Beauty and the Wolf (3 page)

“What’s wrong?” his father questioned him again.

“Nothing, Dad.” He sti
ll wasn’t ready to admit to his father
, to anyone, that he had found his mate.
Much less she had him so tied up in knots he couldn’t fuck.
He took a seat beh
ind his desk and the other man
sat in
lo
w slung leather chair to the side
.

“What did you do?”

“You’
re concern is touching. You
r
questions went from
w
hat happened
to what did I do
wrong
in less than a minute. That’s a new record ev
en for you.” He didn’t know why
he was giving his old man
such
a hard time, his father was usually quite supportive of him.

“I can smell fear.”

Oh, that’s why he was giving him shit; he didn’t want his father discovering who his mate was. If he didn’t get his father
o
ut of the office, he’d
recognized her scent and also know
he’d just jerked
off in the shower
. There was no privacy between
wolves
when it came to emotions or bodily functions
.

“I smell aroused female,
Jake
. Who was here?” He stared at this son, trying not to let the smile break through. He knew
exactly
who had been here, the same lovely girl he’d
meet in the elevator. He also knew
his son had discovered she was his mate some months ago.
His son just didn’t know he knew.

“None of your damn business.”
Whether
Jake
wanted to admit it or not
,
he’d started to
exhibit
signs that he was a mated male.
The little failure of last night and g
ro
wling at his dad were
prime example
s
. No one talked about a
mate’s arousal.
No one but a mate.

“I’ve tried not to interfere in
your, um, sex life son, but
I won’t abide
you hurting a female.”

“Damn it, Dad, butt out.” He flung himself out of the chair
to prowl in front of the windows.

He was saved from giving an e
xpl
anation he wasn’t ready to give
by a knock on his office door. “Come in.”

His
secretary’s
eyebrows rose when she saw the two holes by d
oor but she didn’t say a word which wasn’t unusual. S
he’d seen some str
ange shit in the last year
but
hadn’t
questioned
any of it.
Because of her ability to keep a secret she’d risen in the ranks and now held the position of his personal assistant. She knew more about him than he cared to admit. She also knew he had the hots for her friend.

She smiled at him
and ignored
his angry counte
nance. “Did Sophie drop off the
file you requested?”

“Yeah, she brought the file. Would you care to explain why she brought it?
” He knew she’d been behind Sophie’s unexpected visit. They had gophers in the mail room to message files from department to department. There was no reason Sophie should have hand carried it. No reason at all.

As he expected she ignored his question. “I’m so glad she was able to help you
. I
s there anything else I can get you, sir?”

“No Mary Ann, I think you’v
e given me quite enough
today, don’t you?”
H
is smile was
lethal. H
is pack members wo
uld have been bowing before him
at that look
but the woman was made of sterner stuff. She sim
p
ly smiled at
him and
his father and
backed out of the room.

* * * * *

Sophie
sat on the couch
dressed in her favorite sweats and t-shirt. Both were baggy
as hell but
so comfortable
she didn’t care
.
Lord knew she needed comfort. After the incident
with
Jake
she’d left work early and come home to lick her wounds.

Not that
Jake
had hurt h
er in any way.
In the business world
she was use to
men who ranted and raved when things didn’t go
their way. No,
she was hurt more by what he hadn’t said
or do
ne
. He
had been g
i
ving
off a
n “I want
sex
”
vibe you could feel a
mile away
and
h
e had looked at her with anger and contempt.

But man, oh, man he’
d been gorgeous. She closed her eyes and pictured him as he’d looked in the hallway. The light from
the bathroom had cast an
aura
behind him setting off his
muscular
physique
in an oh so mouth
watering way.
The
top button
o
f his dress pants had been open
and
his crisp white shirt unbuttoned
to reveal
the
dark hair covering his chest. She so loved dark haired men
with just the
right amount of body hair.
Jake had
just the right amount, forming almost a perfect arrow from his pecks to his, um, well
,
past the waist of his pants. She assumed he didn’t go in for manscaping, or
at least
she hoped he didn’t
.
She thought that look so unmanly.

He had presented a perfect
OMG moment
.

And then he had growled.

And then his eyes had glowed.

Sophie started to
hyperventilate
when she
thought about what
she
’d
seen.

Why would
a man’s
eyes glow? Surely it had just been
a
trick
of the light
.

