Page 32 of Fated to the Enemy Alpha

Stephen poured a couple of glasses of sparkling water, offering me one as he said, “Here’s to a belated toast. I couldn’t have shut down the Omega Concord Program without you. Thank you,” he said before clinking his glass with mine. My stomach somersaulted. He’d mentioned the Omega Concord Program a few times this week, thanking me for my help on it, and I’d experienced this same discomfort. I couldn’t put my finger on what was bothering me.

Turning my attention to the pizza, I flipped the lid and peeled a slice from the box. “Nonna’s has the best crust,” I declared, taking a huge bite.

“Giuseppe’s pizza sauce is superior,” he shot back, attacking his preferred pizza, an infectious grin on his lips. He took a bite, and said sauce smeared slightly at the corner of his mouth. My breath caught, and I imagined leaning in to taste it—my skin tingling.

“Agree to disagree,” I said, a part of me disappointed as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.

As I finished my first slice, I snapped a picture of our feast, intending to send it to Emily and Matt later, imagining how wildly jealous they’d be.

I thought fondly of the last few video calls I’d had with them and Betty. My daughter had gotten really into playing house with her friends at nursery school. On the last few phone calls, she’d told me that Matt was the daddy and Emily the mommy when they played at home.

My heart squeezed as I felt the usual stab of guilt at being away from her for so long. Was that why she’d taken to this new game with such gusto? Did she miss me as much as I missed her? I hated the idea of her feeling abandoned by me.

Too late, I realized that my thoughts must be playing across my face as Stephen asked, “Are you all right?”

I flushed under his gaze. God, the last thing I should be thinking about around Stephen was Betty. Finally, I told a sliver of truth, “Yeah, I just really miss Em.”

Stephen replied, “Lina… I’m really glad you had someone looking out for you.” Something in the way he said my name and the way his eyes bore into mine stripped away my defenses.

“Thanks,” I replied softly. Words spilling out, unguarded. “I’ve stayed with Em for years. She’s kept me grounded. I owe her so much.” I wasn’t supposed to be opening my heart while I was here, yet intimacy flowed between us like a current I didn’t want to fight.

His eyes locked onto mine, the closeness of our bodies igniting a raw energy to the air. “You deserved that. To be cared for. You—deserve so much more.” Stephen’s voice had dropped to that low rasp that I seemed to feel across my skin.

My heartbeat thumped, quickening like a drum roll as if urging me to close the distance between us. My pulse raced, a heady mix of longing and tension coursing through my veins.

I could feel the soft warmth of his breath against my skin, and my senses sharpened, sending shivers down my spine. My breath quickened as his gaze, those vibrant green eyes, filled with hunger and something deeper—a yearning that mirrored my own.

“God, Lina,” he murmured, his voice low, wrapping around me, along with his spicy, earthy scent. “You don’t know what you do to me, do you?” he asked, his tone and expression the exact ones I’d grown to want more than any other, the one that told me the iron control he kept over himself was slipping and that with the right word or look, I could snap it.

The heady sense that I had caused that, that I had robbed him of his cool, made heat stir through me. Every thought seemed to melt into that heat. I leaned closer, aware of the moment we were teetering on—the point where temptation and reality collided.

How many times over the last weeks, in this room where we’d spent so many hours together, had I fantasized about this? About Stephen taking me in his arms as he had in the elevator?

My gaze, which had to be full of the forbidden thoughts I’d harbored for so long, brushed over him, willing him to cede control to me. “Show me,” I whispered, daring him to act.

The intake of breath he took was sharp. The delicious tension mounting between us ratcheted up.

His gaze fell to my lips, but his fingers came to my face first, his thumb grazing my cheek with a tenderness that had me aching.

The moment seemed to stretch and elongate. Would he succumb to temptation?

His lips dipped to mine, the sweetness of pizza sauce mingling with something deeper, with the connection that had been strengthening for weeks.

The office faded, the outside world slipping further away as we inched closer together, the warmth between us becoming an intoxicating force.

As he deepened the kiss, his calloused hand clasped the back of my neck, tugging me closer, and I surrendered, opening to him.

Our kiss became urgent, filled with pent-up desire. I lost myself in the sensation as he consumed me, his lips moving with a want mirroring my own. My wolf stirred, whimpering with satisfaction, and I began to explore him with more wildness, nipping and sucking at his lower lip, teasing him. He hissed, the sound rippling through me and sending heat straight between my legs.

His hand slid up, tangling in my hair, pulling me back slightly so he could trail kisses down my neck. I arched into him, inhaling his familiar earthy scent, the hint of his spicy cologne mingling with the warmth radiating from his body. It engulfed me in a heady sense of comfort and the desire for more.

We melted into a blissful bubble of intimacy, suspended high above the city, and a thrill charged through me, my want climbing higher—desire spiraling, beckoning me to cross a line we’d come so close to in the elevator.

His fingers dug into my waist, grazing the hem of my shirt, igniting a fire that made me gasp. Without consciously meaning to, I leaned in, my heart pounding, and pulled him back against me, reveling in the delicious weight of him pinning me to the couch.

I pulled his shirt out of his waistband, my greedy hands already wanting to explore the strong muscles of his back, moaning into his mouth as the feel of his hardness pressed against my stomach. I remembered how I’d watched the footage of our kiss, touching myself as I’d imagined it was him. At the thought, my hips were already grinding against his, my core aching with need.

“Can I touch you?” Stephen growled into my ear, sucking my earlobe into his mouth and making me arch again.

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