Calling in a Recker: Chosen Book 26 Read online

  We still hadn't moved, him lying on his back on the trampoline mat with his arms around my neck and me pretty much sprawled on top of him, my elbows braced on either side of his body as we tried to negotiate the terms of my bodyguarding him while at the trampoline park. It was kind of an intimate position, and definitely more contact than we'd had since I met him, but after several days of him being so close, and me not being able to touch him, I couldn’t find the willpower to let him go.

  His mouth was so temptingly close to mine when he spoke again, and I struggled with trying to pay attention to his words, even though my eyes were trained on his lips the entire time.

  “You can also do it from right next to me, where the fun is,” he reasoned, his fingers sliding over the skin on the back of my neck, and making goosebumps break out along my arms and legs.

  "What if I don't think this is fun?" I whispered, my mouth moving dangerously closer to his.

  His smile looked like it would taste delicious. "I'm sorry. I don't understand what you're saying. I don't think you're allowed to put the words trampoline, not and fun in the same sentence. There is some kind of grammatical issue that will like, make the entire world implode or something.

  "Well, didn't you just put those three words in the same sentence?"

  He paused for a moment, clearly thinking back. "Damn you, Recker. We are going to be the reason for Armageddon."

  "You're ridiculous," I said, smiling fondly.

  His eyes widened slightly, moving down to watch my mouth intently, before swiping a tongue out to lick his lips.

  I couldn't wait for the day when I thought he might be ready to hear about shifters and mates. As it was, we hadn't really known each other for all that long. I'd been watching him a little longer from the woods outside his cabin like a creepy stalker until the division could get me a meeting with his agent.

  Apparently, there were people even the FBI couldn't get a meeting with in a timely fashion.

  "Uh, hate to interrupt," a male voice said from just over us. "Seriously, I really hate to interrupt since you guys definitely look hot as hell like that… but you can't take a break on the mats. You'll get jumped on."

  I pulled back, turning my head to find a fairly young man standing over us, probably barely over eighteen years old, smirking down at us.

  Shit! I'd been so wrapped up in my conversation with my sexy mate, I'd forgotten there were children around. I was lucky our bottom halves weren't touching, or I might have been tempted to dry hump him right there in the middle of the family establishment.

  Kennedy groaned, and I sighed, trying to ease off him, but he wrapped his arms around my neck more tightly. "Five more minutes," he whined, burying his face in my neck and making the worker chuckle.

  "I hear you, I do," the guy said. "The good Lord knows I'd be just as upset as you if I was in your position, but rules is rules."

  I managed to keep from chuckling at the way Kennedy's face scrunched up in a glare as he tried to look around my shoulder, but I purposely blocked him before standing up and helping him to his feet.

  We both turned to the young man, me smiling and Kennedy frowning. His show of jealousy made me stupidly happy and gave me hope for when I finally told him about shifters and mates… whenever that would be.

  The kid looked us over one more time, letting out a long, blissful sigh. "Have fun guys," he said, before turning and jogging down the steps.

  "Well," I said, turning back to Kennedy and smirking at the glare he was still shooting at the back of the kid's head. "Let's go play. I'm suddenly feeling much more energetic."

  I grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the runway type trampolines by the foam pit, and he stomped along behind me, grumbling the entire way about young kids staying in their lane.

  Thirty minutes later and I was trying desperately not to laugh at the disgruntled look on Kennedy's face. I wasn't even sure what I'd done, but he'd been glaring at me off and on since the kid walked out of sight, and he needed something new to take his wrath out on.

  I took the sweaty, probably absolutely disgusting laser-tag vest off and hung it on the hook on the wall along with the gun that was attached to it, and turned to find Kennedy still glaring, having made no progress towards taking his own stuff off.

  "Do you need help or something?" I asked, doing my best to sound as condescending as possible."

  He thrust the gun into my arms, probably forgetting it was attached to the vest he was wearing, since the jerky motion pulled a little on the heavy plastic, making him stumble slightly.

