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Bile threatened to choke her. Kayla would be happy if she never had anything to do with Stan again.
“It's nothing.”
She swiftly pressed the lock button, silencing her phone. No sooner had she done so than another text came through.
“Are you sure?” Lance asked, looking concerned.
Kayla cringed. She was an idiot. Her boss was a security guy. He probably saw this kind of thing all the time.
“It's my ex,” she said, cringing again as she felt Lance tense up. “I keep blocking his number, but every time I do, he gets another.”
When she saw the anger that blazed in Lance's eyes, she felt an odd sense of terror churn her gut. Quickly, she decided it best not to mention that he had just met him in the alleyway.
Unable to bear the look in his eyes a moment longer, she reached for the wine bottle and said, “I think another drink is in order.”
After drinking almost an entire bottle between them, Kayla found it much less awkward. And after several more interruptions from Stan, she found herself spilling everything.
“He was lovely at first, sweet even, but over the year we were together he got possessive, then aggressive, and then violent. I tried to leave a few times before it finally stuck,” she admitted, drinking the small remnants from the bottom of her glass.
“You should have come to me,” Lance snarled, and Kayla saw how tightly he was holding onto his own glass. “No woman should go through that.”
It was then that realization dawned on Kayla. The alcohol seemed to have cleared her mind, and somehow she remembered what Sarah had once told her of her mother.
“I'm sorry. This must bring up terrible memories for you.”
The way his shoulders tensed told her it did. And Kayla knew her suspicions had been right. She remembered every word of her friend's story on how her mother had been set to marry another werewolf back in the days when the alpha chose the matches within his pack. She'd fallen for Lance instead, and her intended hadn't liked that. Even after she'd rebelled, married Lance in secret and had two children with him, her ex-mate hadn't given up.
“I have seen too much of what men like that can do,” Lance admitted. “I didn't do enough the last time. And it took someone I loved from me.”
Bile rose in her throat as she remembered how Sarah had described her mother's death at the hands of her jealous, psycho ex-mate and how her father had never quite gotten over the guilt of it all.
She could see that all written on him now plain as day.
Instinctively, she laid a hand on his shoulder and said, “What happened to Daisy wasn't your fault.”
“Then whose was it?” Lance snarled, and he whipped around to face her, so close their noses almost touched just as they had in the alleyway. Only the blazing anger in his gaze stopped her from kissing him this time.
“Things were different back then,” Kayla pointed out. “There were different rules surrounding mates.”
“And I broke every one of them,” Lance countered, the guilt and regret thickening in his voice. “And here I am, doing it all over again.”
Kayla was stunned when the anger turned to lust in his eyes. He grabbed hold of her face, and in the next instant his lips were upon hers.
A rush of electricity so great it took her breath away surged throughout her body and instinct took over.
Her arms wrapped around Lance's neck and she slipped off her stool, embraced in his arms in a way that made her feel more secure than ever before.
The she-wolf inside her howled furiously. The response she heard from Lance's was so intoxicating that nothing else mattered. She ignored the alarm bells ringing in the back of her mind, her entire body vibrating excitedly when Lance gripped her rear and pulled her up onto the breakfast bar.
He pinned her there with his hips between her thighs, his hands on her face once more. He only stopped kissing her long enough to whisper against her lips, “You are so beautiful, so strong, so…so…”
The desire in his words sent a warm tingling sensation shooting down Kayla's spine. She tightened her arms around his neck, wrapped her legs around his waist, held him to her.
What if he suddenly pulled away? What if she blinked only to realize she had imagined it all?
And so, she kept her eyes firmly clamped shut, enjoying the caress of his hands upon her cheeks before they trailed down over her body.
His fingertips grazed her breasts, lingering a second on her nipples before traveling lower still.
