Swiping his key card against the security panel, he tried to prepare himself for what her scent would inevitably do to him. It didn’t matter. The moment the doors whooshed open, she teased him, making his inner wolf go crazy.
Asher nodded at Ella, then at Grady. “Go help Davis with the bartender problem and ask him to call the police. He’ll fill you in.” Because Asher wasn’t dealing with any of that now. Not when Ella was here.
He nodded, then said, “Catch ya later, Ella.”
Asher didn’t like the way the young pup looked at her, but he shoved his possessive urges back down and focused on her. “Everything okay?” Concern filled him as he watched the tense way her arms were wrapped around herself.
Everything about her was rigid as she shook her head. “It’s probably nothing. I’m…probably being paranoid, but after lunch I went back to my office and I would almost swear someone had been in there. There’s a foreign smell in there. Not bad, just different. Really subtle though. And I already texted Grant about it. He wasn’t in there. Since I’m the only other person with a key…” She trailed off and let her hands fall to her side. “Nothing was taken or moved around though so I’m probably just being silly.”
All of Asher’s protective instincts roared to the surface. He shook his head. “No, you’re right to trust your gut.” And he was glad she’d come to him, especially after the way she’d left last night. He was head of security so it made sense that she had, but still. It soothed his wolf to know she’d turned to him for help. He nodded toward the still open glass doors. “Come on.”
Smiling tentatively, she stepped forward. He placed his hand at the small of her back. It was a subtle move, but she noticed it. With raised eyebrows, she looked up at him. Thankfully she didn’t pull away, but let him guide her past where Grady and Davis were talking.
Grady’s gaze flicked to where Asher still kept his hand on Ella. Asher ignored the man’s look and continued on to his office. Once inside, he motioned toward one of the microfiber chairs in front of his desk. As she sat, he pulled out a master remote control and changed the feeds of the six screens in his office. “What time did you take lunch?”
“About one.”
He shot her a quick look over his shoulder. “Did you take a real lunch?” She’d been working too damn hard and she’d only been here a few days. He didn’t like that she was barely eating on top of that. As shifters they needed fuel because of their high metabolism.
She pursed her lips, but nodded. “Yes, with Lauren. Do you want a breakdown of everything I ate?”
Half-smiling, he just shook his head as he turned back to the screen. Using the controller, he pulled up various video feeds. The one that pointed directly at the elevators on her floor, the one that pointed directly at Grant’s office, and the feed that streamed down her hallway. The other three videos he locked onto the interior of the elevators. He immediately skipped to the time frame she would have left for lunch.
Her office was at the very end of the hall. Since he didn’t have a direct shot of her office—something he planned to change—he could only see Ella when she made it to the halfway point of the hallway, right at Grant’s door.
For the next twenty minutes they watched all the feeds in silence, him fast forwarding when nothing was happening. After she left for lunch, he saw Grant enter his office, then a handful of other packmates enter and leave his office before heading back to the elevators. But not one single person made their way to Ella’s office. When the feed showed her coming back from lunch, she sighed and stood, smoothing down her sweater dress.
“I’m sorry I wasted your time. I guess I’m just being paranoid. Probably because it’s a new office or something. I swear I didn’t make this up as an excuse to see you,” she said, laughing nervously.
As if he might believe she’d do that. Though he wouldn’t have cared if she had made up a reason to see him. “You don’t need an excuse to see me.”
She sucked in a breath at that, but he continued. “I don’t care what the feed shows, I want to check out your office.”
Ella shook her head, clearly embarrassed. “No, I don’t want to waste your time—”
“Not up for discussion.” He put his hand on the small of her back again.
She tensed, but eventually sighed and let him lead her out of the security area. Once they were in the elevators heading to her floor, she shot him a quick look.
He caught those dark eyes and held her stare, unable to look away. Without trying, the woman captivated him. It was subtle, but her eyes dilated and the scent of her hunger twined around him, telling him all he needed to know. “I saw you last night,” he murmured, curious what her reaction would be.
“Oh…you looked…” She cleared her throat and he watched in fascination as her cheeks turned pink. “I’m glad you got that challenging stuff out of the way,” she said as the elevator doors whooshed open.
They stepped out to find Grant waiting. He smiled at both of them. “Hey, you guys coming to see me?”
Ella shook her head at the same time Asher said, “No.”
“All right. I’m headed back to the compound.” Meaning the beachfront condominium complex the pack owned. “Call me if you need anything.” The elevator doors closed behind him.
“I like that he doesn’t micromanage,” Ella said as they headed down the hall.
“Yeah.” Asher wouldn’t be able to handle a boss who did that. Good alphas kept a solid pulse on their pack, but gave their people enough trust to do their jobs. “Did your pride leader?”
Unlocking her office door, she shook her head. She tried to enter first, but Asher gently pulled her back. Her head whipped up in surprise, but he stepped in front of her and went in first. He hadn’t scented anything unusual, but he wasn’t taking chances. Not with Ella’s safety.
He stepped inside to find it empty of any potential threats. Shutting the door behind Ella, he scanned the place. The gold floor to ceiling length curtains were pulled back to reveal the wall of windows. Ella’s delicate antique-looking desk sat on a big Persian rug and was positioned close to the window, giving her a lot of natural light. There was a chaise lounge with a throw blanket and a laptop next to another window. Next to it were stacks of boxes and folders piled up. The room was pretty posh for an office, but she’d requested it when Grant hired her.
“Everything looks fine,” he murmured, inhaling deeply as he strode around the entire space. “But…” He trailed off as he caught that elusive scent again.
