Chapter 11 #2
He deepened the kiss, tilting her head back to change the angle, to taste her more thoroughly.
She made a sound—half whimper, half demand—and her legs wrapped around his hips, drawing him into the cradle of her thighs.
She was wearing another of those damn short skirts and he could feel her heat through the thin silk of her panties.
Claim her, his wolf demanded. Mark her. Make her understand she belongs—
He wrenched himself back. His chest heaved, breath coming in ragged gasps. She stared up at him with glazed eyes and kiss-swollen lips, her hair wild, her cheeks flushed, looking thoroughly wrecked and impossibly beautiful.
“Why did you stop?” Her voice was hoarse.
“Because if I don’t stop now, I won’t stop at all.” He ran a shaking hand through his hair, trying to force his wolf back under control. “And that’s not… I won’t take advantage of you when you’re exhausted and I’m half-feral from the moon.”
“Maybe I want to be taken advantage of.”
Goddess, this woman.
“Kitten,” he warned. “I’m hanging on to my control by a thread. Don’t test me.”
“I’m not testing you. I’m telling you what I want.
I’ve never, never, felt like this before.
Like my whole body is alive. Because of you.
” She leaned back, letting him see the slickness on her thighs.
“I want you. You clearly want me. We’re both adults capable of making decisions. Why complicate it?”
“Because it’s already complicated.” He forced himself to take a step back, then another, putting distance between them before his resolve crumbled entirely. “You’re here temporarily. I have a pack to lead. I don’t do casual, and I won’t ask you to—”
“What makes you think I do casual?”
He stopped moving.
Her expression had shifted into something more vulnerable, more open than he’d ever seen from her. The defiance was still there—that fire he’d come to crave—but beneath it lay something soft and vulnerable.
“I’ve never fit anywhere,” she said quietly.
“Not in foster homes, not in schools, not in jobs. I learned early that connections are temporary, that people leave, that the safest thing is to not need anyone.” She drew a breath.
“But ever since I met you, something feels different. Like maybe fitting in somewhere isn’t impossible.
Like maybe needing someone isn’t the disaster I always thought it would be. ”
Mate, his wolf whispered. She feels it too. The bond. The pull. She’s ours.
“Harper…” He didn’t know what to say. Words felt inadequate for the magnitude of what she’d just revealed—what they were both revealing, standing in his office at two in the morning with kiss-bruised lips and racing hearts.
“I’m not saying I have answers.” She slid off the desk, standing on her own two feet even though her legs seemed slightly unsteady. “I’m just saying… don’t make decisions for both of us. If this is complicated, we can figure it out together. But don’t push me away because you’re scared.”
“I’m not scared.”
“Liar.”
Despite everything, he felt his lips twitch. “You’re a very frustrating woman, kitten.”
“So I’ve been told.” She stepped closer, tilting her head up to meet his gaze. “Is that going to be a problem?”
Yes, some part of him answered. You’re going to frustrate me and challenge me and make me crazy for the rest of your life. And Goddess help him, he wanted that more than he’d ever wanted anything in his life.
“I think,” he said slowly, “that we should continue this conversation tomorrow. When we’re both thinking more clearly.”
“You’re deflecting.”
“I’m being responsible.”
“Same thing.” But she didn’t push further, and something in her expression suggested she understood. “Fine. Tomorrow. But Adrian?”
“Yes?”
She rose onto her toes, pressing a brief, devastating kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Don’t think I’m going to forget what you admitted tonight. You said I matter to you. That’s not the kind of thing you can take back.”
Then she gathered her laptop and her glasses and walked past him towards the door, leaving him standing in the middle of his office with his heart pounding and his wolf howling and the taste of her still burning on his lips.
At the door, she paused.
“And for the record? You matter to me too. Probably more than is smart.”
She was gone before he could respond.
Dangerous, the cautious part of his mind warned. She’s getting too close. Remember Vivienne. Remember what happens when you trust. But his wolf had gone quiet, satisfied in a way it hadn’t been in years. Like he’d found something he’d been searching for for a very long time.
He walked to the window, staring out at the nearly-full moon hanging heavy over his territory. Two days until it reached its peak. Two days of heightened instincts and fraying control and the constant pull towards a pink-haired human who had somehow become the center of his world.
He pressed his palm against the cool glass and made a decision. No more pretending the pull didn’t exist, that his wolf’s obsession was just lunar madness, that what he felt for Harper was anything less than profound and terrifying and real.
He would protect her. He would care for her. He would show her that not everyone left, that some connections were worth the risk.
Then he would figure out how to convince her to stay.