“Are you still…taking late night walks?” she asked.
“No. I haven’t taken any walks like that since, and I don’t plan to. I really do want to…change my career.”
She remained quiet.
“You’re not upset?”
“I didn’t say that. Look…” She sighed. “I understand desperation. The cost of living in this city is one of the highest in the country. Plenty of people I defend are pushed to do things they wouldn’t have attempted ordinarily.”
“But you’re disappointed.”
“Sad, disappointed, but not angry. I get it. You probably left teaching to make more money, and as soon as you started your business, the economy tanked.”
He nodded. He didn’t exactly leave teaching. He was the dean of students—and a disgraced alpha, run out of town.
Roz was right. He would never have started down his path otherwise, but when business had started to flounder, he and Nick had to resort to desperate measures.
“Was your brother a cop all along? Or did he get into it as a result of the business failing?”
“The latter. He knew a couple of guys on the force, and they thought he might be well suited to the job.”
“How about you? Did you ever think about going into law enforcement?”
“No, that’s not for me. Or, as my brother would say, I’m too much of a softie.”
Roz stroked his erection and said, “You don’t feel very soft to me.” She finally smiled and reached for him.
He practically dove into her arms and held her tight. “Do you forgive me?”
“As long as it’s all in the past…”
“It is. I swear on every book in my library.”
She grinned. “That’s a lot of swearing.”
He let out a deep breath. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am.”
“I guess I am too. When I heard you telepathically worrying about telling me what you reallywere…well, I didn’t know what to think, but I assumed it was something really terrible.”
Before they went too far down that road, he tackled her and set out to finish what they’d started.
Chapter 11
Roz was glad he’d finally told her his secret, without exactly telling her. She still had her values to maintain. Was associating with a known thief a problem? She hadn’t witnessed him stealing anything, right?
Konrad nibbled her ear, and she moaned.
Problem? What problem?Had she just been puzzled about something?
He swirled his tongue in her ear and whispered, “I love you so much. I love you more than my life. I mean it, Roz. You’re everything to me.”
The combination of his hot breath and tender words made her quiver.
He kissed her neck, nipped her jaw, and licked her collarbone. “Can you say it back yet?”
“Yes,” she murmured. “I love you too.”
“You don’t know how much I’ve wanted to hear that.”
