"Don't you dare suggest I don't care about Zara. When everyone else wrote her off as paranoid, I was the one pushing for drive-bys and checking on her. I'm the one who gave her your damn number, but so you could protect her, not shut me out."
I act like it's no big deal that she trusted me with her friend, even though my bear insists it is.
Her finger is still jabbing at my face when I close my hand around her wrist and pull.
She lands forward against me with a small, sharp gasp. Her free hand flies from the desk to brace herself against my chest,her legs caught between my thighs. The shift of her weight presses her hip against the front of my jeans where I've been hard since she walked through the door, and her eyes widen when she feels it.
Idon't let go of her wrist when she attempts to wrestle it back.
“What do you think…”
I bring it up between us slowly, deliberately, and turn it palm-up so the pale underside is exposed. Lean in. Inhale against the thin skin where her pulse is hammering.
Keeping my gaze on her skin, I press my mouth to the inside of her wrist, open, slow, tasting her, giving her the barest scrape of my teeth.
She doesn't breathe.
"Let’s get something straight here. Apart from looking out for Zara as best I can, I'm doing whatyouasked me to do, Red," I say against her skin. "Staying out of your way so your colleagues don't get the wrong idea. Exactly what you wanted."
Then I lift my head, meeting her eyes properly for the first time.
"Unless you're telling me you've changed your mind."
She doesn't speak. Her mouth opens and closes once, her throat working as she swallows.
I can scent her arousal in the air between us, can hear her heartbeat drumming in her chest. Every part of me wants to drag her into my lap and kiss her senseless, but I need her to say it, out loud, that she chooses me.
That this isn’t just the bond temporarily screwing with her hormones.
She doesn't. Instead, she tries to pull her wrist back from my grip, and this time, I let it go immediately. When she steps back from between my thighs, her free hand is pressed to her chest.
The silence stretches as I lean back in my chair and give her the out she needs.
"Zara's at my brother Ben's," I admit. "My brother's place. Up in the mountains."
Whatever she was expecting, that wasn't it.
"You took her to your brother."
I nod, trying my hardest not to stare at the swell of her breasts that are straining against her shirt as she moves to rest her hands back on her hips.
"He has a cabin. Remote, secure. It's off grid, nothing fancy, but nobody knows about it except our family. He's a bit of a recluse." I try to make her believe me. "She's safe, Lisa. I promise."
She considers my words, then frowns like she's confused about something I’ve said. Or by all of it.
"So, you thought that it was a good idea to drop off an already traumatised woman, whose sister has been kidnapped, in the middle of nowhere and with a complete fucking stranger? And not just anyone, some weird loner dude, and another Lennox, then you just skipped back into town to hang out in your office for the day?"
She's alarmed, not relieved. To her, it seems Zara went from a stalker to a whole different kind of trouble.
"Ben won't touch her," I growl out, "if that's what you're thinking. Zara's perfectly happy where she is. And nobody, absolutely nobody, will get past Ben."
I roll my seat back, away from her and her addictive scent. I need to think straight.
"Now, unless you've got more insults you'd like to hurl at me and my family, who are taking care of the woman you and yourbuddies didn't protect, or some helpful information you might like to share, I think it's best you leave and let me get back to my work."
Swivelling my chair to face the desk once more, I reach for a file I don't need.
Beside me, there's silence. Then an inhale, the kind someone takes when they're about to speak, and for a second, I think she's going to offer something. Hand over whatever she's been sitting on and meet me halfway.
