Page 73 of Beautiful Prey

“Let go of me.”

“In a minute.” He’s not even breathing hard. That’s what pisses me off the most. I’m panting, shaking with a need that has my cock tenting my trousers, and he hasn’t even moved. “You know what I’ve been thinking about since that cave? This. You, still fighting. Because you tried to run away from me.”

“I did not try to run away from you, and you know it. I was eliminated and left to take care of my brother. So if you think you can just keep me on the side for entertainment, I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong guy.”

“Oh, I’m very sure I’ve got the right guy.” Dragging his tongue up the side of my throat, he hums when his breath grazes my earlobe.

I try to squeeze my legs together, but when he palms me through my pants, I— Light, help me, I’m hard against his hand.

“No.” I twist my pinned wrist free and grab a fistful of his shirt. But instead of shoving him off, I drag him close, overwhelmed by that hand on my dick, by his scent, and by his… invitation.

I don’t think anyone’s ever asked me out before. Not that this counts as asking.

“That’s a good boy.” Asher’s gaze lowers to my hand in his shirt, then he drags it back to meet mine. “Harder. Hurt me. Come on, prey.”

Pushing him back, I leave the wall, and my fist catches him across the jaw hard enough to snap his head sideways. Pain radiates through my hand, and I shake it free, shocked at what I’ve done. He touches his lip, looks at his fingers, and grins as if I’ve handed him a gift.

Uh-oh.

“There’s my prey.”

“I am not your anything.” And yes, I’m breathing like I’ve run a shift. But I’m in trouble, that’s for sure. It did feel good to hit him. Too bad he isn’t hurt. “You don’t get to buy me, grope me in a stolen office, and call it a date.”

“I didn’t buy you.” He advances, and I give ground, hating that I do. “I bought a mining company. You came free with the debt.” He backs me up until the wall finds me again, but he doesn’t touch me this time. He just leans in, close enough that I feel only his heat. “And your new boss wants dinner with you. Tonight. Eight.”

“I’m not having dinner with you.”

“You are. Because I have a proposition for you that we’ll discuss over dinner.”

“And if I don’t come?”

There’s no warmth in his eyes. “Then you’ll have refused your employer a perfectly civil dinner during his first week of ownership. And I’ll start wondering what else on Calder I have to acquire to get an hour of your evening. Your brother’s clinic, maybe? Or the pharmacy that fills his prescription? I own the water. I could own the rest by Tuesday. Or you could just come to dinner, stormbird. It’s a lot less work for both of us.”

He opens the door, dismissing me in front of the two guards outside his office. Giving them a nod, he crosses back to the leather chair and sits with his hands behind his head.

“Let me say this once so we never have to say it again. I have ended people between one breath and the next and not thought about them by the third. I watched a storm take hundreds of them off a map I could have redrawn with a word, and I went back to my drink. Whatever you think the worst of me is, stormbird, you’re aiming too low.”

“Is that supposed to be a threat?”

“It is. Though I’d prefer to see it as an invitation, an occasion to buy you dinner. Now, if you’ll please excuse me, I have a lot to learn in my new office.”

One of the guards gestures for me to leave. Asher watches me go. I feel his eyes on my back, but I don’t say yes. I don’t say anything.

I won’t give that to him.

Instead, I make it to the door on legs that don’t quite feel like my own.

“Prey. Wear something you don’t mind me thinking about taking off you.”

I snort and cross the threshold, finding Ryven lounging in the corridor as if he never left, slate already in hand.

“Ryven,” Asher calls from behind me. “Let Seren know I won’t be home tonight. I’ve got a date.”

Ryven looks me up and down, grinning. “You got it. Seems our little trip to Calder is turning out to be rather fortunate.”

I make it halfway down the catwalk before my legs stop taking orders. Gripping the rail, I stare out over the mine.

He owns all of this now. The mine. My shifts. The apartment.