Page 84 of Never the Same

I released her throat, and she pinned my hand between her legs as if not ready to be done yet.

I caught sight of a shadow in the doorway. That shadow launched into a full-on storm of barking before a familiar voice called out my name.

We weren’t under attack, but my team leader was about to have my ass.

“Don’t move.” I pulled my hand away, kissed her temple, then slid open the door to get out, water streaming off me. “Git,” I told Ranger, lifting my chin as a second command, feeling oddly protective of letting anyone, even an animal, see my girl naked.

I paused at the thought whiplashing me in the face. My girl? I shook it off, not yet digesting what had just happened in that shower and how fast I’d thrown five-plus years of practiced restraint out the window for her.

I snagged a towel and half-assed dried my hair as if my jeans weren’t plastered to my legs. “Coming, one sec.”

Ranger was waiting alone in the bedroom, hackles raised, still barking his head off.

“Where are you?” Alex that time—just great. I’d get a two-for-one lecture special.

I went out into the hall, Ranger following close behind. “When I said use my key for an emergency,” I hissed, “this wasn’t what I had in mind.”

“You weren’t answering your phone,” Ryder said, waiting for me at the end of the hallway alongside Alex. “We got worried something happened.” He holstered his sidearm.

“Looks like something did happen,” Alex tossed out under his breath, securing his Glock as well. Silent judgment, or maybe amusement, was written into every line of his face.

“What?” I scoffed. “You don’t take showers in your jeans?” I dragged the towel across my chest. “Why were you calling?”

Ryder propped his hand up on the wall, shooting me an Are you kidding me? look.

I walked down the hall, water dripping from me with every step, a dark trail in my wake. I couldn’t stop staring at it, following the evidence of what I’d done.

My tongue had been in Hollis’s mouth, my hand between her legs, and I . . .

Ah, shit. I checked my jeans, praying my hard-on was gone. Thank God.

“What’s going on?” At Hollis’s soft voice, I froze mid-step, the towel slipping from my hand. She was supposed to stay back out of sight, but of course she didn’t listen.

She stood in the hall, damp hair over her shoulders, soaking through her shirt. Bare feet on the slick hardwood floors as she took cautious steps our way.

Her lips were still swollen from kissing, and they parted open in question.

Right. Why were we interrupted? I pivoted around to the reason I wasn’t making her come for a second time.

“Constantine called with news,” Ryder said, a worried expression crossing his face.

Hypocrite. The guy had once blown his own cover for Seraphina, and now he wanted to judge me?

Hollis stood alongside me, wrapping her arms around herself, shivering. She was cold, nervous, and exposed.

I shoved past the guys to grab a blanket from the hall closet. When I draped it over her shoulders, she looked up at me, eyes apologetic for not hanging back as I’d requested.

Ranger came around between us and planted himself on her feet like a guard, and I forced myself to face Ryder. “So?”

“Three people confirmed Hollis was at the rave in the library and that she wasn’t alone.” Ryder’s words hit me hard. “They wouldn’t turn over cell phones, and Constantine couldn’t exactly force them to do it.”

My spine went stiff, and my fingers curled inward at the sides of my wet jeans as I tried to rally, to get through whatever was about to hit me next, and I could feel it coming. Something that’d knock the wind from me. Wait, did he say . . . ?

“I wasn’t alone?” Hollis echoed my thoughts, playing catch-up to what Ryder had said. Meanwhile, my chest was splitting in two.

“The crowd allegedly scattered when they realized shots were being fired,” Ryder continued, not addressing her question. Not yet, at least. “One witness saw you run to the back of the basement’s library and disappear. He said the guy you were with covered your escape. Several men were shooting at you two.”

The guy you were with were the only words I could latch on to.