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“Oh, yeah,” Tate said, sizing Bones up with the ignorance of someone who believed his meatier muscles would hold any advantage. “And maybe you’ll be the one shitting different colors.”
Bones let out a low laugh. “That’s impossible for many reasons, but don’t take my word for it. Let me show you.”
“Meet you there, vampire,” Tate said, and left.
“Bones,” Cat drew out, seeing the look in his eyes.
He waved off her concern. “With that much blood in him, anything I break will soon repair itself. Besides, it’ll do him a world of good to learn that no matter how invincible he feels right now, he can still get his arse thoroughly kicked.”
Don moved in front of the doorway, blocking Bones. “I’ve seen the way you look at Tate,” he said quietly. “Don’t break what can’t be repaired.”
Bones stifled his derisive laugh. Don cared for Tate, did he? If only he held his niece in such high regard.
“I don’t mistreat those who put their trust in me,” Bones said, his tone adding,unlike you.
Don gave him the thinnest of smiles. “I hope so.”
34
Bones fulfilled his promise, but once again, Tate managed to impress him. To be fair, Juan and Cooper did, too. All three were clearly used to being beaten until they were unconscious, and they all recovered with admirable swiftness, striking out before their eyes reopened or rolling away from kicks from muscle memory alone. Cat’s fighting skills shone through each of them, until Bones realized they were wasted behind their thick helmets and heavy tactical gear. They were far quicker and deadlier without such equipment. From the look on Don’s face as he watched, he knew it, too, and Don practically salivated at seeing their increased prowess.
“You’ve schooled them brilliantly, Kitten,” Bones said when he finished with Cooper and came up to the training room’s version of a sky box. Tate and Juan were already there with Don and Cat, and Tate gave him a grim, if more respectful, look.
“They are without a doubt the toughest humans I’ve encountered,” Bones went on. “With the additional strength of my blood, they’ll be equal to young vampires.”
Cat looked both relieved and pleased since she fretted over her men with the same intensity all good commanders had. Bones punctuated his compliment by kissing her forehead, his lips lingering when he felt her slight shiver. He’d taken off his shirt during his fight with Tate to avoid the bloke using it as a handhold, and Cat’s gaze slid over his bare, muscled skin in a caress she didn’t allow herself to give.
He’d soon do away with that hesitancy. He moved closer, pressing his chest against her hand. She drew in a sharp breath and her fingers flitted over his skin before she snatched her hand back and gave a guilty look around.
“I’m, uh, off to clean up,” she said, sidestepping Bones and heading for the door at nearly a run. “I’ll see all of you later.”
Oh, no, she wouldn’t. She’d see himnow.
Bones followed her, anticipation quickening his steps.
Tate’s voice rose, tight with anger. “Where do you think you’re going? The men’s showers are in the opposite direction.”
“I’ll file that away with all the other useless information that doesn’t apply to me,” Bones shot back. Cat had disappeared from his sight, but from her path, she was headed to her locker room. Good enough. Anything with a closed door would do.
“Why? Got something you’re embarrassed to show us, vampire?” Tate shouted as a last resort.
Bones laughed. “Just not stupid. We all know whereyou’drather be.”
“Don’t,amigo,” Juan said, covering Tate’s instant sputter.
Bones ignored them as he entered the locker room that was exclusive to Cat since Don allowed no other women on the team. Past the lockers and changing room was the showers, and they consisted of a wall of open stalls. Cat was naked beneath a blasting spray, and she held out a hand as if to say,wait.
That wasn’t why Bones stopped. It was the sight of her. Her lush curves were even more beautiful with the stark shower walls as their only backdrop, and her skin tightened beneath the cold spray from the showerhead. That water forked over her round breasts before sluicing down the valley of her stomach and then clinging to the red curls between her legs. A shiver puckered her nipples even more, and those tightened peaks called to him even more than the new hammering of her heart.
“Not here,” she breathed, as if her entire body wasn’t giving off a siren call of the opposite. “It’s…inappropriate.”
He would have laughed if lust hadn’t thickened his throat, not to mention other parts of him. This place had repeatedly endangered her life, yet she thoughtthiswas inappropriate?
He’d show her otherwise.
Bones stripped away his trousers and shoes, all while never taking his eyes from her. Then, he came toward her and turned the water from cold to hot. As enticing as he found her shivers, he wanted her feeling them for an entirely different reason. Then, he knelt in front of her, inhaling the scent of her desire while flicking the taut skin of her stomach with his tongue.
“Sod ‘em,” he murmured. “I want you, Kitten, and you want me. That’s all I bother about.”
