Page 9 of The Boss
“Or maybe strength,” she shot back, her voice trembling with fury and something else, “is choosing to walk away from you, when every nerve in my body is screaming to stay. Strength is knowing the danger is addictive and refusing to let it own me.”
His laugh was quiet and deadly. “Addicted? You think you’re the one addicted here?” He leaned closer, his lips brushing hers again without taking. “You’re wrong. The addiction goes both ways.”
The admission shocked her enough to widen her eyes, and he used that to claim her mouth again, this time slower, darker, akiss that promised ruin. He devoured the little sound she made, one caught between fury and want, and felt her tremble while she dug her nails into his chest.
When he pulled back, he was breathing hard. “You should have stayed gone, Mariah. Because now that you’re here, I’ll never let you go.”
She planted her hands on his chest and pushed. Not that he moved. “Maybe I came back to watch you destroy yourself.”
He snarled softly, dragging her body tight against his. “Then stay close. Because I destroy everything I touch.”
He kissed her again, this time rough and fast, lifting her onto the desk, forcing her legs apart so he could stand between them. His mouth claimed hers, his hands braced on her thighs. She shoved at him, half-hearted, her body betraying her as much as his betrayedhim.
Her breath broke against his mouth, asharp mix of fury and want. Every tremor, every denial, came as another confession she couldn’t voice. And when her nails dug in again, he knew she hated the way her body answeredhim.
He let the kiss deepen a moment longer, savoring the war inside her, before he tore his mouth from hers. He stared down at her, chest heaving, forcing her to see how much he recognized the truth she fought tobury.
“Say it,” he insisted. “Say you feel this.”
She shook her head, breathless. “I feel nothing.”
He growled low. “Liar.” His hand slid up her thigh, stopping just short of indecency. “This burns you the same way it burns me. Admit it.”
She pushed at his chest, nails raking through his shirt. “I’ll never give you that satisfaction.”
He smiled, feral. “Then I’ll take it instead.”
He pinned her wrists above her head, flattening her to the desk. Their Brands burned in unison, the heat unbearable, like fire crawling through his veins. His mouth crashed to hers in another endless kiss, and this time she arched against him despite herself. The sound that tore from her throat was muffled by his mouth, and it nearly broke him apart.
He pulled back just enough to rasp, “Mine.”
“Never,” she whispered, though her trembling betrayedher.
He released her wrists, pacing away to keep from taking her on the spot. He raked a hand through his hair, his chest heaving. “You work for me now. Every day. Every night. Under my eyes until I decide otherwise. If you run—” He turned, eyes lethal. “I will burn Dallas to the ground to drag you back.”
Mariah smoothed her blouse, her mask firmly back in place. But her eyes glinted with something sharper than fear. Something secret. Something dangerous.
She met his stare and didn’t flinch. “Then I suppose we’ll see who survives first.”
Leif’s pulse thundered. The Brand flared hotter in his palm, alive, abond neither of them could deny. He knew, with a certainty that clenched his gut, that this was only the beginning. And he would not lose thishunt.
She didn’t move to leave. Instead, she leaned one hip against the desk, her eyes locked on his as though she wanted him to see every thought she dared not voice. The air between them thickened, aheaviness pressing down. The urge to close it again consumed him, to take her mouth and her breath and her will, but he forced himself to hold. Control wasn’t just about taking. It was about waiting for the exact moment when waiting broke the other first.
“You think I’m here just for you,” she said finally, voice quiet but sharp. “You’re wrong. I’m here because of everything tied to you. Your empire. Your enemies. Your shadow.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Then tell me whose game you’re playing.”
Her lips curved in something almost like a dare. “Maybe I’ll let you figure it out. You’re good at hunting, aren’t you? Despite not being able to find me.”
The challenge dug deep, fed the furnace already roaring inside him. He stepped closer, close enough that his breath brushed her ear. “I don’t hunt puzzles, Mariah. Ihunt prey. And I always catch it.”
Her laugh was low, wild around the edges. “Then maybe I’m not prey. Maybe I’m the trap.”
Chapter 4
THE CITYoutside throbbed with light as the confrontation ended, but Leif wasn’t finished. He circled back to his desk, poured two fingers of bourbon, and drank it like water. The taste scorched but steadied him. When he turned, she was still there, spine straight, watching him as if she refused to blink first. The tension in the room stretched further, spun tight and humming, neither willing to yield.
He set the glass down with careful precision. “You’ve walked into fire, Mariah. You think striking the match makes you fearless. But what you woke is bigger than fear. You woke me.”
