Page 23 of Ditching the Dragon (Fated Dates)

“You don’t have a say in where I work.”

“I own your employer.”

“Fine, you don’t get a say in whether I stay.”

“Try to leave and see how well that works for you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I didn’t buy this company to have you escape again, Annie. You run, and I’ll chase.”

Her eyes narrow, her teeth grinding together while she studies me. “Why did you buy the company?”

“You’re my mate. No one else can have any piece of you.”

“Mate?”she shrieks.

I stand and lean over the desk on straight arms. From this angle, I glare down at her hunched in her chair.

“Mate, Annie. We are mates. That makes you mine, and I keep what’s mine close.”

“I’m a person, not a possession. You can’t just buy me.”

“I didn’t buy you. I bought Parsens.”

And several other businesses and properties, but she doesn’t need to know that. It took several days to find her, then another week to finish the paperwork and be ready to bring her home.

I’m not leaving without her.

“My job isn’t my whole life,” she informs me.

“I’m aware.”

Another beat of silence passes while she works through that statement. With a gasp, she whips a phone out of her purse on the cheap carpet floor and stabs the screen with her fingers.

First thing’s first, this office is getting a renovation befitting my mate.

“Wickham Barrett,” she seethes, but it only makes me like her more. “Tell me why my student loans have been paid and there’s a hundred thousand dollars in my account?”

“I don’t let anyone own any part of what’s mine. Your debts became mine, so I released them.”

“And the money?”

“My mate wants for nothing.”

“Except independence and privacy.”

“You have no need for either.”

She sucks in a deep breath, and the redness in her cheeks and neck make me think she wants to scream at me.

Instead, Annie rises to her feet. She frantically taps keys on her phone and finally looks back at me.

“I need to splash water on my face,” she says.

Leaning against the glass, I give her room to pass by. Our bodies brush, and I have the strongest urge to grab her and pull her into my arms. My nails extend and scratch against the glass.

But I can’t do any of that. It’s clear she’s already feeling confined.

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