by Liv Rider
Dev asked him about the different states he’d visited. “What was your favorite place?”
Aidan blinked, not used to being asked his opinion on mundane human things, like a man rather than a wolf. “Well, I didn’t do much urban sightseeing for obvious reasons, but we saw a fair number of different landscapes. They’re kind of hard to compare—I liked different ones for different things.” He took a moment to consider. “I couldn’t believe how flat and endless parts of the Great Plains were, fields going on forever. Ireland’s so much more”—he fished around for a word—“squashed. And hilly. And wet.”
“Farmland, huh? Most people would pick the Grand Canyon or something.”
“That was cool too,” Aidan agreed. “But it took forever to get the dust out of my fur.”
The rounded another corner and Aidan again flailed for a hand-hold. The car slowed a fraction.
“It’ll help if you focus on something far away,” Dev said. “Give your brain a fixed point.”
Aidan tried it, latching onto the vaguely familiar silhouette of a skyscraper as Dev navigated through the city streets with casual ease. It helped a bit with the oddness of the motion, though he was still glad when they slowed for Dev to swipe them into an underground parking lot.
“Your office is here?”
“Yeah, I own the building,” Dev said casually, but he shot Aidan a sideways look as he parked, as if he weren’t sure how Aidan would react to this.
Dev owned a skyscraper. Wow. But why would he be wary of telling Aidan that? Was Dev worried he’d turn into a gold-digger or something?
Irritated that Dev would assume money would make him act differently, he fluttered his eyelashes and said breathlessly: “Hang on, have I seen you on a book cover somewhere: ‘The Sexy Werewolf Billionaire Tycoon’? I didn’t know that was you!” Maybe if he dropped the word as often as possible, Dev would get used to the idea that he and the Venn diagram of ‘werewolf’ one hundred percent overlapped.
Dev undid his seatbelt and raised an eyebrow. “Sexy?”
Desire flared to life low in his body. He swallowed. How did people cope with feeling this kind of thing on a regular basis? Did people feel this kind of thing on a regular basis, or was his level of attraction to Dev unusual? Heat rose in his cheeks and he felt suddenly naked without fur to hide the blush. Bloody hell.
He tried to hide his fluster by giving Dev an exaggerated up-and-down. “I always thought they photoshopped the abs on those covers.”
Dev snickered, put a hand on his flat stomach. “You’re welcome to see for yourself.” He wore a starched white business shirt, but Aidan remembered what he’d looked like without one from last night. The memory hadn’t had any heat to it as a wolf, but now…What would those firm muscles feel like through the thin fabric? If he reached out just a fraction, he could put his hand over Dev’s. And then…?
His stomach flipped, half-anticipation, half-nerves. He was a grown man, dammit. Just pretend like you know what you’re doing. Wasn’t that what he told the wolf cubs in training? Confidence is half the battle. Not that he’d expected to apply that lesson to this sort of situation, but whatever worked. He put his hand on Dev’s rock-hard chest, warmth radiating through the shirt.
“That’s…pretty persuasive.” His fake breathlessness had become real.
Dev took a sharp breath, and Aidan made the mistake of meeting his eyes. They were dark and hot, and the expression in them made him feel almost dizzy as Dev interlaced their fingers and leaned in slowly, an invitation.
At least, Aidan was pretty sure it was an invitation. The rising haze of desire fought with panic. Was he reading the cues right here? Aidan had never kissed anyone before. The thought steeled him. Who knew how long he’d stay human for? He should take advantage of the opportunity while it was here. Kissing hadn’t seemed like an appealing activity as a wolf, but like hell was he going to miss the chance to see what all the fuss was about.
Before he lost his nerve, he closed the gap between them and pressed his lips to Dev’s in a clumsy peck. How did kissing even work? Why hadn’t they given more explicit instructions on the mechanics during those long-ago Shifter Sex Ed classes?
At least Dev wasn’t looking at him with pity. His eyes smoldered in a way that made Aidan shiver.
