Page 21 of An Uncertain Claim

“Ironic.” I smirked.

“Yeah, but she’s proved me right many times by being an excellent gatekeeper.”

I studied Nathan as we approached a metal detector. “You really are perceptive, aren’t you?”

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” he joked with a smile. We walked up to the guard, who stared at Nathan as if he had two heads. Nathan ignored him, or didn’t notice, and flashed a badge. The guard opened a security door for us to enter rather than walking through the metal detector.

Another guard exited a door to our left and we paused as he walked over to hand me a badge that I clipped to my belt. It already had my picture, date of birth, etc., but I didn’t ask how he’d acquired all that information. I did wonder how they’d managed to make it so fast though. “Did you have this made already?”

“Tanner probably did it. I told him I’d be bringing you here.”

That made sense, but even if I’d had more questions, they would have been lost as soon as we walked through the next set of doors. We started walking down a white-walled hallway with soft gray carpet. The walls were all glass and I quickly realized that these were labs. They were testing theories and working on mysteries that I wanted to know all about. The geek inside me started freaking out as we passed each one and I peppered Nathan with questions. He patiently answered each one, only stopping from time to time when someone called out to him about something or ran up to him with paperwork to sign.

When we left the labs, we walked into a little atrium that had two doors and four hallways. He led me to one of the steel doors and swiped his badge to open it, blasting us with cold air. The room was massive and filled with rows and rows of black structures that had tons of buttons, wires, and blinking lights. “Holy shit,” I breathed. “You have a supercomputer?” They weren’t as rare as they used to be, but the size of this one…I couldn’t imagine there were very many this big.

“It’s certainly not in the top ten,” Nathan commented as his own gaze swept the room—answering my unspoken question. It baffled me that he could read me so well when most people couldn’t pick up anything that I didn’t want them to. “With the technology we are constantly studying, as well as other uses, the amount of computations we were doing on borrowed supercomputers had become tedious. So around thirty years ago, we built our own.”

“It’s certainly impressive. As an educated cyber geek, I’m doing a bit of fangirling inside.”

Nathan chuckled. “I’d love to see that sometime.”

I snorted. “Yeah, right. Giggling, girly squeals, excited dancing, all that fluffy stuff isn’t in my repertoire.”

“Maybe not,” he conceded with a lopsided smile that set butterflies to flight in my stomach. He guided me back into the much warmer atrium, then continued, “But knowing you do it inside sometimes gives me hope of someday seeing you let your guard down enough for a glimpse.”

Hell freezing over is more likely than Nathan seeing that “someday.”

Eventually, we turned a corner and the décor shifted into darker colors with splashes of red. The doors and walls to each room were glass. Some were frosted over and others I could see into the room. They were training rooms, some generic and others holding items that told me what specialty they learned in there, such as specific weapons, a boxing ring, etc.

Curious and fascinated, I continued to ask questions and he answered all of them. As he talked, his eyes lit up and he spoke passionately about everything. I hadn’t seen this side of him before, and I liked it because I could easily picture him looking at our child with that same excitement and pride. The way his employees interacted with him said a lot—they respected him and obeyed him without question. But they didn’t fear him—well, no more than anyone else because, to be fair, Nathan scared almost everyone with his gruffness, intimidating stature, aggressive Alpha vibes, and the darkness people could sense in him. What stood out to me the most though was his natural instinct to teach. Nathan didn’t give anyone the answer until they’d studied the problem and tried to find the answer on their own. Even then, Nathan guided them to it. He never raised his voice, and I never saw an inkling of frustration. He was…impressive, to say the least. And sexy as hell.

“Baby, you have to stop,” Nathan said in a guttural tone from behind me. I’d poked my head into a room with a boxing ring and I spun around at the sound of his desperate voice in my ear. He’d come up right behind me and once I’d rotated, he pressed me between him and the closed door at my back.

“Stop what?” I asked breathlessly. From the fire in his eyes and the bulge pressing into my stomach, I had a good guess as to the answer.

He lowered his head so our mouths were so close I could feel the soft brush of his whiskers on my face when he spoke. “What were you thinking about?”

I dropped my eyes, then looked back up at him through my lashes. “How sexy you’d look up in that ring in a tiny pair of shorts with no shirt and glistening with sweat.” I probably shouldn’t have said it out loud because it only made me hotter for him. My panties were drenched and my skin tingled as electricity crackled between us.

He groaned and inhaled deeply. When he met my eyes again, the silver turned molten and his pupils kept changing shape, flashing with his wolf. “I can practically taste your arousal, Peyton,” he growled. “It’s filling my lungs and I can barely think about anything besides tearing off these clothes and burying myself inside you.”

I swallowed hard and moaned while squeezing my legs together. My panther was in much the same state and every time she caught a glimpse of Nathan’s wolf, her desire grew. I put my palm on the door behind me, searching for the doorknob. I could barely freaking walk after what he’d done to me in the shower, but it hadn’t dimmed my need for him in the least. “Yes, please,” I panted.

One of his hands glided up my arm to my shoulder and over to collar my throat. “You want me to fuck you, baby?”

“Yes.”

His hand tightened a bit, a reminder of who was in charge and that he didn’t fuck me unless he wanted to. “I have a shit ton of work to do, and we are in my place of business. We have rules. This is not the time or place.” I whimpered when his other hand came up to cup my breast, toying with the nipple through my thin, white sweater and bra. “But if you need me enough to beg, I might be convinced to break them.”

My body bristled at his show of dominance, even though it made me burn with desire so acute I thought I might die if he didn’t give me release. “No,” I said through clenched teeth, the demanded, “Fuck. Me. Now.

Nathan’s eyes were still molten, but a dangerous glint warned me not to push my luck. He did not take orders. He gave them. This time when his hand tightened, it constricted my breathing, just enough to emphasize his warning. “How about I tie you up with those ropes over there and play with you until you give me what I want? Then I might consider giving you relief.”

I’d found the doorknob, but I couldn’t decide whether or not to open it, so I clutched it in my fist so hard it made me wonder if I could break it. If I just gave in…but I couldn’t. I bucked at his authority and my free hand moved between us to cup the bulge in his pants. “How about you beg, and I’ll decide if I want to give you pleasure or crush your balls until you’re screaming in pain?”

Nathan laughed, a dark sound that sent a shiver down my spine. Before I knew his intention, he’d shackled both of my wrists with one hand above my head. It had happened so fast I hadn’t had a chance to extend my claws. “You want to play games with me, kitty cat?” He pushed his knee between my legs, pressing it against my core while the hand at my throat squeezed a little harder, this time making it difficult for me to breathe. “Shall I dangle a string for you to swat at? Hang your orgasm in front of you and watch while you try to grasp it over and over?”

I hated how my body reacted to him when he pumped Alpha vibes at me and in complete control of me. My heart raced and it would normally have made my breaths choppy, but with him constricting my throat, I couldn’t do anything more than suck in fast, shallow breaths. His knee thrust up and I opened my mouth to cry out, but he suppressed the sound by cutting off my air completely. “You can’t make a sound, baby,” he warned. After another second, he loosened his grip enough for me to take a deep breath, then squeezed again as he pushed his knee up once more. Black spots began to dance in front of my eyes and my body clenched, desperate for relief.

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