19. Matt

NINETEEN

MATT

"And what's in yours?" Ranger got up and plonked himself beside me.

I'd asked him so many questions since we met, but now I had to ask some of myself.

First, did I want to be with this man? This extraordinary man who had a wolf inside him.

Second, would I be able to live my life if he wasn't in it?

And third, could I go back to being the Matt I was before if I walked away from Ranger?

Yes to the first.

Yes to the second, but I would grieve every day until I went to the goddess.

And no to the last. That Matt was gone and a new version had taken his place.

"What's going on in that head of yours?" Ranger asked.

"Plenty."

"And what have you decided?"

I took his hand and placed it over my heart, putting my marked palm on top. "Feel that? It beats so fast, Ranger."

"Is that normal or should I make a doctor's appointment?" He grinned, and I considered wiping it off by kissing him.

"It's your fault my heart is racing."

"Sorry, but that could be a sign of fear or love. Or perhaps you need a heart transplant."

My head fell back on the sofa. "Are you taking this seriously?"

His smile faded. "Absolutely."

"How would this work? I know nothing about you. Where do you live?"

"In an apartment in the city."

"Me too." That was probably where the similarity ended. "What's the view from your place?"

"A park."

"Mine's a brick wall."

"A very dirty one."

"You've been there," I hollered. "More evidence of stalking."

He held up both hands. "Guilty."

"Bedrooms?"

"Yes, I have those."

"The number." I rolled my eyes.

"Four, plus a study."

It occurred to me he might not live alone. "Why do you need so many? You can only sleep in one bed at a time." I had a vision of an omega in every room and Ranger flitting from one to the other during the night.

He shrugged. "Family. They arrive en masse sometimes."

"One for me, and a bathroom with a leaky faucet." I braced myself for the number of bathrooms in his place.

"I can fix that."

"The leak?" If he was as handy with other tools as he supposedly was with a wrench, he could fix a lot of stuff in my apartment.

"Nah, you live with me, and ta-da, no dripping faucet."

We lived in different worlds, not just human and shifter but rich and struggling to pay the rent.

"You need more time, and I'm sorry if I'm pushing you." He stroked my hand.

Dane was after me, and if Ranger and his family couldn't protect me, my time was running out. If I didn't live to see another sunrise, I should grasp every chance at happiness and hold on tight.

I wouldn't agree with Ranger that he'd earned a place in my heart just because I was scared of what tomorrow might bring. But I also couldn't deny the emotions churning inside me.

"I do, ummm, like you… more than like you." I couldn't say the other L-word, though. "This is confusing."

"For both of us, Matt." He rested his brow on mine, and we stayed like that, not moving, while the room warmed.

"I don't have all the answers regarding my career, past, present, and future…"

Ranger put a finger to my lips. "Neither do I, but the priority is to stop Dane."

Hmmm, that expression had taken on a new meaning since meeting Ranger. Stopping Dane using mafia shifter methods was different to having the guy go to jail.

"I meant what I said. I want him arrested." This particular mess was my doing, and we'd do it the human way. Except there was a huge-ass hole in my plan. Ding, ding, ding as Ranger would say.

Dane wasn't human.

"Putting a shifter in jail requires a special maximum-security prison. It would be easier to?—"

Now it was my turn to use a kiss as a silencer. My lips brushed over his. I cupped his face, relishing the warmth of his skin under my palms while my tongue traced around his mouth, teasing his lips, daring him to part them. My heart rate sped up as I savored the taste of him.

This was the man who had captured my heart, or maybe I'd handed it over willingly, and the kiss blocked out and swept away everything else, just for a few seconds. With my tongue inside him, he moaned, and my body tingled, making me think maybe a future together was possible.

We pulled away, staring at one another.

"Perhaps we can wait a few more hours. He's not going anywhere in this weather." Ranger swooned. I swore he did, all gooey eyes, jelly limbs, and shoulder shimmies. He reminded me of a marionette.

"Nah, we can't wait." There was a knot of uneasiness in my belly, but we had to confront the Dane problem now. I refused to cower like a frightened rabbit waiting for my now former boss to make a move.

I—or make that "we" with the Durands—had to devise a plan to silence him. Eeek! Now I sounded like a bloodthirsty… maybe not a mobster but a criminal. But my aim was to get Dane to pay for his crimes without any bloodshed.

"Let's do this." I flung the blankets off, covering Ranger's head, and bounded around the room. After all the reveals and confessions, I was energized, wanting to resolve the issue and get on with living.

"I'll get my family."

"No. First I need access to a computer." I rubbed my hands, excited to have not a plan—I wasn't a battle-hardened mafia shifter—but inspiration. "Wait, are you battle-hardened?"

He screwed up his mouth. He tilted his head then he licked a finger and held it up as if testing the wind. I harrumphed and tapped my foot on the floor.

"Don't play games, Ranger."

"I'm not, but I am thinking." He put his hands in his pockets. "What does it matter?"

