Xander gave her his steeliest glare and rapped his knuckles on his desk. “And it was petty when I made you redo the budgets when you were missing the decimals the first year you served as my executive assistant, and it was petty when I made you re-order the carpet for downstairs because it wasn’t black enough. I like the details to be correct, or have you forgotten?”
“No, Mr. Montague.” Harper glared at him. The keys clacked as loud as they could. “Time allocation report has been resent.”
Xander walked past her and into his office, disappearing behind the black wall. He let out a breath, looking toward the mountains out his window. Ever since the night of that benefit, things had been tense between him and Harper, and that annoyed him. He should be happy for her. All he ever wanted for Harper was for her to come out of her shell and be the confident woman he knew she could be. And now that it was happening before his eyes, it turned out he couldn’t take it because he wanted the reason for her coming out of that shell to be him. Not some giant spikey-haired Dom.
Last year, when Logan started spending more time with Harper, he thought it was a passing lark. He was sure it wouldn’t go beyond coffee when Logan realized Harper wasn’t an experienced sub.
It annoyed him that he hadn’t seen this coming.
“Hey, why did you make our sweet HR girl, Gardenia cry?” Ares asked, opening his door.
Xander picked up the stacks of bound contracts beside his chair and let them fall onto his desk. “Did you know that Axis Management has no policy about interpersonal relationships in the workplace? And I didn’t make Gardenia cry. She was flustered because she didn’t see a way of doing what I wanted without turning over our ‘successful structure.’” He put air quotes around those last words.
“We know what brand of toothpaste every employee uses. Imposing an anti-dating policy seemed counterintuitive to that whole ‘trust us, we got your back’ approach we were going for. And I dare you to tell Team Stealth they can’t date each other.” Ares’s impressive dimples appeared as he helped himself to an orange juice from the black bar fridge located underneath the counter against the wall.
“That’s what Gardenia said. She said the one place we might want it is in our Personal Security and Threat Assessment Division.”
“If we just called it ‘Bodyguards,’ people would know what we were talking about,” Ares said, his turn to use air quotes.
“Yeah. I’m going to assign Logan to the Bodyguards.” He was only half-joking.
“Nope.” Ares wagged a finger at him. “You can’t. I’m not dealing with that kind of rebellion. Logan is the leader of Team Stealth, and you know it.”
“Quinn—”
“Isn’t back yet, and it’s still up in the air what he wants to do. What’s this about, Xander?” His brother plopped himself down in front of the window in his club chair.
It was about seeing Harper in Logan Marrock’s arms. Seeing her look at Logan with wide eyes and laugh in response to his words. It was about him wanting to hold on to her and not wanting to let her go.
It was about continuing to lie to himself that he didn’t want the smart and sexy woman.
“Harper.”
As her name left his lips, his brother smiled, that slow, sultry smile that got him fans every time he uploaded a new video to his social media feeds.
“I can’t believe I’m even thinking about her like this. So what if she wants to go out with Logan?”
“You’ve been her protector for years. I’m surprised it took this long for you to realize you had an attraction to her.”
His younger brother was wrong. He had been attracted to Harper ever since her university acceptance came two years after rescuing her.
“I moved her out of the house. That’s when my attraction grew.” Xander moved things off his blotter.
“Five years?” Ares let out a low whistle.
Yes, five years ago because an eight thousand square foot mansion with ten bedrooms and two wings wasn’t enough space. He was too old for her and too wounded. He couldn’t cross the line of being her protector.
“I don’t like her hanging out with Logan.”
“Xander, if you won’t tell her how you feel, you’re going to have to let Marrock be. You can’t keep them apart.”
Xander grunted. He could if he wanted to break her heart, cause her pain, and lose one of his best operatives.
“Tell me what Dorian from the Martin group said.”
From the look on his younger brother’s face, he wouldn’t like it.
“What we expected. He doesn’t want to sell, but he’s happy to keep us as customers.”
