“I’m not your responsibility.” She pushed back from her desk, standing up to face him. The movement brought them close—too close—her small frame a stark contrast to his bulk, her flushed face tilted up to maintain that confrontational eye contact. “I work for Derek, not you. I’m here to do a job, and I’ll do it on my terms.”
“Your terms are going to put you in the infirmary with exhaustion.”
“That’s my problem.”
“It’s my problem when—” He stopped himself, the words catching in his throat.
When I can’t stop thinking about you. When your scent haunts me. When every instinct I have screams that you’re mine to protect, mine to care for, mine in ways that terrify me.
He couldn’t say any of that. Wouldn’t.
“When what?” she pressed, because of course she did. She never let anything go, never backed down, never gave him the easy submission that would have made this so much simpler. “When it inconveniences your schedule? When you have to explain to Derek why his employee collapsed? What?”
“When you matter to me.”
The words escaped before he could stop them, and she froze. Her heartbeat—that tell-tale rhythm he’d become so attuned to—stuttered and then accelerated, pounding against her ribs.
“I…” She swallowed. “What?”
Too late to retreat now,he thought, and his wolf howled his agreement.
“My wolf has been half-mad since you arrived, and every logical part of me knows I should maintain my distance and stay professional. Knows I should remember all the reasons why trusting someone like you is dangerous.”
“Someone like me?”
“Female. Beautiful. Clever.” The last word came out like an accusation. “The last clever female in my life nearly destroyed my pack.”
“You mean your stepmother. Vivienne.”
Irene must have told her that name, but Harper deserved to understand the depths of his mistrust if she was going to be subjected to it.
“She was smart,” he said, his voice flat. “Charming. Manipulative. She twisted my father around her finger, even though she betrayed him time after time. She tried to do the same to me.” She’d even succeeded for a while. “She sowed bitterness and betrayal everywhere she went.”
“I’m not her.”
“I know you’re not.” The admission felt like pulling teeth. “I know, Harper. Logically. But my wolf doesn’t care about logic, and neither do twenty years of learned caution.”
They stared at each other across the narrow space between them, the air thick with tension and unspoken things. Her exhaustion seemed forgotten now, replaced by that fierceintensity he’d come to recognize—her analytical mind working through this new data, categorizing and processing and drawing conclusions.
“So you’re conflicted,” she said finally. “Your instincts say one thing, your experience says another. And somehow I’m caught in the middle of that war.”
“Yes.”
“That must be frustrating.”
“You have no idea.”
Her lips curved—not quite a smile, but close. “Actually, I might. My brain keeps telling me that getting involved with you is a terrible idea. You’re my client. You’re a werewolf Alpha with obvious trust issues and a pack full of people who already think I’m an outsider. The logical play is to finish my job and leave without complications.”
His chest tightened. “And what does the rest of you say?”
“The rest of me?” Her gaze drifted down to his mouth—a tell so obvious that his wolf howled in triumph. “The rest of me apparently has no interest in logic when you’re standing this close.”
Fuck.
The thin thread of his control snapped.
He moved before he could second-guess himself, closing the distance between them in a single stride. His hands found her waist, lifting her onto the edge of her desk with a strength that drew a startled gasp from her lips.
