Page 50 of The Alpha’s Unclaimed Mate

Easier than I expected. She’ll deny me anything, but she can’t deny those two each other, and that’s the lever I’ll keep using.

Bella shrieks and bolts down the hall. I use the gap to slip over the threshold, pulling the door shut behind me. Jessa rounds on me. She doesn’t lay a hand on me, but she backs me against the door anyway, close enough that I have to look down.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“What do you think? I told you. It’s good for the girls.”

“I don’t want you turning up at my apartment like this.”

I drop the game. “I’m sorry.”

She searches my face, hunting for the lie in it. There’s none to find. For once I’m not playing an angle. I did push her too hard, and the sight of her braced like this, ready for the next bad thing, sits wrong with me.

“I brought these by way of apology.” I bring the basket of flowers out from behind my back and hold it between us.

She doesn’t take it. “What are those for?”

“Exactly what I said. An apology. I was out of line yesterday, and I’ll sort the paperwork out. Please don’t worry about it.” She’s rattled, and she keeps glancing at the hall Bella ran down. At last she takes the basket. Her fingers brush mine on the handoff, and she pulls back too fast.

“Thank you,” she mutters, and it sounds dragged out of her.

“For what it’s worth, those two are turning inseparable.” I follow her when she retreats to the kitchen. “Which means you and I have to learn to run a working partnership, Jessa. We’re going to be in each other’s lives whether it suits you or not.” I set my hip against the counter. “I know you don’t like me.”

Her head snaps up. She holds the quiet a second, then, “Well. At least I was subtle about it.”

I smile before I can stop myself. “Jessa, the harder you push me away, the harder it is to keep my distance.”

She goes red. “Then learn.”

I like her better furious than careful. The careful Jessa weighs every word. This one tells me the truth by accident.

“You won’t give me a single chance?”

“No.”

“Why? Because every man alive is a rotten egg?”

Her brows draw together. I take a moment before I add quietly, “Mia told me that one.” Her expression falters. “You’ve got that little girl convinced every male on earth is garbage. Think about what that does to her ten years from now. You want her alone for good? Or so sure men can’t be trusted she never lets one near her?”

Jessa swallows hard, and for a second she can’t look at me.

“I know you’ve been handed some bad ones,” I go on, gentler. “But she’s small, and she takes in every word out of your mouth.”

“I never meant for her to...” Regret colors her voice. “I shouldn’t have said that to her.”

“She’s young. She soaks up everything.” I hold her gaze. “One good reason for me to be near Mia is so she learns that not every man is bad.”

Jessa shuts her eyes for a breath.

I move in beside her at the counter and set my hands on the edge, one to each side of her, hemming her in without a single touch. Close to her ear, I drop my voice. “Come with us tonight. Let the girls watch us be civil. It’ll be good for them. Whatever misconceptions Mia has will be cleared away.”

“Misconceptions?” Jessa asks slowly.

“About us.” My lips curve.

“Mia has no misconceptions about anything.” Her breath shakes. “We’re acquaintances.”

She turns her head, and finding her that near makes me grin. There’s no shove this time. Her spine hovers a hair from my chest.