  "You're ridiculously good at everything, aren't you?" He asked, gripping the shoulders of the vest and lifting it up over his head.

  I chuckled when he slammed that too into my chest, before crossing his arms in front of him.

  "Yeah, I really am," I said modestly, nodding my head.

  "Wait, maybe I should say, you're great at everything except climbing out of a foam pit."

  He smirked slightly, probably remembering how ridiculous I'd looked trying to climb out of that thing after doing a double backflip––which I'd gotten reprimanded for since you weren't supposed to do doubles––and the fact that he'd had to climb out first and help me, waiting for me to get high enough in the fucking pit of doom to get two arms and one leg hooked up over the edge, before practically rolling me out of the thing.

  I was sure the whole thing had looked super manly and cool.

  I shook my head. "That is not a place for children. I bet they have to trawl it every night before closing to make sure there aren't kids at the bottom that couldn't manage to get out. It's like fucking quicksand." I looked him up and down, giving him a slight smirk. "You're stronger than you look."

  He narrowed his eyes on me, pursing his lips. "I don't know if that offends me or not. How strong do I look?"

  I blinked at him for a long time, debating whether to answer the question or not. On the one hand, it was kind of fun to mess with him. Who knew I had that in me? But on the other, dealing with the disgruntled Kennedy was sometimes more than I could handle.

  When it was clear I wasn't gonna answer at all, he sighed, reaching out to grab my wrist. "Let's go play dodgeball. You can intimidate the shit out of some little kids with that face."

  "Now I'm not sure if I'm offended," I said, curling my lip. "And I'm not throwing rubber balls of pain at little kids. I'd probably end up hurting somebody."

  He smiled for the first time since we’d gotten there, though I didn't really know if you could call what his face did a smile, since smiling seemed like such a positive thing, while the smile on my mate's face actually spoke of an evilness everyone should be leery of. "I know," he said, rubbing his hands together. "It'll be fun."

  I shook my head, curling my lip at the man. "Not happening. And you're not playing either." He started to whine, his body going floppy as he stomped his foot, but I glared, shutting him up quickly. "I'd probably lose it if someone accidentally––or maybe not so accidentally since I'm almost positive you're a shit talker, and someone would end up pissed––hit you in the face or something."

  He blinked several times, smiling brightly. "Is that your way of telling me you like my face and don't want it ruined. Or, or, or, that you care about me and don't want me in pain?"

  I rolled my eyes, giving him a bored look, and then I reached out and grabbed his wrist, dragging him out of the laser tag room. "Let's go to the wall."

  Again, I was surprised by his strength when he threw on the brakes, jerking me sideways for a second before I recovered. When I turned to look at him, his eyes were wide as he watched the goings-on at the fake-rock wall with the rainbow-colored handholds.

  "Aah… I'm not so sure about the wall." His voice was a little shaky, and I noticed that sweat seemed to have broken out on his forehead.

  I looked over at the wall, wanting to laugh at the clear simplicity of it. Hell, there was a three-year-old near to the top, and he was barely long enough to even stretch between one hold and another.

  "Are you afraid of heights?" I asked, desperately trying not to laugh. I didn't think things would go well if I laughed.

  He glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes and then back at the wall, swallowing hard. "Not necessarily. I'm more afraid of hitting the ground at terminal velocity. Terminal doesn't mean get up and walk away."

  I barked out a laugh, blinking at him in disbelief. "It's a kid's rock wall. I don't think it's high enough for you to reach terminal velocity."

  He looked at me with raised eyebrows, lips pursed. "Are you a scientist or physicist?"

  I shook my head, biting my lip. "I really don't think you need to be."

  I had to admit, it had been a really long time since I'd been to any kind of science class or physics class, or done anything in the way of learning beyond the couple of times I'd stumbled across something on the Discovery Channel, but I was pretty sure falling from twenty feet up was not a death sentence, unless you were just really bad at falling and landed on your head or something.

