Some monsters do not lurk in the shadows. They own the light.
She sat across from Damien Wolfe in a private lounge carved out of the penthouse like a world unto itself. It was all supple leather and subdued lighting, the kind that was meant for confession or seduction—or both.
He offered her a glass of water. Crystal clear. His eyes were as well.
"So," he remarked in a voice that was silk on steel.
"Yes." She sipped the water calmly. "Your board wanted a shake-up of the strategic type. Press leaks, internal scandals, the usual corporate skeletons."
He arched an eyebrow. "And they've sent you."
She smiled. "I'm really good at cleaning up after messes."
A flame of interest or hunger flickered in him. He leaned back to study her from top to bottom as a wolf looks at a deer still unaware that the bleeding has started.
"Answer me that, Miss Cruz. do you have faith in instincts?"
She was taken aback by the question. "I believe in evidence."
He laughed. "A journalist's response."
She tightened her grip on the glass a little. He knew. Or guessed.
"And what do your intimations tell you about me?" he added, staring her down as if he could spot all the deceit festering beneath her skin.
Selena met his eyes. "They say you're dangerous."
Clever girl.
He stood up, the motion fluid and unnervingly silent. As if the air wasn't about to disturb him.
"I have accepted your task. One month. Unlimited access. I want results."
"And what do you need me to repair, Mr. Wolfe?"
He stepped closer. Too close.
"Anything I choose to share with you," he whispered. "And anything you think that you've learned."
She ought to have recoiled. Ought to have stepped backwards. But she didn't. She stood her ground as her heart hammered in her chest.
He smiled a second time. This was slower. Darker.
"Be careful, Miss Cruz. Things do not enjoy being hunted."
Turning about on his heel, he marched off, leaving her gasping, shaken, and indignant.
She sat for a considerable while after he departed, staring into the half-filled glass as if there was a hidden message in it. As if it could satiate the raging fire that coursed through her veins.
She was on a mission. She was under cover.
However, for the first time ever, Selena realized
She might have a problem as well.
DAMIEN'S POV
There was blood in the air. Not the real thing—something aged. Something sweet.
He observed as she strode into his office as though it was hers. Calm. Composed. But he was able to smell the tempest brewing beneath her.
Adrenaline. Fear. Anger.
And something he had not smelled in years.
Curiosity
Hunger
Fate
She portrayed herself as being Selena Cruz. Consultant. Professional-looking. A liar.
However a pleasant one.
He'd known even before she'd said a word that she wasn't here for the publicity. She wasn't here to mend him. She was here for answers. Perhaps for revenge.
Perhaps for him
Her scent roused the animal in him—sudden and guttural as a growl in the deepest corners of his own fury. She smelled danger in silk. Fire on the verge of detonation. It awakened the part of him he guarded beneath boardrooms and nine-figure deals. The part that had claws.
He should have let her go. He didn't.
So, in the process, he let her in. Permitted her to sit across him and pretend that she wasn't studying each word, each blink, each breath.
He was paying her more attention than he'd given to anyone in years.
Because there was something amiss in her.
And there was something that made you unable to turn away.
"You're lying," he told her. It was so easy. Too intimate.
He circled her as a part of nature. Not to frighten her. Not really.
To behold her.
She didn't break. She didn't run.
He preferred it that way as well.
And when she ultimately departed the room, her hips swinging as perilously as the threat of war, Damien didn't move for a few moments. Hearing the quiet that trailed behind her.
The wolf inside him was not concerned about strategies or secrecy. It was only concerned about one thing.
She smells like ours.
He filled himself a drink, his eyes clouding.
It was no longer a game anymore.
Now that he had a reason to play.