Chapter 8 #2
Elle, Callum's perfect woman, blinked.
The king’s hand brushed my lower back as he led me to his office. I should've been leading, since I was the one who'd said we needed a conversation, but I was a little off-balance between the furious wolf within me, my own possessiveness, and the king's... well, everything.
He closed the door, and pressed a button.
"This room is soundproofed. For future reference, do not send someone I'm doing business with to our bedroom.
The office exists for a reason, and the room is your territory.
" He sounded kind of pissed, and it occurred to me that I hadn’t actually seen him angry before.
"Is that what she was doing? I thought she was here to fuck you." I gestured toward our room, only a little bit violently.
His eyes narrowed. "You think I would ask a woman to come here to have sex with me in our home, while my mate was in the kitchen?"
"Well, I guess it's better than cheating behind my back. If it's even considered cheating when I never actually agreed to—" I cut myself off when he took a step toward me. "What are you doing?"
Callum took another step toward me.
I took a step backward.
The dance continued until my ass landed on his gigantic desk.
Callum's hand cupped my face, tipping my head back slowly until our eyes met. The way he towered over me should've made me uncomfortable, but it just made me hot.
"Do I smell like I fucked her, Kat?"
"No. But—"
"She greeted me from the hallway. I told her I would be out in a minute and shut the bedroom door. It took less than five minutes for me to get dressed and lead her back in here. Five minutes is nowhere near long enough for us to have sex and scrub every hint of each other's scents off our skin."
Scrubbing the scent of sex off your skin that thoroughly would probably take five minutes on its own. Fucking would be at least two or three more.
"It felt longer," I said.
"Then let me make this crystal clear." He lowered his nose to rest nearly against mine.
I sucked in a breath, desire immediately blooming to life in my lower half as his lips hovered over mine.
"I haven't so much as wanted another woman since I met you. The only person I will ever have in my thoughts or bed for the rest of my life is you. You are mine—and I don't want anyone else. If I ever touch another woman, I expect you to remove my balls. If you ever touch another man..."
Callum's piercing blue eyes darkened to a shade that was almost navy. "I'll thoroughly enjoy making his death slower and more painful than most people could fathom."
"You're insane," I breathed.
"That was never a question." He lowered his lips to mine, and almost kissed me.
I desperately wanted his mouth on mine. The ache between my thighs was ridiculous. There were few things as sexy to any werewolf as this kind of loyalty and possessiveness. We were animals, as much as the beasts that lived within us.
"Now, the woman out there is going to build a team to manage your business for you, so you can focus on the parts of owning a café that you actually enjoy.
You will not protest. You will teach her what needs to be done and listen to her ideas.
You will let her make your life easier. Do you understand? "
"You aren't my boss." The words were halfhearted, because that sounded like something out of my wildest dreams.
"No, I’m your mate. Now, keep looking at me like that and you'll be sprawled across this desk while I eat you out in the next thirty seconds, Kitten." His voice was deceptively calm, but I knew he wasn't joking.
"I’m not interested… but how good is your soundproofing?"
"Good enough to silence the sounds you make for me when you lose control."
It took a lot of effort, but I slid off the desk rather than jumping him.
I was supposed to be seducing him.
Not the other way around.
My plan was clearly failing, because he was still completely neutral. I was so in over my head.
"I'll meet with her and consider letting her help," I said.
"Good call. Your sister also made the announcement about the challenges, so we'll attend the first one this afternoon. It starts at four, so be ready at three."
My eyebrows lifted. "Already?"
He dipped his head. "She moved much faster than we expected. It almost seems like she knew this was coming, but I don’t know how that could be true."
"Did you warn her? You and I both know you’ve been planning this for at least a month or two."
"I didn’t inform her in any way, no." He didn’t comment on my casual accusation.
"Well, I need to call Jonah."
"What does your boyfriend have to do with this?"
"He was engaged to Gwen when she screwed both of us over. He still loves her. The whole reason he became an MMA fighter was so he could beat Simon in a challenge, but he won’t admit it. He needs to join the competition. And for the record, if I was going to date anyone, it wouldn't be Jonah. "
"Who would it be?"
"Oh please, I know better than to give you a name. The man would be dead before the hour was over." With that, I padded out of the room.
"Let's not kill him," Sable mumbled, falling asleep. "I like him again."