Miki stared back at him. She reminded Sara of a skittish colt that might bolt at any moment. “Do you actually want something?” Miki asked carefully.
The big guy blinked in confusion, and Sara had the sneaking suspicion he’d been standing there imagining her best friend naked.
“What?” he finally asked.
Miki looked at Sara, panic wafting off her. “Okay, Sara?”
Sara heard the desperation in her friend’s voice. Poor thing. Sara sighed to herself. Miki simply didn’t know how to handle someone who actually liked her.
Of course, Miki would probably say the same about her.
“Want something?” he asked, snapping out of it. “Oh, yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Two large coffees to go. Please.”
Miki turned away so fast to fill his order she banged into the counter. Sara saw Angelina’s body shaking with silent laughter, while Sara dug her fingernails into the palm of her hand to keep from embarrassing poor Miki any more than she’d embarrassed herself.
“So you guys coming to the party tomorrow night?” the blond stalker asked Miki’s back as Zach slowly closed the space between him and Sara.
Sara was still turned away from him, but she felt him. Felt him getting closer to her. Felt her body respond. She was terrified he’d touch her, and terrified he wouldn’t. And all that “terror” was making her unbelievably wet.
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Angelina answered, probably because she knew Miki wouldn’t. Typical Angelina, she didn’t even notice the two gorgeous men right in front of her. Instead, she flipped through one of those fashion magazines Sara found blindingly boring. Some people called Angelina cold. Sara just called her finicky.
Funny thing was, for the first time Sara could remember, neither of these men seemed to notice Angelina. “Thor” couldn’t stop staring at Miki. Zach, for some bizarre reason, wouldn’t stop staring at her. Even though Sara’s back was to him, she felt his eyes on her. Felt them traveling down her body, her chest, her arms, her legs. She kept asking herself why? What could he possibly see in her? Was he a scar freak or a “gimp” fanatic? Maybe he thought he was doing a good deed. Of course, Zach didn’t look like the good deed type. Instead he seemed much more like the “I’ll make you come so hard your legs will shake but only if I get something out of it” type.
Whatever his type, it was making her crazy and distrustful which, thankfully, was helping her control her desire to take his cock in her mouth.
What is wrong with you?
Angelina tossed the magazine aside and stood. “I’ve got to get to work.” She grabbed her bag and headed toward the door.
“Wait! Don’t leave me!” Sara barked loudly before she had a chance to stop herself. They all turned to stare at her. She cleared her throat. “I’m going to be late for work. So I better leave with you.”
Angelina cocked her head in confusion. “Since when do you care about being on time—ow!” Sara grabbed Angelina’s arm and forced her out of the store.
“You’re both leaving?” Miki yelled after them, but Sara kept going. She’d have to apologize to Miki later.
Once Sara dragged her friend to the corner, Angelina snatched her arm away. “What is it with you?” she demanded, rubbing the red spot Sara caused while desperately clutching her friend.
“Nothing,” Sara snapped back.
Angelina gave a dazzling smile. “He’s getting to you.”
“Who?”
Her friend nodded back to the bookstore. “You know. Mr. Not Nice.”
Sara growled in annoyance and turned to make her way up to Marrec’s shop.
“Don’t worry,” Angelina yelled after her. “I won’t tell!”
Without turning around, Sara raised her middle finger high in the air and did her best to ignore the laughter that followed.
“She makes great coffee, huh?” Conall asked as he slowly sipped the French-roasted brew. The pair sat on a bench across the street from the bookstore, Zach’s body still throbbing from having Sara’s hot little ass in his sights. No one had a right to be that cute so early in the morning.
“Yeah. She sure does.” Zach took a healthy sip. “But she’s still Satan.”
Conall smiled. “Then I guess I’ll just have to burn.”
Zach shook his head. His friend sure did have it bad for a woman who went screaming beyond the realm of blunt. Well, whatever floats your boat.
