She sat only fifteen feet away, the glow of her screen lighting her face, fingers moving swiftly across the keyboard. So efficient. So focused. So painfully unaware that she was the most dangerous thing in this building—and that was saying something, considering I was in it.
She didn’t know how beautiful her scent was. The smell of a garden. Flowers masked by my pheromones, like a single peony in a dark forest.
And every day I breathed her in without touching her, it felt like being starved with a feast inches from my lips.
How could I not know that it was her that night?
And when she had touched me—when she hadwelcomedmy touch—it was as though for the first time I finally understood what it meant to see redemption.
And underworld help me, Iwantedto be saved.
I reached for my phone, already knowing I shouldn’t. Already knowing I would.
Her profile opened with a touch.
I smirked, half against my will. My thumb hovered. Typed. Sent.
Are you available this week?
I hit send and lifted my gaze just in time to see her glance down at the screen. A flicker. If I hadn’t been watching her so closely, I might’ve missed it—the smallest, quickest dart of her eyes toward me.
Such a telling little liar.
I looked back down at my phone, giving her the illusion of privacy. And just as I expected, when she thought I was no longer watching, her reply lit up the screen.
Possibly…Are you okay?
A cough rumbled out of me, masking the low laugh clawing up my throat.
Okay?
I felt more alive than I had in years. The ache in my chest—the suffocating pressure of my pheromones trying to claw their way out—gone.
Her touch healed me.
And yet, here I was, still starving.
I prefer to be preventative with these things.
I might be free tomorrow night.
“Might be?”
Do not tell me you wish me to beg. Not that I wouldn’t do it.
Maybe I like a man willing to be on his knees.
My fingers tightened around the phone.
She’s going to kill me.
Do not tempt me to call you here now, Flower.
Well as much as I would like to receive that call, I don’t think I could escape without my boss noticing.
Oh?
My gaze lifted. She was chewing the inside of her cheek. A tell. She was trying too hard to look like she was just answering emails.
