I fought the shiver of arousal he sent down my spine. Most of my memories of him saying my name involved compromising positions and rope bondage.
“I need a favour.”
“Anything.”
He agreed so readily. I had to sit down on the bed because I was bouncing, the careful composure I showed the world shattering under his attention.
Ambrose represented what I could have had, if I didn’t spend my life at the beck and call of two narcissists. If I’d put myself first instead of caring about appearances and my job above everything else.
“Come over. I have a… guest.”
There was a low rumbling growl from his end of the line. “Are you safe?”
“Perfectly. I’m not going to explain over the phone.”
If Soren didn’t have my phone bugged, I was sure my mother did. Maybe both of them. Some of my clients may have even tried to get their grubby hands on my technology, and I was no wizard with it. Liberty tried her best to implement protections, but she also was not an expert.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
Ambrose hung up. He’d never been to my condo, and yet he didn’t ask for my address. I wasn’t going to question how he knew things about me he shouldn’t.
And still nobody knew the things that truly mattered. I sighed.
I left my bedroom to find Kiara in the living room again, aggressively punching buttons on the remote. A violent movie played, some kind of thriller, and the screen was so dark I couldn’t tell you who the actor in it was. It was a miracle they hadn’t reshot the scene after firing the lighting techs.
“Um, can you turn on the subtitles?”
She held the remote out to me with a limp wrist.
As I pressed the correct combo of buttons to get subtitles on, she watched my fingers. It was like she was absorbing the knowledge of how it worked. Her stare was intense.
When I handed it back to her, she brushed her fingers across mine and I hissed, glaring.
“Don’t try anything with me, Kiara. Seduction isn’t going to work.”
It already felt like a lie because of how her touch had lit me up from the inside out. I twitched with the urge to push her back on the couch, plunge my fingers inside her pretty cunt, and taste how aroused I made her. She was unable to hide the effect I had. Her arousal was clear in her scent.
“That was an accident,” she said.
I didn’t try to argue. It wasn’t worth it.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I stood behind the couch and watched the movie. Kiara was certifiably terrible at keeping still. She shifted and fidgeted, grabbing pillows and clutching them before tossing them away again.
When she let out a needy little moan, I clenched my teeth and tried to keep a handle on my aura. Female alpha auras were different than male alphas—we had more of a soft intimidating effect, as opposed to the aggressive flares of a male. My aura was always out, but right now it was threatening to expand until she felt nothing but me, both soothing and arousing her.
Which was exactly what she wanted, of course.
“Leighton, can you—?”
I didn’t get to hear whatever ridiculous thing she planned to ask for in that sweet, innocent voice. A knock sounded on the door and I turned on my heel.
He crowded through the door the second I turned off the alarm and opened it, his aura flaring as he looked around the entryway. Before I could explain a single thing, he was storming past the kitchen and into the living room, leaving his strong scent of hot iron and smoke in his wake.
Ambrose stopped short when he spotted her.
Kiara was wide-eyed, a strand of damp hair stuck to her cheek.
“Ambrose, meet Kiara,” I said dryly.
