Page 31 of His White Moonlight (Dominant CEO Shifter Romance #1)

The mattress dipped next to me, not quite waking me but disturbing me enough to bring me closer to awake than asleep.

“She’s fine, Christine,” I heard Grandma say.

“She doesn’t look fine.” Fingers lightly touched my cheek. “Did she say what upset her?”

“No. But…I think she knows .”

The bed shifted as Mom stood.

“Do you think that’s why she hurt herself?” she asked, her voice fading as they left.

I willed myself to sink back into a deeper sleep. It was safer than thinking about what I’d just overheard.

However, Grandma was right about hiding from problems.

Bennett haunted my dreams. He stalked me in the office, watching everything I did, and he waited. For what, I didn’t know. But I felt it. His impatience. His need to hold me. To breathe me in.

When I woke to my alarm, I didn’t feel rested but restless.

My hand slid under the covers to touch the warm space beside me. The panic I felt wasn’t as consuming as it had been the day before, but it was still there, spurring me to come up with a solution.

I could move out, but then I’d be dipping into the money I’d already saved. While I would still have enough to cover the first tuition, I’d need to keep working. What was the point of moving out if I still had to see Bennett at the office until I found another job?

Sitting up, I pressed my hands to my face and tried rubbing away my frustration.

“Are you hungry?”

I screamed at the sound of Bennett’s voice and tumbled off the other side of the bed, only to spring to my feet and stare at him with wild eyes.

He wasn’t fast enough to hide his shock.

“Are you okay?”

Slowly, lowering my arms, which had come up defensively, I tried to act as normally as possible, given the circumstances.

“Please stop coming into my room without permission.”

He tilted his head as he studied me.

“Chocolate chip pancakes?” he asked.

“Are Mom and Dad here?”

“No. Grandma told them you needed some time to yourself.”

“Is Grandma still here?”

“No, but she said you can call her and she’ll be a menace with you whenever you need.”

My nose started to tingle, and I nodded to hide how much her understanding meant to me.

“Pancakes are fine,” I said after a moment.

“If you’re not hungry for pancakes, I can make something else.”

He sounded…off.

I really looked at Bennett, noting the darker circles under his eyes, the way his hands were tucked into the pockets of his pants, the stubble coating his jaw.

An odd calm settled over me the longer I looked at him. I stepped around the bed. Without moving, he watched me slowly close the distance between us. When I stood in front of him, his mask slipped back into place as I met his gaze.

He was hiding. From me. Why?

I looked down at his hands. He’d fisted them in his pockets.

“Show me your hands,” I said.

He hesitated a second then held them out, palms up. They trembled.

I met his gaze again. “Today’s a bad day.” It was both a statement and a question.

After a moment, he said, “Yes, today’s a bad day.”

There were so many things I wanted to say.

That holding me at night wasn’t going to help because I was never going to accept him.

That the sooner he let go, the better off he’d be.

But I’d lived with shifters long enough to understand they didn’t give up when they thought they’d found a potential mate.

They aggressively, obsessively pursued their mate until they said yes to them or someone else.

If I wanted to leave, either Bennett or I needed to hook up with someone else. Since I didn’t want to end up with some guy I barely knew, that meant getting Bennett to focus on a different potential mate.

“Let’s grab something on the way into the office,” I said.

Surprise flickered in his gaze. “We don’t have to go in today.”

“I want to.”

He tucked his hands back into his pockets.

“Is there any chance you’ll talk to me about what happened? That’s the second time you?—”

“No.”

I turned away from him, and his arms wrapped around me from behind. I froze, heart hammering and panic surging through me.

“This isn’t normal, Wrenly. Someone touching you like this shouldn’t make you panic this badly.”

“Let go now, or I’ll hurt myself again,” I said hoarsely.

He spun me around to face him, his hands anchoring my shoulders.

“Talk to me. Let me help you.”

“If you want to help me, let me go. Please.”

His gaze searched mine. His worry disappeared behind his mask, but not before I glimpsed his desperation and hurt.

“I’ll meet you in the garage in twenty minutes,” he said, releasing my shoulders.

* * *

We arrived on time and rode the elevator up to the twelfth floor in silence. The women greeted him as they always did, ignoring me. Except for Miranda. She was watching me. I looked away and walked faster to my desk.

Bennett left me alone but kept his door open.

