Read McQuade: The Lone Wolf Takes A Mate for Free Online

she’d consumed and the magnetism of the man beside her. “Do you think we’re okay now?”
    McQuade didn’t answer. He snapped the string around the bundle the man h ad tossed him. A piece of plastic unfolded.
    “Here. This might manage to keep you fairly dry.” His tone more than suggested he was tired of taking care of her. It was almost angry. She knew she’d screwed up walking into the bar. As soon as she’d determined Alice was nowhere to be seen, the smart thing would have been to turn around and run as fast as she could back to her car.
    Even though both humans and shifters had been inside, Rose knew she could never have counted on any help from the human males. It had been her experience that males, whether shifter or human, had all been cut from the same cloth–self-centered and unwilling to step out of their comfort zone unless it benefited them.
    Barely managing to catch the large square of plastic, she shook it out and slipped it over her head. Somehow she didn’t think this was exactly what Dr. Brothers had in mind when she’d encouraged women to wrap themselves in Saran Wrap and greet their husbands after a long, hard day.
    “I look like a— well, I don’t really know what I look like.” She held her arms up, the long sleeves hanging off the ends of her hands. The hemline was no better. What would have been a short rain cover-up for a man, brushed the asphalt on her.
    McQuade smiled at the picture she made. The first true smile she’d seen from him tonight. He pulled the plastic hood over her head and wedged the helmet over it. “There, all set.”
    He swung his leg over the seat of the bike and ordered her on behind him. “Come on Rose, let’s go.”
    “And how exactly do you propose I get on that thing?”
    His lips curved up. “Haven’t you ever straddled anything, darling?”
    “Um, n o.”
    Do not think about straddling him. Do not think about it.
    But his tone was so…suggestive.
    Okay, it was dark and he couldn’t see her blush. Could he?
    Her rescuer sighed.
    Rose knew that male sound so well–exasperation at what they considered the weaker sex.
    “Put your hand on my shoulder , then swing your right leg over the seat.”
    “Right, I’ll just swing my short, chubby leg higher than my waist while I’m wearing a skirt and enough plastic to cover a swimming pool.” She gritted her teeth and prayed her knees would stop knocking together as she contemplated her predicament. This was so embarrassing. She opened her mouth, ready to tell him just to forget about taking her home, when the man who had provided the plastic poncho walked over, lifted her as though she weighed next to nothing, and plopped her behind McQuade.
    “All set , sweetheart.”
    The deep voice rumbled in Rose’s ear. If she wasn’t already so taken with McQuade’s extremely handsome, though rough-around-the-edges, appearance, this man could have made her pant. Blonde and blue-eyed, with just enough mischievousness in his smile to make a woman forget her first name. And her last.
    “Hang on, babe,” McQuade shouted over his shoulder as he saluted the other man and started the bike.
    “As if I ha ve a choice,” she yelled, grabbing him around the waist and holding on for all she was worth.
    Rose’s fingers and toes were numb by the time they pulled o nto her street. She thought she’d been cold when she’d walked to the bar, but now she was just a shivering ball of misery. Her small apartment had never looked so good. When their parents died, Alice had already been living away from home, supporting herself with a string of temporary jobs. Rose had just started college. There’d been no savings or life insurance and the sale of the family home had barely covered the mortgage and funeral expenses. Rose had been left homeless with little more than the clothes on her back.
    She’d moved in with her sister thinking it would be the ideal solution. Two incomes, one set of bills. Hence, why the phone was in