"Hey, how are things going? Do you need anything?" I looked up at Luke as he stood next to my desk. I had only been here one day but I was already loving it a hell of a lot more than I had ever loved being a paralegal for Mercado.

"No, everything's going great. I'm really liking it over here." Luke nodded his head, smiling.

"Oh, do you know about the private investigators we use for our cases?" I shook my head. Luke leaned over my shoulder, pointing to the screen. His other hand was on the back of my chair. "Let me show you how to find them on the network. Go to the file manager and then our shared network drive. There's a drive called Sutton. That's where we keep all of our stuff that just our team uses. We have to log every time we use a private investigator or one of the online information systems. All-"

"Is something the problem?" Luke moved away from me. I turned to see Marcus staring at Luke with narrowed eyes. He glanced between Luke and I.

"I was showing Ryan how to access the private investigators and shared network drive." I stared at Marcus, surprised that he was glaring at Luke. Wow. I hadn't heard anything about Marcus being a jerk. Maybe that information hadn't left his section.

"That's fine." He looked like he wanted to say something else but then turned and walked out of the section. What was that about? I turned around and looked at Luke, who shrugged. I turned back to look at Amy, whose eyes were wide. I guess this wasn't normal for Marcus.

The rest of the day was fine. Anytime Marcus walked by I tensed, but nothing happened. I didn't like people that took out their anger on other people and I hoped I was wrong about Marcus. What was wrong with a coworker showing me how to find resources I would need for my job?

Luke had never finished showing me how to access or find the private investigator network, and I needed that information. I looked around, but didn't see Marcus. "Hey Luke, could you show me how to use that database?" He smiled and rolled his chair over.

"Okay. Go back to the shared drive, the one called Sutton. In that folder there's a link to open the database." I nearly slammed my knee on the bottom of my desk when I felt Luke's hand on my leg. I flushed at the thrill of someone being attracted to me. To go from being ignored in one section to being hit on in the other was quite the upgrade. I was enjoying this move more and more. Luke seemed like a really nice guy too.

"Okay, now we need to use our user ID which is kept in-" Luke paused and I turned to the right to see why. He wasn't looking at me, though. He was looking behind me and looked worried. Oh no.

I turned around to see Marcus standing between Luke and Amy's desks with his arms folded. I was sure he could see Luke's hand on my thigh. I swallowed, nervous that I would get in trouble for dating a coworker, breaking the law firm's rule, even though Luke and I weren't dating at all.

"I, uh, was just showing Ryan how to access the database." Luke swallowed and a light sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"You could just send the FAQ instead of giving him such hands-on attention." I flushed, embarrassed at the emphasis on hands-on attention. Yeah, he definitely saw Luke's hand on my leg. Fuck. Were we going to be getting in trouble for interoffice dating? If I were going to break that rule, it would be with Marcus- not that I had a chance in hell with him though.

"Yes sir. I'll just do that then." Luke got up and pushed his chair back to his desk. I turned back to my computer, not even looking at Marcus. What was bringing on this behavior? From Luke and Amy's reaction, this was completely out of the ordinary for Marcus. Was it me? Was it Luke?

I didn't know what was going on and I didn't like it. I sat there waiting for Marcus to leave. I opened the email Luke just sent, and opened up the FAQ. I'd normally tell him thanks, but not with the current atmosphere in the section. Plus I didn't know if Marcus was still staring at us. I was so engrossed in my work that I hadn't realized somebody had walked into our section until she sat down on my desk.

"Who would you be?" Fingers under my chin lifted my head up. She was a beautiful brunette woman. "Oh my, aren't you a cutie? You know honey, you've got nice eyes and cheekbones but you're not showing them off. Hold on one second, I'm gonna help you out." I had absolutely no idea who this woman was. I was hesitant to tell her I didn't need her help in case she was a client. Even if she was a client, would Marcus get mad at me for her sitting on my desk like this?

She pulled something out of her purse and opened it up. "Here we go. I'm gonna style your hair just a little bit like this." She ran her hands through my hair, moving it around, pulling some forward, pushing some back. It actually felt wonderful. I loved having somebody fussing over me. A deep longing for a loving alpha went through me. It hit me so hard and fast I swear I had tears in my eyes. Especially after Marcus, my crush for years, jumped on Luke helping me out twice today.

"There we go. Now we can see your gorgeous eyes and cheekbones. Oh honey, if you were just a few years older-"

"Mrs. Foreman, could you please get off my paralegal's desk?" Oh my God. This must be Mrs. Foreman from the Foreman case! She put her styling products back in her purse and winked at me before sliding off my desk.

"Why, hello Mr. Sutton. I hope you don't mind but I just had to help that man out. He looks so much better now, don't you think?" I was absolutely not going to turn around to see what Marcus had to say to that.