Like Sara. Sara floated Zach’s boat. She was such a ripe piece of ass. Okay, she was more than that, and hearing her and her friends talk about him last night like a side of beef wasn’t helping. Because Angelina was right. He wasn’t nice, in bed or out. And he had the feeling Sara could handle that. Would be in to that. Would be in to him. So he could be inside of her.
But he wasn’t about to get caught in that trap. End up like Yates, with some petty, power-hungry bitch as his mate. Why? So he could breed? The Pack hadn’t been the same since Casey came along. Not that anyone considered Zach the fun one of the Pack, but he enjoyed everyone else having fun. Now, no one really laughed anymore. Or simply enjoyed themselves, as wolves often liked to do. The situation even forced his sister to move to their European operations so she could get away from what she called “that fun funeral feeling” the den now had. Casey brought a pall over the Magnus Pack Zach would never really be able to forgive the woman for.
He just didn’t get it. They were all human enough to fuck and go. He never understood why Yates hadn’t. As much as some of them wanted to believe it, they weren’t full wolves. They were human, too. They had the power of choice. He decided he wanted to be Alpha Male. He decided he was going to buy this T-shirt. And he didn’t go around attacking every bitch in heat. In fact, he went out of his way to stay away from them. He didn’t want kids. He’d be more than happy to let the other Pack mates breed and then raise their little whelps to take over when he was too old or tired to hold the leash. But every wolf female he’d met wanted to breed their mate’s kid. So, Zach had decided, any mate he chose would be fixed.
But really, in the end, what exactly was the purpose of marking someone as your mate forever? At least full-humans had divorce.
Of course, Zach never thought about mates or mating as much until he came to this fucking little town in the middle of nowhere. All because of her. A crazy woman who apparently couldn’t drive very well and insisted on hanging around other crazy women. Plus, it really didn’t help she wanted him. Boy, did she want him. He could practically hear her clit twitching from where he stood. But what pissed him off was that his dick kept getting hard every time he saw her. Every time he thought about her. What the hell was that anyway? Even thinking about seeing her this morning, before he caught sight of her truck, his dick was rock solid. That was unacceptable. He didn’t want any woman to have that much control over him. Especially Sara Morrighan.
He knew he couldn’t get attached to her. He wouldn’t. Just turn her and go. He had plans to make and a Pack to protect. No time to get involved with some nutty girl whose grandmother probably damaged her more than the Pride that scarred her face and body.
The problem was it sometimes took years to turn someone. To get them to face their true selves. It took years before they felt that surge of power, years before they could shift at will and hunt with the Pack. But, of course, that’s what Casey wanted. For a girl who wouldn’t be comfortable with who she was for quite awhile to distract his dumb ass. Twenty-eight years was a very long time to be completely oblivious to who and what you really are.
Zach’s cell phone went off. He looked at the caller ID and sighed. Casey.
“Yeah?”
“Hey, Zach. It’s Casey.” Dumb bitch. She knew they all had caller ID.
“Yeah?”
“I need you to pick up Julie’s bike from the shop today.”
Yeah, of course she did. “Okay.”
“Great!” She hung up.
Zach shut his phone off. “Gotta pick up Julie’s bike. Wanna come?”
Before Conall could answer his cell phone went off. Conall looked at the caller ID, smiled, and answered. “This is Conall. Yeah. Okay.” He hung up. “Can’t.”
“That was Casey, wasn’t it?”
Conall shrugged. “Sorry, Zach. She wants me to help out at the site.”
Zach sighed again. “Sure she does.”
Great. Now he had to go deal with Sara and that old wolf Marrec. Well, maybe Sara was on her own.
Alone with Sara…yup. His dick just went hard again. He would have to do something about that. It was really starting to piss him off.
Chapter Six
“You are going to that party tomorrow, aren’t you?”
Sara looked up from her chopper magazine and glared at her boss. He sat on the other side of the counter polishing off his chicken fried rice and beef with mushrooms like he hadn’t eaten in three days. The coolest thing about working for Marrec, though…every day she worked at the shop, she never had to pay for food. “Maybe.”
“Why maybe? Why not yes?”
