Owned By The Possessive Alpha, Bounded To My Mate novel Chapter 19

Chapter 19

DENISE

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The night air was cool when we stepped out of Seren, and Kieran’s driver had the car waiting at the curb with the same punctuality that seemed to govern everything in Kieran Nightshade’s orbit. Things happened when they were supposed to happen. People were where they were supposed to be. It was a small thing to notice, but I noticed it.

The drive back was quieter than the drive there, but differently quiet-the earlier silence had been two people holding their cards, assessing the table. This one was more settled. Something had been decided and we both knew it, and the knowing of it made the air between us less charged, the way a room felt after a window was opened.

We talked in the loose, unhurried way of people who had covered the important ground and were now moving through the rest at their own pace. He asked about my degree-what I’d studied before the internship derailed the timeline, what I’d want to complete first. I asked about the Moonlight Pack’s council seat, what the election cycle looked like, what the opposition would try to use against him. He answered without deflecting. I answered without deflecting.

It was strange how easy it was.

The car slowed as we entered my neighborhood, the streets narrower and less dramatic than the ones surrounding Seren, the buildings more ordinary. I reached for my bag as the driver signaled toward my block.

“I’ll have the draft terms drawn up by end of week,” Kieran said. “My legal team will send them to you, and you take them to whoever you choose. Take as long as you need to review.”

“I won’t drag it out.”

“Take as long as you need,” he repeated, with a mildness that indicated he meant it rather than performing patience. “There’s no benefit to either of us if you sign something you haven’t fully read.”

The car stopped in front of my building.

I moved to gather myself, and then Kieran was already shrugging off his jacket-a dark, well- cut thing in charcoal wool that had clearly been made for him specifically, the kind of garment that was structured to fit one person and looked it. He held it out toward me.

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10:38 Wed, Sep 16

Chapter 19

“I’m not cold,” I said.

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“I know.” He held it steady, his expression carrying something that was almost amusement. “Take it anyway.”

I looked at him. “Why?”

He considered this with the particular gravity of someone about to say something they knew was going to land strangely. “Because now you have a reason to bring it back to my office tomorrow.” He paused. “And because the women in my company have been filing their reports with personal items tucked inside them for the better part of six months, and if you walk in wearing my jacket, the message will travel faster than any announcement I could make.”

I stared at him.

“Panties,” he said, with perfect composure. “In the quarterly reports. Human resources has raised it twice.”

The sound that came out of me was not dignified. It was a genuine laugh-startled out of me before I could moderate it, the kind that came from a place too surprised to perform anything. I pressed my fingers over my mouth and looked at him and he looked back at me with the expression of a man who was very aware of what he’d just done and had no regrets about it.

“That is ” I started.

“A significant administrative problem,” he said seriously.

“I was going to say alarming.”

“That too.”

I took the jacket.

It was warm from him and smelled like cedarwood and something clean and faintly mineral that I didn’t have a name for. I folded it over my arm rather than putting it on, because I needed at least one small boundary this evening, and this felt like a manageable one.

“Goodnight, Kieran.”

“Text me when you’re in,” he said. “Not for my sake. Just-it’s eleven o’clock and I’d like to know you got upstairs without incident.”

“That’s for your sake.”

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10:38 Wed, Sep 16

Chapter 19

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“Partially,” he allowed.

I opened the door and stepped out onto the curb. The night air hit me, cooler than it had been earlier. I turned back briefly to look at him, framed in the dark interior of the car, grey eyes patient and unhurried.

“I’ll text you,” I said.

He nodded. The driver was already waiting.

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