  When I just continued to blink, letting him see by the expression on my face that I thought he was being ridiculous, he growled.

  "Why is it so important to you? Are you part of a rock-climbing cult trying to round up new members?" He jerked his arm away from me, crossing it with the other in front of his chest. "Or maybe I'm the sacrifice. It's like an initiation, right? You have to show you were willing to climb a mountain with me and then push me off, so they know you're serious about gaining entry into the cult."

  I ignored his ridiculous statement and reached out, grabbing him again and dragging him along to the wall. "You said you wanted to have fun, let's have fun."

  I'd already climbed the wall once and come back down, and then climbed it again, waiting for
Kennedy who was only halfway up. On my second descent, I stopped to look at him, at first chuckling at the white-knuckled grip he had on the colorful handholds—until I saw his face.

  "Shit." I scrambled sideways, getting closer. "You really are scared." He nodded, the move making him shift slightly, and he let out a squeak, closing his eyes tight. "Sh... Hey, let them lower you to the ground."

  "No way," he whispered, his eyes tight. "What if I have a faulty clip, it might break and send me crashing to my doom."

  "Baby," I said softly, reaching out to touch his hair. "You're only ten feet off the ground."

  His eyes shot open, pure panic on his face. "I'm ten feet off the ground?" he squeaked. "Do you know how high that is? Have you ever tried to swim to the bottom of a ten-foot pool? It feels like you're swimming forever." He gasped, glancing over at me quickly. "Oh God. This is gonna be like a ten-minute drop."

  "Then you definitely won't be moving at terminal velocity," I said, my amusement making my voice shake as my stomach quivered with pent-up laughter.

  "Stop talking nonsense, you gravity-ignorant non-physicist and get me down."

  I reached out again, running my fingers through his hair. "You're really cute like this."

  "What…" He started to say, but I grabbed him around the waist and pushed off the wall, holding him tight to my body.

  He let out what I was sure was meant to be a high-pitched squeal, but more like a silent scream, and they eased us to the ground, him clutching my arms the entire time, eyes tightly shut.

  When we hit the ground, I continued to hold on to him for a moment, gently urging him to put his feet down, and he did, turning immediately to press his face to my chest.

  "Are you okay?" I asked, wrapping my arms around him loosely.

  He shook his head profusely, before lifting it to meet my gaze. "No. Feel this." He pulled back slightly, reaching around to grab my hand and then pull it up to his chest, looking up at me as I felt the rapid beat of his heart under my fingers. "Does this feel like the heart rate of an okay human being to you? I'm burning way too many calories right now." I started to smile, unable to help myself anymore, and he paused to glare at me. "Why the fuck is your face doing that?"

  A man in a yellow shirt with the trampoline park's logo on it cleared his throat, leaning closer to us. "Sir, can you please watch your language? This is a family place."

  Kennedy turned, glaring hard at the poor man who was just doing his job. "Did you not see what just happened to me? I almost died. I think I'm allowed to say whatever the fu…"

  I kissed him. I grabbed the sides of his face, spun his head to face me, and laid one on him.

  It was just a long, drawn-out press with no tongue, but it made my lips burn and tingle, and I wanted to press for more.

  I didn't, mostly because we'd already been warned twice about our behavior, and we were supposed to be adults.

  I pulled back, smiling softly when I found his head still tilted back and his eyes closed, while he savored the feel of my mouth against his.

  "That's not helping my heart rate," he said, eyes closed. They snapped open suddenly, and he nailed me to the spot with his golden-green gaze. "And I'm really cute all the time. Not just when I'm in mortal danger."

  I nodded, completely in agreeance. "Oh, I know."

  He reached up, looking at something near the corner of my mouth. "You're wearing part of my beard."

  I held still, but just barely as he picked short little blond hairs off my face. His beard was looking a little patchy.

  After all the drama, we both kind of decided it was time to go, and we started gathering our stuff. Kennedy was hit with the sudden urge to pee, and we hustled to the bathroom, but once we got in there, things just didn't seem to want to happen.

