Page 38

Ellie

“Who are you trying to convince there?” I asked gently, seeing the pain of his wounds as well.

He sighed before kissing my hand again and focusing on his food. “It’s not so much people leave me but fail me. But I’ve had awesome mates since I was a pup. I’m set on trusting friends or having that part of my life. They—we saved each other that way.”

“So it’s family,” I muttered, accepting that. He was more well-rounded than I was on that.

“No, work,” he corrected, intently focused on his food.

“I was so used and abused for my talents and powers—Dr. Carpenter hit the nail on the head pretty well about how things went. But also just getting dumped on all over in London or England because I was the youngest Clark. People were jealous or were wolves and knew the truth about my family.”

“You needed this job to work to heal,” I surmised, reaching over and rubbing his arm.

“My da was right and cleaning off those ideas to present was the right move, especially since Dr. James backed them,” he whispered. “But it brought up a lot of my past that I wasn’t ready for. I feel…”

“Shaky?”

“Yes.” He cleared his throat and gave me a smile. “But this isn’t about me. What do you want to do? What can help you feel better?”

Right, my mess. I’d been so focused on trying to explain why I was in his condo and had mishandled everything that I hadn’t thought past that. Of course Ha-joon had made apologizing and getting past it easy on me.

I swallowed a snort. It had to be an Alpha wolf or shifter thing that one minute he was overreacting and the next making things too easy on me.

But then I thought about his question and came up blank. Right then I just snuck some fried chicken off his plate, smiling when he nudged it closer. It was cute and we needed more cute.

“If I was the boss of your relaxing, I was thinking funny brownie and food, so you’re halfway to my plan,” he suggested quietly.

“Throw in a soak with those bath salts I found and left here for us and yeah, that sounds about heaven,” I agreed.

“Yessss,” he groaned. “I hid them so I wasn’t tempted to use them without you. Those have magic in them, right? Something about them is just too good.”

I chuckled but wouldn’t tell him even when he threatened me with a good time that I was pretty sure was supposed to be a punishment. The fact he’d wrapped the same pot brownies from our first time and kept them in his freezer just for us was so adorable.

Ha-joon was just adorable which didn’t seem fair when he was so fucking sexy.

And smart.

And handsome.

And just awesome.

It was time to stop being so afraid of being with him and start appreciating how lucky I was that a man like him wanted me.

I snorted and chuckled when Ha-joon raised an eyebrow at me. “I realized brownie kicked in because my thoughts went from dark and numb to happier and grateful.”

“Do they involve me now?” he teased.

“Yes.” I smiled when he did a double take, not having expected that as the answer. He didn’t push it though, and we both got lost in our thoughts and food.

“Bath time?” he asked, sounding lighter and relaxed as well.

“If you can roll me there,” I replied with a happy sigh. “I’m in a bit of a food coma here. At least I picked really good food if I was going to crash your condo.”

“Stop talking like it’s an imposition. I told you it’s not.” He reached over and flicked my forehead as he stood. “You promised me naked Ellie and I want naked Ellie. You put the food away and I’ll get the bath going. We can food coma in there.”

I blinked after him. Since when was he the boss of me?

Oh right, I’d actually signed a contract to those terms… Sort of.

Whatever.

We handled our jobs and then soaked in the tub. About five minutes in Ha-joon sighed and asked me to lean forward. I did and was treated to a view of his naked wet body.

Oh, he’d heard his phone and hadn’t brought it to the tub.

“Yeah, I’m really high,” I muttered. I’d taken a bigger piece than when I’d done this with Ha-joon before. Or even the brownie I’d kept at my place and nibbled on now and again.

“Why is this duffer calling me?” he mumbled as he walked back fully naked and without a care.

I was affected. My damn tongue was practically hanging out wanting to lick up all the water off of him even if I knew it would taste icky from the bath salts.

It was worth it to lick Ha-joon Clark.

“I cannot think of a single reason for you to call me,” he growled with the phone to his ear, obviously having answered.

My eyes went wide when I recognized the voice and all thoughts of gobbling up Ha-joon fled my mind.

“Ellie still has me blocked. Rightfully, but Alan—Dr. Carpenter wouldn’t pick up my call for personal either. I knew you’d be looped in,” Tommy said from Ha-joon’s phone.

I couldn’t even hide my shock.

“You don’t get to know anything about her anymore,” Ha-joon snapped… Without much force since he was high. Even his growl sounded more playful.

