Page 47 of Sublime Target

She ate her dinner alone, usually late at night.

In her private office on the thirty-seventh floor, she was alone. Garner was rarely there, and even when he was, he was a distant personality.

They inhabited different worlds, after all.

She’d gone on dates through a matchmaking program. Some had led to casual sex. Some of the guys were sweet. Some turned out to be awful once they stopped putting much effort into trying to charm her.

None of them had made her want to lower her barriers.

None had been able to see through her, but maybe that was because they were also struggling to be themselves, without pretense; without the carefully constructed masks they all wore—her included.

Sometimes, it was as if even she had forgotten who she was.

Sometimes, everything felt so fucking milquetoast.

And then this guy had come along, dropping into her existence without warning, and he was unlike anything or anyone she’d ever encountered.

Forceful.

Alien.

Dangerous yet restrained. Completely in control. Immensely powerful but never flaunting it.

The whole package was devastatingly compelling.

She was very well aware of his potential for brutality—of his undeniable history—but at no point had she ever felt unsafe around him, and that was beyond surprising.

Besides, if he wanted to do something terrible, nothing on Earth could stop him.

And he hadn’t.

All he’d done was whisk her away to lunch—well, dinner, given the time zone—in New York.

She looked out the window and saw a neighborhood packed with tall buildings—some old, some modern and shiny. Bright lights and laser projections illuminated the background, creating a cool kind of ambiance.

They were hovering over a flat rooftop.

“There’s no way down but to jump, I take it,” she said dryly, not quite understanding the logistics of Kordolian ships and packed human cities.

“I can find another way if you’re particularly against it,” he offered.

She looked him up and down and imagined herself clinging—hopefully elegantly—to his hard, flawless, armored body. “We can go down the way we came up… as long as you don’t make any moves that would scare me half to death like last time.”

He snorted arrogantly, amusedly. “I told you already, you’re safest with me. And it isn’t as big of a height as last time.” He offered his hand. “Do you think I would ever allow anything to happen to you, Clarissa Lee?”

“I barely know you, Jerik Garul. People don’t normally trust strangers straight away, you know.”

“Do you consider me a stranger, still?”

“We’ve known each other less than half a day.” She had to stifle a laugh at his ridiculousness. Despite asking her these questions in the most serious manner, despite him being alpha as hell, there was a certain innocence and naiveté to him.

Did Kordolians have different expectations around familiarity? How did any of this even work?

Still, she took his hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet. As their fingers connected, a pleasant thrill coursed through her, causing her skin to tingle and making her feel warm all over. The warmth danced inside her chest and trickled down into her belly and between her thighs.

Oh, he was definitely quite hot.

She really could do with his arm around her again.

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