“No.” She cut him off, her voice firming. “It was the final straw, not the cause. The cause was a lifetime of being told who to be. You just… you made me feel brave enough to say it out loud.”
His gaze searched her face. “You are brave. You stood your ground. I am incredibly proud of you, Camille.”
The validation wasn’t the polite praise of society. It was deep, sincere, and it hit her with the force of a breaking wave. It filled a hollow space she hadn’t fully acknowledged. Her eyes stung with unshed tears.
The kiss that followed didn’t feel like a decision. It felt like an inevitable conclusion. A gravitational pull. She leaned in, or maybe he did, and her lips met his with a tentative softness that lasted only a heartbeat. Then his hand released hers to cradle the back of her head, his other arm banding around her waist to pull her closer. The kiss deepened, a fusion of blazing attraction and the desperate longing to finally connect. It was heat and softness. A low rumble vibrated in his chest, a purely animal sound of satisfaction that made her toes curl in her heels.
When she finally pulled back, gasping for air, reality rushed in. The office. The glass walls. The fact that she was currently in her billionaire boss’s arms.
She scrambled back, her face flaming. “I—I am so sorry. That was completely unprofessional. I crossed a line?—”
“Camille.” His voice was roughened. “Look at me.” She forced her eyes to his. The hunger in them was unmistakable, but so was a tender warmth. “I have wanted to kiss you since youwalked into this office two days ago. There is no line you could cross that I haven’t already burned down in my head.”
A shaky laugh escaped her. The honesty was as disarming as the kiss.
He didn’t let her retreat far, his hands coming to rest on her hips. “Where are you staying?”
“With my best friend Serena. For now.”
“That’s not a long-term solution.” The alpha command was back in his tone, but it was tempered with a careful gentleness. “My home has more space than I know what to do with. It’s secure. Private. You could stay there for as long as you need. No strings, no expectations. Just… a safe place to land.”
The offer hung in the air, immense and terrifying. Moving in with him was a vortex of potential complications, a blurring of every boundary she was trying to navigate. Yet, the instinct that had guided her to this job, to defy her parents, now whispered that this was the next right step. He was offering safety, not a cage. Shelter, not ownership.
Seeing her hesitation, his thumbs stroked over her hips. “It’s just an option. Say no, and it’s forgotten.”
She looked at his bruised face, at the earnest intensity in his eyes, and she made the choice. Not out of desperation, but out of a dawning trust. “Yes.”
Relief softened the hard lines of his face. It was the look of a man who had won something far more valuable than a business deal. “After work then,” he said, his tone filled with a quiet excitement that mirrored her own. “We’ll get your things and move you in with me.”
Camille nodded, the motion feeling momentous. For once, the future didn’t loom like a threat. It sparkled, tantalizing and bright.
EIGHT
LEANDER
Leander operated on discipline, control, and the ability to compartmentalize emotion into neat, manageable boxes. But none of it mattered today. Camille’s kiss replayed in his mind with the persistence of a song stuck on repeat—the softness of her lips, the way she’d leaned into him like trust was instinct, and the small sound she’d made when he’d pulled her closer.
And now she was moving into his home.
His lion prowled restlessly beneath his skin, oblivious to the rational qualifiers his human mind supplied.Temporarily. Logically. Innocently.The beast understood only proximity, protection, and the intoxicating reality that his mate would be sleeping under his roof.
During the board meeting that afternoon, he caught himself smiling at absolutely nothing, his pen tapping an erratic rhythm against his leather portfolio like a man waiting for permission to abandon his own carefully constructed life. The presentation on market projections blurred into background noise as his thoughts circled back to the memory of Camille’s hands threading through his hair and the way her breath had hitched when he’d deepened their kiss.
Travis noticed immediately. Of course he did.
After the last board member filed out, Travis lingered, leaning against the polished mahogany conference table with a knowing grin that made Leander’s jaw tighten.
“Alright,” Travis said, his eyes dancing with amusement. “Who are you and what have you done with my cousin?”
Leander straightened his tie with deliberate precision, avoiding Travis’s penetrating stare. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You smiled. During Harrison’s budget presentation. No one smiles during Harrison’s budget presentations. Hell, Harrison doesn’t smile during Harrison’s budget presentations.” Travis crossed his arms, his expression shifting from teasing to genuinely curious. “What’s going on?”
The truth sat heavy on Leander’s tongue. He hadn’t told anyone about the mate bond yet, hadn’t admitted that somewhere deep in his chest lived a hollow ache that only seemed to quiet when Camille was near. But Travis had earned his trust through years of unwavering loyalty, and the secret felt suddenly too large to carry alone.
“Camille is moving in with me,” he said finally, the words coming out more defensive than he’d intended. “At least for now. Her parents just kicked her out, and I was gracious enough to offer her a place to stay.”
Travis’s eyebrows climbed toward his hairline. “Gracious. Right.” He studied Leander’s face with the intensity of someone solving a puzzle. “And this has nothing to do with the way you’ve been staring at her like she hung the moon since she started working here?”
