He didn’t have to wait long for the interview to finish then the door opened, and that wonderful scent hit him, making his wolf yip in excitement.
I know, I know, I’m excited too,he told the animal.
Flint and Maya stepped out into the hall. Her eyes widened as she took him in.
“Hey,” he said to her. “All done?”
She turned to Flint. “Um, I think so.”
Flint nodded his agreement. “She’s all yours.”
Damn right she was.
She pulled in a quick intake of breath before her brow creased. “Oh, is there something else you need from me?”
Cole shook his head. “Nope. You’re finished here. I’m taking you home.”
Her mouth formed a perfect ‘O’. Over her shoulder, Cole caught a glimpse of the knowing grin on Flint’s face.
“You ready?” Cole asked.
She nodded mutely.
“Great. Let’s get going.”
“See you later, Gray,” Flint said.
Cole gave him a chin lift. “Flint.”
Cole motioned for Maya to walk along the corridor in front of him. If anyone had asked him, he would have sworn he was being chivalrous, but from behind, he had a better vantage point of her ass swaying as she walked. Cole had heard his kid sister excitedly talking about the fact that skinny jeans were out and baggy jeans were in. Cole couldn’t honestly say he’d thought much on the subject before this exact moment, but now he knew where he stood on the debate because legs as shapely as Maya’s should never be covered up.
Flint disappeared back into the office and Maya and Cole had almost made it to the bank of elevators before she turned to him and asked, “Why do they call you Gray?”
Aw, hell. It was the one question Cole had hoped she wouldn’t ask. The nicknames they’d been given when they joined the SWAT team all related to their shifter species. Cole had been given his name because he was a gray wolf shifter.
“I thought the nickname ‘stud’ might be too intimidating for my teammates,” he said with a grin, hoping to play off the question with a joke.
It did the trick. Maya threw her head back and laughed.
“Stud, huh?” She looked him over from head to toe, and Cole shivered under the scrutiny. “Yeah, I can see that.”
He preened under the compliment, and it seemed his wolf enjoyed having his mate’s eyes on him as much as Cole liked it. Inside the elevator, Cole leaned across Maya to press the button for the basement where the parking lot was located, and her scent hit him like a ton of bricks. He fought the urge to press her up against the wall and kiss every inch of her exposed skin—and then undress her and kiss the rest of it, too.
If Maya had been a wolf, she would have been as amenable to the mating as Cole was, but she was human and he needed to tread carefully. He didn’t want to scare her off by coming on too strong. He reminded his wolf—and himself—of that over and over.
“So, you’re a baker?” he asked in an effort to draw the conversation around to a safer topic, and with no small amount of relief when his voice came out somewhere close to normal, and not the possessive growl that was raking through his whole body.
Her eyes widened. “How did you know?”
He chuckled, then leaned in closer to her. “It might have escaped your attention, but I work for the FBI.”
“Oh, right, of course,” she said, letting out a nervous sounding laugh. “Duh. Yeah, yeah I am.”
“How did you get into that line of work?”
“My mom baked,” she said wistfully. “She used to cook with her mom and she taught me everything she knew. She would have liked to have gone into business with it, but dad went out to work and they couldn’t afford childcare, so she chose to stay at home with Noah and me.”
“What about when you were older?”