“Do you smell it too? It’s faded now, but…”
“Yeah.” It wasn’t human, it wasn’t shifter, it was…what was it? He frowned as he scented a distinctive cool eucalyptus scent. “I don’t know what it is though.”
“Not human or shifter, right?”
He shook his head. Just because shifters had heightened senses didn’t mean they could pick out every single scent. But they could often distinguish what species a scent was. It bothered him that he couldn’t right now. His frown deepened as he noticed the long latch on the middle section of the window next to the chaise lounge. It was flipped up. The top half could open a few feet, but the bottom half was sealed shut. “Do you ever open this?” It was January, but with their shifter blood they weren’t as affected by the cold like humans.
She nodded and crossed over to the chaise. “Yeah, some of these files are so musty so I opened it to air out that scent a couple days ago.”
He pushed the window open. A blast of wind rolled over him and he scented the eucalyptus smell even stronger. Interesting. Shutting it, he turned back to Ella who looked good enough to eat in that damn dress.
Her hands were on her hips. “Well?”
“What?”
“You’ve got a certain look on your face.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Look?”
She smiled, the action softening all her gorgeous features as she swatted at his upper arm. “Come on. What are you thinking? Tell me I’m not crazy.”
“You’re definitely not crazy. I think someone was in your office and I think they used this window to get in.” It would explain why they hadn’t seen anything on the video feeds. But at least now he could start looking at the exterior feeds to see if he caught anything unusual.
Her expression turned thoughtful. “That’s a lot of trouble for someone to go to just to get into my office.” She motioned toward two oversized canvases on the opposite wall. “Those paintings are done by local artists and other than my desk—which is very expensive—there’s not much of extraordinary value in here. I don’t think anyone would break in to steal my desk, especially when there’s no easy way to transport it. And the records, terrible that they are, haven’t been touched. I’m almost sure of it. Neither was my laptop, which is password protected and most of my files are encrypted anyway. Maybe they wanted to use my office as a way to reach another room. Like Grant’s office?”
“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.
Chapter 6
Ella stared out at the crashing waves from her cozy balcony. A near full moon hung high, illuminating the glistening water farther than she could see. For most of her life she’d lived in northern Alabama, but getting used to this beach life was easier than she’d imagined. The sound and scent of the ocean was calming, as if she belonged right where she was.
Lauren had asked her over for dinner tonight with her and her mate, Max. Ella loved her cousin, but after the long day she’d had, relaxing by herself with a glass of wine was the only thing she’d wanted. Well, almost the only thing.
Asher had texted her earlier telling her that he couldn’t escort her home so Davis had instead. She didn’t think she needed an escort at all, but she appreciated the gesture even if she was disappointed Asher hadn’t been the one to take her home. She was also bummed they wouldn’t get to go running, but she understood him being busy with work.
At a knock on her front door, she set her mug of hot cocoa on the small table and pushed up from her lounge chair. The condos were well-insulated so she couldn’t scent who it was until she’d reached the front door.
Asher.
Her jaguar started going crazy, clawing at her, telling her to get over her stupid insecurities and jump the man. If only it was that easy.
It could be, the little voice in her head taunted.
She opened the door and fought to catch her breath at the sight of him. He still wore his work slacks, but no tie and his white button down shirt was opened at the top. No jacket either and his shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. He looked exhausted.
Concern filled her. “Come in. Are you hungry?”
He shook his head as he stepped past her. “I ate before I left work. It’s just been a long day.”
She motioned down the hallway that led to her kitchen and living room area. “Come on. I’ve got fresh hot cocoa.”
His eyes lit up as he fell in step with her and headed to the kitchen.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, just work stuff. Before I saw you this morning we discovered a human employee stealing—a bartender. Then we discovered a waitress at a different restaurant was skimming too. She’s a single mom with three kids and…” He sighed, his expression tormented. “I just hate dealing with shit like that.”
“For the bartender, but not for the waitress. She was actually sorry—ashamed. I could scent it on her and hell, she’s got kids. She was just trying to make ends meet.”
As they reached the end of the hallway, Ella asked, “What did you do?”
He shrugged, looking uncomfortable. Something told her he’d probably given the woman money and hopefully helped her figure something out. But it didn’t seem like Asher was going to answer, so Ella didn’t push as she stepped into the kitchen.
“Did you find out anything about my possible intruder?” she asked as she pulled a mug from one of her cabinets. Looking over her shoulder at him as she reached the stove, she saw that Asher had settled onto one of the stools on the other side of the counter. Her kitchen was open, connecting to the dining room and the big panel of windows overlooking the ocean. But she barely noticed the view behind Asher.
Not when he was watching her with such a raw hunger that it nearly froze her. He wasn’t even trying to hide it.
Ella let her hand drop and turned to face him. Her nipples tightened under that intense stare and she knew her reaction was visible because of the way his gaze dropped to her chest. It was quick, but once his eyes met hers again, he appeared even more affected. His eyes looked more wolf.
She wanted nothing more than to give in to what they both wanted. But the more she learned about Asher, the more she realized she wanted to get to know him better first. Not just jump into bed with him again. Unfortunately that little voice in her head kept trying to convince her that once the newness wore off, Asher wouldn’t want her anymore.
God, she hated being this way. Having these stupid insecurities. Even though she tried to play off what her sister and ex had done, it still stung. Deeply. What if there was something wrong with her? What if Asher realized that after she’d completely fallen for him?
Tempting His Mate Page 4
