Chapter Four
***
“Twenty-four hours.”Twenty-four damning hours.Reid powered down his office technology and rounded his desk, resting his hand on the back of Clara’s chair in an effort to lead her out of the room. His fingers brushed her silken blond hair.
She looked up at him, her body stiff under his shadow. “For what?”
“Until you’re allowed to sign.”
She scrambled out of her seat to follow him as he left the room. His hackles raised, annoyed, frustrated, and his nostrils filled with the smell of fruit. Her footsteps sounded behind him.
“I’m ready now.”
“Standard procedure.”
“I don’t need it. I’ve thought this through. I’m a hundred percent certain I want to join the program.”
His teeth ground together. Reid had made a mistake, because her question shook him. ‘I have to have sex withyou?’
No, Clara, but now that you mention it...He wanted to shake her words out of his head and dig his claws into the cement outside. Reid clenched his hands, making sure his nails remained retracted. It had been decades since he had last been with a woman.
“It doesn’t matter. Protocol,” he gritted out as they entered the reception area. He walked past the desk and moved toward the door. “Go back to your hotel or hostel and think about it. Come back this time tomorrow if you’re certain.” He opened the door for her. A wave of arid, stifling, hellish heat blasted him and with it came the desert powder. Reid turned to face her. “Good day, Ms. Warren.”
“I don’t...”
She stopped just out of his reach and eyed the exit with wariness. He couldn’t read her.
“You don’twhat?”
“I don’t have a place to go.”
Reid pulled his gaze from hers and looked at her vehicle on the far side of the parking lot.
“There’s a place not five miles past the gates. Take a left, you can’t miss it.”
“I don’t have any money.”
Don’t. Don’t play the hero.Her words set off a war inside of him.
