Mated to the Wilde Bear

“Are you always so persistent about your job?” he asked.

“Are you always so hard to work with?” she shot back. He laughed.

Laurel leaned in, drawn to the way he seemed to let all his walls down when he laughed. She wanted to be the one to make him laugh.

“Not always,” he admitted. “Only for you, it seems. You bring out the grumpy alpha in me.”

She felt her lips curving. “Funny, I was hoping only to bring out the grumpy alpha in myself.”

His brow quirked. “You like being in charge, huh?”

She tried to decide whether he was poking fun at her, but he looked serious enough. “I guess I like being in control of things,” she admitted. “Probably a little too much sometimes. It’s a gift and a curse. But I’m pretty sure my boss calls it management material.” In fact, her boss, Gerald, was the only friend she’d made here and the only one she let joke with her like that. Until now.

He grinned. “You’re way more fun when you’re not trying to piss people off.”

from the beginning. And now, standing so close she could practically feel his hot breath on her face, she couldn’t remember why she’d want to make him mad enough to leave her alone. “Maybe I was,” she finally admitted. “Sorry about that. Occupational hazard when you’re

you mean? Did one of

the same jolt

make me feel strangely alive,” he

She felt her cheeks heat at

you vulnerable. It made you more easily hurt or exposed—but Xavier just gave her a crooked smile. “You don’t seem like the type who scares

come here determined to keep her secret safe, and here was her opportunity. If she shut him down now, she was sure he wouldn’t try again. But in the end, she couldn’t. Something about Xavier Wilde called to her. And not just her animal, but her; the woman. She wasn’t ready to walk away

everything. People getting to know me. My past. Rejection. I guess that’s why I piss people off.

Pain? It was gone before she could be sure, but she had her suspicions. People at work talked. Rumors, mostly, since none of them knew Xavier personally, but she’d heard about his past. The parties and the women when he was younger. But since his father had died, he’d been a recluse. No parties. No women. Not much wild anymore about Wilde

of getting close to anything. But if the expression on his face currently was any indication, maybe they were more alike than

laid a tentative hand on his arm. “Xavier?”

people out,” he said quietly. “I know a thing or two about that.” He cast a quick glance behind her, probably at his guys. She had no doubt they were watching and listening to the entire exchange. But she didn’t care. Not when Xavier was staring at her like she was the sun. “My crew taught me that’s no way to live,

like that,” she said, and his

a question, but even as she shook her head yes he’d already slid his arm around