He outright grinned now. His straight white teeth stood out against his dark beard. “Your rules, but I’m in charge, remember? I’m going to break down every one of those walls you’ve built up. Now give me those panties.”

I looked around, as if the people working for me could see through the closed door. “What?”

He came around the desk, tugged so I stood directly before him, then turned so I was caught between him and my desk.

“You don’t trust. I can see that.”

“I—” He put a finger over my lips.

“You need to trust me on one thing. That I won’t hurt you.”

That was a big one. He wouldn’t hurt me? Who hadn’t? Even my brothers, unknowingly.

“Not in this. You trust me with your body, with your pleasure. I’ll keep you safe. No one will harm you when you’re with me. No one will see you. See the person you’re trying so fucking hard to protect.”

He pulled his finger away, but I couldn’t tell him to fuck off. I couldn’t do anything but say his name.

His eyes flared because he heard the weakness in my voice. The… hope that he wasn’t lying.

“I don’t know what this is between us,” he added. “No fucking clue, but I’m not afraid to find out. Give over, because I have. Give over, North, because you like it.”

He said my name instead of princess.

Again, he somehow saw me when he looked at me. As if I was more than just a Wainright. More than just my bank account. My land. My inherited power.

I had no idea what this was between us either. I felt it. Electricity. Chemistry. Something unexplainable and intangible. I couldn’t grab the feeling, but I could reach for him. Hope he’d catch me because I felt like I was falling.

I was the new North Wainright. I was no longer under my father’s thumb. Word wouldn’t get back to him that Jed had been in my office for the past ten minutes. That we were going to start something, something that didn’t have an agenda. Because it didn’t even make sense.

My father wasn’t going to hold it against me, blackmail me with it.

“Okay.”

He’d been patiently waiting. When his eyes flared with surprise, it seemed he was expecting me to say no. To knee him in the balls or smash the top of his foot with my stiletto. Anything but submit.

Leaning in, he kissed me. It was the lightest brush of his lips against mine, then he pulled back. “Now give me those panties.”

“I’m not having sex with you in my office,” I said.