Romance Warfare: a Tigress' Guide to NOT Secure a Mate(11)

Right? Right?

After several deep breaths, Eva decided. Now or never. She strode back into civilization and smacked into Dean the second she stepped out the bathroom door. He was leaning against the opposite wall, one leg folded over the other, a smirk playing across his lips.

“So,” he said, his grin rivaling that of the Cheshire Cat, “does your job description include assisting your boss with his bathroom habits?”

Eva glared at him.

“I take that as a no. So, you and Adam having a few ‘personal negotiations’ back here?” he continued teasing.

“Screw you,” Eva hissed.

“I’d love to. But Adam would have my head if I do that. He’s very territorial, in case you haven’t noticed.”

She swore Dean lived for this kind of thing. He’d been like this since they were kids. The world was his personal entertainment. Sometimes he was worse than the office busybody. She flipped him the bird without a word, then spun on her heel and marched down the hallway. Dean’s laughter followed her all the way back to the dining room.





Chapter Four


“Pigging out on ice cream doesn’t help you forget how he makes you hot and bothered, especially when you accidentally land on his bed during the business trip.”



Adam was staring blankly at his computer, the figures running across the screen blurring into a nonsensical mess. He couldn’t concentrate. His every thought for the past two days had been of Eva. Having her body pressed against his, the scent of her arousal, the heat of her skin where it touched his. As much as he tried, he couldn’t get the thought of her out of his head. Cold showers and long sessions in the gym had done nothing to tame the raging fire in his body.

He never should have kissed her, not like that.

The way she responded to his manhandling stoked the fires even higher. He’d pushed her and her body answered his. She’d been liquid heat under his hands. Adam’s cock jerked in his designer bespoke business suit when he thought how quickly she lit up for him. He had to leave Eva alone. Her body may want him, but her heart and mind didn’t.

Adam couldn’t deny it though; his tiger was restless every time Eva was near. It could sense when she was around, just her scent was enough to make his tiger’s teeth gnash in frustration. He wanted to hold her down and clamp his teeth into the back of her neck, marking her as his, for the world to see.

Whoa, hold on, mark her? My god, yes. I want to mark her.

Adam abandoned all pretense of work and spun his chair to face the downtown skyline. He’d never had the desire to mark someone. He’d f*cked plenty of women and never once has his tiger roared this loudly, never been so insistent on having a particular woman. Eva. His tiger wanted Eva, Adam wanted Eva, and they both wanted her marked.

Eva was his mate.

His true mate.

He couldn’t believe that he’d just now realized this. She was his mate and she wanted nothing to do with him. She’d ignored everything that wasn’t strictly business over the past two days, and frankly she’d even been ignoring some of the business aspects. She went out of her way to avoid him. Making sure to come in after he was already in his office, conducting all contact through emails and memos, using his schedule to make sure she was out of her office any time he had to come through for any reason. He’d even started trying to catch her in her office but her hearing must have been so attuned to him that he hadn’t been able to sneak up on her. The last thing he’d seen of her was her rounded ass as she exited the limo ahead of him on Monday.

Maybe she had the right idea, though.

He wanted her, but she didn’t want him. He’d avoid contact with her and check with HR to see if he could have her transferred to another department. He didn’t want her to lose her job because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. It was the least he could do for her after forcing a kiss on her that she didn’t want.

The shrill ring of his cellphone interrupted his thoughts and he sighed with annoyance as Dean’s number flashed across the screen. Right then, Dean was someone he wished he could avoid. But if he didn’t answer he knew Dean would just come down to his office and that aggravated him even more. He punched at his phone screen with his finger and barked out a sharp “What do you want?” when Dean came on the line.

Thirty minutes later Dean was sitting across the desk from Adam, a cat-that-ate-the-canary smile on his face.

“No. Nope. Bad idea, Dean.” Adam sighed and massaged at his temples.

“Come on, it’ll be fun. Someone has to go. This seminar is one of the most important networking opportunities of the year for us.”

“And you think we should take Eva.”

His cousin snapped his fingers. “I more than think—I know. I’ve already booked our rooms and tickets.” Dean cast Adam a truly wicked smile. Mischievousness danced in his eyes.

Adam leveled a grim stare at him. “What, exactly, are you trying to do here, Dean?”

Dean only shrugged. “I’m not trying to do anything. We need to go to this seminar; Eva is a valuable asset to our team and she’ll benefit from the training. It’s strictly business, so what do you have to worry about?”

Strictly business. Yeah, Adam was familiar with the term. Seems that he used it once or twice himself. Before he shoved Eva up against a wall and crammed his tongue down her throat.