Buried and Shadowed (Branded Packs #3)(37)

Reaching up, she grasped the intruder’s wrist, tugging his hand from her lips as she turned her head to meet his ice-blue gaze.

“Sinclair?” She blinked in confusion, casting a glance around the office to ensure they were alone. For a horrified second, she’d been worried he’d been taken captive. When it was obvious they were alone, she returned her attention to his lean, impossibly handsome face. “What are you doing here?”

A dark brow quirked. “I would think that’s obvious. I’m here to rescue you.”

As far as Mira was concerned, there was nothing obvious about it.

She’d known from the first night that Sinclair approached her at a party given by the local CDC office where she worked that he was out of her league. It wasn’t just his lean, handsome face or the dark, satiny hair that brushed his broad shoulders. It wasn’t even the rock-hard body beneath his casual jeans and t-shirt. It had been the masculine power that smoldered in his pale blue eyes, and the air of arrogant sensuality that he wore with confident ease.

Hard. Lethal. Gorgeous.

This was a male who could get any woman he wanted. And he knew it.

So why would he seek out a shy, socially awkward computer geek and spend the entire night flirting with her?

The answer was…he wanted something from her.

It’d taken a month of casual dinners, and the occasional movie before he’d, at last, confessed that he was a wolf. And another month before he’d asked her to use her position at her office to discover information that would prove that the shifters hadn’t started the virus. That they had, in fact, used their blood to develop the vaccine that had saved the world.

Still, even knowing that he was using her, Mira had been helpless against his potent charm.

She told herself that, eventually, Sinclair would see her as more than a means to an end. After all, she’d proven her loyalty and devotion, and shown a dedication to his cause that no other woman could match.

It wasn’t until she’d been captured and forced to consider her imminent death that she realized that she’d been wasting her life over the past couple of years. Was she really so desperate for male attention that she would settle for a relationship where she had nothing to offer but her job and her computer skills?

She deserved more than a man who was willing to seduce her for his own gain.

But at the same time, the concrete evidence that the SAU had been covering up their own involvement in the Verona Virus and laying the blame on the shifters had hardened her determination to bring them to justice.

She didn’t know what the future might hold for her, but she did know that she couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t do everything in her power to expose the truth.

“You need to go before the guards come to return me to the barracks,” she hissed in low tones.

He ignored her warning, his hands skimming over her soft curves as he studied her with a grim expression.

“Are you okay? Did the bastards hurt you?” he demanded.

“No,” she said, well aware that his concern was based on the fear that he’d lost his best chance of getting the information he needed.

He moved to crouch beside her chair, his brows snapping together as he reached out to gently touch the bruise on her cheek.

“I’ll kill them for daring to put their filthy hands on you,” he snarled.

Mira shivered, the heat of his fingers searing her skin with pleasure that she’d sworn she wouldn’t allow herself to feel again.

She jerked her head back, knocking aside his hand. “I’m fine.”

His eyes narrowed in surprise. It was the first time she hadn’t melted beneath one of his intimate caresses. Slowly straightening, he gave a condemning glance around the office.

“Revenge will have to wait until you’re out of here.”

“Sinclair, listen to me,” she said. “I can’t go.”

He stilled, his gaze returning to her pale face. “Did they threaten you?” A low growl rumbled in his chest. “Trust me, I can keep you safe.”

She licked her lips. Christ. He was so sexy when he was being all protective and…

She abruptly squashed the renegade thought.

No, no, no.

She was over Sinclair, Alpha of the Unseen Pack.

Wasn’t she?

“It’s not that-”

“We need to go,” he interrupted her words, stepping back as he waited for her to obey his command.

She shook her head. “I’m staying.”

“What?”

“I’m staying.”

His eyes glowed with the power of his wolf, a sudden heat prickling through the air.

“You’re working with them.”

The urge to cower beneath the physical impact of his dominance was overwhelming. Mira wasn’t a shifter, but she was fairly certain she’d be a submissive if she were. It was only with great effort that she forced herself to meet his fierce glare.

“Not exactly,” she mumbled.

“Then exactly what are you doing?” he sneered.

She stiffened. “Don’t use that tone of voice with me.”

He folded his arms over his chest, emphasizing the hard muscles that moved with fluid ease beneath his t-shirt.

“It’s the tone I use when I’m talking to people who’ve betrayed me.”