  "I can't concentrate with you in here. Go outside for a second." He glanced over his shoulder at me from the urinal, smirking. "Plus, my dick is still hard because I can't stop thinking about you kissing me."

  I groaned, thankful there was nobody in the bathroom, since we were still in a family-friendly establishment and my mate couldn't seem to keep his mouth from spewing things that were going to get us beat up by some angry parent if we didn't watch it.

  Shaking my head, I walked out of the bathroom, leaving him to pee in peace. There were only a few more people there than when we first arrived, and there wasn't a back way out of the bathroom, so I was pretty sure he was safe as long as I didn't have to leave my spot.

  Of course, as soon as I stepped out of the bathroom, a little blonde girl with giant watery eyes stepped up to me. "Did you see my daddy in there?"

  I shook my head, crouching down in front of her. "No, sweetie. The only person in the bathroom is my friend."

  More tears filled her eyes, making me itchy. I didn't deal well with children or tears.

  I looked around frantically, hoping to see some man with wide eyes running around looking for his lost daughter. Unfortunately, there were only two other men besides the workers that I could see from where I was standing, and both of them seemed pretty involved with their own children.

  "What does he look like, sweetie?" I asked, wondering if the man had maybe stepped outside to answer the phone or something, but I didn't see anyone from my fairly decent vantage point when I looked through the huge windows at the front of the store, out into the parking lot.

  "He has a beard and glasses." I nodded, stepping around a large column to see if I could see a man with a beard and glasses possibly standing in one of the areas I couldn't see from my position. "And he's purple."

  I frowned, turning to blink at the girl in confusion. "He's purple?"

  "Mmhmm. He's got his purple on today."

  I repressed a groan, not wanting the child to see my frustration. Asking a six-year-old for a description was pretty fruitless.

  She tugged on my hand, pulling me further into the establishment, and I turned to look over my shoulder, not wanting to leave my mate. "Hold on, Sweetie," I said, once again crouching down in front of her. Let's wait for my friend to get out of the bathroom, and then I'll help you find your dad." I was feeling oddly anxious, like I was too far away from the bathroom already.

  "Emily!" A worried-looking man with a purple shirt, a beard and glasses came running around the corner, immediately clutching his chest and sighing in relief when he saw her standing there beside me, and I smiled.

  "Daddy! I couldn't find you. I looked everywhere." Her little voice quivered as she hugged him, making my eyes prick a little.

  "I was in the same place you left me. I just took my glasses off because I have a headache and saw another little blonde girl in a pink shirt and jean shorts and thought it was you," he said, aiming his words more in my direction than hers, probably wanting me to know he hadn't meant to lose his daughter.

  "Oh," she said, blinking. "I didn't look there."

  I laughed, once again looking over my shoulder, not sure what was taking Kennedy so long… and saw him… on the other side of the glass separating the lobby from the street out front, his eyes meeting mine, while a hand covered his mouth and a big guy tried to drag him off.

  The purple man was thanking me, but I couldn’t stick around. I took off at a dead run, nearly taking out a little boy who was slowly making his way toward the bathroom, eyes trained on the painting on the wall and not really watching where he was going.

  I managed to skirt him, but just barely and caught the bar across the door harder than was probably necessary. When I reached the parking lot, it was to find Kennedy, stepping on the man's foot just as he was starting to raise it, making him trip up, before going completely limp.

  The man was a shifter, I could smell the wolf from the door, but even a shifter could be thrown off balance, and he definitely was, stumbling forward and dropping Kennedy to catch himself so he didn't faceplant the ground.

  Kennedy fell on his ass hard, but at least he was safe and out of the man's hands. I growled, barely managing to keep from shifting as the man scrambled up from the ground and darted off. I glowered after him as I knelt by my mate, beyond frustrated that I didn't have anyone to stay by Kennedy and make sure he was safe while I chased the man down and ripped him apart.