“Jesus, Marrec. What is the big deal? It’s a freakin’ party. Not the prom.” Thank God. Her prom turned ugly right quick with Miki and Angelina starting that brawl and all. Talk about a long night in jail.
“You know I’m worried about you, right?”
Of course he was worried about her. Marrec always worried about her. You’d think the man didn’t have six kids of his own and more grandkids than Sara cared to think about. And his protective attitude seemed to trickle down to his whole family and—because everyone respected the old coot—right through the entire town. They all protected her. Like it was their job or something.
“Why would you be worried? Could my life be any quieter? I mean, nothing has changed for me in like ten years. Actually, I think Lynette’s death has been the most exciting time I’ve had in awhile.” Not a lot of wakes turn into a party unless you were in New Orleans, but everyone hated her grandmother so it wasn’t really a huge surprise. “So why you should worry about me, I don’t know.”
“Because. You deserve more than what your grandmother convinced you you deserved.”
Sara rolled her eyes, shoving the chicken chow mein away from her. Maybe it was her annoyance at this ridiculous conversation, but the smell had started to seriously bother her. “Come on, Marrec. What exactly are you expecting for me? That my two years of community college will lead to a high life of big business? Or maybe now I can go for that medical degree.”
“You are such a smart ass.”
“No. I’m a realist. Always have been. I have no delusions. Never could afford them. I just wish everybody would stop worrying about me. You know, I can take care of myself.”
Marrec grunted as he closed the lid on his empty container. “Yes, yes. We all know how scary dangerous you can be.”
“You don’t have to be so sarcastic about it.” Okay. So maybe Miki and Angelina were ten times scarier than she was, but she had her dangerous moments. Ask anyone who’d been around her when she’d been drinking.
“Just do me a favor, okay?” Marrec stood up. “Go to the party. Meet the people there.”
Frowning, Sara shook her head. Usually Marrec went out of his way to get between her and a pack of bikers. Now he wanted to toss her into their laps. Strange. Very, very strange.
“Look, I’m going. Okay? So stop askin’ me.”
“Good.” Marrec shoved his empty containers across the counter to her. “Thanks.”
She watched the ornery old bastard head to the back of the store. “I guess I’m taking out the trash?”
“Yup. Ya are.”
Grumbling, Sara took her and Marrec’s lunch containers outside and tossed them in the Dumpster next to the shop.
“Is that you, Sara?” she heard Jake, from Jake’s Auto, yell over the six-foot-high wall separating Marrec’s shop from his.
“Yup.”
“Randy’s coming over.”
“Randy. Randy. Randy,” she chanted in a high-pitched voice as a one-hundred-pound red-nosed pit bull came around the corner. His leash and pinch collar still attached, although Sara never had to use them. His tongue hanging out, he trotted over to her and waited for his daily hello.
As much as it hurt, Sara crouched low beside him. “Is this my Randy? Is this my good boy?” She rubbed her hands along his flank. He growled and lay down on the concrete on his side. She continued to rub his thigh and back. “Who’s my pretty boy? Who’s my special guy?” Randy, as always, rolled over onto his back and Sara rubbed his belly, continuing to ignore the growing pain in her leg. She couldn’t disappoint Randy. “Who’s my good boy?”
“So, can I be next?”
Sara gasped in surprise at Zach’s voice, but she needed to get that under control. She hated the show of weakness.
“Um—” was all that came out before sweet, lovable Randy jumped up and charged straight at Zach, his teeth bared. Sara caught the leash and yanked Randy back, the dog’s jaws snapping shut mere inches from Zach’s face. But Zach didn’t move. He didn’t even flinch. In fact, he stared at Randy as if unimpressed with the sight of the one-hundred-pound dog trying to turn him into a midday meal.
Sara, still keeping a strong grip on the leash, turned her head to yell over the wall, “Jake! I need you!” She heard a vicious snarl and when she turned back, Randy had backed off, tail between his legs.
He ran behind Sara—whimpering.
