Okay, scratch that. I would totally have done any of those scenarios right then, and since Ali didn’t have a shifter’s scent, she didn’t know what had last gone down in her family’s old cabin.
But Ali gave Theo a slight push after their kiss ended, and I reluctantly let go of her as well.
“Tonight, then,” I confirmed, although my wolf wasn’t happy to wait. “Let me give you my address. May I have your phone?” I slid my hand into her back pocket where I’d felt it, and retrieved it. I texted myself from her phone, then replied with my address. “Now you have my number and know where to come tonight.”
Yeah, she’d be coming there. Fuck, I sounded like a fucking idiot, but my dick—and my wolf—didn’t care.
Ali’s lips were swollen and pink from the kisses, her face flushed and glowing. “What can I bring?”
“Just yourself, sweetheart,” Theo said. “You’re all I’m going to want to eat.”
She swatted his shoulder, her blush growing deeper.
“What would you like to drink? Was it Jack and ginger?” I asked, remembering the scent on her breath from the bar. “Or should I get a bottle of wine?”
Her smile nearly brought me to my knees. “A bottle of wine sounds good. Chardonnay?”
“Wine it is. And steak. And we’ll figure out the rest. You just bring your gorgeous self,” Theo said.
“It’s a date,” she replied. No three words had ever made me happier.
Theo handed her the rifle back and we walked her to the horse, who had been absently grazing the tall grass. I knew she didn’t need help mounting her mare, but I wanted to touch her again, so I put my hands on her waist and lifted as she sprang into the saddle.
“See you tonight,” I told her, tilting my head back to look up at her.
She controlled her horse with the easy shift of the reins and the clench of her toned thighs.
“Tonight,” Theo agreed.
She made a clicking sound and turned the mare to head in the direction she’d come. Seeing her astride a horse made me think of her riding me. Or watching her take all of Theo.
“Damn,” Theo murmured as we watched her go, shifting his dick in his jeans.
“Right?”
Once she’d disappeared over the rise, we turned back to the ruins. My wolf wanted to chase after her, pull her off the horse and take her in the tall grass in the most primitive of ways.
But she was human.
She was the daughter of our pack’s enemy.
We had to do this right or it could go so fucking wrong.
Theo pulled his cowboy hat off and rubbed his head. “I’m not sure how she’s going to get past us putting her father in prison.”
My shoulders sagged because Theo was right. We couldn’t miss the chemical scent in the ashes. We didn’t need the lab tests to prove anything. This old cabin burned down as a result of a chemical fire.
Someone had cooked meth here. On the land our mate was to ranch.
ALI
After seeing the destruction to the cabin and the limited access to it if help was needed, I decided that anything other than the main house wasn’t going to work. If I didn’t know the place had burned down, did my dad, or anyone else who worked at the ranch? If a lightning strike had been what finished the old place, then it could happen while I lived there.
Firefighters couldn’t get a big truck down the rustic dirt road to put it out. There was phone reception, but who would I call? What if I got hurt? No one would be able to help me.
I might be eager for a little space, but I wasn’t stupid. I’d have to think of something different. After handing off Daisy to a hand to be brushed and fed, I showered, taking my time to wash off the sweat of the day.
What the water didn’t do was wash away the thoughts of Holt and Theo. Of their kisses. Of me saying yes to having dinner with them. Them! My nipples were hard and my clit throbbed with the need to come. I hadn’t been this aroused—and they weren’t anywhere near me—in… ever.
I’d been hot for them since I opened the front door to them the day before. Those kisses and Holt touching me so intimately—even over my jeans—had made me needy. I had to come. While dinner at Holt’s house might lead to something, I knew how to get myself off. It wasn’t the same thing as a hot guy, but I hadn’t had tons of luck in that department. I needed relief, and my fingers could give it to me. Leaning against the shower wall, I touched my clit, rubbing it in the small circular motion I knew worked.
What was different was that I thought about Theo’s blue eyes. His strong body. Holt’s dimples. The skilled hand he’d had between my thighs.
I came on a gasp in less than a minute. I had been that needy, and the man-candy porn in my head had made it easy.
I slumped against the shower wall and caught my breath. Thought about how I’d just masturbated to thoughts of being with two men.
While it was a new fantasy for me, both of them being interested in me seemed to be a thing for them. Not a one off, but more of a way of life. They dated and touched a woman together. Although the concept of that was somewhat crazy, they seemed to be anything but.
Clear, level headed.
The fact that they’d come to the house with suspicions of meth coming from Granger County and then them being at the destroyed cabin only showed they were diligent in their jobs. It didn’t feel like they were trying to pin something on anyone in the Jenkins family. In fact, it felt as if they were trying to rule us out, to steer their investigation elsewhere.
I didn’t think my father would see it that way though.
An hour later, when I caught up with him on the back patio, I confirmed I was right.
“What do you mean, it burned down?” he asked.
An empty tumbler was on the wrought-iron coffee table in front of him. I didn’t know if this was the bottom of his first or fifth glass.
Instead of sitting, I set my hands on the back of the large outdoor sofa and faced him. I’d left my hair long down my back, and I’d put on some makeup. Eyeliner, mascara, and colored lip gloss was the extent of my routine, but I wanted to look pretty for Holt and Theo. Sure, they’d kissed me when I’d been sweaty and smelled a little like horse, but even I wanted to feel special. To be looked at with appreciation.
Except I didn’t want to look like I was trying, either. My fresh jeans and new blouse with pretty flowers embroidered on it said: I don’t want steak. I want a different kind of beef, and from two men. Gimme.
Maybe.
Hopefully.
My doubts had me antsy, and I needed to pace. “It’s nothing but ashes and charred wood,” I explained. “The stone fireplace is still standing, but nothing else.”
He swore under his breath.
“What do you think happened?” I pressed, trying to see how he’d react or what he’d say.
His dark gaze, one that matched mine, flicked up to me as he shrugged. “I don’t know. There was electricity to the place but I don’t think it’s been on for years. There’s a lever to flip at the fuse box.”
“No fuse box now,” I murmured, remembering how it looked as if a bomb had been dropped from the sky.
“Lightning then.”
“That’s what I thought, too.” It was the truth. Grass fires started all the time from lightning strikes. They could be much more devastating than destroying one old cabin.