“Relax,” he murmured, cupping the back of Aidan’s head and setting a chaste kiss down on his jaw, light as a butterfly. “Human lesson one: the best way to get good at kissing is practice. Lots of practice.” Dev scattered teasing kisses across his skin, and Aidan turned his head to chase them, driven by a frustrated tangle of want. Dev’s chuckle rumbled against him. “Patience, beautiful.”
It took him a second to process the endearment, because Dev’s butterfly-kisses were driving him mad. And then Dev’s mouth finally—finally—found his, properly this time, and he lost hold of the half-formed protest.
Previously, the whole concept of kissing had seemed gross at worst and vaguely pointless at best. He hadn’t had a sex drive as a wolf, but sex at least made sense in an abstract scientific sense—animals driven by the urge to make more animals, after all. There didn’t seem to be any reason for kissing. But he’d still wondered about it, since human culture seemed pretty keen on it. He’d thought maybe it would be a nice, soothing sensation, like having your ears petted.
It was nothing like that.
A small, helpless whimper rose in his throat at the hot taste of Dev, the coaxing flick of his tongue—and, oh god, how could that feel so good? His body felt alien again, but a powerful, pulsing, good kind of alien, and he wanted to press as much of it against Dev as possible. He snuggled into Dev, frustrated by the car’s confines.
A loud honk jolted them apart.
Their gazes mutually went to the steering wheel, where Dev’s elbow had inadvertently jabbed the horn.
Dev shook himself as if emerging from deep water, and Aidan sat back with a gasp, reality reasserting itself. Dev didn’t even like werewolves and Aidan had a job to do here. So, what the bloody hell was Aidan doing with his tongue halfway down the other man’s throat?
Am I hoping that throwing myself at Dev might make him stick around and help keep me human? The thought hit like ice water, and he fumbled for the door handle, stumbling out of the overheated car and into the parking lot.
“Sorry, I’m sorry.”
Chapter 8
Dev couldn’t move for a moment, his whole body roaring with desire—and shock. What the hell had just happened? When had he decided to kiss Aidan like his life depended on it? He hadn’t been thinking, that was the problem. Aidan might be sinfully gorgeous, funny, and too charming for his own good, but that still didn’t explain where Dev’s prized control had fucked off to.
Guilt started to seep in around the edges, warring with a primal possessiveness that growled under his skin, urging him to follow Aidan and back him up against the car so they could finish what they’d started. His hands clenched into fists. No. He knew what could happen if he lost control of the monster inside him, and he wouldn’t let Aidan pay that price.
Oh, and he’s a werewolf. He’d forgotten that, somehow, during the hottest kiss of his life to date.
He took a deep breath, reined in his lust, and got out of the car. “You have abso-fucking-lutely nothing to apologize for,” he said firmly. He was the one who needed to apologize. No wonder Aidan had freaked out. Human for not even twenty-four hours and Dev had cut straight to heavy petting in a damn parking lot like a horny teenager.
Aidan had his back against a nearby concrete pillar. Fidgeting, he avoided Dev’s gaze. He looked like an angel who’d fallen in with the wrong crowd—i.e. Dev—with his multi-colored hair mussed, his lips flushed red.
“You okay, man? I’m sorry I came on so strong. I should’ve remembered you’re new to all this,” Dev said, trying to reassure him. Mine, mine, mine, his instincts growled. He told them to shut it. Aidan wasn’t his and there was no way he could be. Making out with him had been a moment of
temporary insanity, a reminder of why Dev needed to guard against being overwhelmed by his instincts. He shouldn’t have needed the reminder—not with the consequences of losing control carved into his skin. Why did Aidan make him feel so off-balance?
Aidan went a deeper red, bright stripes against his pale skin. Dev wondered if he blushed all over like that. “Oh. Um, no, I’m good. Thank you. For demonstrating. It was…I was just…It was good. Really good. Based on my incredibly extensive experience.”
Dev smirked before he could stop himself. “You’re welcome. Let’s go up to my office.” Telling his body to calm the hell down, he led them through the parking lot.
After a beat, Aidan followed.
“So, how did you become a billionaire?” Aidan asked as they waited for the elevator.
