Tempted (Two Marks 1)

She licked her lips and Landry swiped at her wet cheek with his thumb. “What about my research? Do you trust me to publish?”

Landry drew a breath, then nodded, glancing my way for confirmation. “We trust you.“

I dropped another kiss on her neck. “Yes.”

“You’re not going to try to convince me not to submit it?” I could hear the hurt in her voice.

Damn, we’d really done a number on her, and it killed me. All she knew now was that she had been on a mission for me to complete. My goal had nothing to do with her other than to end her research. The fact that that had only lasted about ten seconds after I first spoke to her was irrelevant.

“Never again,” I swore, and Landry echoed my words.

“Sugar.” I grasped her hips and gently rotated her to face me. It took a moment, but she lifted her head so her watery dark eyes met mine. “It’s true that I came to Granger originally on Gibs’s orders. He wanted me to look into your research to make sure it wasn’t the cause of the two dead wolves with trackers.”

She winced and I cupped her face, stroking my thumb over her cheek to soothe away her guilt. “Hey, the moment I met you at the bar, I knew you couldn’t be doing anything intentional to harm wolves. Even if you hadn’t turned out to be our mate, even if your scent hadn’t grabbed me by the balls the moment I caught it, I would’ve known by your passion and enthusiasm for your research subjects that you meant no harm.”

Vulnerability flickered across her face.

“I need you to know that seducing you was never part of my plan.”

She arched a brow.

“Not that plan,” I corrected. “It was never meant to manipulate you, or stop your research. I caught your scent, and I knew instantly you were ours. Not pleasuring you would’ve been an impossibility. That’s how it is for us.”

She searched my face, like she was trying to be sure of my words.

“I swear to you, Caitlyn Shriver,” I vowed. “Seeing to your pleasure, your protection, and your happiness is my sole purpose in life. Same with Landry. We fucked it up badly, but we’re going to make it up to you.”

Fresh tears glistened in her eyes.

I leaned forward, my lips almost brushing hers. “May I kiss you?”

She lifted her mouth to mine and I slanted my lips, just allowing myself a taste. “I’m sorry we hurt you. Will you please let us make it up to you?”

She pressed her hands against my chest, and I instantly gave her more space.

Fuck, had I messed it up some more?

“What does that mean, exactly?” She turned to look over her shoulder at Landry, her voice full of continued wariness. “What do you want from me?”

“We just need you, sugar.” Landry picked Caitlyn up by the waist and sat her on the tailgate. Her feet dangled well above the ground. He lifted her hand, and held it as if it was the most precious thing in the world. “We need to be close to you. If that means we have to take turns with one of us staying with you in Granger while the other works here for the rest of our lives, we’ll do it.”

I nodded my agreement, moving closer to take her other hand.

“You’d do that for me?” she asked. The surprise in her question cut deep.

“We’d do anything for you.”

A tear slipped down her cheek again. Fuck. We were so bad at this.

“You should be mad at me after what happened to White Paw,” she said.

“Caitlyn, it’s—”

She held up her hand. “You guys aren’t the only ones who messed up here. Dr. Andrews took my research and used it… God, it’s so awful. I didn’t know. I didn’t. But, I’ve been trying to make it right.”

I nodded. “We got Randolph’s text, that you intend to remove all the trackers.”

“Yes, it’s the only way to guarantee Hollaroy won’t use the data.”

I looked to Landry. “Hollaroy,” I said. I stalked over to a tree, punched it. My knuckles broke, then began to immediately heal. All Randolph had texted was that he was with our mate, they were heading to take a tracker out of the local wolf, and where to meet up with them. We knew from the college students that Andrews had sold the data to ranchers, but not that it was Hollaroy. The fucker.

Caitlyn gasped, but didn’t say anything for a moment. Then, “It’s going to take some time, but I’ll get the trackers out of the wolves.”

Landry shook his head. “Randolph will head that up. He’ll get shifters on it. You don’t have to worry about it any longer.”

Her eyes widened and she shook her head. “It was because of me. I need to see it through.”