Free Hakan Severin by Alexandra Ivy, Laura Wright Page A

of my business, but I suspect that you’ve been doing more than speaking with Hakan.”
    She bit her bottom lip. There was no way to hide Hakan’s musk that continued to cling to her skin.
    And if she was being honest, she didn’t want to.
    She liked being surrounded in his comforting scent.
    “You’re right, it’s none of your business,” she said before she realized how bitchy she sounded. This male wasn’t being nosy. He truly cared about her. “Oh, hell. I’m sorry, Xavier,” she muttered, shoving her fingers through her tangled copper curls.
    He moved forward to place a finger beneath her chin, tilting back her head so he could study the shadows beneath her eyes.
    “Don’t be. You’re like a sister to me, Payton,” he said. “Which means that I’ve been tempted to kick Hakan’s ass more than once for hurting you.” He held her gaze. “If you need me to take care of him, I will.”
    She shook her head. The last thing she wanted was violence between the two men.
    “He claims he was protecting me,” she told her companion.
    She didn’t know what she’d been expecting, but it wasn’t for Xavier to give a nod of his head.
    “He was.”
    “You agree with him?” She frowned, feeling a tiny jolt of betrayal. Whether she was right or wrong, Xavier was supposed to be on her side. “You just said you wanted to kick his ass.”
    Xavier gave her chin a squeeze. “For hurting you, but I would have sliced off his balls if he’d tried to mate you before you were mature.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Males.”
    Dropping his hand, Xavier took a step back. “I’m assuming he’s decided it’s time to pursue you?”
    “Not pursue,” she corrected, recalling Hakan’s arrogant assumption that he could decide they were mates whenever it was convenient for him. “Capture.”
    He hesitated, studying her with a searching gaze. “I understand there must be some distinction between the two, but my poor male brain can’t figure it out.”
    She gave a lift of her hands, trying to explain the tangled emotions that were knotted in the pit of her stomach.
    “Hakan spent twenty years pushing me away,” she said. “Now he wants to snap his fingers and have me come running back to him.”
    “Ah.” Xavier gave a nod. “You want to make him suffer.”
    “No…” She hesitated, realizing she wasn’t being entirely honest. She couldn’t deny a small desire to see Hakan squirm. “Well, maybe a little.” She shrugged. “But mostly I just need time to adjust to the change in our relationship.”
    “You want him to woo you.”
    Payton’s lips twitched at the old-fashioned word. “Woo?”
    “He’s seduced your body, now he has to seduce your heart.”
    As usual, Xavier managed to hit the nail directly on the head.
    All those years ago Hakan had walked away from the invitation her cat had offered. He hadn’t been interested in the playful games that marked the beginning of the mating process.
    Now he wanted to leap directly into a committed relationship without the flirtatious fun.
    “Yes,” she agreed.
    A slow, wicked smile curved his lips. “Don’t make it too easy on him.”
    “Trust me, I won’t.”

 
     

CHAPTER 6
     
     
    Hakan heaved a sigh of relief when he received the text from Payton.
    ‘I need to see you.’
    He wasn’t stupid enough to think that she had a sudden change of heart. It’d been less than a half hour since she’d refused to see him. No. This had to be about the information she’d stolen from The Haymore Center.
    Still, it had to mean something that she would chose to contact him instead of simply calling Parish or Raphael.
    Right?
    Perfectly happy to clutch at straws, Hakan jogged through the communal eating area where a number of Pantera had gathered for breakfast. His stomach growled at the smell of food, but his pace never slowed as he entered the large, plantation-style building and moved past the Geeks who were monitoring a long line of computers arranged on a