Behind the wheel, Cooper’s eyes met hers in the rearview mirror. “You did good down there, Khaki, so just accept the compliments—and all the drinks—that’ll be coming your way tonight. You deserve them.”
Khaki felt a surge of pride. She’d done it. In less than a week, she’d won over her new teammates. The training had been tough, and every day hadn’t been enjoyable, but other than the standard teasing, the guys had been amazingly supportive through it all. She still wasn’t sure where she stood with Xander, but she was happy with how far she’d come in such a short period of time.
Cooper and Max had gone from complimenting her to ribbing each other over some imaginary mistake the other had made. Ahead, the other two vehicles carrying the rest of her teammates were pulling into the compound’s parking lot.
Khaki smiled. Her teammates. That had a nice ring to it.
Inside, they got the gear cleaned and put away, then headed into the admin building to take showers. She let the guys go first, figuring they’d only be standing around at the bottom of the steps complaining if she didn’t.
While she waited, some of the guys from Mike’s squad stopped by to congratulate her.
“Aren’t any of you guys coming with us?” she asked Remy.
She spent so much time with her own squad, it felt like she barely knew any of the other guys on the team. But Remy shook his head.
“Nah. You all trained together to get you to this point, so the celebration should be private too. The rest of us will hang out later.”
Khaki could see their point, but she wouldn’t have minded if they wanted to join them. She was still trying to convince Mike’s team when her squad bounded down the steps. She glanced at her watch.Crap, it had taken them only fifteen minutes to shower and change. They’d better not expect her to get ready that fast.
She passed Xander on the way up the steps. He’d changed into jeans and a button-down shirt, and his dark hair was still slightly damp from the shower.
“Don’t take all night,” he told her. “I don’t know how long I can control these guys. They’re ready to do some serious partying.”
A naughty part of her wondered if Xander would come up and check on her if she took too long. Maybe this time, she wouldn’t even bother to wrap a towel around herself.
While that thought was tempting, she dismissed it. It was more likely that Becker would be the one who came up to hurry her along, and having Becker see her naked wasn’t as appealing as Xander.Sorry,Becker.
Khaki forgot to ask where they were taking her to celebrate but figured it would probably by someplace casual. Still, she decided to go a bit sexier with her makeup than she did during the day. It would have been nice if she’d had something dressier to wear too, but she’d have to make do with the jeans and tank top in her locker.
She made it downstairs in thirty minutes—a record for her.
“Damn,” Hale said when he saw her. “You clean up nice.”
She opened her mouth to say something witty in reply when she caught a glimpse of Xander standing off to the side, his dark eyes practically smoldering. Apparently, he seemed to think she cleaned up nice too.
* * *
They took her to some hole-in-the-wall barbecue place she never would have found, much less stopped at, if it weren’t for the guys. But while the decor didn’t look like much, the food was delicious. According to Xander, it was almost as good as the barbecue in Kansas City, where he was originally from. Cooper told her that was high praise coming from Xander.
Since this was the first time the whole squad had gotten a chance to talk since rescuing little Melissa Kincaide, most of the conversation centered around Khaki’s unique sense of smell. She tried to answer their questions as best she could, but she didn’t really know why her nose was so much better than everyone else’s. The guys echoed Xander’s sentiment about the skill coming in handy on the job.
Khaki expected to call it a night after dinner, but Becker looked at her like she was crazy.
“Hell no.” He grinned. “It’s time to party!”
By party, Khaki assumed he meant hit up a few clubs, but instead of stopping at any of the half-dozen bars they passed, Cooper pulled up in front of a tattoo shop called Tiny’s. Xander and Alex parked behind them.
A bear of a man covered in tattoos practically up to his ears came out of the back of the shop and gave a manly hug to each of the guys. After he’d greeted all of them, he turned to give her an appraising look. As if she was a blank canvas that needed a lot of work.
“Is this her?” he asked.
“Yeah.” Xander grinned. “This is her. Tiny, meet Khaki Blake. Khaki, meet Tiny, the SWAT team’s personal tattoo artist.”
Khaki thought she nodded at Tiny, but she couldn’t be sure. Xander was standing so close they were almost touching, and it was distracting. The evening was turning muggy, and the light sheen of sweat on Xander’s skin smelled so insanely delicious when combined with his freshly showered scent, it made her want to rub up against him like a kitty.
A completely inappropriate thought for a werewolf, to be sure.
She was so intoxicated by his scent that it took a moment for the rest of his words to register.
