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.”

her face, she couldn’t remember why she’d want to make him mad

do you mean? Did one of them threaten

stop him from getting so riled up and the same jolt shot through her again. Just like earlier, she

strangely alive,” he murmured in

the crap out of me.” She felt her

hadn’t meant to admit that—Fear made 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

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

constantly,” she admitted. “Of everything. People getting to know me. My past. Rejection. I guess that’s

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

like she was? Hard to believe someone like Xavier Wilde was scared of getting close to anything. But if the expression on his face currently was any indication, maybe

laid a tentative hand on his arm.

keeping people out,” he said quietly. “I know a thing or two about that.” He cast a quick glance behind her, probably at his

said, and his

dinner with me,” he said. It sounded like a question, but even as she shook her head yes he’d