“Nick, you know what? You’re an ass. This place is too small.” She turned to glare at him. Gabe was on the phone in the study and looked up but kept out of it for the time being.

“I’m an ass because you have too many clothes?”

“I have too many clothes? You’re a man, Nick, and you have more clothes than I do! You have more pairs of shoes than I do. Oh, okay that’s a lie, no one has more shoes than I do, but still, you give me a run for my money. In any case, you’re an ass because you want me to keep my clothes in boxes while yours hang up and are in drawers. Way to make me feel at home.”

She plopped on the couch.

He sighed, biting back a smile at her comments. “And what would you propose? That I put several thousand-dollar suits in a box while you hang your jeans up?”

Her eyebrow slowly rose and Gabe snorted a laugh and murmured something over the phone.

“I propose that you get some comfortable shoes on. We’re meeting the realtor in twenty minutes to go and look at houses. I figure for now we can rent until we figure out just what the hell is going to happen.

When we want to buy, did you know that Lex is an architect? He designed the house that he and Nina and Cade live in now. It’s been in Architectural Digest , you know.”

Nick rolled his eyes. “Of course. Can’t just be the big bad Enforcer, he has to be some f**king fabulous architect too. Is there anything Lex can’t do?”

Tracy laughed. “Well, that took your mind right off me setting up a date to go look at houses to rent. I’ll

have to keep that in mind for the future.” She got up and shoved him in a chair and scrambled atop his lap. “As for what Lex can’t do? Why, my darling sweet wolf, he can’t be you. And that’s everything.”

Nick looked up at her, into that face with those big green eyes and those freckles and fell for the thousandth time in the thousandth way. “You’re really good, you know that?”

“I have to be to keep you.” She rolled her hips, grinding herself over him, and he grabbed her, holding her to him as he arched into her.

She brushed her lips over his and he breathed her in, letting her presence calm and soothe him.

“Let’s go in the bedroom,” he murmured, kissing her chin.

“Can’t. We have to leave soon to meet the realtor at her office.” Her hands in his hair, she pulled him up so that their lips were touching again. “But I definitely want a rain check.”

“Can’t you call her? Put it back a few hours?”

“Nope.” She stood up and straightened her clothes. “It is my plan to have a place by the end of today if it kills you and Gabe. I want my dog here, I want my own closet. I want a place that doesn’t have echoes of your past conquests.”

He winced and Gabe walked up behind her and encircled her waist with his arms. “Hi, sweetness. You giving Nick a hard time?”

“I am not!” she said with mock indignation. “It’s time to get ready to go see the realtor. So let’s go.”

Once they all got downstairs to the garage, they piled into Gabe’s rental because Nick’s Porsche was too small for the three of them.

“And where am I going?” Nick asked Tracy with a smile.

“I looked through your Pack address book and called Shelley. The other realtor you wanted to use was part of that whole mess last night and I don’t want any part of that. But she didn’t seem to be and I saw that she worked for a realty company and when I called and chatted with her she had a lot of great ideas.

I’m sure you know where she works.”

Nick sat there looking at her. “You called Shelley? You know that she and I…that we…”

“Oh stop stuttering.” Tracy waved her hand. “It’s fine. I know what she was to you and I know what I am to you. Even better, she knows it too. So let’s get moving. I want to find a place to live and I want to do it today.”

Gabe knew better than to even suggest that it might take some time to find a place. She’d proven to him that she could pretty much move mountains by sheer will and so he just sat back and handled some Pack business on his cell phone on the way to the realtor’s.

Once there, each male took one of her arms and they garnered a few curious looks as they went into the office. Shelley stood near the reception desk speaking with someone when she saw them come in.

“Hi!” She approached with a smile, and ignoring Gabe and Nick, kissed Tracy’s cheek. “You look great. Let’s go back to my office and I’ll show you a few places I think would be good for you all.”

Looking up briefly at Nick and Gabe, she motioned her head toward her doorway and they followed.

Once inside, Tracy sat next to Shelley and they discussed the listings on rentals in the area, the various amenities and drawbacks to each one. In the end, they found four to go look at and rejected a few.

Tracy rode with Shelley in her car while the men, Nick finally giving up the argument, followed in their car.

“It drives him crazy to imagine what I might be telling you,” Shelley said with a laugh as they drove.

Tracy laughed. “Oh I know anyway. Why wouldn’t he have slept with you? You’re gorgeous and he’s hot. It seems a natural thing. But you certainly seem to be fine with it so what’s the problem?”

The redhead looked at her from the corner of her eye. “Well, yes. I’m just amazed you think so. I mean, after what went down last night I’m surprised you’re even speaking to any of us. I can’t believe it all happened the way it did. God, you must think we’re all a bunch of savages.”