His stance said, though, that he liked her sass. This man wasn’t one for timidity. To a Shifter, she’d heard, being timid meant being submissive, and the alpha would take full advantage. She couldn’t afford to be timid with Eric.
Eric brushed his thumb over the corner of her mouth, where she realized that some honey mustard lingered. “What am I going to do with you, Iona?”
“Don’t buy me any more chocolate.”
She hadn’t been able to look at the chocolate box he’d bought her without remembering Eric’s fingers at her lips, his mouth on hers. She hadn’t been able to resist taking out a piece at a time, in the privacy of her bedroom, savoring it, and pretending Eric was there to feed it to her.
“You like the ones with the chiles the best,” Eric said softly. “I remember.”
His finger moved on her mouth, then he leaned forward and inhaled, his nose nearly touching her hair.
Eric thought he could drown in her scent. Cinnamon and spice, overlaid with her musk, a heady combination that filled his dreams. She was a woman in her prime calling out to a male, and Eric was losing control.
Iona’s blue eyes were close, her breath warm on his skin. “Why do you do that?” she asked.
“Do what?”
“Smell me like that?” Her voice was sultry, like a caress.
Because I could lie down and bathe in your warmth, and nothing else on this earth would matter.
“Scent is a powerful way to communicate. From scent alone I can tell you’ve been here awhile, working intently on something, and when I came in, I shook you out of that.”
“You can tell all that by sniffing me?”
“Plus I see notes all over your desk, computer files open, and you eating here instead of going out with your family.”
“Had something I wanted to get done.”
“What?” Eric drew blueprints out from under the remains of her sandwich. The careful lines and neat letters and numbers didn’t mean anything to him. “What is this?”
Iona’s slight relaxation told him she cared about this project but didn’t fear him knowing about it. “An extension to my sister’s house. My mom and I decided to put in a couple bedrooms and a rec room for her as a surprise while she and Tyler are on their honeymoon in Hawaii. We won’t finish by the time they get back, but everything will be well under way.”
“I like the way you think.” Eric did, because if Iona could plan a covert extension to her own sister’s house, she’d be able to keep quiet on the work Eric wanted done. He traced the dimension marks on the blueprints. “You understand what all these mean?”
“Of course I do. It’s kind of my job.”
Eric looked around the small but warm office. “Three females running a construction company.”
“Yes.” Iona’s eyes held a challenge. “What about it?”
Eric wanted to relax, to laugh with her, to casually sit down behind her desk and draw her onto his lap while they talked. Soon. “You know, I still have to smack some of my males around to get them to let their mates or daughters have jobs or go to college. McNeil’s Shifters are even more old-fashioned. When I bring you in, you’ll be a good influence on the others.”
Iona’s eyes glinted. “If you bring me in, you mean.”
“You know I have to.” He said it quietly, trying to keep the arrogance out, and the triumph. Eric wanted her in his fold, to be able to put his arm around her and tell all other Shifters, Back off. She’s mine.
“Then I can say good-bye to everything I’ve worked for,” Iona said. “My mom and sister can too. My dad—my stepdad, I mean—built this company from the ground up. I’m not about to do anything to let them lose it.”
Eric didn’t answer. She was right that here lay the problem. If Eric took Iona to Shiftertown—to keep her safe—her family would suffer repercussions for hiding her all this time. He had ideas on how to get around that, but he’d need Iona’s cooperation.
But Iona couldn’t deny her Shifter side all her life. The half human, half Shifters Eric had known who’d tried to shut out their Shifter side had died. They’d gone feral and had either been killed by other Shifters or human hunters, or they’d killed themselves.
Eric couldn’t let that happen to Iona, no matter what he had to do. No matter that he might have to put her in restraints and haul her in, keeping her sequestered in his house while she got used to the idea of being his captive.
And why did that thought beat excitement through him? Iona in bonds, glaring at him with her beautiful blue eyes…Being Shifter, she’d be able to get out of any mundane restraints, but it would be fun for a while.
Eric opened the wrapper on her desk and looked at the mess inside. “Is this what you’re eating?”
“I was.”
“What did you do, sit on it?”
Iona slammed the paper back over the sandwich. “Will you go before someone sees you?”
“Come with me. I’ll buy you lunch.”
Iona’s eyes flared hunger. That hunger touched Eric like a flame.
“Can’t. Too busy here, and we’d have to find someplace where no one knew me. Plus, you’re obviously a Shifter.”
Eric shrugged. “I go where I want.”
“No, you don’t. Plenty of places don’t allow Shifters.”
“You allow them.”
She made a noise of exasperation. “No, I don’t. One just keeps barging in.”
He held back his laugh. “Why don’t you throw me out, then? You could call your security guards or the police. Why haven’t you?”
He saw the catch in her breath, the tightening of her eyes. “I can handle you myself.”
“Sure about that?” Eric leaned to her again.
“Will you stop smelling me? It’s just weird.”
“Have you closed yourself off to using your scent-sense? That’s dangerous, love.”
“I had to. It was driving me crazy.”
Eric had some sympathy. Scent could be powerful, triggering emotions and sense memory, as well as physical hunger and mating need. The smell of burned matches took him back to the Second World War when he and his sister Cassidy had slunk through the night carrying explosives to sabotage the German army. The smell of strawberries transported him to the happy days when he’d first met Kirsten, his mate, passed long ago now. Iona, untrained and trying to deny her natural instincts, must be going insane.