She looked at Zach who stood in the same position he had been in five seconds before. Leaning against the wall, his arms crossed in front of his chest, completely relaxed.
“What did you do to him?”
“Not a thing.”
Jake came around the corner. “What in hell…”
“You better take him, Jake.” Sara handed over the leash.
Jake took it, but didn’t leave immediately. “You sure y’all okay?” He sized Zach up with narrowed eyes. “Randy don’t usually act like this, ‘cept when he don’t like somebody.”
“I’m fine. Really. Thanks, Jake.”
Jake gave Zach one more nasty look, and dragged the whimpering Randy back around the concrete wall.
“I’ve never seen Randy act like that.” She regarded Zach closely. “He really hated you.”
“But I’m so charming.”
Sara gave a short laugh. “Yeah. Right.” She headed back to the store. “So, why are you here?”
“Julie’s new bike. I need to get it.”
“Well, then, come on.”
Zach caught her scent as soon as he’d gotten out of the pickup truck the Pack brought with them for hauling stuff around. He followed it to the side of the shop, but never expected to find her lathering up some pit bull. Shamelessly, in fact.
Who’s my good boy? Was she kidding? Hell, he could be her good boy. Her very good boy. Or her very bad one.
As he watched her tight ass move into the store, he knew one of Marrec’s Pack—Jake, right?—watched him. Zach turned and snarled at the nosy bastard, sending that weak-willed pit bull whimpering for safety and causing Jake’s eyes to glance away.
When Zach turned around, Sara stared at him. “Did you just…snarl?”
“I have a cough.”
“A snarling cough?”
“Something like that.”
Looking truly distrusting, Sara went into the store and Zach followed behind her. “Marrec!” Sara screamed into the back. “Someone’s here to pick up that girl’s bike!”
“Gimme ten minutes!” Marrec yelled back.
As she perched herself on the stool behind the counter, she caught Zach’s expression. “What?”
“Are you always so loud?”
“You’d be amazed.”
Zach smiled. “Kind of a screamer?”
She blushed and rolled her eyes. “Cute.”
He liked it when she blushed—it looked good on her.
Zach leaned against the glass case. “You and your friends are definitely coming to the party, right?”
&
nbsp; Before Sara could answer, Marrec yelled from the back, “Yes, she is!”
“He doesn’t think I get out enough,” Sara muttered.
“Do you?”
“Not lately. Death in the family a few months back.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. No one else is.” Sara winced. “Okay. That was bitchy. Forget I said that. I mean, she wasn’t that bad.”
“Who?” Although he already knew.
“My grandmother. She raised me…sort of. Died about six months back. The last few months I’ve been busy sorting out all her finances and business. I just finished cleaning out her house a few weeks ago…well, I guess it’s my house now.”
“Find anything cool? When my father died, my mom and I found a ton of cool stuff at their place.”
“Some. Had to give a lot of it back to the government, though.”
Zach frowned. “Give what back to the government? Money?”
“No.” She started counting off on her fingers. “The M-16. The armor-piercing ammo. The rocket launcher. The grenades.”
“Your grandmother had a rocket launcher?”
Sara chuckled. “Apparently she was expecting some kind of attack. She was extremely paranoid. I don’t even know where she got that shit from. And you know what? I don’t wanna know.”
No wonder the Pride waited until the old bitch died. Even they couldn’t handle a full-on assault from military weapons. Yates hadn’t been kidding—that old woman had been truly dangerous.
“Did you get any money for that stuff?”
“No. I just wanted it gone. I have my daddy’s old shotgun, which I use for huntin’. And Miki and Angelina gave me a pump-action shotgun couple of years back for,” she smiled while making air quotes with her fingers, “‘basic home defense’. So, I don’t need much more than that.”
“You a good shot?”
“I’m okay. Miki’s better. I’ve seen her nail a buck at two-hundred feet. Right between the eyes.”
“That’s a lovely story. Learn that in etiquette school?”
“Texas etiquette school.”
He liked that too. She didn’t shrink away from his teasing or get insulted. She rolled with it.