Page 6 of The Bodyguard and the Alpha (Witch Twins #2)

Bastien

Fuck. I’d started to follow her, to chase her, to find out why her heartbeat had accelerated rapidly against my chest. Why she’d fucking panicked. One moment she’d been as relaxed as a contented kitten. Then she’d startled.

I couldn’t believe that it was because she’d felt my hard cock nestled against her ass cheeks. The delicious scent of her arousal had perfumed the air and I’d seen her try to press her thighs together. She’d wanted me. And then suddenly she didn’t.

Was she still angry at me for being an asshole five years ago?

I’d tried to undo my mistake. The morning after I’d hurt her, when she’d denied me her smile, I knew I’d done some serious damage to our budding relationship.

But I’d still been confident. I thought I could play the long game.

Seduce her slowly. Court her. I made sure she was on the roster when I went on vacation.

Island resorts. Skiing in Europe. We dined at expensive restaurants where she chose to eat salad and refused alcohol.

Nothing I did seemed to give her joy. I couldn’t remember the last time she’d smiled at anyone, let alone me, since the day I’d called her ‘Ice Queen.’ When she was off-duty, she didn’t socialise with the other staff.

The only person she spoke about was her sister Calypso.

My mate was sad. She was achingly lonely. I was failing her.

We couldn’t keep on going like this. I had to be upfront with her.

It was past time to tell her how I felt.

I’d waited five years for her to trust me again, the way she had trusted me when we first met.

Even though she had refused my dinner invitation, her smiles had been freely given.

And then they weren’t. Her eyes, which had been warm and welcoming, turned into hard chips of emerald.

She hadn’t been the Ice Queen when she started working for me, but because of me, she had embraced the name.

She had hidden all her warmth and light under layers of ice.

It was my fault. All of it was my fault.

I was a bad Alpha. It was my core duty to protect my mate. To cherish her. And I had failed. None of the things I had given her were what she needed. Beast’s howl was a mournful commentary on my failure.

It was time for me to pull my head out of my ass. Electra didn’t want material comforts. She didn’t want ski resorts or fancy restaurants. She just wanted me. She wanted touch and comfort.

Watch out, baby, here I come.

And I wanted to do that now. Right fucking now.

But of course, I couldn’t. Today was the beginning of the Summit and with the recently discovered terrorist plot that my brother’s new mate had been caught up in, I had no time to stalk my mate through the corridors, find her and fuck her until she understood that she was my world.

I was due to meet my brother Luc in a few minutes.

I was the fucking President and he was head of my Palace Security.

On the morning of the Summit, with a credible terrorist threat, I couldn’t blow him off, even if it was to soothe my mate.

With a snarl, I punched the wall and walked out.

By the time we’d finished our conversation, Patrick, my press secretary and Ben, my personal assistant, were waiting to go over the final details for the morning’s sessions in my private study.

I didn’t see my little Pixie again until my full security team had come to escort me to the Summit’s opening session.

But throughout the meetings, my cock had remained hard.