Page 85 of The ARC Unit: Breach

“Because the situation in front of me hadn’t reached the threshold you were imagining from outside.”

“I lost you, Mercer. That was the threshold.”

My laugh came out sharp. “You hear yourself, right?”

Wolf did not answer.

I stepped toward him instead. “Everything with you is control. You decide where people stand and when they move, which door they use and who gets to speak before you shut the whole room down. You turned six people into a system that does exactly what you want, and now you’re furious because I won’t become another piece you can put where you left it.”

His eyes darkened.

“Careful, Mercer.”

“There you go again.”

“I’m warning you.”

“About what? Your feelings?”

He moved before I expected it, closing another foot of space until I had to tip my face up to keep looking at him. His plate carrier grazed the front of my breasts, running a tingle up my spine.

He was covered from throat to boots in black fabric and hard gear. I was standing in front of him in a bikini with an open linen shirt hanging from my shoulders, which made the difference between us feel suddenly, stupidly obscene.

“About speaking on things you don’t understand.”

The smell of cigarette smoke still clung faintly to him beneath the cleaner scent I had started recognizing without wanting to. My body noticed the proximity before my anger could stop it and a warmth grew low in my stomach that made me more furious because this was not the moment for any part of me to be interested in how he smelled.

I held his gaze.

“Then explain it.”

“No.”

“Of course not. You don’t explain anything, you just order people around until the room looks the way you want,” I said.

Wolf’s stare did not leave mine.

“That’s what command is.”

“No. That’s what control is.”

“You think there’s a difference when someone is trying to keep you alive?”

“Yes.”

He gave a humorless sound through the mask. “You wouldn’t know.”

I stepped even closer because backing away right now would have felt like letting him win.

“And you wouldn’t know where the line is if somebody painted it across your fucking boots. You don’t get to decide what happens to my body because you’re uncomfortable with not being able to see me.”

The room went completely quiet. Then something at his waist made a small metallic sound.

Click.

My eyes dropped as his right hand closed around the black retention webbing. It was the same narrow strap I had watched him use during training, attached to the hardware I heard every time he moved in gear.

Wolf pulled the folded length free. I looked back at his face.