The Wrong Bond

12

From the corner of the bar, Connor spoke out. “Are you trying to take my job, Ally?”

“I’m just making one cocktail, relax,” she responded, chuckling.

“Should I be worried I’ll get poisoned, Connor?” I asked.

“Definitely,” Connor said.

“Make one for yourself, too,” I told her.

“What are we toasting to?” she asked, one eyebrow raised.

“To our friendship,” I replied.

“Friendship?” Ally echoed. “Shawn, let’s not play coy. We both know why you’ve been coming to the bar almost every day for a week and a half now.”

“We do?” I asked, feigning ignorance.

“Yes, we do.”

“Then what do you think I want?” I leaned in.

She leaned closer, the scent of her perfume making me go crazy. “You want me.”

It took everything in me not to take her there and then on this table, in front of everyone in the bar. The things she did to me were unexplainable.

“So what do you suggest I do about that?”

“I think there’s a way for both of us to get what we want.”

“Oh,” was all I could say. I hadn’t expected it to be this easy, but it seemed like she was doing all the work for me.

“You want me; I want your money. I’ve heard about all your mistresses uptown.”

I chuckled. “I’ve not had a mistress in weeks.”

“And why’s that?” she asked.

“Because I’m trying to abstain.”

“And how is that going for you?” Her voice was sultry and seductive, and it took everything in me to rein myself in.

“Terribly. A wolf has needs.”

“Especially an alpha,” she finished for me.

“Especially an alpha.”

She cleared her throat, and then I saw her falter, as if she was holding herself back from saying whatever she wanted to. “What I’m proposing is an arrangement. A business agreement, if you will.”

A business agreement? That should have sounded transactional, but her voice made the words appealing.

“A business agreement?” I repeated, my voice husky.

“Yes. I become your mistress, and you take care of all my mistress-y needs.”

I chuckled, unable to hold back.

“What?” she asked, her tone low and accusatory.

“It’s so obvious that you’ve never done this before.”

“Is it?” she asked.

“Painfully so. But I agree with the arrangement.”

She frowned. “We’ve not spoken about the terms yet.”

“I don’t care about the terms.”

“For a businessman, that sounds like a very risky decision to make.”

I smiled at her. “You’re worth the risk.”

CHAPTER 7

ARLENE

S

hawn’s sleek black car was the first clue of the kind of life he had. He had driven to the bar himself, and now we were at his home.

But calling it a home was doing a bit of a disservice to the mansion that stood in front of me. It had manicured gardens and a huge fountain right out front.

“Wow,” I gasped as soon as I stepped out of the car.

“It was my dad’s idea. He handled the design and construction of the house, and I just let him do it. That tacky fountain is the first thing I’m taking down when I renovate,” Shawn said, leading me into his home.

“Wow,” was all I could get out again.

“Your coat,” he said as we walked into the foyer.

I shrugged out of my coat, and he pulled it off me and hung it on the coatrack by the door. Then, we walked into the house. The marble titles shone under the soft glow of the chandelier hanging from the ceiling. To the right of the doorway, there was an enormous sweeping staircase lined with a plush red rug.

The entire house looked like something from a movie, and it was the first time I’d ever been uptown. Now I understood why the rebellions always happened back home. We were being fed scraps downtown.

The uptown wolves had all the resources they needed to survive, and more.. Everything they could ever want was simply provided to them on a silver platter because they were from a higher social class.

But we downtown wolves had to claw our way to the top, and it was especially hard doing that with a job that paid peanuts.

So it was little wonder that I was here, with Shawn Elton, ready to exchange pleasure for money. A slight feeling of embarrassment bubbled in the pit of my stomach, but I swallowed it.

“Do you want me to give you a little tour?” he asked.

I raised an eyebrow at him, a small smile on my lips. “It’s not like I’ll be living here, so what’s the point?”

“I need you to become familiar with the surroundings.” A small smirk played on his lips. “You’ll be coming here often, after all.”

I sucked in a breath and dug my hands into the back pockets of my jeans, feeling completely out of place. “Okay then, where do we start?”

“The library!” Shawn said with a playful grin.

I couldn’t help but smile. “Really?”

“Yup. I’m trying to win points from you.”

“You don’t need to win points. This—” I motioned between me and him. “—is already established. We know what it is, so there’s no need to win points.”

Shawn shrugged. “Well, a part of me wants to anyway.”

And that was scary. I had no idea why he was being nice and sweet when this was just a business transaction.

Winning points was what someone did when they wanted the other individual to like them, and in this situation, that didn’t apply.

All this would have been much easier to navigate if he was professional and just stuck to the terms. But his kindness was blurring the lines a little bit.

Shawn led me up the staircase and down a hallway lined with artwork that probably cost more than my annual salary.

“You like art,” I noticed, stopping to take in the details of one of the paintings.

“I like beautiful things,” Shawn said, and when I turned around, I caught him looking at me.

I cleared my throat loudly, my heart pounding in my chest. “So where’s the library?”

“Come with me.”

We kept walking until he finally stopped and pushed a door open. My breath caught in my throat as I took in the floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with books, a cozy fireplace, and a plush armchair.

“Wow,” I gasped. “Have you even read all of these?” I asked, running my fingers down the shelves of books.

“I don’t read as much as I used to, which is a shame,” Shawn responded.

I giggled and nodded. “Me too. I’d like to go back to a time when I could forget all of my worries and just read. But with working a job that ends at odd hours of the night, there isn’t much time for a hobby.”