He studied his hands, the silvery lines on the back telling a story I couldn't interpret when we met. Not that I had the details now, but those marks were his history, his timeline.

"My wolf has fought battles."

"Okay, that's enough. I designate you battle-hardened. Now the computer."

Ranger opened a cupboard behind me to reveal a foldaway desk and laptop. Using his fingerprint, he turned it on and inserted a login code.

"What are you looking for?" He leaned over my shoulder and nuzzled my ear as I logged into my account on the cloud.

"Just checking what my favorite celebrities are up to?"

"Matt!"

"Joking, Ranger." I tapped at the keyboard, searching for the emails and files I'd copied from Dane's assistant's phone. Some of them had been encrypted, but Baxter had decrypted them all last time we spoke.

There was an email from Baxter, sent just after he texted me when I was leaving the apartment. I skimmed it and paused before reading it again. Oh shit! I couldn't believe he did that. Damn. I should never have trusted a hacker. Now I could be in a big pile of poo. F him.

Ignoring Baxter's revelation for the moment, I pointed out to Ranger the trail of emails between the assistant and Dane referring to sabotaging La Luna Noir's recycling business. They included threats, bribes, and manipulating government officials to deny permits. I also had his bank statements going back years.

"Does that help your family?"

He squished my cheeks together and kissed my brow, leaving me gasping for breath.

"I knew about the bribes and threats, but I didn't have his bank statements."

He put his lips on mine and the Dane problem vanished. Instead, I had to figure out what to do with my hard cock.

But something else was niggling me, like a stitch or cramp when running. In order to prevent the Durands meting out shifter justice, I needed something other than Dane making threats.

Uncle Arnie mentioning the sink being clogged triggered a memory, but Ranger was trailing kisses over my jaw.

I pulled away from him. "The solution for unclogging the sink. What's in it?"

"You choose now to take an interest in plumbing? Great timing," he mumbled. "Says a lot about my technique if what I'm doing reminds you of a blocked sink."

"Ranger, please, I'm thinking." He was whispering how much he loved me, nibbling the soft part of my ear and sticking his tongue in.

"Don't think."

"Please."

"Ummm, sulphuric acid probably."

The deliveries of chemicals I'd mistakenly assumed was for recycling was for something else. I was a fool for not checking the inventory list more closely.

Now Ranger was massaging my shoulders. Damn him. Did he want to catch Dane or have sex? I rewound the question in my head. Hmmm, there was no contest except for the tiny detail of my life hanging in the balance.

Ranger pulled back my jacket and shirt. Goosebumps danced over my skin and dived into little crevices, making it almost impossible to concentrate. Every inch of me was covered in the spiky little bits of flesh, reminding me of a miniature bed of nails, but much more pleasant.

"Don't mind me." He pushed my chair back and sat on the floor under the desk, before pulling the chair toward him. "I'm searching for something too."

He spread my legs, lifting my feet over his shoulders.

"Your family might come in." And I was concentrating on Operation Take Dane Down.

Something else was going down. My zipper. Yikes.

"Stop," I hissed. I'd made a friend in Uncle Arnie, but if Rudy popped in, I'd slink under the desk and never emerge. Wait, not a great idea because Ranger was under there too. Eeek.

Ranger reached into my pants. I wasn't wearing underwear ‘cause dressing in his dad's clothes was okay but not his boxers. Besides, I wore briefs.

"Commando. I like it." He stroked my cock, and I tried to control my breathing as his fingertips trailed over the shaft.

"This is important." Much as I wanted to give in to him, to lock the door and get naked, to have him in me, I had to think.

"So is this. Me giving you a hand job or if you slide your ass closer, a blow job."

I pictured us going at it and the chair scooting back into the couch with me yelling, "I'm going."

Ranger unbuttoned my pants and pulled out my length. How easy it would be to give in to him.

"I love your cock. It's thick and pink and the perfect size for my mouth." I gripped the edge of the desk as his licked the head. "Mmmm, you taste so good."

He swallowed the tip, and I arched my back, relishing the heat pulsing through my veins. One hand rested on the keyboard while the fingers on my other hand were entangled in his hair.

Ranger wrapped his hand around my shaft and slid it to the base while he took the rest of me in his mouth. I hunched over the desk as he blew me, my half-lidded eyes scanning rows of chemicals.

"I've got it."

"So do I." Him mumbling around my cock sent heat surging through me.

I'd found a way to have Dane sent to jail and not torn apart by Ranger and his family. "That's it." I leaned forward, panting and peering at the screen as Ranger sucked my dick. I moaned, desire threading through my body, from my toes to my fingertips.

"Ranger, listen."

"Can't stop. Won't stop."

I gave in and studied what was left of the driveway illuminated by the moonlight. Not that I could actually see it ‘cause it was covered in mud and rocks. I hoped the house wouldn't collapse, but Ranger had assured me that wouldn't happen. The weather alert on the computer indicated more rain to come. Dane was stuck in town.

I was giving myself a break.