“Nothing,” he mimicked. “It’s just that you’re talking like the night’s over when it’s only just getting started.”
“Seriously?”
He rolled her onto her back, balancing above her. His eyes had taken on that smolder she was getting to be familiar with. “Seriously.”
That was when she realized the cock pressing against her was well on its way to getting hard again. She sucked in her breath as he slid his shaft up and down her pussy like a sex toy.
“Mmm.” She sighed. “And what do you have in mind this time?”
He gave her a lazy grin. “I don’t know. Maybe we’ll try out a half dozen different positions or so until you find one that’s your favorite. Then we’ll just stay in that one until you tell me you can’t come anymore.”
Fresh heat pooled between her thighs, and she bit her lip. “I think I can come a lot before calling it quits.”
“Then I guess we’re in for a really long night.”
Gage rolled off her and repositioned her on her hands and knees. His breath was warm on the skin of her lower back as he pressed a kiss to her bottom.
She buried her face into the bedding and moaned. “The longer the better.”
Chapter 9
Gage sat on the edge of the bed, watching Mackenzie sleep. He could tell from her slow, steady heart rate and even breathing that she was well on her way to dreamland. Not surprising. They’d gone at it for hours. She was sleeping the deep sleep of a well-satisfied woman. He only wished he could stay in bed with her. She’d worn him out, too.
After spending hours with her, rolling around in bed, on the floor, and up against the wall, he knew she wasTheOne—period. He believed to his very core she was the woman he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with.
He glanced at the clock—0400 hours. He needed to move. Even though every fiber of his being demanded he climb into bed with Mackenzie, wrap his body protectively around her, and never let her go.
Perversely, that was part of the reason he had to leave. Mackenzie was in his life now and that meant she was in danger, unless he dealt with Hardy. Putting it off would only endanger Mackenzie even more.
He scribbled a quick note on a scrap of paper he found in her nightstand. Something about needing to get more condoms—and donuts. He didn’t think she’d wake up before he got back, but if she did, he didn’t want her freaking out and leaving the apartment looking for him. Or thinking he’d left her.
Gage dressed quickly and silently, then grabbed a copy of the apartment key Mackenzie had hanging on a hook in the kitchen. He checked his phone as he waited for the elevator and found that Mike had left a text with Hardy’s address. There were also notes about the layout of the place, like the number of guards and existing perimeter security systems. Efficient as always.
At that early hour, it took less than thirty minutes to get to Hardy’s residence just outside Southlake on a wooded section of Grapevine Lake. Gage stopped his car along a quiet lane near the shore. If anyone saw it, they’d assume it was a couple of kids making out down by the water. Few people, even cops, would get suspicious. Southlake wasn’t the kind of place where lowlifes hung out.
He weaved through the trees, letting his superior night vision guide him. Thank God Hardy liked his privacy. There were very few houses along this section of the lake. Not that Gage gave a damn. He would have found a way onto Hardy’s property without being seen if the man lived in the middle of a mall food court.
Gage found the perimeter fence quickly enough. It was an eight-foot high chain-link deal with a few sections filled in with older mortared stone. He prowled the length of it, checking for guards, cameras, and motion sensors. He found the only two cameras that covered this side of the property without even trying. They weren’t well hidden. It wasn’t difficult to stand out of their field of view since they seemed to be aimed to catch people on the narrow, paved pathway that ran just inside the fence. Apparently, security wasn’t too worried about someone hopping over the fence. But then again, who’d be dumb enough to trespass on property owned by Walter Hardy?
Next, Gage confirmed there were no passive infrared or microwave motion sensors, active infrared beams, or pressure pad sensors. He could have bypassed them, but it said a hell of a lot about Hardy’s arrogance. There was nothing to keep a person from slipping onto his property except a reputation for brutality and ruthlessness.
Gage had downplayed it for Mackenzie’s benefit, but he’d been worried about Hardy and what the man might do from the moment he’d learned his identity. Gage knew he was a powerful and dangerous man who wouldn’t hesitate to come after them if he believed they were responsible for his son’s death. By standing up to his thugs, Gage had hoped Hardy might back off. But from the bomb at the fake meth lab, it was obvious that plan hadn’t worked. Hardy was coming for Gage, and he didn’t mind killing the rest of the SWAT team to get him. For all Gage knew, the man intended to kill all of them anyway. Gage wasn’t going to let that happen.
There was a single light on in the back of the house. Probably where the security guard, or guards, stayed. Gage would hit that first. He’d do anything to protect his pack—and now Mackenzie. He didn’t want to kill Hardy in cold blood, but if that was the only way to stop the man and keep the people close to him safe, he’d do it without hesitation.
He only hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
Gage moved along the fence until he was in a dead spot between the cameras. He still didn’t see any guards, but he could pick up their scent. It was blanketed by the stronger smell of gasoline, which made him think they probably patrolled the property in a golf cart at night. Since both odors lingered heavily in the air, that meant they’d been through here recently.
He found a place where the fence was screened by the low-hanging limbs of a big tree and placed his hand close to the chain link, but not quite touching. He didn’t feel anything that indicated it was electrified.
Gage looked around one more time, then let the claws on his right hand extend to their full length.God, that felt good. He hadn’t done it in a while. There wasn’t a lot of call for it in his day-to-day work. But he missed being able to let go and shift like that.
He slashed at the fence, sending pieces of chain link flying and opening a gap large enough for him to step through. Once he was on the other side, he listened carefully, but there still weren’t any sounds coming from the house.
As he crept slowly through the trees along the rear of the property, he considered what he knew about Walter Hardy.
He owned three different houses in the Dallas area, the other two being penthouse apartments downtown. He used one mostly for business meetings and for those times he stayed in the city. He’d given the other to his twenty-six-year-old son, Ryan, the presumptive heir to the Hardy name, fortune, and business.
