Reese let out a breath. “The other goal is to lower inhibitions.”
He silently drew another strap across my lower chest. I didn’t know if he was purposefully brushing his thumb along the underside of my breasts, but my nipples saluted every inch of its path.
Reese connected the strap to the opposite side of my harness. “After that, it’s just a matter of the belt.”
He wrapped the final strap around my hips and threaded it through the buckle. “Cinch it up snug, but it doesn’t have to be tight.”
He gave the strap a tug, and the force of it yanked my body against his.
My eyes widened, and I stupidly allowed my gaze to dip to his mouth. “Maybe I should lower my inhibitions too.”
Then I closed my eyes, regretting my words even as I was saying them.
“Maybe you should,” he said silkily. “But if that time comes, kitten, I hope it’s not on a ropes course.”
15
REESE
After lunch, I watched through my window as Sarah hiked off for the ropes course with Sam, Toby, Mel, and two dozen of the Omni-Vantage employees—some excited, others looking nervous. Once they were all out of sight, I forced myself to focus on Dad’s delinquent accounts.
But try as I might, all I kept hearing were Sarah’s careless words in my head:Maybe I should lower my inhibitions too.
My hand clenched involuntarily, snapping my pencil in two. “Damnit.”
I relaxed only a little when, thirty minutes later, I heard her voice in the hallway, her assigned task completed.
The lion liked having her close. But after our recent exchange, I didn’t trust myself to go ask her how the harnessing went.
The last thing I needed was to fall into a pattern of teasing sexual banter because every minute in her presence told me something I didn’t want to know: Sarah McAvoy was my intended mate.
And that couldn’t stand. Our father’s heart had been shredded when our mother left him. Watching him suffer all my life, I vowed to follow his lead when it came to matters of the heart. I refused to be vulnerable to anyone, and if I ever did take a mate, you could be damn sure she wouldn’t be human.
There was a community of Irish fae—some of them shifters—along the shores of Lake Superior. They were actually distant relations, and the drive wasn’t too far. If I ever got the business running smoothly and wanted to settle down, raise a litter of cubs, I could always head south to find someone more suitable. Someone less…Sarah.
An hour later, another pencil snapped in my hand.
I chucked it at the wall just as my office door burst open and Sam rushed in. “Reese, you better brace.”
“Jesus. What now?”
“It wasn’t my fault!” Melanie cried, rushing in behind him.
“For fuck’s sake,” I yelled at them both. “Get in here and close the door before someone hears. What’s not your fault? Is the ropes course over already?”
The course should have taken a full two hours, and even that had been pushing it.
“Oh, it’s over,” Sam said with an exaggerated inflection. “Melanie, how about you tell your alpha what you did.”
“It’s not like I had a choice,” she lamented.
“Seriously?” Sam hissed at Melanie. “Over twenty people saw your little stunt. That guy’s lawyer will be calling any second, and there could be a lot of inconvenient questions.”
“Lawyer?” I asked. “Just stop. Both of you. Slow down and tell me what happened.”
Sam took a breath.
Melanie retreated to my couch and put her head in her hands. “I was thinking of the business.”