Big Bad Billionaire (The Woolven Secret Book 1) by Saranna DeWylde Read Free Book Online Page B

maze.
    “If you asked to go home, I’d let you.”
    “You can’t stop me.”
    Oh, but he could and, if she stayed much longer, if things progressed farther, he’d never let her go. “Very often in this life, things are not what they seem.”
    “Like you?”
    “Yes,” he nodded solemnly. “Very much like me.”
    “I can’t tell if you’re threatening me or flirting with me.” She laughed.
    He found he liked the sound of it. He wanted her to do it again.
    “Maybe a bit of both, but you like it. Don’t tell me that when I chased you, your blood wasn’t as hot as mine.”
    “You really frightened me at first,” she confessed.
    Her words startled him. “That’s a powerful weapon to give me, isn’t it? You shouldn’t tell the enemy the power they have over you.”
    “Just like I shouldn’t tell him I’m coming.”
    His cock was still very much at attention. “I didn’t need you to tell me. It was all over my mouth.”
    She blushed again. “Bastard. You knew what I meant.” Randi looked away from him, almost shy.
    He stopped walking again, knowing that as soon as they’d stepped past the borders of the maze, everything would change again. “Can’t you trust me just a little?”
    “You know how you said it doesn’t work like that? It’s an all or nothing prospect, Woolven.”
    He nodded. Blake hadn’t expected her to say yes and then they’d run off into the sunset together. But he’d had to ask. “If you need anything at all, my quarters when I’m in residence are in wing B.”
    She smirked. “I half-expected you to tell me you’d be in the room next to mine.”
    “I can arrange that.”
    “No.” She rushed to add, “I’m fine where I am.”
    Just like that, the spell broke as they emerged onto the grounds. He turned north and headed toward the wooded part of the estate.
    “Where are you going?”
    “There’s no point in tucking you safely into your room. We both know you’re not going to stay there.”
    She laughed again. “And you don’t care?”
    “Anything I have to hide, you won’t find until I want you to find it.”
    “So sure of yourself.” She shook her head. “The arrogance.”
    “Perhaps. Or maybe I just know my secrets.”
    “It’s not very chivalrous, leaving me in alone in the dark. I seem to remember you saying something about manners? How, just because I don’t have them, it didn’t excuse you from proper conduct?” She cocked her head to the side.
    “You are as safe wandering the dark at Aphelion as you would be under lock and key. Nothing that walks these grounds would dare touch you.”
    “You say that like I should be on the lookout for monsters.”
    “Maybe you should.” Because they looked for her. Especially his personal beast.
    “And these monsters, do they all fear you? The great Blake Woolven?”
    She obviously teased him, but he couldn’t leave it at that.
    “I’m king of the monsters, Randi. But I thought you knew that.” He left her standing there, haloed in the moonlight and the remnants of her pleasure.
    He ran toward the woods, toward the solace to be found in shedding his skin and running free into the darkness. The soft loamy earth beneath his paws, the sounds and scents of the night, they wiped his senses clean of her.
    Blake couldn’t think about her anymore or he’d turn around and devour her, just like she wanted him to. He ran faster and faster. When he was sure he was out of sight of the main house, he let the wolf have sway.
    A scarred old wolf, his fur dirty and sparse, met him halfway. The animal was covered in scars from battles fought and won, battles lost, and prices paid.
    Warner always knew just what to do, and the scarred wolf had been his constant companion, his teacher, his friend.
    He needed his guidance now more than ever.
    Drew always joked that his idea of therapy was deer hunting with Warner. He admitted it in boardrooms and at cocktail parties, while the rest of the guests remained oblivious to the true