“You don’t get to—what the fuck!”
Big hands caught me by the hips and yanked me down into his lap, straddling his thighs, my own legs spread uncomfortably by the wide angle of his.
I opened my mouth to keep arguing, my hands flying up to his shoulders to push myself off of him. And then the words died in my throat as his eyes flared the pure, brilliant gold of the angry alpha. He leaned in, putting his face only an inch from mine.
“Jackie hasn’t done anything wrong,” he said, voice hard. “She’s doing her job. And if she’s a little curious about her boss’s mate, there’s nothing strange about that.”
“But she—you—”
“I fucked you two nights ago,” he interrupted me. “You. Not her.” One of his hands shifted, moving down from my hip to cup my ass, fingers tracing the crease. I squirmed in his grip, letting out a hoarse, helpless sound, all my nerves firing at once as every bit of my awareness narrowed down to the brush of his fingers. “I held you down and put my cock in you, I turned you inside out until you came on my knot.You’remy mate. Remember?”
“Dimitri—”
“Say it, Brook.”
My eyes prickled with moisture. The heavy heat in the pit of my stomach kept gathering, as if gravity were stronger there, pushing my body down into Dimitri’s lap.
“I’m your mate,” I whispered.
His hand tightened, fingers pushing deeper between the cheeks of my ass, caressing my hole through the fabric of my trousers and underwear.
“Yeah, you are. Mine. I’m not looking at Jackie like that. I have a mate. I can fuck you whenever I want, so I don’t need her.”
The heat of him drew me in further, so that I started swaying into his chest. Maybe gravityhadgone wonky. Or I’d gotten heavier. Or something.
“You can’t fuck me whenever you want. That’s—it was a one-time thing.” I swallowed hard, my train of thought completely derailed. His glowing, mesmerizing eyes were so close. Dimitri’s body surrounded me. That hand on my ass kept stroking, probing, reminding me of the way he’d owned me the other night.
Dimitri smiled, and it wasn’t one of his nice smiles. “Twice, Brook. A two-time thing. And it’s going to happen again, isn’t it.”
That wasn’t a question.
Yeah, it would happen again, if he kept touching me like this.
And it wasn’t fair of him to take advantage of the mate bond this way. That had to be why I couldn’t move, couldn’t shake him off and tell him to go fuck himself, because he sure as hell wouldn’t be fucking me.
“You’re not fucking me again,” I said, my voice wavering and a little too high. “You don’t even want to. I don’t want to,” I added, remembering that was the main point I needed to make.
“Whatever you say. But you’re my mate, and you should keep it in mind. Stop being a jealous asshole.”
That stung, even through the haze of confusion that’d settled over me. “I’m not jealous! Don’t be a moron. I’d never be jealous of you.”
His eyes went hard, his jaw tense. “Then don’t act like it,” he said, clipped and cold. “Get up and get back to work, Brook. And stop being a dick to your assistant.”
I clambered off his lap stiffly, my muscles not cooperating. He helped me with a shove up by my hips, and the second I’d gotten off of him, he picked up his coffee and his phone and acted like I wasn’t even there.
Could I kick him in the shin? That sounded appealing. Or knock him back onto the couch, climb back on his lap, and…
No, the hell. I didn’t want to be on his lap. I turned away, so many conflicting impulses swirling around in my brain that I could hardly see straight. For lack of any better ideas, I sat down at my desk and went back to work.
Just like he’d told me to do.
When Jackie knocked at the door an hour later and then waited for me to call out to her to come in, I winced. We really did have a good working relationship. She never interrupted me when I had the door closed unless she needed to, and she always rapped on the door and then opened it immediately, more of a warning so I wouldn’t be startled than asking for permission.
“Yeah, Jackie,” I said, and the door opened.
“You have that meeting with Adam in ten minutes,” she said, sounding formal and subdued. “I cc’d you on the emails about it so you can prep.”
I glanced over at Dimitri and found him watching me levelly. He didn’t speak, and his expression stayed neutral, but his emotions leaked through the bond: disappointment, but also…encouragement.
