Curves & Alphas: A Paranormal Box Set: (BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (37 page)

Chapter Three

She concentrated on her trembling breaths as the elevator climbed to the top floor of the building that housed Faust Financial Services. For the millionth time, she smoothed her hands over her waist, tugging on her suit jacket. Throwing her hands down, she realized that fussing with her clothing undid the deep breathing exercises she’d just gone through. Katrina began counting backwards, but got distracted by the numbers in the elevator that marked off the floors she traveled by.

By the time the doors opened on the twentieth floor, she was chastising herself for even caring a bit what this guy thought of how she looked. All he had to like is how she did her job. While she had known one of them would call, would take her bait, the message she had sent, she had no idea why they were so suddenly having this dinner meeting in his office, she felt on shaky ground on all sides, no matter what she decided to care about. With one last deep breath, a woman with long strawberry blond hair, built and dressed like she just got off of some flipping runway gestured her to follow.

Probably how he likes them
, she thought,
skinny and athletic
. As much as that brought her an odd relief to be out of the running, dropped her heart rate to a steady beat, an ache formed in her chest that she didn’t want to analyze. Didn’t matter. Couldn’t matter. This was not about looks or getting to know each other. It wasn’t a date. It was a business dinner, in the privacy of his office. Hopefully he was in the mood to confess a few things.

Their heels clicked across the floor, a familiar and comforting sound, reminding her of business. She had a job to do. Still, as his secretary opened the door, one hip swaying naturally to one side like she was presenting the door as a prize on a game show, Katrina looked past the woman forcing her eyes not to roll as she looked into the spacious office of Alexander Faust.

The man sat more than twenty feet from her behind a large black desk riddled with the usual executive lamp, files, and laptop among other things. Behind him the backdrop was a floor to ceiling bookshelf that spanned a large section of the wall. He stood when he saw her, giving his own jacket a tug which made her mouth want to break into a smile, but she kept it serious, more like a scowl.

He came around the desk as she walked toward him, each step an effort, an attempt at not rushing at a man that attracted her so badly and acting all professional at the same time. When his hand reached out to shake hers, a spark of electricity formed between their palms, zinging up her arm, setting her heart to fluttering again.

She’d met shifters before, and never had they had this sort of animal magnetism, so she couldn’t blame her unsettling reactions on his species. While the body wanted who the body wanted, hers hadn’t reacted this way to a man in a long time. What made that all the more disturbing is that she couldn’t act on it, had to block it all out, attempt not to focus on the almost grimace he had set on his face as if it pained him to have to be around her.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice,” he said as he released her hand only to grab her arm and turn her toward a table to the side of the room.

“I was summoned. In fact, I was told I had no choice. Which is fine, but I am sensing you are upset about something. Has there been some change over the afternoon?”

“Sit. My secretary has ordered us in some food, and we can talk as we eat,” he answered, evading her question.

Her eyes rolled up with the sigh she held back. She wanted her arm back, out of his too tight grip that tingled right where the heat of his palm penetrated the sleeve of her jacket. A sudden hot flash hit her, and she blamed the dome-shaped sky light above them.

The bright sun of the dinner hour made his blond locks sparkle, the flecks of gold in his dark brown eyes glisten. While she hadn’t thought it possible, as he looked even fiercer the cuter looking he got.

Damn
, she thought as he pulled out her chair for her to sit in. Gentleman or not, at least he was no longer touching her. Grateful to be off her shaking legs, she sat where he directed her to, her hands gripping the arms of the black leather chair, as he stood over the table, too close beside her, pouring each of them some sort of amber liquid, maybe scotch.

Glasses of water sat on the table, but the way he pushed the tumbler with the alcohol at her, she didn’t dare not at least take a sip. As the liquid burned her throat, she gave into the distraction saying a silent prayer that it would calm her down, nerves and sex drive. He sat as he waved in a woman with a wheeled cart full of covered plates. It seemed a bit elaborate for a business meeting.

He actually waved the woman away once the serving cart had been delivered, surprising her once again, but then, this seemed all about privacy. He sat still, not poised but tense, as he watched the woman in a simple black dress walk out of the room, his beautiful assistant had waited to close the door behind her. The tiny sound of the lock clicking made Katrina jump, trapping her in this room alone with this man that was dangerous in so many ways.

“Artichoke and arugula salad with calamari,” he said, shocking her out of her reverie as he placed a plate in front of her and lifted off the metal cover.

“Thank you. You didn’t have to go to such trouble. We could have talked without dinner. I’m available to you anytime,” she said, but her mind continued,
in any way
.

Her body tensed, her insides tightened, especially between her thighs, actually pulsing, as he spoke.

“No trouble. I told my secretary to order dinner,” he said. “I needed to speak to you alone about a serious matter, and I find the food a buffer. Besides, if I didn’t call dinner meetings some days work would not allow me time to eat.”

“I get that,” she said. “Dinner can often be an apple I threw in my purse some days. Anyway, you didn’t call me here to talk about our eating habits. So, please, tell me what you did call me here for.”

“Well, I got a call from an upset client today that you called,” he started, making her shoulders raise and the hair bristle on the back of her neck, not just from the words spoken, but from the harsh tone they were delivered with. “We need you to know that any and all information about our clients must be obtained through us.”

