TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 278

Two hundred and seventy eight

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By lunchtime, I’d learned Emerald could find fault with almost anything. Everyone was genuinely busy working for Luna Lisa, but she always seemed to have one more job waiting for me. I had barely set the coffee she’d asked for on her desk before she sent me downstairs for biscuits because the ones on our floor had finished. By the time I returned, a fresh pack was already open on her desk. She was eating one while typing with her free hand. She’d sent me for biscuits, then found a way to have some before I made it back.

“You’re too slow,” she said, pushing a stack of charts toward me.

I stopped myself from rolling my eyes. If being slow meant sixty minutes of nonstop errands without sitting down once, I could live with the label. I’d carried a sick child through a hospital that pretended not to see either of us A woman who wanted an audience for eating a biscuit wasn’t going to be the thing that ruined my morning.

I did as she asked. Since I wasn’t talking to anyone or getting distracted, I finished quickly and returned the charts. She looked them over. They seemed to be seating charts for the banquet. She pointed at the cabinet, put them away, then sent me on another errand.

The day only grew busier. Luna Lisa owned a fashion house across town, but worked mostly from here. Whenever I had a spare second, I found myself watching everything. It was fascinating. Emerald just made it exhausting.

“Take those to storage,” Emerald said, pointing at a basket.

I’d barely taken two steps when she called me back.

“Leave those. Go and collect the fabric samples instead.’

I set the basket down where I’d picked it up and didn’t complain.

“Can you let her finish one task before giving her another? She’s not a machine.”

The voice belonged to the young woman who’d walked in with Luna Lisa earlier that morning. She seemed to oversee meetings, just like Doris.

“Mind your business, Iris,” Emerald snapped. “I know how to run my department. You run yours.”

“I’m sure you do,” Iris replied. “The girl has been drowning in work all morning.”

She took the basket from me.

“Next time, load all the garment bags onto the trolley first. You’ll save yourself three trips.” She glanced at Emerald. “And save time.”

Emerald clicked her tongue, but she finally stopped sending me back and forth.

By the end of the day, my feet hurt, my shoulders ached, and all I wanted was a hot meal and my bed.

The next morning was just as busy until Emerald left shortly after arriving, saying Luna Lisa had sent her to oversee a fitting at the fashion house. I spent the morning sorting through yesterday’s work. Iris walked past, noticed what I was doing, and gave me a small thumbs-up before disappearing into another meeting.

Emerald returned just after lunch, and my heart sank.

“Take this upstairs to Alpha Cameron’s office,” she said, handing me a black garment bag. “Hand it to his secretary. Don’t leave it with anyone else.”

I’d never been sent up there before. Whoever answered the door would take one look at my uniform and know exactly where I belonged in the building, so the plan was simple: hand over the bag, get the signature, leave

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before anyone found a reason to mock me.

I nodded, took the bag, and headed for the executive floor.

The secretary signed the delivery sheet. I turned toward the elevators just as the doors opened and Wesley stepped

out.

Oh, goddess.

His scent reached me first. My wolf stirred instantly.

When his eyes found mine, my body betrayed me. I froze so suddenly my hands trembled. I held myself together and waited for him to keep walking.

Unlike the garden, this was worse. His face, scent and body triggered something in my bones like a switch, leaving me lightheaded.

I lowered my gaze, even as heat spread through my chest. Looking at him would only feed his ego.

His gaze was still on mine when two men in suits crossed the corridor. If he turned to answer them, I could keep walking.

“The finance team is waiting, and you have a call with Alpha Cameron in twenty minutes.

He acknowledged them with a brief nod as I forced myself to keep walking. But just as I was about to pass him, a folder slipped from his hand and papers scattered across the floor.

I turned. He looked at the papers, then back to my face.

A grown man didn’t usually drop a folder by accident. He was doing this on purpose.

I bent to gather them. When I held the folder out, he didn’t take it.

He pointed toward his office, placed another folder in my hands, then turned back to the men waiting for him without checking whether I followed.

I looked down at the folders against my chest and let out a slow breath.

Whatever Emerald would say about the delay, it wouldn’t carry as much weight as refusing Wesley outright.

I carried them into his office and set them on his desk. The room smelled like him. Standing there only reminded me that even when he wasn’t in the room, he was everywhere.

I caught myself breathing it in and immediately stepped back.

