Read Tempting His Mate Online

Authors: Savannah Stuart

Tempting His Mate (5 page)

* * *

Asher stood in front of one of the many panels of video screens in the hotel’s security room.

“She does it again right here,” Davis said, shaking his head slightly as he paused one of the videos. Then he played it back.

Asher’s jaw tightened. He’d seen it the first time. The playback just annoyed him further. A human bartender at one of the hotel restaurants was skimming money and only on cash tickets. She’d print a ticket, then once the customer had paid, delete a drink from the ticket. And she was pocketing the difference. She didn’t do it often enough to be overtly noticeable, but over a long period of time that kind of cash would add up. Not that the amount mattered.

No one stole from the Kincaid pack.

Thankfully, this was a job for the police. “Make copies of all the times we’ve caught her on video for the cops. I’ll go ahead and call them.” As the newest head of security at the hotel he needed to establish a good relationship with local law enforcement since this definitely wouldn’t be the only time they called the police. Pack business, he or Max or Grant would take care of, but this was a human problem.

He scrubbed a hand over his face and froze when he saw Ella appear on screen. She was standing outside the security room talking to one of his guys. The sight of her wearing a formfitting sweater dress and black, knee-high heeled boots made his entire body ache for her.

Frowning, he strode away from the video panel and hurried toward the tinted glass doors. He could see through the doors, but anyone on the other side didn’t have visibility. The previous owners had set it up that way and they planned to keep it.

Swiping his key card against the security panel, he tried to prepare himself for what her scent would inevitably do to him. It didn’t matter. The moment the doors whooshed open, she teased him, making his inner wolf go crazy.

Asher nodded at Ella, then at Grady. “Go help Davis with the bartender problem and ask him to call the police. He’ll fill you in.” Because Asher wasn’t dealing with any of that now. Not when Ella was here.

He nodded, then said, “Catch ya later, Ella.”

Asher didn’t like the way the young pup looked at her, but he shoved his possessive urges back down and focused on her. “Everything okay?” Concern filled him as he watched the tense way her arms were wrapped around herself.

Everything about her was rigid as she shook her head. “It’s probably nothing. I’m…probably being paranoid, but after lunch I went back to my office and I would almost swear someone had been in there. There’s a foreign smell in there. Not bad, just different. Really subtle though. And I already texted Grant about it. He wasn’t in there. Since I’m the only other person with a key…” She trailed off and let her hands fall to her side. “Nothing was taken or moved around though so I’m probably just being silly.”

All of Asher’s protective instincts roared to the surface. He shook his head. “No, you’re right to trust your gut.” And he was glad she’d come to him, especially after the way she’d left last night. He was head of security so it made sense that she had, but still. It soothed his wolf to know she’d turned to him for help. He nodded toward the still open glass doors. “Come on.”

Smiling tentatively, she stepped forward. He placed his hand at the small of her back. It was a subtle move, but she noticed it. With raised eyebrows, she looked up at him. Thankfully she didn’t pull away, but let him guide her past where Grady and Davis were talking.

Grady’s gaze flicked to where Asher still kept his hand on Ella. Asher ignored the man’s look and continued on to his office. Once inside, he motioned toward one of the microfiber chairs in front of his desk. As she sat, he pulled out a master remote control and changed the feeds of the six screens in his office. “What time did you take lunch?”

“About one.”

He shot her a quick look over his shoulder. “Did you take a real lunch?” She’d been working too damn hard and she’d only been here a few days. He didn’t like that she was barely eating on top of that. As shifters they needed fuel because of their high metabolism.

She pursed her lips, but nodded. “Yes, with Lauren. Do you want a breakdown of everything I ate?”

Half-smiling, he just shook his head as he turned back to the screen. Using the controller, he pulled up various video feeds. The one that pointed directly at the elevators on her floor, the one that pointed directly at Grant’s office, and the feed that streamed down her hallway. The other three videos he locked onto the interior of the elevators. He immediately skipped to the time frame she would have left for lunch.

