In Her Heat - Ainsley's Story

In Her Heat - Chapter Sixteen

“And I don’t want us to match.” I grabbed my new toothbrush and squirted a squiggle of toothpaste onto it. I wet the brush and began to brush my teeth.

“No? I think it would be cute.”

I snorted and spat out the foamy paste. “Somehow I don’t think you’re the kind of guy who goes for the ‘cute’ look.” I put more paste onto my brush, wet it again and resumed my brushing.

“Hey, I can be a flexible guy.” My only response was to snort again. “Hurtful,” he said, laughter reflected in his voice.

I finished up my brushing two minutes later. I heard Cade move into the living room as I grabbed a bottle of facewash from a drawer. I lathered up and washed my face, hoping it would refresh me some. I washed twice before rinsing off and toweling my face. I could smell the scent of coffee coming from the kitchen. I wrinkled my nose as I spread lotion then sunscreen over my pale white skin. If I didn’t apply generous amounts of sunscreen to my face periodically, I burnt worse than a piece of bacon in a volcano.

I grabbed my brush, teasing comb and can of hairspray from the drawer of the counter. Then I set to work doing my hair. Does Cade like my hair better up or down? Does he like my bangs or my hair pulled off my face? The thoughts floated through my mind automatically. Stop it! I told myself. Wear your hair like you like it! I shook my head to clear those niggling thoughts. I ended up wearing my hair out and teasing it a little. But the thoughts kept on coming as I pulled out my makeup bag. Does Cade like makeup on me? Maybe a more natural look, or does he like the mascara and eyeliner?

“Argh!” This man was consuming my thoughts.

“Everything good in there?” He called from the kitchen.

“Great.” I gritted out.

“Well hurry up, we have to meet Damon in fifteen minutes.”

With a sigh, I applied my makeup as usual. Lip gloss, a touch of mascara and eyeliner. Cade would have to like it or deal with it. I grabbed a small cross body bag and put in my makeup and a pen and paper. It was all I really had.

As I walked into the kitchen, I asked Cade a question that had been in the back of my mind for a while now. “When am I going to be able to go back to my apartment? Or at least be able to get my stuff?”

Cade sighed and took another sip from his coffee mug. “I don’t know, Ainsley. I doubt you’ll be going back to your apartment to live there. It’s just not safe anymore. Every pack knows that’s your apartment now and if you went back there you’d be in serious danger.”

“So every pack doesn’t know I’m here?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. I sank into a chair across the table from Cade and waited for his answer.

“Well they do-”

“So how am I any safer here?” I blurted out.

“We can provide much more protection here than we could at your apartment. We have a lot of weapons and technology here to help keep our packmates safe that we couldn’t possibly bring to your apartment. Plus we wouldn’t be able to bring as many security detail to your apartment – there’d be no space. But here, almost every young adult and every adult knows how to fight, knows how to protect our pack. You’re a lot safer here, Ainsley. You can understand that right?”

I sighed. This logical Cade was right and he knew it, the smug bastard. I gave up on that argument. “Well what about my stuff? I mean, I don’t have any of my clothes here, I don’t have my cell phone and my wallet is back home. Reese and Ashton didn’t exactly let me pack before hauling me out of there.”