Page 19

19

Dakota

T here was something more to what Jax had been saying, that much was clear. It seemed obvious enough to me: if he couldn’t bite me, he just... wouldn’t bite me. Right?

But we were at work, and it wasn’t time to think about him biting me. Especially because even as he talked about how it could kill me, a tiny part of me was remembering how it felt to have him nibbling on my neck, and I wanted him to bite me.

I didn’t think I had a death wish or anything, it was just... it was sexy, wasn’t it? Biting? Maybe he had a biting kink, and wouldn’t be able to?—

The door to Jax’s office opened then, letting in Igarashi Minori, the annoyed, overly starched woman from the meeting, and one of the members of Crescent I’d met before, but whose name I couldn’t for the life of me remember. Ken? Kyle? He’d struck me as textbook confident business guy, but I didn’t know any more than that about him.

Jax stood from his chair, smiling at them both, then bowing to Igarashi Minori. Heck, it didn’t even look awkward or forced. Not too bad, in my own opinion. I did the same, and she returned the gesture, stiff and formal, but at least she was going to show some respect.

At the initial meeting, she’d given no indication that she knew English, but since she was alone, she had to at least know some, right?

“What can we do to help you today, Ms. Igarashi?” Jax asked. Also good. I didn’t know why I might have expected anything else. Jax had never been anything other than perfectly professional... except with me.

“I wish to know more about how Crescent does business,” she told him in flawless English with barely a hint of accent. Her tone was a bit clipped, but there was nothing outright disrespectful there.

Jax smiled at her. “That seems like a reasonable notion to me. If we’re going to be partners, everyone in both companies should be comfortable with each other.”

Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say anything shitty, or disagree, only nodded.

“What would you like to start with?” I asked her. Sure, it wasn’t my meeting, and maybe it wasn’t my place, but I thought what she cared about would say a lot about her.

She turned and looked at me, her eyes boring into my soul for a moment, before nodding. “Perhaps Human Resources.”

Interesting. That wasn’t remotely what I’d have expected, but also, it was one of the best things I could think of for her to care about: people. Also, I knew HR better than anywhere else in the building. I smiled at her. “That’s perfect. I would be happy to take you down to HR right now. I’m sure Maia would be happy to help out.”

I turned to Jax, raising a brow and waiting for his okay. If anything, he seemed a little relieved to leave it to me, nodding and holding a hand out toward the door. “Of course.” He turned to look at her, slightly hesitant. “I’m sure Dakota can get you anything you need, but if you’d like, I can come along.”

“Not necessary,” she said, holding up a hand and shaking her head. “Who would say anything against a company with their superior standing over them?”

It was a fair point.

Jax didn’t reassure her that wouldn’t happen, just once again bowed slightly, nodding. “Fair enough, Ms. Igarashi. I’ll be here in my office if you need anything else. Dakota can show you anything you’d like to see in the building, and he can call me if you need me there.”

A moment later, we were off toward the elevator banks to take us down to HR.

She looked at me from the corner of her eye for a moment, as though waiting for me to say something. Fair enough, as fast as I’d offered myself up to show her to HR, it was reasonable to assume I’d wanted to speak to her privately. I kind of did have something to say, too, I just didn’t think I should say it, since it wasn’t my place to point out that her employees’ behavior at the meeting combined with the contract language had Igarashi skating on super fucking thin ice with me already.

I wasn’t Jax.

I didn’t get to make that call.

She seemed to have read me all too well, though, as she cocked her head consideringly. “You don’t approve of the merger.”

“The merger isn’t my choice,” I offered right back. “It isn’t my place to approve or disapprove.”

The elevator was already on the top floor waiting, so it opened as soon as we pressed the button, and in a moment, we were alone on the thing. I had a momentary terror that she’d press the emergency stop and the whole thing would turn into a sitcom episode, but she didn’t move or say a word until the doors slid open once again.

“You’re right. You don’t have a say. But you have an opinion.”

I smiled and inclined my head to her, but I wasn’t gonna fall into that trap. “Everyone has an opinion on most things, Igarashi-san. Most of our opinions are irrelevant, and don’t need to be public.”

Her lips actually ticked up in one corner at that. Like I had amused her. But she turned to face forward, looking over the small bullpen of cubicles and offices beyond that made up the HR floor. Still, it seemed she’d decided to move on, because the next thing she said wasn’t about my personal opinion. “American companies have a... reputation, about how they treat employees. Disallowing vacations and even restroom breaks. I would not wish to see Igarashi associated with people who are overworked and unhappy.”

There was a gasp from one side, and when we turned to look, Maia was standing there looking absolutely aghast. “Absolutely not,” she insisted, and a muscle in her jaw clenched and flexed.

I had about half a second before she told Igarashi Minori to go fuck herself, I realized with some clarity.

I stepped between them. “That sounds reasonable to me,” I said. “You want Crescent to take care of their people, and wouldn’t want to be associated with a company that didn’t. I think Crescent rather feels the same way.” Turning back toward Minori, I lifted a brow. “Of course, Maia can help prove to you how we treat our employees. We’ll have to figure out how that will work the other way, don’t you think? How one treats one’s coworkers is very important.”

“I fired him,” she said, point blank and apparently changing the subject. But she wasn’t changing the subject. She was talking about the man in the meeting who’d called the Crescent people beasts.

I nodded to that. “Probably for the best. You wouldn’t want someone to bring shame on your company, and he was trying rather hard to do so.”

She made a face like she’d just bitten into a piece of wax fruit, and nodded. “Indeed.”

Maia, on the other hand, was flummoxed. “Um, who are we talking about?”

“The man who called us beasts at the meeting.”

Maia scowled at that, as did Minori, but not at each other, so that was a start. Also, neither of them denied that I’d been included in that particular “us,” so that seemed like a good sign to me. Maia was accepting me as part of Crescent, and Minori understood where my loyalties were.

I considered, then shrugged. “Maia, do you have time to go over the compensation package the company offers?” Even as she nodded, I swung my attention back to Minori. “Which I’d like to say is one of the most generous I’ve ever even heard of—and address everything else you want to know. And maybe while she gets that, you can tell me why the contracts you sent over are so vague on intellectual property?”

That, unlike anything before it, got Minori’s attention. “They what?”

I smiled like a shark. “I can’t tell you how glad I am that you decided to visit, Igarashi-san. Let me go get the contracts.”

I left them together, Maia explaining the paid-time-off system that Crescent had implemented, since as wolves, they apparently didn’t get the common cold, but as she said, still deserved time off for other things. Sometimes, she was explaining as the elevator closed behind me, a person just needs a day off.

For the first time since I’d met her, Igarashi Minori was smiling at something.