Page 4 of The Beast's Betrayed Mate
“Jesus,” she breathed, the gauze off his hand.
She turned it over in hers, sending soft tendrils up his arm that made goosebumps spread over his shoulders.
“I don’t like you,” he said.
“Yeah, well, I don’t like you that much either,” she said, blue eyes fastening onto his hazel ones. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you die of blood poisoning,” she added, pushing her thumb against his left eyelid, making him open it wide so she could stare into it. Then she did the same with his right.
“Ow,” he objected.
“You need to see a doctor,” she said.
“I don’t have time for that,” he stated, sweeping an arm out at his desk. “I have next month’s budget to go over and last month’s research results to analyze.”
“Okay, fine,” she shrugged, turning to the door, but he grasped her wrist in a tight grip as the world tilted around him.
“Okay,” he nearly growled. “Fine.”
He didn’t want to see the smug look on her face as he reluctantly followed her through the door and back up to the elevators.
Her car was a small, stick-shifted monstrosity, and he had trouble folding himself into the passenger seat. This amused her, and he glared at her as she put the car into gear, driving out of the parking garage attached to the impressive building they were leaving.
“Joanne will have a field day with this,” he grumbled. “I’m technically your superior,” he elaborated. “No fraternizing outside of work. Especially between management and employees.”
She rolled her eyes.
“You actually follow the company policy to the letter, don’t you?” she asked. “Except for showing up on time. And… looking presentable.” She glanced at him, a small frown on at his appearance.
“I really don’t like you,” he grumbled, his eyelids beginning to feel heavy.
“Hey!” she exclaimed, and his eyes snapped open. “Keep talking, okay. Before we know what this is, I’m not letting you fall asleep on me. Also, you’re freaking me out. You look half-dead as it is. I don’t want to look like I’m driving around with a corpse.”
“Always so charming.”
“I’m the one who brought you tea,” she remarked. “I’m the one who was going to try and build a bridge and tell you, hey, maybe I’ve been a bit of a bitch the last four months, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a heart and that I don’t prefer it when you’re not showing up to work looking like a Walking Dead reject.”
“Okay, Jesus, enough with the zombie parallels, I get it already.” He wrapped his arms around himself as his stomach had begun to hurt.
“You’re not throwing up in my car,” she warned.
“We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?”
“No,” she held one finger up to underline how serious she was. “My brother threw up in here once and it took months to get the smell out.Months. I’m still…” She cut herself off making a face like she was about to hurl, and he felt his own nausea rise at the sight of it.
He closed his eyes tight. “Stop it!”
“It’s just when I talk about it…it’s like some sort of memory thing, like I can still smell it,” she explained. “Okay, good,” she added, apparently having noticed how he was trying to center himself. “Breathe, eyes closed. Breathe, eyes closed. We’re almost there.”
“Can’t wait,” he muttered, opening one eye to look at her.
She was clutching the wheel, a little hunched, completely focused on the road. He wondered briefly why she was doing this. It wasn’t because she still had feelings for him, was it? Surely, that was ancient history.
Chapter 2 - Olive
She glared out the front window, keeping her focus on anything but the idiot next to her. She couldn’t look at him without feeling the need to give him a piece of her mind. He had always had a bit of the chaotic about him, but this was really taking the cake. She clenched her jaws together. It wasn’t that she still had feelings for him—that sure as hell was ancient history—but she could not believe that someone as smart as he was, could be this stupid.
“What were you going to do?” she couldn’t keep from asking. If she looked at him, she would yell, she knew she would, so she kept her gaze stubbornly on the road.
“Do?” he asked.