Her office was at the very end of the hall. Since he didn’t have a direct shot of her office—something he planned to change—he could only see Ella when she made it to the halfway point of the hallway, right at Grant’s door.

For the next twenty minutes they watched all the feeds in silence, him fast forwarding when nothing was happening. After she left for lunch, he saw Grant enter his office, then a handful of other packmates enter and leave his office before heading back to the elevators. But not one single person made their way to Ella’s office. When the feed showed her coming back from lunch, she sighed and stood, smoothing down her sweater dress.

“I’m sorry I wasted your time. I guess I’m just being paranoid. Probably because it’s a new office or something. I swear I didn’t make this up as an excuse to see you,” she said, laughing nervously.

As if he might believe she’d do that. Though he wouldn’t have cared if she
had
made up a reason to see him. “You don’t need an excuse to see me.”

She sucked in a breath at that, but he continued. “I don’t care what the feed shows, I want to check out your office.”

Ella shook her head, clearly embarrassed. “No, I don’t want to waste your time—”

“Not up for discussion.” He put his hand on the small of her back again.

She tensed, but eventually sighed and let him lead her out of the security area. Once they were in the elevators heading to her floor, she shot him a quick look.

He caught those dark eyes and held her stare, unable to look away. Without trying, the woman captivated him. It was subtle, but her eyes dilated and the scent of her hunger twined around him, telling him all he needed to know. “I saw you last night,” he murmured, curious what her reaction would be.

“Oh…you looked…” She cleared her throat and he watched in fascination as her cheeks turned pink. “I’m glad you got that challenging stuff out of the way,” she said as the elevator doors whooshed open.

They stepped out to find Grant waiting. He smiled at both of them. “Hey, you guys coming to see me?”

Ella shook her head at the same time Asher said, “No.”

“All right. I’m headed back to the compound.” Meaning the beachfront condominium complex the pack owned. “Call me if you need anything.” The elevator doors closed behind him.

“I like that he doesn’t micromanage,” Ella said as they headed down the hall.

“Yeah.” Asher wouldn’t be able to handle a boss who did that. Good alphas kept a solid pulse on their pack, but gave their people enough trust to do their jobs. “Did your pride leader?”

Unlocking her office door, she shook her head. She tried to enter first, but Asher gently pulled her back. Her head whipped up in surprise, but he stepped in front of her and went in first. He hadn’t scented anything unusual, but he wasn’t taking chances. Not with Ella’s safety.

He stepped inside to find it empty of any potential threats. Shutting the door behind Ella, he scanned the place. The gold floor to ceiling length curtains were pulled back to reveal the wall of windows. Ella’s delicate antique-looking desk sat on a big Persian rug and was positioned close to the window, giving her a lot of natural light. There was a chaise lounge with a throw blanket and a laptop next to another window. Next to it were stacks of boxes and folders piled up. The room was pretty posh for an office, but she’d requested it when Grant hired her.

“Everything
looks
fine,” he murmured, inhaling deeply as he strode around the entire space. “But…” He trailed off as he caught that elusive scent again.

“Do you smell it too? It’s faded now, but…”

“Yeah.” It wasn’t human, it wasn’t shifter, it was…what
was
it? He frowned as he scented a distinctive cool eucalyptus scent. “I don’t know what it is though.”

“Not human or shifter, right?”

He shook his head. Just because shifters had heightened senses didn’t mean they could pick out every single scent. But they could often distinguish what species a scent was. It bothered him that he couldn’t right now. His frown deepened as he noticed the long latch on the middle section of the window next to the chaise lounge. It was flipped up. The top half could open a few feet, but the bottom half was sealed shut. “Do you ever open this?” It was January, but with their shifter blood they weren’t as affected by the cold like humans.

She nodded and crossed over to the chaise. “Yeah, some of these files are so musty so I opened it to air out that scent a couple days ago.”

