Primal Law (Alpha Pack #1)(62)

He shook his head in dismissal. "Melina is overly cautious. That's her job. Us shifters are tough and it'll take more than a few raging hormones to bring me down. We've got plenty of time to decide what we want, and I don't want you worrying about this anymore."

"I can't promise that."

"Do your best, because I'm okay." He kissed her nose.

"Promise you'll tell me if it gets too bad?"

"Sure."

He didn't exactly say the words and she frowned, knowing he'd keep his misery to himself as long as possible. That he'd put her feelings before his own needs, no matter how much it hurt him, caused something warm and wonderful to expand in her chest.

"I'm glad you forgave me for what I said in the clinic," she told him.

He winked. "Me, too. Got me laid, didn't it?"

She dug her fingers into his ribs. "Smart-ass."

Falling backward, he laughed, pulling her with him, and the tickle fight was on. She managed to get a few more digs in his ribs before he latched on to an ankle and tortured the sensitive bottom of one foot.

"Uncle!" she squealed. "You win!"

"I'm the boss. Say it!"

"Ahh! You're the boss," she gasped, trying in vain to wrench away her foot.

Mercifully, he released the appendage and helped her up. "The boss demands you shower with him."

"Humph. I suppose you'll want me to wash your back, too."

"Of course. But I'll do yours, too." His voice promised more extracurricular fun than a simple shower.

The hunky wolf delivered, too, soaping certain crevices perhaps a tad more than necessary, making her laugh and shudder in delight by turns. She wasn't laughing, however, when he guided her to brace herself on the tiles, his hardness rubbing the crack of her butt, declaring that they weren't finished playing.

"Gotta have you again," he murmured. "What you do to me . . ."

He made love to her there with the water cascading over them, nice and easy, with such gentle heat her eyes burned with unshed tears. Never had there been a connection like this with any other man. Never anything that felt so right. As though everything she'd been searching for had coalesced here, with this man, in this place filled with strange inhabitants.

He took them to the peak and they exploded together, him buried deep inside her, whispering endearments in her ear. She was so at peace, yet when he withdrew again without giving in to the need to claim her as his own, guilt pricked at her conscience.

Despite his insistence that he was fine, she couldn't help but imagine what terrible price his patience might demand.

And whether she'd ever be able to reconcile the man as one with the beast without the fire of his touch blowing apart all reason.

"Jax?"

"Hmm?"

Kira trailed a finger over the broad expanse of his chest, hoping he didn't close off when she pried. But she had to know more about the man at her side. "Tell me about Afghanistan. When you were changed."

He went so still for a few moments, she wasn't even sure he was breathing. When he finally began to speak, his voice was so low, bleeding with remembered pain, that she held him tighter.

"What's to tell? We ventured into the mountains on a routine patrol, and encountered creatures out of our worst nightmares. Then some of us awoke to realize the lucky ones were dead, and the rest had to live with the fact that we'd become freaks at best, enemies of the human race at worst."

She hugged him tight. "Obviously neither was true. You guys were put in the unique position of protecting the world from creatures most people don't even know exist. Have you ever stopped to think about all the lives that would've been affected if you hadn't been changed? How many would be lost by now?"

After a moment, he admitted, "It's crossed my mind. But it's hard to get that through my head when the personal cost has been so damned high. Call me selfish, but that's how it is."

"That's not selfish, just human." She cursed herself for her blunder. "You know what I mean."

He kissed the top of her head. "Yeah, I do."

"You're not a freak."

"And yet you don't know if you can embrace both sides of me."

Rising up, she propped herself on his chest and looked him right in the eye. "Get it through your head, that's not true the way you mean it. I'll admit I was a little unnerved by the shifting at first. But the only problem I have is with the biology of the mating thing not giving us a choice. It's like we're not in charge of our destinies."

"Everyone has a choice." He arched a dark brow. "You're here, for instance, and nobody forced you to get down and dirty with me. Twice. Three times if you want to get technical."

"You've got me there." She couldn't help but smile at his self-satisfied expression. "You're a hard man to resist."

"Just hard, period." He leered at her.

"You have a point," she teased, wiggling against the hardness in question.

The chirp of his iPhone interrupted them. With a putupon sigh, he grabbed it off the nightstand and peered at the display. "Text message from Nick. We're meeting in one hour, and he wants you there."

"Me?" She frowned. "Must have to do with my old employer."