“You ramble when you’re nervous.”
“I’m not nervous,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.
“It’s cute.”
My mouth went dry, suddenly feeling far too crowded by him. No one called me cute or pretty or anything like that. The walls I had spent years building were slowly crumbling.
“You don’t need permission to see your friends. You are not a prisoner here. My only rule is that whenever you leave the grounds, you take Torin with you.”
I snorted. Pretty things didn’t make this place any less of a prison.
“I thought I was not allowed to leave. Those were the terms. Is ‘prisoner’ too harsh a word for you? Does it affect your delicate sensibilities? How about ‘captive’ or ‘inmate’ instead?”
Anger bubbled to the surface. I palmed his chest, shoving him. The brick building of a man didn’t move an inch. Frustrated, I threw my hands into my lap. How dare he smell so good and act so nice.
“My only rule is this,” he said, his voice dropping in a menacing whisper. “You can leave. Do as you like, as long as you come home every night and take Torin with you.”
“Home?”
My heart did this funny flutter thing as too many emotions vied for dominance at once, making it hard to breathe.
“Yes. This is your home now. I want you here every night where I can protect you.”
Every instinct told me to run away. Alarm bells rang in my head.
I was so tired.
Ever since I presented seven years ago, when I turned eighteen, I shut myself away. Afraid that I would end up with an alpha like my dad. Kaelen was dangerous. The way he made my omega act couldn’t be trusted. I had no idea how long I could resist him.
In the throes of my heat, I hadn’t been able to.
If he had been any other alpha, he could have taken that as consent and bitten me. I could have woken up bound and mated. A wave of his scent hit me, and I relaxed. It was too much. I focused on something else, needing a distraction.
“Can I use your phone to text Sam?”
“Yours not good enough for you?” he asked, removing his cell from his pocket and handing it to me without a second thought.
Most men didn’t hand over their phones easily, especially men in powerful positions. Dad freaked out the one time I picked up his cell.
There were over 10,000 unread notifications hovering over his email icon. I almost passed out, my eyes nearly bugging out of my head. I opened his texts, ignoring an unread message from someone named Liam, and quickly typed out Sam’s number from memory before sending off a note about lunch.
“You really need to hire a secretary or something,” I mumbled. “Your emails are atrocious. What if there is something important in those unread messages?”
“It’s junk. I handled the necessary ones. You volunteering, sweetheart? I think I like the idea of seeing your pretty arse nestled behind my desk.”
“I don’t think you could pay me enough.”
“We’ll see about that.” He smirked.
I had a feeling I had poked a very competitive bear who didn’t like to be challenged. Quickly, I changed the subject.
“I don’t have my phone,” I said, answering his question from earlier. “I left it in my dad’s car that day.” I handed his cell back to him.
“I’ll get you a new one.”
Before I could interrupt, the stove beeped, and Kaelen removed the most delicious thing I have ever seen. Faint hints of vanilla mixed with apples, making my mouth water. He cut a massive piece of what looked like coffee cake, but not quite, onto a plate. He passed it to me, handing me a fork.
A small moan left my lips as I took a tentative bite. He winked, sliding an iced coffee toward me. Whatever worries I had from a few moments ago vanished as I devoured the apple cake and coffee. Once we both finished, he popped our dishes into the dishwasher, returning to my side.
