laughed. “I’m not sure I believe that, but you’re welcome to come in if you want. I can even fix you something to eat, as long as you don’t expect me to cook like Emile.”
Gage hadn’t actually given dinner much thought, but if it gave him an excuse to hang around Mackenzie’s place for a while, he was all for it. Because regardless of how calm he’d been about Hardy’s thugs showing up at the restaurant, he really was worried—just not for himself.
He’d been expecting Hardy’s men, if not the man himself, to show up at some point. The thing that pissed off Gage—and scared him, too—was that Mackenzie was with him when they’d done it. What if they went after her to get to him?
He had no idea why he was even thinking that. It wasn’t as if Hardy’s goons had even noticed Mackenzie. And if they had, they wouldn’t know who she was or have any reason to go after her. But he still couldn’t shake the feeling Mackenzie was in danger and that he had to keep her safe.
“Come on. I’ll give you the nickel tour of the place,” Mackenzie said as he followed her inside. “Then I’m going to get cleaned up real quick. That last rescue your guys put me through would have been a lot more fun if I hadn’t been forced to low crawl halfway across the compound in order to get away.”
Gage laughed as he looked around the small apartment. It had a casual, eclectic vibe with a touch of class. “They didn’t want you to get your butt shot off with paintball pellets.”
She opened the fridge and took out a beer. “I’m pretty sure it had more to do with Becker and Cooper watching my butt than protecting it.”
His mouth quirked. “That’s a possibility as well. Though I can’t say I blame them.”
She gave him a heated look as she handed him the bottle of beer. “Two bedrooms that way, though I’ve turned one into my office.” She motioned toward a closed door on the far side of the living room. “The guest bathroom is through there.” She spun around in the tight space between the kitchen and living room. “And that concludes the tour. Impressive, huh?”
“It’s nice.” He took a swallow of beer. “This is good, by the way. Wouldn’t have pegged you as a beer drinker.”
“I’m not. In fact I never touch the stuff. I keep it in there for Zak. He’s over here a couple times a week.”
Gage felt the same twinge of jealousy he’d felt earlier when he thought about Mackenzie spending time alone with Zak—or any other man for that matter. The reaction was as unexpected as it was nerve-wracking. He’d known this woman for all of two days and she was provoking gut-level responses like he’d never experienced before.
The crazy part of it was that when he’d watched them interact this morning, his wolf instincts had told him she and Zak weren’t physically attracted to each other. Attraction was chemical and you couldn’t hide that from a werewolf. But that didn’t seem to matter to his inner lycan-influenced caveman. When it came right down to it, Gage didn’t like any man getting too close to Mackenzie.
He caged the animal inside and forced a smile to his lips. “Tell him that he has good taste in beer then.”
“You tell him. If I do it, he’ll never let me forget it.” She grinned. “The remote is on the table there. You can watch TV if you want while I clean up. I promise I won’t take too long.”
He opened his mouth to tell her to take her time, but she’d already walked into the bedroom. She yanked off her shirt just before disappearing inside. The barest flash of tanned skin and silky white bra was enough to make his cock go hard. He took a big gulp of beer, then exhaled slowly. Damn, he had it bad for her.
It was all he could do not to strip off his clothes and join her when he heard the shower turn on. He needed a distraction—fast.
But instead of grabbing the remote and turning on the TV, he wandered around the apartment looking at the various knickknacks, photos, and awards she had. Most of the awards were for her journalism work, but it was more than just a bunch of I-love-me stuff. Sure, there were some personal awards lined up neatly along the wall of the hallway, but more of the space was dedicated to the everyday people she ran into and the amazing places she’d been. A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.