I opened my eyes to find him staring at me the same way he’d always done since I was thirteen. The gold in his eyes was gone, replaced by its usual dark brown. All traces of that need and desire were gone, replaced by cold distance.
“Go home, Isabella.” His voice was hoarse.
When I didn’t move, frozen in shock, he growled, “Now!”
I stumbled out of his office, my heart pounding in my chest, and didn’t stop running until I reached the elevator.
My reflection in the polished doors showed a woman I barely recognized—hair wild, lips parted, eyes too bright.
What the hell had I almost done?
What the hell had we almost done?
Dimitri and I? No! It couldn’t be.
I touched my lips, still tingling from the promise of a kiss that never came, and felt something unfurl in my chest.
This couldn’t happen. We were stepsiblings. He was about to become Alpha. He was only being nice to me because of the promise he made to his father.
That is what I told myself.
But God help me, I wanted him anyway.
And from the look in his eyes before he’d pulled away, he wanted me too.
Chapter Two
Dimitri’s POV
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
I ran a hand through my hair, feeling the dampness despite my office air conditioner running at full blast.
I resisted the urge to slam my fist into my mahogany desk and ruin it, because maybe the only thing that could snap me out of this daze was physical pain.
I’d managed to ignore Isabella for seven years. But as I had watched her grow from that girl with timid eyes and a small frame into a woman with alluring silver eyes framed by thick, long lashes and straight black hair, I wished I had remained immune. I wanted to see more: her full breasts, her beautiful curves around her hips, and her gorgeous ass—it became harder and harder to ignore her all the time. It helped that she’d made herself invisible around the house. I’d barely seen her over the years. Her room was far up on the third floor. When she was in school, she’d leave for campus very early in the morning and return in the evenings. And even when she started working at my office, she’d leave the house before anyone saw her and arrive at the office before all the other employees.
But it wasn’t just her beauty that drew me to her. It was her brain, her mind. Her empathy.
Still, despite knowing my dilemma over having her around, I’d gone ahead and promoted her to work as my executive assistant. A position that required me to see her every day—to glimpse her beautiful legs in those skirts she wore that always stopped right above her knees and hugged her petite body to perfection. What the hell was I thinking?
I shook my head vehemently, trying to shake off the image of her eyes widened, her cheeks flushed, and her lips parted as she waited for me to kiss her. It was the most beautiful, most ravishing sight I’d ever seen.
I’d wanted to kiss her. So damn badly. I wanted to slam my lips against hers, lift her onto my desk, spread her legs, and let her moan into my mouth while I kissed her and worked my fingers between her thighs. Was it cynical that that very thought had my cock straining against my boxer briefs?
I huffed out a frustrated breath, moving to the mini bar in my office to down an entire glass of rum. But the burn of the alcohol in my lungs did nothing to dull the irritation curling through me now.
She was my stepsister, for fuck’s sake! My father had abandoned me and my mother for her. I shouldn’t be feeling this way for her.
My wolf growled low inside of me, feeling every bit of the frustration I was feeling. Isabella Garrett was in my head, clawing through every corner of my mind, and hell if I knew how to get her out.
“Fuck!”
Around half past ten, I decided to pack up and call it a night. The goal was to head to the shower upon my arrival at home. Hopefully, it would be a relatively innocent shower. Then, I wanted to head straight to bed. Maybe sleep would offer me some respite from this chaos I was feeling.
But when I arrived at the mansion, I found my mother and Edmund waiting for me in the living room. Edmund was a diligent pack Beta. He’d served my father well and was serving me well. Over the years, he’d always done what I asked of him without question—ensuring Isabella got into the best schools, that her tuition was covered, that she had access to whatever resources she needed. When I’d suggested bringing her into the company, he’d arranged it immediately, no questions asked.
When my father left, Edmund had been the one to hold the pack together. I was thirteen, too young to lead, but old enough to know that childhood was over. While Edmund managed most of the external affairs, he started bringing me into council meetings, making me sit through endless discussions about territory and trade. By eighteen, I was settling disputes, negotiating with Alphas twice my age, and learning how to make decisions that didn’t leave room for mistakes. I never really had time to be a teenager. Growing up wasn’t a choice; it was an expectation. And I met it, because there was no one else who could.