“A sexy billionaire,” Dev couldn’t resist adding. Damnit, he needed to stop flirting with Aidan! But something about him kept making Dev forget all the reasons why pursuing this attraction between them was a terrible idea.
Aidan rolled his eyes. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
Dev flashed him a grin. “I’m not a billionaire, actually. Multi-millionaire is more accurate. Morimoto Enterprises does property development, for the most part. Started with my own two hands, renovating a dump of a place. Only thing holding the walls up was the weight of the cockroaches standing on each other’s backs. And now this.” He gave the elevator a proprietary pat and cast a sidelong glance at Aidan. Sometimes people could be weird about the whole money thing.
“A shiny elevator: The American Dream. Congrats,” Aidan said dryly. “But seriously, that’s awesome. Is this whole building Morimoto Enterprises staff?”
Dev shook his head. “Nah, just the one floor for the office. The rest has commercial tenants, except my apartment is the top floor.” He grinned. “You wouldn’t believe the zoning rules I had to wrangle with to get what I wanted. The whole thing’s carbon neutral: solar panels, passive heating, green roof, the works. There’s a mini wind turbine on the roof.”
Aidan blinked. “Huh.”
“Not what you expected from your local sexy multi-millionaire?”
Aidan groaned. “What will it take to make you forget I said that?”
“No chance. I’m getting it printed on all my business cards,” Dev said, then had to give himself a stern mental shake. Stop! Flirting! It was just too easy to fall into teasing banter with Aidan. He focused on the glowing floor numbers, a tiny symbol of everything he’d built here—the opposite of the angry, uncivilized beast caged in his soul. “This is just the start though—you should see the development proposal we’re working on at the moment.”
It felt good to be back on his own territory, to remind himself of who he really was, and he felt his muscles loosen as the elevator doors popped open.
Aidan had never felt more out of place. He and Dev stood only a foot apart, but the space between them seemed to increase with the floor numbers. The teasing, sly-humored man who’d kissed him with heat in his eyes had been folded away, replaced with smooth professionalism. Dev’s suit fit him like a glove, a sleek, confident predator in black pinstripe. Aidan picked at the fabric of Mahon’s T-shirt, shuffling in his twin’s shoes that were too big even though he was wearing an extra pair of socks. But it wasn’t like different clothes would make him suddenly know how to do all this human stuff.
Like kissing, he thought, flushing at the memory, embarrassment and desire twisted up in knots. God, he wanted to do more of that even if he was apparently terrible at it from Dev’s sympathetic pep-talk before. It hadn’t felt terrible. He snuck a look at Dev. How could he convince him to let them try again? Maybe try a whole lot more than just kissing? A jolt of pure want went through him, and he had to bite his tongue to hold back a groan.
What was he doing? Was he really trying to think of ways to persuade Dev to pity-fuck the ignorant virgin? The elevator dinged, and he gave himself a shake. Even if he had any idea how to do that, this was so not the time.
“I’m going magically incognito in case I need to go wolf,” he told Dev as the doors opened to a bright receptionist’s area. He pulled up a minor don’t-see-me-glamour, the minty signature of his magic heavy on his tongue. A part of him relaxed as the magic swirled around him, hiding his scruffy human self from judgment. Glamour didn’t make you invisible; it made you ignorable. Unless he gave Dev’s staff a reason to notice him, they’d forget he was even there.
“Er…you know about glamour, right?” It belatedly occurred to him that Dev might not. Most types of fae had basic don’t-see-me glamour, but how much had his dryad step-family shared with their human relative?
But Dev nodded, straightening as he led the way out into the reception area. “Yeah, I know about glamour. But stay close. My staff already thinks I’m crazy without adding talking to myself.” He could still see Aidan—Aidan had made a Dev-shaped exemption in his magic, since it was way harder to glamour someone who already knew you were there.
‘Morimoto Enterprises’ was emblazoned on the wall behind the front desk along with a stylized tree logo. Dev greeted the receptionist and moved swiftly out to the office floor. Aidan followed him.
