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I reach out and brush a finger along her soft cheek, then take her hand in mine. “All that matters to me is that you are safe because I want to spend more time with you, getting to know you personally and having you underneath me. And I know you want me in return. This means that we should continue with the evening as if I really did purchase you.”
“No, no, I’m just your secretary. The virtual assistant you’ve never even met. You can just send me back home and we can carry on as before. I’ll work for you in obscurity. I don’t mind.”
My lips twitch. We are now standing outside in the cool night breeze. The last of the other males who attended the auction are departing. Some arrived in luxury ground vehicles and some in private aircraft. I stroll with her to my hovercraft. “You never worked in obscurity.”
She shrugs. “I work from home in my sweats. I think that’s the definition of obscurity.”
“You are a valuable employee.”
“See, this is why we can’t be together. You’re my employer. It’s not right.”
I squeeze her hand. “Are you trying to deny this between us because of our age difference? Are you concerned that I’m sixteen years older than you? Because that is actually a valid concern.”
“No, of course not. I don’t care about that. I like it that you’re mature.”
“Are you concerned that I’m Voltare and you’re human and you don’t like the idea of mating with a being who is not of your own species?”
“No, what are you even talking about? Why would I care about that? Mr. Tusk, we can’t be together because you’re my boss,” my virginal assistant responds.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Sorry, but you’re my boss.”
I frown because suddenly I understand what she’s trying to tell me. “Well then, I will fix this. I am no longer your boss.”
She stops in the middle of a rutted desert driveway, her eyes wide with hurt and panic. “You’re firing me?”
My voice gentles. “No, Camila, of course I’m not firing you. I’m trying to think up a solution, a different way we can work together without me being your boss. You’re a wonderful employee and I’ve been lucky to work with you. And you need to know that your position is not contingent on what happens tonight. You will always have a high-paying position within my corporation if you want it, whether you say yes to coming with me tonight or not. If in the end you decide I’m unworthy and do not want to mate with me, you will still be employed.”
She rolls her eyes. “As if I’d ever find you unworthy. Have you seen yourself?”
I chuckle yet again because her witty observations inserted amongst her professional correspondence were always my favorite thing about her, but hearing her in real life, speaking in Voltare, is wonderful. “Instead of you being my assistant, you will become my partner. My coworker?”
“But you don’t have to…”
I stop at the edge of the dark field and take a remote out of my pocket and tap unlock. And then my hovercraft beeps and uncloaks before us.
“What is this?”
“This is my hovercraft. I assume you’ve never been in one before?”
“I’ve never seen one in real life. Are you taking me to your spaceship in orbit?”
“No. I’m taking you to the home I purchased planetside.”
“I thought you lived on your spaceship?”
“I used to live there full-time, but I recently purchased a domicile for my mate.”
She takes a step back. “Your mate? Who is your mate?”
“You. I hope you will be my mate.”
“Me?”
Why doesn’t she understand this? “Camila, I purchased you from the auction house because I scented your compatible pheromones from the back of the audience. It hit me in the chest and I rushed up to outbid all those other assholes. If Coco St. James hadn’t killed those men trying to harm you, I would’ve butchered them myself before they left the tent. I don’t want other human women. I want you. And I hope you feel the same about me.”
She shakes her head. “That can’t be true. You just want me because you didn’t look hard enough. You only like me because I’m the first female you’re really getting to know.”