When I turned to leave, he was standing in the doorway.

My heart lurched.

He could do anything. He could take me against my will, and nobody would bat an eyelid.

“I hear my mom has enough assistants to make a football team,” he said. “My secretary is swamped. I could use an assistant myself.”

Not a chance.

Did he plan to trap me in his office all day and give me a reason to suffer and beg? As if the bond needed more to work with. He hadn’t even acknowledged it. I’d be the only one pretending this was just another job while the bond made a fool of me.

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“Starting tomorrow, you report here.”

My wolf cooed in my head as though this was an invitation. She didn’t care that he’d said “assistant.”

Stupid.

“I’m sorry, but I already have a department. Not sure that’s how staff transfers work.”

“That’s not for you to worry about.”

“I’d rather stay with Luna Lisa. I’m still learning, and I don’t know anything about your work.”

“You didn’t know anything about my mother’s work either.”

Fair point.

Why was he making this so hard?

Why couldn’t he just say the word.

“Sir, please I don’t want any issues. I just want to work and take care of my son.”

It was the one thing I could say to him that was completely true.

The corner of his mouth lifted.

“Does my office look like a playground to you?”

I remained silent. His eyes stayed on mine.

“I waited last night,” he said.

A flush of warmth sparked in my body. I held myself rigidly because speaking would betray me. The pull surged through me so sharply my wolf almost whimpered.

I dug my nails into my palm.

“I should get back.”

He didn’t leave the door.

“What is it about me?” he asked quietly. “Why do you keep pulling away?”

Pulling away?

If only he knew every instinct I had was screaming at me to close the distance between us.

“I don’t sleep with someone unless I know what it’ll cost me,” I said. “And you’ve made it pretty clear you don’t see me as anything beyond that.”

He chuckled, his gaze drifting slowly over me before he closed the distance between us.Every instinct I had was screaming at me to throw myself into his arms and beg him to take me. Holding myself together was becoming a battle I was losing.

“So,” he murmured, “are you saying fun is a foreign concept to you?”

The moment he opened his mouth, desire gave way to irritation and self-loathing. It reminded me exactly who he was and what he thought of me.

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“There are millions of women out there,” I said. “Go have your fun with one of them. I don’t have that luxury.”

“Hmm.” His voice dropped lower. “Your eyes are telling me something else.”

His fingers slid beneath my chin and tilted my face up. My lips pressed into a hard line. If I opened my mouth, I was afraid a moan would escape instead of words.

“You want me,” he said softly. “You’re just too stubborn to admit it.”

He stepped even closer until there wasn’t a breath of space between us. I could see the gold in his eyes.

“I haven’t wanted someone this badly in a long time,” he said. “You don’t have to attach any deeper meaning to it.

11

I hated how close I was to giving in. My body was betraying me. Every sensible thought I had was slipping away beneath the heat pooling low in my stomach.

When he lowered his head toward my neck, panic and hope collided inside me. For one impossible second, I thought he was going to mark me. Instead, he simply pressed a kiss against the side of my neck.

A tremor ran through me as he smiled against my skin.

“That reaction alone is enough to drive a man insane.”

His lips found the other side of my neck before brushing my earlobe.

I shivered.

The rational part of me was screaming to leave, to make him suffer until he stopped pretending the bond between us didn’t exist.

But another part of me, the reckless part ruled by hunger instead of reason, wanted to stay exactly where I was.

“I… no… please. I can’t.”

He lifted his head and lowered his mouth toward mine. Our lips barely brushed. The featherlight contact sent pleasure crashing through me so fiercely that it frightened me.

I stumbled backward, nearly losing my balance.

“I have to go.”

I turned and fled before my resolve disappeared completely.

The office door swung open, and I slammed straight into someone.

“I’m sorry,” I blurted, looking up.

Barbara stared at me, confusion flashing across her face before she frowned.

A gasp sounded behind her. I looked past Barbara and found Wesley’s sister standing there.

Her eyes swept over me slowly, lingering at my throat before drifting lower, over my breasts, my waist, my hips, with the same intensity Wesley had looked at me moments earlier.

She let out another low whistle.

Without thinking, I took a small step backward into the office.

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Tachungwanand seventy night

“What are you doing, Anita?” Barbara whispered.

The words seemed to snap Anita back to herself.

She blinked rapidly.

“Oh my God,” she breathed.

P

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