Page 21 of Tamed

“I know. You’ve had your father’s security curtailing your entire life from the time you were thirteen years old, and before that, Sir George’s. It’s not what a twenty-three-year-old wants from her life. But the shit with the Hamiltons won’t be for long. We’re going sort it out and then your life will go back to normal.”

She gave a short, mirthless laugh. “Normal? What’s that? I’ve never had it.”

“No. You just had a billionaire father who only wanted what was best for you.”

Unmistakeable hurt flickered over her face, and she quickly turned back to the windows, obviously trying to hide it.

A grudging sympathy shifted inside me. I was being hard on her — maybe too hard. But someone needed to be. Someone she’d listen to and not simply disregard the way she disregarded Ten. She didn’t understand how serious this was, and she might never understand, which would actually be the best outcome all round.

The world was a shitty place and she had plenty of time to discover exactly how shitty. She didn’t need a lesson from the Hamiltons just yet.

Still, that didn’t mean I didn’t empathize. It also didn’t mean I’d go any easier on her, either.

The lights coming through the glass gilded the bare skin of her shoulder and my attention was drawn yet again to its slender curve and the green scrap of fabric that was her bra strap.

Jesus Christ. I’d seen a woman’s bare shoulder before. Why I was looking at Isabel’s I had no idea.

“You don’t understand,” she said. “You haven’t—”

“If I wanted to hear some teenage whining, I would have asked.” I shouldn’t have said it, but irritation burned inside me, for what reason I didn’t know. Perhaps it was her constant pushing at me. Or perhaps it had something to do with that bare shoulder I couldn’t stop looking at.

Whatever, it was making me impatient and pissy, and I was very aware that I was taking it out on her. Which wasn’t fair. Then again, she was going to have to learn how to deal with people being pissy with her, especially if she wanted to work with Ten at Fox.

“And if I wanted a second Dad,” Isabel said, deliberately mimicking me. “I would have asked.” She hadn’t turned, but I could see her face reflected in the window.

Red hair, white shoulder, green eyes full of sparks.

Something tightened inside me. Something I didn’t want.

“I’m not your fucking dad,” I growled.

She glared back. All challenge. Testing me. And for a moment electricity hummed in the air between us, sharp and hot like lightning on a summer day.

The same electricity that had been there the day she’d knelt on the floor of my office, cleaning up the coffee she’d spilled on the carpet. And I’d looked down to where she was on her knees at my feet, wisps of red hair curling against the white skin of her vulnerable nape.

Fuck.

Looking away would have been the smart thing to do, because I couldn’t have that electricity between us. I couldn’t, not with her. But I’d never been a man who backed down and she needed to learn that challenging me was a mistake. I was the one in charge here and the sooner she understood that the better.

So, I held her gaze and even in the glass I could see her blush, a tide of red moving up her neck and over her face. Her gaze flickered under the pressure of mine, yet that stubborn jaw of hers firmed and her shoulders squared.

Silly girl. She didn’t want to get into a staring contest with me.

I’d always tried to go easy on her in the past, because Ten could be so rigid. I’d certainly never wanted to frighten her. But she wasn’t a ten-year-old anymore, and a little fear wouldn’t do her any harm.

She should be scared of me. Perhaps if she was then she’d do what she was told.

I let the wolf show, my gaze boring into hers, yet she didn’t look down the way she should have. Her green eyes flickered once again, but her jaw remained set, the mule in her fighting back.

A mistake. A real fucking mistake. Because then I caught a glimpse of it, the steel inside her. The steel she was already growing into and making her own. In ten years, she’d be a force to be reckoned with, one hell of a CEO.

Perhaps that’s when I felt it, the spark of challenge, of curiosity. Of attraction. I’d always liked strong women and Isabel was nothing if not strong. She was all fire and fury, and fuck…I liked that. I liked it a lot.

She held my gaze a long time. Longer than any other person had ever done so. But in the end, hers flickered yet again and this time, she looked away.

Satisfaction kicked hard in my gut. I shouldn’t have enjoyed how she’d surrendered to me, but I did.

There was another long, tense silence that I made no move to break.

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