He pushed the window open. A blast of wind rolled over him and he scented the eucalyptus smell even stronger. Interesting. Shutting it, he turned back to Ella who looked good enough to eat in that damn dress.

Her hands were on her hips. “Well?”

“What?”

“You’ve got a certain look on your face.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Look?”

She smiled, the action softening all her gorgeous features as she swatted at his upper arm. “Come on. What are you thinking? Tell me I’m not crazy.”

“You’re definitely not crazy. I think someone was in your office and I think they used this window to get in.” It would explain why they hadn’t seen anything on the video feeds. But at least now he could start looking at the exterior feeds to see if he caught anything unusual.

Her expression turned thoughtful. “That’s a lot of trouble for someone to go to just to get into my office.” She motioned toward two oversized canvases on the opposite wall. “Those paintings are done by local artists and other than my desk—which is very expensive—there’s not much of extraordinary value in here. I don’t think anyone would break in to steal my desk, especially when there’s no easy way to transport it. And the records, terrible that they are, haven’t been touched. I’m almost sure of it. Neither was my laptop, which is password protected and most of my files are encrypted anyway. Maybe they wanted to use my office as a way to reach another room. Like Grant’s office?”

“Maybe.” But Asher wasn’t convinced. Ella was handling the paper trail of all the money that came in and out of the hotel. He wondered if there was a connection there. And if someone had been in her office, there was a possibility they would come back. As soon as he left here he planned to tell Grant his concerns. “Until we know what’s going on, I’m going to place one of my guys up here with you.” Not Grady, that was for sure.

“Oh, I don’t think—”

“It’s happening,” he said as he texted Davis instructions to meet him in Ella’s office.

Sighing, she leaned against her desk. “You’re very bossy.”

He took a few steps toward her, closing most of the distance until he was inches away. She licked her lips and her sexy scent intensified at his closeness. “I don’t seem to remember you complaining too much about that,” he murmured, his reference clear.

Her cheeks turned that delicious shade of pink and to his surprise she laughed. “Yeah, I definitely didn’t mind.” She also didn’t seem uncomfortable with him invading her personal space. Which he was intentionally doing.

The tense knot that was coiled tightly in his chest loosened at her laughter. He liked this side of her, when she was at ease around him. He wanted her like that all the time. Taking a chance, he reached out and tucked a long strand of her hair behind her ear.

Her dark eyes went heavy-lidded for a moment.

“Why didn’t you stay last night?” he asked quietly, stroking his thumb over her soft cheek.

She tensed slightly, but shrugged. “It seemed like a lot of people wanted to talk to you and I didn’t want to interrupt.”

Bullshit. She’d run because she didn’t trust the pull between them. “For the record, you can interrupt anytime.”

“Oh.” She seemed at a loss for words.

He wanted to push her, to find out the real reason she’d left. But he didn’t want to make things uncomfortable and he was afraid he’d do just that if he insisted. Instead, he slowly leaned down, giving her plenty of time to stop him.

When she moved her hands up his chest, his inner wolf howled in protest of her rejection for a fraction of a second—until she kept sliding them up, linking her fingers behind his neck.

An uncontrollable shudder rolled through him at the contact. When their lips met, he nearly combusted. He wanted to shove the few items on her desk to the floor and take her right there. But he kept himself in check. Barely.

Brushing his lips over hers, he kept the kiss light, teasing. She moaned into his mouth, her tongue flicking against his with an underlying urgency. He could feel the energy humming through her, the need and hunger she emanated sending his lust into overdrive.

But he wasn’t going to screw things up with her. She might like it when he took control in the bedroom but he was going to take things slow.

Other books

Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller
Pieces of Perfect by Elizabeth Hayley
Ember X by Jessica Sorensen
Ciaran (Bourbon & Blood) by Seraphina Donavan
California Crackdown by Jon Sharpe
The Family Pet by H. Dean
A Vampire's Christmas Carol by Karen McCullough
Shtum by Jem Lester
The Good Daughter by Diana Layne