girls would be right there with me, but now…”
“Babe, they’re only going to be a few minutes away. If you’re really worried, there’s still an extra guestroom we can take and live there too. At least until we have the house situation sorted.”
I was struggling to believe what I was even saying. I knew in that moment that there was absolutely nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for her. She had instantly become both my biggest weakness and my biggest strength because I also knew there was nothing I would stop at to keep her safe and happy.
*****
The rest of the journey passed uneventfully. All three girls were impressed by the “cute” town of San Marco. Being a Sunday there wasn’t much we could do to get truly settled into the area, but out of respect I took them up to meet Kyle Westin before getting Sage and Sapphire settled in at Nonna’s.
Susan had remained quiet on the drive over to the Lodge. It had been a long, stressful, lifechanging kind of week. Once in the room, she collapsed on the bed and I’d simply held her, and reassured her that everything was going to be okay until she feel asleep in my arms.
After I awoke at daylight, Susan was still sound asleep, so I showered, and dressed, and was outside waiting on the others to arrive for our morning run.
Baine hugged me when he saw me. “Man have I missed you. These stiffs don’t even have the decency to laugh at my jokes. Glad you’re back. I take it the mission was a success?”
“Yes. It was certainly a success.”
“I heard the asshole was a girl. Bet that threw you for a loop.”
“You have no idea,” I muttered under my breath grateful when Painter arrived and barked for us to get moving.
Running felt good, exhilarating even. It wasn’t something I usually enjoyed. My body was humming with need, and the overexertion seemed to help at least take a little of the pressure off, since my fist in the shower certainly hadn’t done much to help.
I’d tried to just be there and support Susan last night. I thought that’s what she had needed, and I didn’t want to pressure her, but it had been downright painful holding her and not really touching her in the way I had wanted to.
We had such an easy compatibility in bed. It felt so right and natural. I feared I might be getting a little addicted to her even. She was turning me into a sex maniac.
Baine slapped me on the back as we started to slow our pace and wind down the run.
“You look miserable. What’s wrong?”
I shook my head. I didn’t want to talk about it.
“Nothing,” I lied.
“One week and your fat ass is already out of shape?” he teased causing a chuckle from the others.
“One week of vacation is what he had,” Grant added.
“Must be nice. I could use a week off to lounge around in hotels,” Ben chimed in.
“Leave him alone. You guys are asses,” Taylor said coming to my defense.
“Thanks T. At least someone around here has my back. How was your mission?”
She shrugged. “Boring.”
“You always say that when you’re stuck on surveillance,” I teased.
“No offense. I just prefer to be in the middle of all the action.”
“It was a nice change of pace having T with me. Less stress worrying about her, so feel free to take your ‘pamper me’ time anytime you want Tarron,” Grant said with a laugh earning himself a smack from Taylor.
He was generally pretty easy going about having his mate as part of the team and knowingly endangering herself. Having a mate now myself I wasn’t sure how he did it. I knew I couldn’t. There was no way I would focus on the needs of the mission if Susan was potentially in the path of danger. Just the thought of it pushed my fox forward and start to sprout fur on the back of my neck.
I sucked in a deep breath silently reminding him that Susan was fine probably still asleep in my bed. That seemed to do the trick.
Fortunately, the other guys were too busy razzing Grant to have noticed.
We headed back inside and down to the basement which housed Base 1, the headquarters for Westin Force.
Archie was standing guard as we each tapped our badges onto the scanner and let ourselves in.
“I heard you were back. You got that sucker, right?” he asked me.
I had almost forgotten that Susan had