28 - Past - Bad Girl

Evie sat down at her desk to work on the paperwork there, satisfaction dripping off of her, although it might have been nice if Harlan had given her just another moment or two with Dan and Bill. One quarterback, one linebacker. Meaty, how she liked them, big enough that they could lift her over their heads with one hand, and both their cocks had been hard and purple and straining and she’d only just gotten a peek at them and now they’d be the last she’d ever see, besides her mate.

Harlan Mundelein, that male who had just chased those two other males out with murder in his snarl had recognized his mate, had broken through whatever block was keeping him from the realization, and when he returned to her, she’d be mated and claimed in the only way that mattered.

A noise in the corridor made her look up. Harlan was there, pulling on his clothes. He’d gotten his khakis on but they weren’t buttoned or zipped and curls of dark hair peeked out, making her lick her lips. He tucked away a hint of a thick cock and her eyes saucered. Her stomach swooped and her core swelled. Why wasn’t he in here yet? She was... ready.

But he was pissed. He caught her with his eyes, pinning her. “That wasn’t right, Evie. We’re supposed to be partners. You can’t just plan to go around me and get your way with dirty tricks.”

Evie pushed her work away and went to the couch, sitting down, waiting for her mate, sorry, but no, not sorry, not at all. She stayed silent and waited for him to come to her, to get past it.

He leaned against the door frame, blue shirt in his hand, pants still open at the zipper, those curls calling her eyes there again and again. He waited her out, his eyes dark, smoldering, still pissed. Evie didn’t know how long she could keep her hands off him. She tried to reel in her breathing, stay calm, focus so she could convince him to come over to her, put his big hands all over her. She didn’t understand why it wasn’t happening already. She stretched, shifting her hips. “I don’t want to make you mad,” she said simply. It was true. She never wanted that. Your mate was your partner for life.

“I’m not mad,” he said, although he clearly still was. “I can’t believe you did it, Evie. What if I still hadn’t recognized you. Would you have gone through with it?”

She didn’t answer.

“Bad girl,” he growled, literally growled, making her middle go all liquid and soft. Her mate. She needed his body covering hers. He was so damn big. She wanted to feel him on top of her, wanted to touch his skin, yearned to learn his body. She lay back in the pillows, her voice low, non-confrontational. “It doesn’t matter. Can’t you come here? Talk to me from over here?”

“It does matter,” he said darkly. “Because you’re mine now, and you won’t ever pull that again.”

She sat up, and matched his stare. “I know I am, I know I won’t, and you are mine too. So come show me. I want to meet the male fate has gifted me above all others.”

Harlan’s eyes flashed and a strong male scent of need reached her, fluttering her eyes, relaxing her back into the pillows again. If he wouldn’t touch her, she would touch herself in front of him…

Before she knew it, he was next to her, his big hand on her small wrist, encircling it, stilling it at her side. “Bad girl,” he said, something like worship in his voice, and oh boy did that wrap around her middle and make her body arc toward him. Touch me, Harlan, touch me, but he still wasn’t. She opened her eyes, learning her male already. He was a stubborn one. Couldn’t let things go. So very useful in a wolf and a warrior. Not so helpful in love. He needed her reassurance and she was happy to give it. She caressed his cheek with her free hand, trying to show him with her eyes that she was sorry, she was, that she had made him so upset, that she had caused him that panic. If there had been another way she would have tried it. “I’ll be a good mate, Harlan, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’m not a cheater. If you wouldn’t have made it so very clear to me that you were going to date I never would have dreamed to do it, but I was not about to watch you touch another, either.”

Her mate’s face flushed slightly. So he knew his part in it. “Still a bad girl,” he whispered.

“Want me to call you daddy?” She asked, genuinely curious. If he did she was gonna have to call Burton, “Burton” full time. Might start anyway. She knew she had daddy’s girl issues, she’d always made excuses about it, but that had to end now. Now she was Harlan’s female.

He laughed, a rough chuckle that heated her from the inside out. “No, no daddy.”

She curled her fingers around the nape of his neck, urging him to come to her, squirming under his hand at her waist. “Don’t act like my daddy, then. Are you punishing me? That’s not what partners do either.”

His eyes widened. “I’m not.”

“Then why aren’t you touching me?” She arched into him, and still his fingers didn’t move on her body. Frustration pinned her. He wanted her. Would not take her. But nothing else made sense! It was time for the taking. “You’re still mad.”

He caressed her hair, running his fingers and his eyes through it, his face and body relaxing, like touching her was a drug he needed in order to thrive. She curled into him. Yes, more.

His face was sad. “Evie, I, I don’t feel right about… it. About doing this now…. Chief Risson—”

Evie pulled her hair out of his grasp, sitting up quickly. Burton? What in the hell did he have to do with anything? She opened her mouth to say so. Were they really going to fight when they should be doing anything but? But then she saw him, really saw him, perched on the very edge of the couch, head drooping, hands hanging down. He was conflicted down to his very core. She touched him softly. “Harlan?”

“Your dad- Burton. I-ah, well, he’s my Chief. He doesn’t want you to mate. I don’t know his reasons, but, ah, well, if I respect the male, then he doesn’t have to explain his reasons to me. If I—.”

He grabbed for her blindly, his eyes still on the floor. This wasn’t easy on him. Sharing his inner thought processes like this. Complex, he was, and she loved it. Did she respect the male? She did, so he did not have to explain his reasons. She would go along with what he wanted. And it struck her then. Harlan was loyal to a fault. Even to his own fault. A true soldier, he had thrown all in behind Burton, her daddy. Her throat lumped as she understood him just a little better.

She took his hand between both of hers, keeping her voice soft. “I can understand that.”

His voice was strangled. “I want to claim you, Evie, don’t think I don’t.” He took a deep breath, then sighed it out. “You’re beautiful.”

Evie’s breath held in her throat. Had she ever been called beautiful before by anyone but Burton? She didn’t think so. She knew her face was attractive in a bold and dangerous kind of way, but beautiful? She’d never seen herself that way. But her mate spoke the word like it was a fact.

They fell silent. Evie held her mate’s hand, felt his skin on hers, soaked up his size, his maleness, his nearness. Was it enough? It was.

For now.