"He was fine before, Mrs. Foreman. Please come in my office so we can discuss your case." I waited for the door to click before I turned around to Luke and Amy.

"Oh wow! I don't know what she did but, damn." Luke winked at me. I knew I was blushing but I couldn't stop it. I hadn't had this much attention from alphas in I don't know how long. I was dying to go to the bathroom to see what she did with my hair.

Marcus

I had a sneaking suspicion that Mrs. Foreman was toying with Ryan just to get at me. If this is what she had been like during her marriage with Mr. Foreman, I could understand why he couldn't stand it. This is only the second time I had been with her and I was tired of her constant flirting and trying to get a rise out of me. How did she know that Ryan would be the one to focus on to get at me? Probably because he was the only omega here.

"Would you like something to drink? I have water, tea, coffee-"

"You wouldn't happen to have anything a little stronger would you?" I raised my eyebrows at Mrs. Foreman. I'm sure she knew that we all kept some things hidden in our desks, but there was no way in hell I was sharing it with a client.

"I'm sorry. I don't have any of that available. I have water and iced tea. If there's something else you need I can get it delivered." Mrs. Foreman crossed her legs, blinking her eyelashes at me. She was very beautiful and she knew it. Her cream pantsuit was divine. I knew enough about fabrics and clothing to know an expensive pantsuit when I saw one.

"So Mrs. Foreman, can you tell me everything you know about your husband? His hobbies, who he hangs out with, anything odd or unusual, your finances, any suspicions you have, any affairs." I normally wasn't so blunt, however Mrs. Foreman had gotten on my nerves, especially after she played around with Ryan's hair. I couldn't believe how angry that made me to see her running her hands through Ryan's hair when I hadn't even had the chance to yet. He wasn't my omega- he wasn't my anything, except a paralegal in my team- but I still felt possessive over him. I couldn't seem to get it through my thick head that I could absolutely not mess around with an employee, let alone a subordinate.

"I don't have any hard proof, that's what I've hired you for, but I am positive he has some offshore holdings. Plus, I'm pretty sure there have been a series of omegas. Again, no proof but you know, I have a woman's intuition." Did woman's intuition still count if the woman was actually an omega in drag? Who knew? I guess I could ask Ryan if he has any omega -intuition about things. That would be an interesting conversation.

"I'd like you to write down everything you know and I'll get right on it."

She opened her mouth and I had a suspicion she was going to say something about how she'd love to get on it.

"If you'll excuse me, I need to run an errand. I'll be right back." I had no errand but I had to get away from her. I had a headache now. It was probably the perfume overdose surrounding her like a cloud.

She nodded and pulled the legal pad towards her.

Several steps away from my office, I was already feeling better. It might have been stupid to leave her in my office alone but I had everything locked up. She would only be able to open my middle drawer filled with pens and legal pads. If she left me a love note or a condom with her phone number, I'd throw it away with all the other things people had left me.

I walked in to the men's restroom and paused. Ryan was looking in the mirror touching his hair. I had to give it to Mrs. Foreman, she knew what the hell she was doing. He was gorgeous before but now, he was impossible to resist. I continued walking, not looking at Ryan, and went into a stall. I hoped Ryan left quickly. He tried my resolve not to go after him every time I saw him, but I especially had to restrain myself now that he was in my section.

I caught Ryan's eyes in the mirror as I exited the stall. I saw the flush rise on his cheeks. I walked up to the sink next to him and he quickly walked out the bathroom door. I looked at myself in the mirror and realized why he had run off so fast. I looked like I wanted to eat him alive. I did of course, but it probably wasn't smart for me to show that at work. My poker face was cracking. I hoped I hadn't scared him away. I hadn't wanted him in my section in the first place, but now that he was here, I didn't want him anywhere else. I wanted to see him every day. I wanted to make sure people were leaving him alone, especially other alphas.

I opened the doors to my section and reviewed my paralegals. Amy was busy but Luke looked like he had just scooted back from Ryan's desk. I narrowed my eyes at him. Luke noticed me, blanched and quickly focused on his work. What the hell had happened to my poker face? I should have looked fine except for slightly narrowed eyes. If I had lost my ability to have a poker face, there was no way I could even glance at Ryan anymore or everyone would see desire written all over my face.

I needed to get it through my thick alpha head that I couldn't date Ryan. The firm had strict rules about coworker dating, especially subordinate dating. Not only that, but I didn't want to fuck up his life by being a shitty partner and horrible dad. He was the kind of omega that deserved an alpha that would always be there for him, someone that could do a long-term relationship. I ran my hands through my hair, calming myself down. I would not fuck up Ryan's life. This mantra was going to get repeated until it got through my head. Both heads.