“Understood, but I was only confirming your clients. I find it strange that would upset anyone. Seems to me that if the client hadn’t anything to hide, they wouldn’t be upset would they. If you had been honest with me about what you do, I would not have had done so. The innocent don’t get upset about a call confirming a connection, which was all it was, a less than a minute question I asked a secretary to see if business was current.”

“You could have asked my secretary that,” he rebutted.

“Yes I could have,” she said with a coy smile, finding her confidence.

“Fine. You have made your point. Don’t do it again.”

She knew her words were bold, a calculated risk, but she wanted to prove her point early, that honesty would get them both further easier. The call had been planned to get a rise out of the Faust’s and their clients, to prove they were all guilty of something, and that she knew this fact whether they shared it with her or not. She hadn’t planned on the rise getting her a dinner invitation, a phone call at least, and then hopefully a confession so they could get down to business.

She’d not been unprofessional when calling the Munick’s, just asked a basic question confirming they indeed did business currently with Faust Financial. Regardless, she knew it would get a rise from the brothers that had tried to treat her like an idiot in hiding the truth behind what they did.

She couldn’t do her best for them that way, and she had found in her short career that precise, bold steps, often served a great purpose. She could hold her own with alphas like Alex, it was this man, the sexy one sitting next to her with his jaw in a tight line that she wished would kiss her that she was having trouble with.

When he said nothing further, she picked up her fork, a distraction, a show she wasn’t as flustered by him as she actually was, and maybe to give her the security of having some sort of weapon. She stabbed a green leafy thing on her plate, the click of metal to china distinct, serving a purpose. Then, the food lifted to her mouth she looked at him, gave him an opportunity to speak, though he just sat there, his stare steely, his glare unnerving on a deeper level than pissing off a client.

“I get the distinct impression that you don’t like me,” he ventured, going for broke now. “From the minute that you stepped into my office earlier you seemed tense. Is it the fact that I am a woman? I have more than proven myself in the court room. I can do this job, and do it well, Mr. Faust. You just need to give me what I need so that I can do it to the best of my abilities. If you are not honest with me, then poor results will be your fault not mine.”

“Don’t like you?” he practically roared, though his voice had been low and steady.

She cocked her head when he didn’t continue on, just sat there. The silence, the neglect to truly answer her, or confess anything sent a shiver down her spine even as his unending glare that swept over her face and then down her body sent a warmth to brewing in her stomach. Her breath came out jagged, moving the arugula on her fork that hovered near her mouth. She laid it down with another clink to her plate hoping she hadn’t chipped the fragile thing, a thin white dish with a gold trim.

In the moments that passed, though time had seemed to stop, she took to watching his massive chest rise and fall, unable to continue looking into that face of his, his full lips poised into a sneer. All she wanted was them on her, and that wouldn’t do. The thoughts running through her head unsettled her in a way she’d never known before.

Desire, a swift rush of lust centering on rather depraved thoughts, had her begging for him to grab her, roughly. In her mind, he snatched her up out of her chair and kissed her, taking her with the same fierce demand he possessed in everything he did. That passion though gave way to wayward flitters of fear that the man just may shift into a lion right there in the room and rip her limb from limb.

“You’ve not answered any of my questions. Do you dislike me for some reason? Do you want another lawyer to handle your case? Are you being truthful with me? Answer any one of them,” she said, her voice surprisingly flat, stable, though she was far from any of those things.

Still, she was a damn good lawyer, standing up under the worst of pressure in a court room, handling unruly criminals she represented, and taking risks that always paid off in her favor. She would be damned if she let some savage and relentless appetite for rough sex with an untamable man rock her so that she could not do her job. She rallied, sat up straighter, looked him right in his stupidly gorgeous eyes that burned with some sort of rage all their own, as she waited for him to say something.

“It is not that I don’t like you, though my feelings are irrelevant to this work relationship. I need you to do a job and I have told you all I can. You will have to live with those answers. The purpose of this dinner is to say that you will not contact any of our clients. Now, eat,” he demanded, shoving his salad to the side.

He reached for another set of plates, these ones larger, setting one beside her salad, and the other in front of him. As she bristled being told what to do, she tried to calm herself. These shifters, true alpha males, they always demanded and expected to get what they wanted. She’d learned to not take it personally. So, she lectured herself on this fact as he removed the silver coverings from the last two plates.

Steaks, larger than any she’d eaten before were revealed, and he went right at his leaving her to push her salad around more than eat it. They chewed in awkward silence for a while. She cut into her steak just not to offend, then tried not to groan out the pleasure as the perfectly cooked meat hit her taste buds. There was some sort of reduction over the mushrooms and onions that were over the top that tasted of maybe bourbon. The man knew his food. She could only imagine what was under the last covered plates still on the tray.

She dared to glance over at him again, wishing for some stupid small talk, but wanting to try to get a gage on if that would literally send him over some edge. He’d said it wasn’t that he disliked her, so what was it then? She didn’t know quite how to phrase such a question. Yet, she wanted an answer.

She had completely forgotten about the fact that he had all but said that he was not going to tell her the truth about his business. He’d said he couldn’t. Maybe the brothers had decided, and she would need to speak to them all to talk them into being honest with her. She wasn’t going to lose this case, put a strain on her position in the firm, because these criminals couldn’t fess up.