“Dev! Where have you been?” An immaculately made-up woman in a pantsuit hurried over. “Mr. White wants to talk to you about the Leafling Heights proposal.”
Dev frowned, breaking stride for a moment. “Sorry, Penny, I haven’t had a chance to look at the tenders yet. But you can tell Mr. White he can wait till the damn deadline we gave, just like everyone else.”
Penny blinked and gave him a concerned once-over. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine.” His gaze flicked to Aidan briefly. “But now’s a bad time. I’ll catch up with you later today, okay?” He moved on, leaving her staring after him with a puzzled expression.
Later today. Aidan’s heart sank. Of course. Dev had a business to run, a life to live. He couldn’t just stay by Aidan’s side indefinitely. Aidan rubbed softly at the knuckles of one hand. How much longer did he have as a human? Dev hadn’t seemed worried about donating a morning to solving Aidan’s problem, but it wasn’t like they’d gotten any closer to figuring it out. Dev would get tired of being lumped with him sooner or later.
At least Aidan could justify staying close to Dev until he accepted his inner wolf. Which you’re supposed to be trying to get him to do as soon as possible, he reminded himself guiltily as he followed Dev across the floor.
“Who’s Mr. White?” he asked.
Dev glanced around to check no one was watching before answering under his breath: “Someone who wants Morimoto Enterprises to pick his company as a business partner.” He gave Aidan a pointed look.
Oh. Right. Aidan was under glamour, which meant Dev looked like he was talking to himself. Aidan made a zipping motion across his lips to show he understood, following him silently through the office. Not having person-specific private telepathy was one human thing it took a while to get used to.
They walked past computer desks and tables covered with plans and models. People greeted Dev as he passed, or in one case silently saluted him with a coffee cup, making Dev chuckle. They all looked like they knew what they were doing, and it made Aidan intensely aware of all the human skills he lacked. If this human thing did stick, what was he going to do with the rest of his life? A lot of the BlackEdge Pack worked in construction, and they’d probably let him do an apprenticeship or something, even with his current hand-eye coordination issues, but did he really want to carry on being the pack charity case?
Dev opened the door to his office, and Aidan caught the scent of stale fear. The line of Dev’s shoulders tightened as he walked to his desk and half-heartedly shuffled some papers. There was a black-and-white silver-framed family portrait on his desk, showing an older black woman, darker-skinned than Dev, with her arm around the waist of a Japanese man with pointed ears. Standing next to them was a younger, mixed-race woman, her ears also subtly pointed—their daughter?�
�holding an infant.
“Your mom?” Aidan guessed, gesturing at the black woman. She was smiling, but there was still an intensity to her that seemed oddly familiar.
“Yeah,” Dev said, his lips curving as he glanced at the portrait, showing a hint of the same fierce love that marked his mother’s expression. “My mom, my stepdad, my half-sister, and my baby niece. This was taken not long after she was born. She’s three now.” His expression took on an edge of grim determination as he contemplated the photo. Aidan couldn’t help noticing the distinct lack of any photo of Dev’s biological father.
Aidan wished suddenly for his twin and his mate. Fae and wolves might hate each other in the rest of the supernatural world, but at least Mahon and Oscar were one living example that that didn’t always have to be true.
Breathing in, he began to sort through layers, discarding the normal-office smells of paper, dust, the faint metallic taste of electronics. Dev’s scent was everywhere, a warm, tantalizing presence despite the tang of recent fear. The next strongest person-scent was the woman who’d met them coming in, Penny. Then there were faint impressions of others, strongest near the door, but he couldn’t separate them well in human form.
“I need to change,” he said, lifting the hem of his T-shirt.
Dev froze like a deer in a hunter’s sights.
Aidan grinned. “Just another typical day in the office, right?”
Dev unfroze and sprinted for the door, turning the lock as Aidan shrugged out of his jeans. “Christ.”
“I’m under glamour, remember?”
“Yeah, and trust me it won’t stand up to the sight of your naked ass.”
Heat curled all the way down to his toes at the way Dev looked at him. Maybe he would be open to some more making-out sessions. Focus, he told himself sternly. You have a job to do.