Before she could think
too much
more about it, or scare herself silly with wild,
fanciful
thoughts, the front door burst open.

“S
ophie honey, what
happened
?

Her friend’s concern
unleashed the flood
of tears
she
had tried
hard
not to shed. The other woman
pulled her into
her arms, stroking
her back.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there. Right after I called you, things went to hell in a hand basket. Jake cancelled the meeting without warning, then ordered me go take notes in a meeting in marketing – which I have never done before. There wasn’
t time to call and warn
you not to come.
”

The tears finally stopped and Sophie pulled back from the comforting embrace of her friend. She grabbed a tissue from the coffee t
able,
wiped away her tears
,
and blew her nose.

“
How
did you know something was wrong?”

“The two holes by
Jake
’s door were a dead giveaway.”
Mary Ann
grinned at her friend’s look of disbelief.

When she’d walked into
Jake
’s office, she hadn’t seen any holes. “What holes?”

“He didn’t confess to me, but I’m assuming
he
put
them
there after you left. What exactly did you do to the man?
”
Mary Ann
’s voice was dry with suppressed humor.

“Oh Mary Ann.”
She
didn’t know what to say. The walls were solid oak paneling, thick and sound proof or so
Mary Ann
claimed. It would have taken something – or someone
–
very strong
to d
ent
the aged wood. “Oh
Mary Ann
,” she said again.

Mary Ann
didn’t know what she should tell her friend. She knew her boss had made those holes, and she knew they’d been made with his fist. Over the last two year
s she had seen things at Anderson Trading that couldn’t b
e explained.
Even though they purchased top of the line brand
furniture, said furniture
broke on a regular basis. There were clandestine meetings
late at night when no one was
supposed
to be there. And
her
boss’s eyes glowed when he was angry.

“His eyes glowed.”

“What?” For a moment
Mary Ann
thought she had spoken out loud.

“His eyes glowed,
Mary Ann
. When he got mad at me, his e
yes turned this beautiful golden brown.”

Mary Ann
saw the look of adoration on her friend’s face and wondered what she should
say. She’d
heard rumors for several month
s
now, rumors that were so
far fetched
she knew they couldn’t be true. But…

There
were just too many things that
while explained away with a perfectly
logical
explanation
, were just a little off.
That didn’t stop her from trying to fix her best friend up with her boss. Despite all the crazy theories she might have about exactly who or what Jake Anderson was, she also knew he was one of the best and most decent men she’d ever met.

“Exactly what happened?” Maybe if she knew a few more details she could come
up with the next plan of attack
. She knew her boss liked Sophie, was even slightly obsessed with her. He was always asking about h
er,
subtlety
, but still enquiring.
If she mentioned a date Sophie might have had, he was in a bad mood for the rest of the day. She s
miled thinking of all the
little white lies she’d told him over the last few months. Sophie hadn’t been on a date since she’d started work at Anderson Trading. She knew her friend had fallen in love with h
er boss the day she’d seen him in the gym without his shirt.

“He told me to leave. Not just told me to leave, ordered me to leave. He didn’t even ask why I was there. He was, uh, acting strange. It looked as if he had just gotten out of the shower. Why would h
e take a shower in the middle of
the day?”

Mary Ann
couldn’t
suppress her laughter
this time
. She knew what her boss had been doing in the bathroom. She had five brothers after all. Sophie, despite her ripe old age of twenty eight, was still woefully naive when it came to men. Which wa
s why she needed to get her best friend and boss
together
,
fast. Sophie needed a protector and Jake Anderson fit the bill.

“Well, t
he first thing we have to do is get you alone with the man again.”

Sophie shook her head. “No. I’m done with that. I’m just going to have to accept the fact that he doesn’
t want, never could want
,
me. Y
ou didn’
t see his face, Mary Ann
. You didn’t see his face.”

Both women lapsed into silence each lost in her own thoughts.
Mary Ann
was mentally shaking her head at her friend. She knew her boss was attracted to Sophie and she knew if they were able t
o spend some time together
that attraction would flame into a white-hot fire. There had to be a way, she just had to think about it.

Mea
nwhile Sophie was thinking
m
ay
be Cupid didn’t exist
after all
. What she hadn’t realized was
who needed C
upid when she had a
determined
best friend?