***
Xio closed her eyes and let the shower rain down on her head. The door clicked as it opened and the curtain slid back. “We don’t have time for more.” Her mind said they didn’t, but her body didn’t care.
“We’ll multitask.”
“Since you put it that way, get in.”
“When we get there, Drew is going to want to talk to you alone. That’s not happening. I’m your mate now and anywhere you go, I go.”
“Seriously, I can do this on my own.”
“I know, but you’re not. You don’t ever have to do anything like this alone again. I will always have your back.”
“You say the sexiest damn things.” Anything else, and she’d have been pissed. He had her back, and that meant she was her own wolf. Damn, could she have fallen in love already? Damn straight. She slid her arms over his shoulders and locked her hands at the back of his neck to pull his lips to hers. “But I rather like it when your mouth is otherwise occupied.”
A deep growl rumbled from Marcus’s throat and he pinned her to the shower wall.
***
“Shit,” Xio said as she hopped into her jeans, her skin resistant and still wet from the shower, making it difficult to yank them up. She wiggled and tugged as Marcus watched. “We’re going to be late. My Alpha isn’t going to be happy.”
“Our Alpha. You’re the one that suggested the blowjob, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to pass that up. I’d risk the enforcers if you wanted to do that again. Speaking of which, you keep wiggling like that, and you’re going to be on your back and even later.”
She stopped what she was doing and looked at him. He grinned. She smiled right back like a lovesick fool.
You are.
Am not.
He tossed her shirt to her, breaking up her inner dialogue. “As much as I’d like to have you on your back, it’s best we make a good impression. I have a lot of ponies under the hood of my car and can make up some time, but not that much. Let’s not piss off our new Alpha before the first meeting.”
“Bummer.”
“That’s me.” He grabbed her bag. “I’ll load the trunk and check us out.”
She nodded and slipped an MP3 player—she’d loaded the Chinese lessons from her laptop on it the day before—into her pocket. She was nervous and hoped they would get her mind off the impending meeting that hung over her like the angel of doom. Something had to. She’d mated with Marcus and now he was part of the mess, whether she wanted him to be or not, and it amped her anxiety.
And then there was the money. She should tell Marcus about it, but she couldn’t. She’d decided the night before that she would never touch it, but disclosing what she’d done, especially to Marcus or her Alpha, could never happen. She’d sold all of her assets—the tourist shops and chain stores—when things began to go south with Diego, before she’d been caught. The savings she’d opened for herself in Mexico was under her alias. The only way anyone would ever know about the accounts was if they figured out she and Sarah Franklin were one and the same.
She’d paid a substantial amount of money for Ms. Franklin’s documents and a social security number to match. The identity belonged to a woman born in the same year as her who’d died. Her annual statements, from the Mexican bank that wasn’t entirely on the up-and-up, went to a P.O. Box in El Paso that she’d have forwarded to South Dakota once she did an address change and opened a box there. Everything Sarah did looked legit, down to paying taxes and reporting the profits of the sale of her businesses as income to the IRS.
They hadn’t clued in for the last ten years. Likely wouldn’t now.
Four hours later, they passed a sign for Hot Springs. Xio grabbed Marcus’s arm. “Pull over here, at this stream.”
“We don’t have time for this.”
“I know, but I need to shift and heal. I used to come to this place when I was younger.”
He pulled over and threw the car into park. “We really don’t have time.”
“We’re close. I won’t take long. I promise.” Xio unclipped her seat belt and hopped out before he could object further. She darted for the woods and the little spring as warm as bathwater, due to geothermal activity. The springs in this area ranged from hot to warm. Not far down the stream was a small waterfall that poured into a pool. Paradise.
Xio pulled her clothes off as she ran, tossing them along the way. Oh, to be a wolf again and run on the ground where she’d been born.
A twig snapped behind her. Xio glanced back to see Marcus on her tail, stripping his clothes as he followed. And sharing her retreat—all the better.
Three steps, and she launched herself into the pool feet first. Coming up with four paws, she dog-paddled to the bank where she climbed out and shook the water from her fur. Marcus sat on the side, watching her.