Page 38 of Altered By Lead (Undercover Sinners 2)
We stare at each other for far longer than training protocol would dictate, and his scent fills my nostrils: fresh sweat mixed with wood-smoke and vanilla. One of his fingers pushes some hair back from my face just before he practically shoves me away from him, tearing open the door to the gym to an audience.
Colt and Weston are there, both pretending to work out beside Mace. Seems like he's the only one that's actually broken a sweat however.
"Everything okay in there?" West asks, and the way Hawke scowls at him, I have to wonder if he not only knows about what happened at the bar, but also about our fucking last night. I sure as hell hope he does.
"You two, strip down to your boxers, and get outside. I'll be driving beside you while you do a ten mile run, and then swim the last mile back in the Rogue River."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Weston snaps back. "It's like fifty degrees out there, and Colt is still recovering."
"Then you can run twenty miles and swim two back to make up for him." Hawke stalks past, heading for the door that leads into the foyer. "Make your choice and meet me outside in five."
"This is insane," Colt starts, reaching up to rub at his head. "We can't swim in an ice cold river without getting hypothermia."
"I'll do it," Weston says, steeling his face and giving me another look, as if to say are you sure you don't want to fuck that asshole over on his own bet? "And you two can go clothes shopping together. I'll even let you use my car." West pulls his keys from his pocket and tosses them over to his friend. "Just don't get any cum on my steering wheel, okay?"
"Bro," Colt starts, but West is already storming out and heading for the stairs. "Shit, I don't want to let him do this, but my fucking head is killing me."
"Mixing alcohol with prescription meds will do that to a person," I snap, and he gives me a bit of a sheepish look. "Go lay down and we can go shopping another day."
"Or we could go together," Mace rumbles from my right side, making my nipples pebble to hard points. I'm all worked up from my training session with Hawke, and when I turn to look at Mace, I feel like he can tell that I'm wet as hell and throbbing. Ugh. He sweeps that dark blue gaze over me, as endless and unreadable as the ocean during a storm.
He did say he wanted to talk, didn’t he?
"Are you sure you can stand being in the same room as me?" I quip, raising a brow, and Mace frowns. He looks for a moment like he might say something profound, but then just grunts instead.
"Let's shower and get changed. We'll take the Hummer." Mace turns and heads for the foyer, but I'm damn near positive I hear him murmur "wouldn't want to get cum on West's precious steering wheel after all."
Then again, maybe I imagined it.Chapter 9MaceA small, barely there smile touches my lips as I peel out of the Rogue Elk parking lot, gravel crunching under the Hummer's tires. There shouldn’t be a smile at all, but I can’t seem to help myself. This girl gets under my skin in the best of ways.
But she deserves better. Better than me. Definitely better than Hawke or Arsen. Even better than Colt or West. My plan today was going to be to tell her about the bet, even at the risk of infuriating Hawke. Looking at her face this morning, I have a feeling she already knows.
She’s been waiting for someone to tell her, hasn’t she? And I’ve been skulking in the shadows because I’ve suddenly developed a conscience. I don’t like lying to her. I don’t like Hawke’s bet, but I’ve always been a good soldier, always followed orders. Natalia makes me want to disobey them.
"I hope Colt feels better soon," Natalia says, frowning down at her hands while she picks at her thumbnail. "I feel a bit responsible."
I need to bite my tongue at this comment. "You didn't force him to drink tequila on top of pain meds, Talia. He's a grown ass man and perfectly capable of saying no, if he wanted to." I shoot her a quick look, taking in the perfect lines of her face, that sassy little nose and rosebud mouth. Fuck, I don't blame Colt for taking whatever she handed him and smiling all the while.
I’ve been avoiding her because I felt she deserves better, because I wasn’t sure I could control myself around her. Clearly, that moment in the kitchen proves that I can’t. But I’m now certain that I’ve just been going about it the wrong way.
Instead of avoiding her, I should be pursuing her, making her mine, pushing the others—especially Arsen—to the sidelines. Instead of avoiding her because I don’t feel worthy, I should be making myself a better man.