No one bothered either of us until ten, when I took a break to get something to drink from the break area.

Miranda found me there.

“Interesting choice of office attire.” she said.

I glanced down at my shorts and printed T-shirt that said “Warning: Rage Volcano. Anticipate seismic safety releases and maintain a safe distance.” It seemed fitting.

Too bad I’d just grabbed it without thinking.

It was a shirt I’d worn at school after Lindi and her crew had wrecked my last clean uniform.

“How’d the dress work?” she asked.

“Mom said the dress was pretty.” I started adding enough sugar to my coffee to send me into a diabetic coma.

“Bennett seemed to like it too,” she said.

I turned to look at her as she leaned against the counter, studying me.

I openly returned the favor. She was pretty and radiated confidence and strength.

A lot of guys would find that appealing.

But did Bennett? What he preferred wasn’t something I could ask him.

But maybe I could ask her. It was sad that Miranda, the girl who’d pinned me to the bathroom door, was my best option for help.

Unfortunately for me—and maybe for her too—I’d been surrounded by mean girls for what felt like my entire life, so collaborating with one didn’t bother me.

What bothered me was that she might figure out what was going on with me if I asked too many questions, and acknowledging my status would make my life infinitely harder.

How could I get her to help me without her figuring out who Bennett’s mate was?

“I’m not interested in dressing pretty to make boys happy,” I said, responding to her comment.

“Bennett’s not a boy, though, is he?”

“No, he’s a pain in my ass. But I’m pretty sure I already made my thoughts on him clear.”

She shrugged. “Things can change.”

“You’re right. We could be friends and help each other.”

A brief smile tugged her lips as she considered me. “Maybe.”

She left me alone to sip my sugared-up coffee and contemplate my life.

When I returned to my desk, the blinds to Bennett’s office were open, and a piece of chocolate waited for me. The sight of it made my chest ache, and I wanted to think about why, but I knew I couldn’t afford to with his door still open.

Ignoring his watchful stare, I sat at my desk and tried to find something to order for lunch, even though the thought of sitting in the office with him for an hour killed any appetite I had.

I ordered two salads for us, no dressing and extra onions. Then I ate his dumb chocolate.

That, on top of the sugar in my coffee, helped improve my patience as the first office girl approached. I put in my earbuds without looking at her.

She hesitated in front of my desk.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Bennett move.

Bless her heart, she’s not running, I thought.

I turned up the volume on my music and focused on the lyrics until the people in the office faded, allowing me to concentrate on expenses.

Whenever she left or he sat down again never registered in my mind.

If someone else approached, I didn’t notice.

I worked until another piece of chocolate landed on my keyboard.

Staring at it, I very briefly wondered what would happen if I flicked it away and kept working.

You knew escaping their plans for you would take time, Wren. The reason why they had plans for you doesn’t change that. Play the long game that you started playing two years ago.

I closed my eyes briefly, resisting the memory from two years ago that wanted to surface.

You’re smarter than they are. Play them all, and watch them stumble and fall.

When I opened my eyes and looked up at Bennett, I only showed the part of myself I wanted him to see. The slightly annoyed part that plucked the earbud from my ear.

“What?”

“I grabbed lunch from reception. Hungry?”

“Not really,” I said, removing the other earbud and putting it away.

“We don’t have to eat takeout. If you’d rather go out and grab something, we can eat in the park.”

“Yes,” I said, standing.

Spending time outside was much better than being stuck in his office with the blinds and door closed.

I power walked my way out of the office, well aware of the attention I was drawing. Would they think I was as crazy as Bennett? Probably more so. As a human, I didn’t have an erratic behavior excuse.

“We don’t need to stay a full day,” Bennett said when we were in the elevator, just the two of us.

“Why not?”

He ran a hand through his less-than-meticulously combed hair.

Actually, he didn’t look as neatly put together as he normally did.

His tie was loose and a little crooked, like he’d been tugging on it.

And he’d ditched his jacket. The sleeves of his white shirt were wrinkled, like he’d rolled them up for a while.

What did it mean that he was falling apart because I’d fallen apart? I didn’t know enough about bonds to understand what it meant that he cared this much, but it couldn’t be good.

“Can I have dinner with Grandma tonight? Alone?” I asked as the elevator reached the ground floor.

“You don’t need to ask permission, Wrenly.”