16. Max #3
“I’m going to pull it off you,” I say. “When I do, slide out to your right. Toward me.”
“I know how to get out from under a server rack, Max.”
“That’s good, Sophie. Then we won’t have a problem.”
I grip the steel frame with both hands and brace my legs. She’s watching me, and I don’t want to think about what she’s reading in my face right now. I pull.
The rack comes away from the wall maybe four inches, but it’s enough.
“Now.”
She moves fast, sliding out along the wall toward me. The rack is digging into my palms and my arms are shaking, and then, all at once, they start to give. The frame drops an inch. Then another.
Fuck.
“Sophie, I need your help,” I grind out. “Push the rack with me.”
Her hands immediately come up flat against the frame and she shoves, and for a couple of seconds we hold the weight together, her strength and mine, long enough for me to slip around the edge and get behind the rack. I wedge my shoulder under the steel and push.
“Move, Sophie,” I bite out. “While I’ve still got it.”
She knows what moving means. So do I. There’s only one way out of this, and it’s through me.
I try to hold my breath as she comes closer, try not to notice how her ponytail has come loose, tendrils of hair stuck to the sweat on her face and neck.
Her shoulder grazes my chest first. Then her hip catches mine.
Then she has to twist sideways to fit through and her breasts press flat against me, the heat of her bleeding through two layers of cotton like there’s nothing between us at all.
Then I can feel her breath against my throat. Quick and shallow, and I try my hardest to look at anything but her.
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.
She freezes.
Just for a second, but it’s long enough that I know she feels it too, this strange thing in the air between us.
Her face is inches from mine, and I finally give in and look at her.
She meets my gaze full on. She’s close enough that I can see the dark flecks in her eyes, and the way her lips have parted.
Don’t move, I tell myself. Don’t fucking move.
I am pushing a server rack with all my strength, a woman pressed against my body, and the only thought in my head is what would happen if I dropped the rack right now, said to hell with all of this, and put my hands on her instead.
Her eyes drop to my mouth.
“Sophie,” I say, barely holding on.
To what, I have no idea anymore.
Fuck, it’s too late. My cock, deciding that this is the perfect time to wreak havoc in my life, hardens instantly against her. The rack is in my hands and her body is against mine and I can’t adjust, can’t step back, can’t do a single thing to hide what’s happening to me.
Her eyes widen and her breath catches. Her lips part a fraction wider, and for one suspended second I think she might lean in instead of pulling away.
Then she must realize the insanity of the situation, because she pulls in a sharp breath and slips the rest of the way through. Her hip drags along mine as she goes. The whole length of her body grazes the whole length of mine, and I feel it everywhere.
Jesus Christ, I must be completely losing it.
My aroused scent fills the air and I’m certain that if she could smell what’s happening to me right now, she would put the rack back on top of me herself.
She clears the gap and steps away. I work my way out after her, then shove the rack back against the wall with a grunt, making a mental note to have the damn thing bolted down. My arms are burning. My heart is hammering for reasons that have nothing to do with the strain.
“This room is clear,” she says, already packing her stuff. She’s looking everywhere except at me.
“Sophie?” I say, as she’s leaving the room.
She turns and looks up at me with those dead eyes again. Except they aren’t dead now. No. They’re wide and alert, more alive than I’ve ever seen them.
“Yes?” she asks.
“I—nothing,” I say weakly. “See you tomorrow.”
She just nods and leaves. Because what’s there to say? Sorry I got hard while you were pinned under a server rack and I could feel every inch of your body against mine? Sorry my scent spiked with arousal the moment our eyes met, and I could see you weren’t as unaffected as you like to seem?
And then I’m alone, standing there, catching my breath, my cock still fully hard. What the hell just happened?
I’m not some horny teenager who’s never been around a woman. I’m Max Cavill. I’ve had beautiful women throw themselves at me and felt nothing but boredom.
And yet one cold, impossible woman slides past me in a server room, and my body awakens in a way that it never has before.
The house is dark when I slip inside, my packmates long since gone to bed. I climb the stairs quietly, strip off my clothes, and fall into bed without bothering to shower.
And it’s only now, in the dark, that I realize it. I hadn’t thought about him once the whole time I was with her. For a few hours, there was only her.
My father’s ghost doesn’t come for me tonight.
Instead, a pair of dark, unflinching eyes and a voice that says,
I have taken down more alphas than you can imagine.