Oh dear, my Alpha was more like a barking pup instead of a ferocious wolf.

He was so fucking adorable.

“I know, I know,” Tommy sighed. “Just tell me she’s okay. Please?”

That made me frown and my mouth worked faster than my mind. “What does he know?”

“Oh, thank the gods she’s there and not hidden alone,” Tommy whispered. “Someone called me from ASH. One of my few remaining friends. It wasn’t mean, it was more—”

“They gave you a heads-up that someone you said you truly cared for had shit go down,” Ha-joon cut in and surmised before Tommy accidentally said too much. Which I appreciated.

“Yes,” Tommy sighed. “Just tell me she’s okay. Did her dad really come to mate her off and take over ASH?”

“She’ll be fine,” he answered, growling when Tommy pushed. “She’s not even your friend. You don’t get the details. You’re fucking lucky I even bothered to answer. Now I want to get back to comforting her, yeah?”

“Instead of me,” Tommy grumbled.

I snorted, reaching for my water. “He wouldn’t have comforted me.

He would have fished for gossip, gotten pissy when I didn’t give it, and made sure to slip in insults.

‘I’m shocked you let it get so out of control.

I wouldn’t have thought you’d allow that, Ellie.

I know it’s shocking, but next time you have to react better so ASH isn’t embarrassed. ’”

“You are a bigger asshole than I realized,” Ha-joon bit out. “Did you just undermine her at every turn so she didn’t have the self-confidence to fight against the board sooner? That’s how you were allowed to be a whore forever?”

“Ouch,” Tommy and I both answered, but he went on.

“I didn’t realize—some of that wasn’t meant as harsh as I said it.

Sometimes I did mean to comfort her. Saying I’m shocked she—okay, I said it badly, but specifically I’m thinking of—she’s right, I did say something almost exactly like that once. I meant it—it came out wrong and—”

The sigh Ha-joon let out was almost comical, his gaze locked with mine.

“I cannot believe I’m interpreting for this duffer, but know I’m doing it so you don’t hurt so much and move on.

” He waited until I nodded. “If you shut him down from getting details, he wasn’t trying to knock you down a peg.

He was struggling to ask how bad the situation was that it blew up.

“He did it like a duffer instead of communicating better and just being blunt that he wasn’t trying to gossip but see if you were okay.

But I’ve done the same where I don’t know how to not step in it worse and I say shit wrong dancing around.

He was dancing around trying to figure out how bad things got saying he was shocked you’re aces and it got away even from you. ”

“Yes, yes , that,” Tommy yelled loudly enough that Ha-joon pulled the phone away.

“Fine, yes, I’m a cad and want the dirt, but I never, not ever broke her confidence about behind-the-scenes shit.

Hell, I told her about a lot of the shit going on so she wasn’t ever blindsided. I wasn’t just a random gossip.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it. “That might be fair, and maybe one day this is a conversation to truly have if we both want better closure. However , today is not that day, and certainly not when I’m riding the brownie.

” I gestured to the control panel. “I forgot how this thing works and I don’t want to ruin your fancy tub. It’s getting cold and I want the jets.”

“Mean, love,” Ha-joon chuckled but came over to adjust the temperature.

“As you heard, we’re enjoying a bath. She’ll be fine and ASH is still in the right hands.

Now thank you for caring, but she blocked you for a reason.

I’ll even be kind and say to stay safe on your training tour there.

” He hung up and set the phone within reach before getting back in behind me.

It didn’t hit me what he’d meant about being mean until we were relaxing with the jets for a few minutes. Whoops! I honestly hadn’t even thought—I wasn’t the type to rub things like that in people’s faces.

Well… Mostly. We all had our petty moments after all.

It was another ten minutes at least until I could answer his original question. “I want to take time off. The rest of the week.”

“Can you?” he hedged, sounding a bit too relaxed to really comprehend what I was saying.

I snorted. I was the boss. I could do whatever the fuck I wanted.

I glanced around and sighed. “Do you love me enough to go get my phone now?” I didn’t realize what I’d said again until he went rigid behind me.

“I didn’t mean like that . I meant—I make more of a mess with all the wet hair than—never mind. ”

“I got you, my sweet kimchi,” he whispered, kissing my temple and getting back out before I could pull myself out.

“I really want to take a bite out of your fucking fantastic ass,” I said as he walked away. I smiled when his laugh filled his bedroom. Well, that was nice to hear. I thanked him with a kiss when he brought back my phone.