Page 47 of Into the Lion's Den (Secrets of the Northland Shifters)

She nodded, even though she had to know it was a lie. Nothing would ever be “fine” between us again.

19

REESE

Imade sure I was up early the next morning. I wanted to see Sarah before she saw me, then get a bead on her mood so I would know what I was in for. While last night’s activities left me feeling like I’d awakened from a long sleep, Sarah’s speedy retreat told me she hadn’t felt the same.

I’d prepared myself for a few potential female reactions to our late-night encounter. The first possibility was that she’d play dumb and pretend she didn’t know what I was talking about. In a second scenario, she would duck her head as soon as she saw me, blush, and scurry into her office. The third scenario had her lifting her chin and walking right past me with her back ramrod straight.

Scenario one made me want to laugh. Two made me want to chase. Three made me hard as fuck.

Of course, she gave me the third.

I was leaning my forearms on the check-in counter, reading the Minneapolis paper. The headline was for a trial that was getting national attention. Some crime boss in Chicago was going down for human trafficking.

I sensed movement in my periphery, and when I looked up, Sarah was coming down the hall from the staff cafeteria. She held a bagel in her teeth, her hands being otherwise occupied by a cup of tea and another copy of the newspaper.

She stopped short when she saw me.

I set down the paper and straightened, waiting for her response.

She stared back. Then she slipped the newspaper under her arm and removed the bagel from between her teeth. For a second, I thought she was going to say something, but she only squared her shoulders and continued on her path.

She did not, however, break eye contact. The cat in me liked that, and it rumbled its approval, the vibration rolling through my chest like a wave.

“Good morning, kitten.” It was a greeting meant to provoke her, and it did the trick.

She lifted her chin and silently entered her office.

Fuck. Hard as a rock.

I also liked that when she closed her door, she didn’t slam it. She might not be ready to talk to me, but at least she wasn’t going to be petulant and childish about it.

I leaned my elbow on the desk and considered my next move. Obviously I wouldn’t be taking a human as a mate, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want more of what I’d sampled last night. I hoped she wouldn’t start feeling awkward about the whole thing and decide to quit her job because of it.

She’d shown herself to be a valuable member of my team. I couldn’t lose an employee who had the business’s best interests at heart. If this anniversary party she’d booked went according to plan, I might be crediting Sarah with saving the resort.

So I’d give her space. Whatever she needed. I felt confident that, when she was ready, she’d come to me.

Because this little act she’d put on for me this morning, it was only that. She’d revealed plenty of truth to me last night. And I could be patient, even though I didn’t enjoy it.

My sister Melanie arrived on scene. She walked behind the check-in desk and grabbed her list for the housekeeping staff.

“Uh…goodmorning?” she said with a touch of sarcasm, probably because I was so slow to verbally acknowledge her arrival.

“Hey,” I said, my eyes still on Sarah’s office door. Then I jerked my attention down to my little sister.

She tightened her blond ponytail and clicked her tongue with derision. “You smell different.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Whatever you say,” she said with a shrug.

“What are you talking about?” Angel asked, joining us. His shoulder-length hair was still wet from his morning shower.

“Reese’s new scent,” Melanie said. “Musky.”

Angel’s head jerked toward me and he inhaled. “You do smell different. You’re not… You didn’t enter a mating bond, did you?”

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