Submitting to the Shadow (Kindred Tales #27) - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,3

idea the job she’d just taken would be even stranger.

Two

Roark focused fiercely on his monitor, though he saw nothing on it. He was fighting to hold on to his composure—fighting not to come around the desk and take his new assistant by the shoulders and…

And what? Drag her in for a kiss? Embrace her? Hold her full, curvy body to his and crush her against him so he could breathe in her sweet, hypnotically feminine fragrance?

He’d felt the Strike when he first touched her—the tingling warmth that engulfed his whole body when their skin made contact. It was a sign, some would say. A sign they ought to be together. And he’d been able to tell by her reaction—her wide eyes and quickened pulse—that she had felt it too.

What’s wrong with you? Get hold of yourself! he commanded himself sternly. Forget about the Strike—you must have imagined it. And even if you didn’t, it doesn’t matter.

At last Samantha Grey left, taking her sweet scent with her and he was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Why in the Seven Hells had he hired her?

Roark got up and began to pace. She was going to be a complete distraction—he just knew it. He should have cut the interview short the moment he saw her luscious, full curves and long, reddish-gold hair…her pale, creamy skin with the Goddess kisses—what humans called freckles—sprinkled across her nose and cheeks…her big, green eyes that held so much intelligence and curiosity and fire…

Those eyes had snapped in anger when he’d demanded that she not get pregnant—not even date or try to find a mate—while she worked for him. But Roark had known the moment he laid eyes on her that he couldn’t stand the thought of her with another male.

Not even if he could never have her himself.

Her defiant words echoed in his mind, “…I’m going to want to get married and have a lot of kids. I’ve always wanted that.”

That was something Roark could never give her—never give any female.

Not that it mattered, he told himself firmly. His work—that was the important thing—that was all that mattered. He was so close to a breakthrough and now, with Samantha Grey to help, surely his research would finally bear fruit.

And in the meantime, he would have to ignore the immediate, intense attraction he’d felt the moment he first laid eyes on her. She wasn’t for him, Roark told himself.

But then, for the next solar year, she wasn’t for anyone else, either.

Taking comfort in that thought, he forced the memory of the tingling warmth her touch had caused him out of his mind and focused on his monitor.

Work first, everything else last. That was his motto and he intended to live by it, no matter how distractingly lovely his new assistant was.

Three

“So, how did it go?” Meg asked anxiously as Sammi walked into the lovely suite her best friend shared with her Beast Kindred husband. “Did you get the job?”

“I got it.” Sammi tried to smile but she was still feeling strange after her encounter with Roark. She’d gotten distracted, thinking about him, and had taken a wrong turn on her way back to Meg and Berik’s suite. As a result, she’d ended up on the wrong end of the ship and had to come all the way back again—no small journey since the Mother Ship was huge.

“You got it?” Meg grabbed her by the arms and danced around excitedly. “You got it, Sammie—you got it! Hey…” She paused her happy dance and frowned. “Why aren’t you more excited? This means you can stay up here on the Mother Ship with me! Meggie and Sammie together again, right?”

“And it also means they’ll assign me a suite of my own so I can stop crashing in your spare room,” Sammi pointed out, trying to smile.

“Sammi, honey, you know we don’t mind! Berik and I love having you here!” Meg protested.

“And I love being here,” Sammi said, though in truth, it was a little awkward staying with her friend at times. Mainly because Meg and Berik hadn’t been married that long and they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. They were always kissing and canoodling and forgetting Sammie was in the same room when things got really hot and heavy.

Also, though the walls were well insulated, Meg was a screamer during sex—something Sammi remembered well from their undergrad days when they had shared an apartment. She did her best to ignore the sounds coming from her best friend’s bedroom,