Tempting His Mate(14)

“Maybe.” But Asher wasn’t convinced. Ella was handling the paper trail of all the money that came in and out of the hotel. He wondered if there was a connection there. And if someone had been in her office, there was a possibility they would come back. As soon as he left here he planned to tell Grant his concerns. “Until we know what’s going on, I’m going to place one of my guys up here with you.” Not Grady, that was for sure.

“Oh, I don’t think—”

“It’s happening,” he said as he texted Davis instructions to meet him in Ella’s office.

Sighing, she leaned against her desk. “You’re very bossy.”

He took a few steps toward her, closing most of the distance until he was inches away. She licked her lips and her sexy scent intensified at his closeness. “I don’t seem to remember you complaining too much about that,” he murmured, his reference clear.

Her cheeks turned that delicious shade of pink and to his surprise she laughed. “Yeah, I definitely didn’t mind.” She also didn’t seem uncomfortable with him invading her personal space. Which he was intentionally doing.

The tense knot that was coiled tightly in his chest loosened at her laughter. He liked this side of her, when she was at ease around him. He wanted her like that all the time. Taking a chance, he reached out and tucked a long strand of her hair behind her ear.

Her dark eyes went heavy-lidded for a moment.

“Why didn’t you stay last night?” he asked quietly, stroking his thumb over her soft cheek.

She tensed slightly, but shrugged. “It seemed like a lot of people wanted to talk to you and I didn’t want to interrupt.”

Bullshit. She’d run because she didn’t trust the pull between them. “For the record, you can interrupt anytime.”

“Oh.” She seemed at a loss for words.

He wanted to push her, to find out the real reason she’d left. But he didn’t want to make things uncomfortable and he was afraid he’d do just that if he insisted. Instead, he slowly leaned down, giving her plenty of time to stop him.

When she moved her hands up his chest, his inner wolf howled in protest of her rejection for a fraction of a second—until she kept sliding them up, linking her fingers behind his neck.

An uncontrollable shudder rolled through him at the contact. When their lips met, he nearly combusted. He wanted to shove the few items on her desk to the floor and take her right there. But he kept himself in check. Barely.

Brushing his lips over hers, he kept the kiss light, teasing. She moaned into his mouth, her tongue flicking against his with an underlying urgency. He could feel the energy humming through her, the need and hunger she emanated sending his lust into overdrive.

But he wasn’t going to screw things up with her. She might like it when he took control in the bedroom but he was going to take things slow.

Really. He was.

Then she hopped back on her desk and spread her legs, tugging him closer into her embrace. His cock pushed insistently against his pants. She lifted her left leg to wrap tighter around him and dug her heel into his ass. He almost lost it. The thought of shoving her dress up her thighs, dropping to his knees and going down on her was all he could think about.

The sound of Ella’s office door opening made him jerk back. She immediately dropped her leg from around him, and he moved to stand in front of her, blocking her. Asher relaxed a fraction when he saw that it was Davis.

The shifter’s eyes widened and he stepped back outside, giving them privacy.

Asher turned back to face Ella who was standing and straightening her dress. “I shouldn’t have done that at work.” But he wasn’t sorry. Not even a little bit. Though he ached to tell her that they were going to finish what they’d just started, he held back, not wanting to scare her. “I’m leaving Davis to monitor this floor and keep an eye on you, but call me if you need anything.”

“Okay, thanks. Listen, do you want to go running tonight?” She said the words in a rush.

Her question surprised him, but he didn’t have to think about his answer. “Yes.”

Though Asher wanted to stay and watch over Ella, he couldn’t for multiple reasons. The main one being that he wouldn’t be focused with her sweet scent teasing him. They both needed to work and he wanted to start checking all the outer perimeter video feeds. And he trusted Davis. Asher might be new to the pack, but his alpha wouldn’t have assigned these wolves to his security team if he didn’t completely trust them. After last night’s fights, they’d all shown nothing but respect today. No hard feelings. The shifter way.

Once he’d filled Davis in on everything, he called Grant and headed back down to the video room. Even though it shredded him to leave Ella, it was time to hunt this intruder down.