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.”

he’d nailed it. She had been trying to ward him 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

mean? Did

so riled up and the same jolt shot through her again. Just like earlier, she tried yanking her hand away,

feel strangely alive,”

out of me.” She felt her cheeks heat at the sound

that—Fear made you vulnerable. It made you more easily hurt or exposed—but Xavier just gave her a crooked smile. “You

If she shut him down now, she was sure he wouldn’t try again.

My past. Rejection. I guess that’s why I

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

scared of getting close to anything. But if the expression on his face currently was

on his

about keeping 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.

that,” she said, and his smile

as she shook her head yes he’d already slid