Bound

Take Two

CLAIRE POV

True to his word, Alexi disappeared to the coatroom and reappeared in business formal. Shook my hand with a sharp professionalism, and welcomed me to his office for the afternoon.

We spent the next hour scrutinising the proposal, and discussing how both packs could collaborate on the project. It was the longest conversation we had managed thus far without devolving to sex or violence.

This was partly managed by the contractual obligation to lend the appropriate gravitas to the activity, but could mostly be attributed to the driftwood dividing us.

He signed off on the proposal. I signed off on the changes and we shook hands again with crisp formality.

"It's in the hands of the lawyers now. Pleasure doing business with you Alpha Claire." Alexi looked straight in my eyes as he said that, and I was cast into the memory of the last time those words passed his lips.

His hard leg pressed between my legs with a gasp on my tongue. One hand pinning mine above my head while the other cradled my neck and pain radiated from my battered knee all the way up to an unhappy shoulder.

"Just because there is an impenetrable wall around your mind does not mean I can't smell how much you want me Claire." He ravaged me with shining eyes while a blush of embarrassment crept up my neck in a fluster.

"The problem isn't with the wanting Alexi. The problem is with the having." I said, reaching for the crisp white wine with a refreshingly fruity nose.

"What is that supposed to mean?" He asked with furrowed brows.

"The answer to that is not great fodder for our first date." I raised my glass by the stem, and sipped the sweet, tart nectar daintily.

"Here I thought that I would be getting some answers about you?" He pouted, but a playful intention around the words softened their whine.

"Is this a date or an interrogation?" I asked, pointing to each imaginary point in the air with my glass, before cocking my eyebrow and taking another sip.

"What is a date if not a mutual interrogation over mildly mind altering and inhibition releasing substances?"

"Ok then." I chuckled as the third order of freshly baked bread settled between us, faintly steaming. "Ask me a question then."

"I already know the answer to this one, but would you like me to order for us, order for yourself, or you order for both of us?" He copied my habit of gesturing with the wine glass, mirroring my body language. It was the kind of habit that you exhibit when you find someone endearing. It indeared you to them in return. I didn't want to be endeared to him.

"I'll order for myself." I said, turning to the stumbling waitress and beaming up at her. "I would like to be surprised by the chef please, Penny."

"So you'll trust a stranger instead?" Alexi clutched his chest dramatically. "Claire, you wound me!"

Penny snorted discreetly. Arms tucked behind her back, crisp white shirt tucked into sharp hospitality slacks.

"You are also a stranger to me, and this one is uniquely qualified to deliver something enchanting and surprising. That was why you hired them, no?" I countered, and Penny nodded in confirmation.

"I'll have the same, thank you Penny." He said to the waitress, but his eyes never left me.

She nodded, smiled, refilled our wine glasses to kill the bottle and assured us that our meals would arrive shortly. Alexi told her there was no rush. I told her to ignore him, I was ravenous.