Initiate Me(22)

For the first time, I wondered if he’d ever done military training to be a cop. My brother Miccah was in the military and he had an extremely fit and muscular body. Zane’s green eyes were hypnotic and his powerful physique was dangerous and sexy.

“So, I see you have no wounds or black eyes. Am I to assume you two didn’t engage in a fist fight then?”

“We are adults, angel. We solve things like men, not prickly teenagers,” he teased.

I let that one pass, though I had at least a dozen good comebacks on the tip of my tongue. “Still have a job then, do you?”

He pulled his hands out of his pockets and braced himself against my desk. As he leaned down, I could smell his masculine scent, wild and untamed. “What, were you praying for Max to fire me?”

My cheeks burned at his words. “I apologise. I shouldn’t have gone to Max. I’m sorry.”

Zane reached out and touched my cheek. “That almost seemed sincere, angel.”

I jerked backward out of his reach, and growled, “Screw it. I’m not sorry.”

Zane’s grin disappeared. “Come into my office. I need to talk to you.”

“This isn’t—”

He cut me off with a hand in the air. “I need a little privacy. Please?”

I didn’t really have a choice at that point and I damn well knew it. I melted the minute he murmured please in that sexy baritone voice of his.

I stood and unwillingly followed him into his office. I barely gave eye contact to Winter as I breezed past her; my gaze was fixed on the way his arse moved beneath his black dress pants. God, he was sexy. If I could just get one squeeze, one squeeze of that arse, I could live the rest of my life with a grin on my face.

As he closed the door to his office, panic welled up inside me. Most men didn’t send my blood rushing through my veins, and I never felt panicky around them. It never happened when I was around Brandon, but with Zane, I was a lost cause.

He moved around his desk and sat, indicating I should follow suit in one of the chairs across from him. I sat and braced myself, unsure what his new mood was all about. He seemed pensive, and I wasn’t used to that. Zane was usually flirtatious or ribbing me until I wanted to pull out my hair, or his. Those were moods I could handle. The serious side had me fidgeting in my seat.

“I want the truth. I want to know why you went to Max. Is it that bad working for me?”

I clutched the arm of the chair. He was asking for the truth. Since the moment I’d started working here, Zane had never actually pushed me into dealing with our mutual attraction. He seemed content to let us dance around each other. In turn, I tried to avoid him and suppress my insane attraction to him.

“No, it’s not so bad. But you really pissed me off and I reacted. I’m sorry.”

He glanced down at his desk and frowned, then moved a few files around. As he leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, he said, “Well, that’s the part I’m confused about, angel. What set you off? One minute I was talking to you like any other co-worker, and the next thing I know, you’re running to big brother and complaining. What was it that I actually said or did to get you revved up?”

Damn, I was going to have to tell him the truth. I was not a good liar at the best of times, especially with him. He always saw right through me somehow, which was yet another infuriating thing about him.

“You were talking about your night with that floozy,” I blurted.

“What floozy? Lauren? What does she have to do with anything?”

I rolled my eyes and stood up. “You know, for an educated man, you can be so stupid.” I started for the door, but I never managed more than a few feet before a pair of large, strong hands pulled me to a stop. I swung around and glared. “Let me go.”

“You were jealous,” he stated. Like I hadn’t already figured out that part on my own.

“Spot on. You win first prize.”

“Well, how do you think I feel when you throw that little punk Brandon in my face? And don’t say you don’t mention him just to piss me off, because we both know the truth.”

I secretly smirked knowing I did use poor Brandon to make Zane jealous. But I really only went out with him on the off-chance I’d be able to forget about Zane. It didn’t work; all I did was compare them.

“Well, at least I wasn’t talking about Brandon like I wanted to devour him as if he were my last meal!” I watched a muscle in his jaw twitch angrily. It made me want to lean over and lick him.

“Don’t piss me off by lying. All I did was mention I wouldn’t mind going to dinner with her, that’s all. Then you behaved like a spoilt brat and damn near shot out of my office like a cat that’d just gotten her tail stepped on.” His imagery stung my pride.