Chapter 11
Chance
Chance had made a career out of control and yet as he stood alone in his own boardroom with the echo of his own voice from the meeting still circling back with an edge, he could not dull, he found himself confronted with the distinctly unwelcome reality that once control was lost, it did not always return easily.
He had seen her face despite his best attempts, and that was the problem.
Not the proposal, not the room, not even the choice he had made to dismantle her work with a thoroughness that had crossed the line from professional to personal without anyone else quite realizing where it happened.
It was the moment after with the flicker of hurt she hadn’t been able to hide fast enough. It lingered in his mind.
And despite every logical argument he could come up with, like it had been necessary, that distance was safer, that whatever had nearly happened in the splash zone was exactly the kind of complication he could not afford, it refused to resolve into something justifiable.
Which was precisely why he hurried out of the room. Movement, he had learned, helped. Action restored order, at least, it usually did.
The hallway was quiet when he neared the corner and he had already forced his mind to shift toward the next task or the next thing that required his attention, and then he heard her laugh.
He knew the difference before he could pretend otherwise. It wasn’t the laugh that was unguarded the way it had been at the park, but it was there and real enough.
He didn’t mean to listen, at least that’s what he tried to tell himself. He absolutely did intend to hear every word.
“It’ll be great to go to dinner and unwind a little,” Josh was saying, his tone carrying that careful, hopeful note that made the rest of the sentence predictable before it even landed. “Nothing complicated.”
“Okay then,” Randi said. “I’ll meet you there.”
Just that simple and she had a date.
The words hit harder than they should have, sharp and immediate. They cut clean through the thin layer of control he had managed to rebuild, and for a split second, one brief, dangerous second, he felt a shift beneath his skin, that familiar, volatile presence stirring with sudden, heated interest.
Mine.
The thought came unbidden, low and possessive and entirely unacceptable. It was followed immediately by something hotter. Jealousy.
He waited until Josh strolled in the opposite direction before he stepped around the corner. He couldn’t stop himself. He didn’t even care if Randi knew that he had been standing there listening.
She had a smile on her face when she looked up. He watched it slowly dwindle away as he approached.
He wanted to fire her on the spot or fly Josh out over the ocean and drop him in the deep water. But he also wanted to beg her to call off the date so he could claim her as his own.
A cold, steady glare met him before she looked away as if he were nothing more than an inconvenience in the hallway.
He knew that look and he had earned it. Something inside him reacted anyway with a sharp, rising heat that curled low in his chest and threatened to expand outward.
His dragon did not like the easy way Josh talked to her or the implications of their date.
Mine.
The word came again, louder this time, edged with something dangerously close to a growl, and he had to lock his jaw to keep his expression from shifting into something that would raise questions he had no intention of answering.
Because this was absurd. He had chosen this.
“You can’t look at me after your little boyfriend called me stupid?”
Her eyes snapped back to him. “Oh, now you can look me in the eyes. Now it matters. Where was that half an hour ago?”
“I was running my company.”
“You were punishing me,” she threw back at him. “And you know you were being totally unfair.”
“You need to grow a thicker skin.” He found it difficult to be intentionally mean to her, but it needed to be done.
“And you need to quit being stupid,” she snapped back. “And if you say one word to Josh about what he said, in confidence I might add, you’ll regret it.”
Her fiery temper just intensified his attraction.
“Where is he taking you?” he asked with a tone deceptively mild. “It’s good you finally have a date. He’s been staring at you like a sad puppy for weeks.”
She blinked at him once, slow and unimpressed. “Are we in middle school now, or did I miss a memo?”
“I’m asking a simple question.”
“No, you’re being nosy and weirdly petty,” she said flatly. “Also, for the record? I asked him out.”
That stopped him.
“Excuse me?” The words were controlled, but just barely.
“I know, shocking,” she went on, a little too sweet now. “A woman making her own choices. Groundbreaking.”
He exhaled once, sharp, already turning away because this conversation was veering somewhere he didn’t want it to go. He moved past her without waiting for a response and without allowing himself another glance.
“That’s right,” she added under her breath. “Run away, chicken.”
He stopped and turned.
Before logic, restraint, or literally any better instinct could catch up, he closed the distance, grabbed her by the shoulders. He crushed her lips with his own in what was supposed to be a punishing kiss.
Instead, she melted into him.
No hesitation, no resistance, just heat and breath and the immediate, devastating realization that she wanted this too.
Her lips were soft and yielding and her hand gripped his sleeve as her mouth moved against his like she’d been waiting for it.
The small sound she made, half surprise, half something else, went straight through him.
The heat that flared between them was exactly the problem. He pulled back abruptly, like he’d just realized the ground beneath him wasn’t stable.
Her eyes were wide, her lips parted. For a second he almost lost the fight and stayed.
Her fingers flew to her lips as he spun around and didn’t stop walking until he was alone.
His control had slipped. His hands clenched at his sides and tension coiled tight through his shoulders as the heat he had barely contained surged higher and demanded release in a way that logic could not immediately override.
He made it to his office and slammed the door before his mind supplied an image so clear it was almost tangible.
Fire.
A sweeping, consuming blaze that reduced everything unnecessary to ash and left only what mattered standing in its wake. He needed something to burn, something to destroy.
The urge flickered, bright and dangerous, before he forced it back and dragged it under with the same ruthless discipline he applied to everything else that threatened to get out of control.
He exhaled slowly. He shouldn’t have kissed her, and he fought against the strong desire for more.
This was what he wanted. He repeated it, not as a question, not even as reassurance, but as fact, something solid he could anchor to while the rest of his thoughts threatened to spiral into territory he refused to entertain.
Distance was necessary, attachment was a risk, and complication was weakness. Randi was all three.
He picked up the phone and dialed Eddie’s number. He needed someone with a calm head to talk to.
“This can’t be good,” Eddie answered. “Usually you text me when you want to meet for a drink.”
Without preamble, Chance spilled the whole story. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Sounds like you have it bad for this girl.”
It shouldn’t have been a surprise, but the words caught Chance off guard. Even though his dragon constantly claimed her, he wasn’t sure when his heart had gotten involved.
“I’ll be damned. I actually shut you up for once,” Eddie teased.
“Don’t think it’s going to become a habit.”
“My advice to you, my friend, is that if you want her, you’d better figure something out pretty quick before she gets tied down with this other guy.”
“There’s something else.” Chance told him about the letters from the Northlands.
“Seems like you’re going to be making a trip soon. I’d like to go with you.”
“I’m not going anywhere near there.” He wanted to take Eddie to see the sights, but not when war was so close between the royal factions, especially when there was the potential of dragons.
“Sounds like you may not have a choice.”
Chance hung up feeling worse than ever. His father’s problems were not his own, and yet they were. He was the next in line, not voluntarily but nonetheless, and he was letting the people down.
He strolled to look out over the city. His once tightly controlled environment was getting lost in the crazy. Just like he was going to lose Randi.
If she chose to go to dinner with Josh, if she chose something easy and safe, then that was exactly the outcome he had been working toward. He was removed from the equation. No blurred lines and no expectation.
As he stood there in front of his tall, plate glass windows, the echo of how it felt with her returning his kiss replayed with irritating clarity.
He may have wanted it this way, but it still sucked.