Lauren shook her head in exasperation with herself and carried her coffee out of the kitchen and into the bathroom to get ready. Today was a big day at work. She had to be at her best, even if she had just managed to only get a few hours of sleep.
Kade woke, blinking against the sunlight in the room. He grinned instantly and turned his head. The other side of the bed was empty. His grin faded, and he inhaled instinctively. He smelled her, but it was faint. Lingering. He jumped out of bed and looked past the open bedroom door.
The cabin was small.
And she wasn’t in it.
He softly growled and stormed for the front door. His jacket had been moved from hanging on the door handle. He froze and looked around the living room. He saw the paper sticking out of his boot and moved fast to grab it. She had nice handwriting, but that didn’t make him feel better as he read.
Thanks for a great time, Kade. It was honestly the best time I ever had. I had to go to work. I’ll never forget the night we had. Have a good life. Lock the door when you leave, please. It was amazing.
He crushed the note in his hand. She hadn’t even signed it or given him her number. No suggestion to meet up with him later. No offer for him to come back tonight.
What the hell?
His mouth pressed into a tight line. He was pissed. Kade took a few breaths and then tried to relax. It’s for the best, he told himself. Life was complicated at the moment. The last thing he needed was another woman in his life expecting things from him.
She’d made it clear. It was a one-night stand. He was under no obligation to see Candy again. It was just great sex. He took another deep breath. Incredible sex, he mentally corrected. The little blonde with big blue eyes and long curly hair affected him like no other woman had in…
He couldn’t remember a woman ever affecting him the way she had.
If he hadn’t been so tired yesterday, he would have kept at her until she couldn’t have walked away this morning.
Kade dressed silently and made sure he didn’t leave anything behind. He locked the door behind him and walked to his Bronco. He wondered how in the hell she’d left. Maybe she’d had another vehicle around. He paused and walked behind his Bronco, studying the dirt road slowly, and then spotted the thin tracks. Dirt bike. He grinned. She rides a dirt bike? He couldn’t imagine the petite blonde who dressed in business clothes riding one—but he liked it.
A lot.
He pulled out of the long driveway and headed toward the motel. He checked the dash clock and yawned. It was just after nine in the morning. The drive was short.
He parked the Bronco once he got to the motel parking lot and walked upstairs to the room, unlocking the door and swinging it open.
He found his twin brother Cage sitting at the table, drinking coffee in a disposable cup. Cage arched an eyebrow and took a deep breath. A grin sprung to his lips.
“I’d ask you where you’ve been, but I can smell her all over you. No shower after massive amounts of sex, huh? That’s kind of rude, bro. I spent the night wondering where your ass was.”
Not surprising, considering Cage was a shifter and had an enhanced sense of smell. Kade did, too—something he almost gave away to Candy last night. Because he’d been so fucking turned on, he nearly lost a lifetime of well-honed survival skills. On good days, Kade and his three brothers blended in the human world better than most shifters.
“You could’ve just texted me,” Kade reminded him.
“Well, you left to go to the local were-bar and never came back. I figured you found company.” Cage pondered him for a moment. “Let me guess. A long-legged redhead?”
Kade shut the door as he stepped into the room. “Petite blonde.”
“Wow, we’ve been here three days. You work fast. Petite, huh? How did you manage to coax her into leaving with you when she saw your big ugly mug?”
Kade grinned and went to the coffee maker on the table. There was just enough left to fill the last disposable cup. He sat down at the table and took a gulp of it. “I didn’t. She walked right up to me and asked me to go home with her.”
Cage eyed his brother with a grin. “No shit? Brave bitch.”
“She wasn’t a bitch.”
Cage’s grin faltered a little. “Really?”
“Really.”
“But Desmon said The Barn is a shifter bar.”
“Oh, it is,” Kade assured him. “I think she ended up there by mistake. She admitted she wasn’t a big drinker. Hanging out there wasn’t a normal thing for her.”
“She’s lucky she walked up to you, then.” Cage grimaced. “Especially if it's neutral territory and those Goodwin motherfuckers frequent the place.”
Goodwin was the pack they fought in the territory war a couple of days ago, and they were bastards.
“Yeah, I thought the same thing, ‘cause she is fearless for a human,” Kade couldn’t help but smile as he said it.
“Did you give her your number?”
Kade took another drink of his coffee. “She didn’t ask for it.”
“So, are you calling her? It smells as though you liked her a hell of a lot.”
“She didn’t leave it. She had to go to work. She was gone before I woke up. She left me a note saying she had an amazing time, and that’s it.”
A laugh escaped Cage’s lips. “Are you losing your touch? Usually when you spend all night with a woman, she’s hounding you until you let her down easy.”
“Well, this one isn’t.” Kade stood up. “I’m going to shower.”
“Thank you. She smells very good, and it’s making me want to go to the bar to look for a petite blonde of my own.”
Kade slowly smiled. “She tasted better than she smells, if you can believe that. Ask me what her name was.”
Cage arched his eyebrow.
“Candy Barr. B.A.R.R.”
“You did a stripper?” Cage whistled. “No wonder you smell like sex so damn strongly. I could smell you the second you parked the Bronco. I bet Jordon and Cord next door smelled it too. I didn’t know this town hosted a strip bar.”
“She’s not a stripper, but she could be one if she wanted to be. She has the body for it. She’s a waitress.”
“Hey.” Jordon popped his head in the door like he heard his name, which maybe he did. Cat hearing was no joke. If only these Nightwind wolves knew. “Whew, man, you do reek of it.”
“I know, right?” Cage agreed sullenly. “He’s making me kinda jealous over here.”
“Whatever. We have bigger issues. Desmon called.” Jordon stepped in and pulled the door closed because the pack Alpha calling this early in the morning was something to be paid attention to. “There’s a problem. The Alliance is sending representatives to interview everyone about the territory fight from the other night. They’re trying to blame Nightwind for it. They should get to Desmon’s office any minute.”
“You must be kidding.” Kade couldn’t hide his disbelief. “The Goodwins attacked females and cubs on Nightwind land with human weapons. We had every right to defend pack territory.”
“And there’s surveillance footage of it,” Cage added. “Didn’t Desmon show them the security footage?”