Jade (Rare Gems Series) (4 page)

By the
time she was at the office of her other job, she was smiling again. Jade wondered what the man would do if she told him that there was a five-day-old head of lettuce in the employee refrigerator that had seen better days. He’d more than likely not find any humor in it.

~~~

Making her way through the deep forest, she stopped when her walkie-talkie went off. She whispered her name, and the person at the other end spoke back to her using the same low voice. Jade had been tracking a bear for the past hour that had gotten into a campsite, and she had to make sure that it wasn’t going to get sick.

“
There’s a man here to see you, a Quentin Witt. He said that he needs to talk to you as soon as possible. I told him where you were, and he wants you to call him back.” Jade saw the big bear moving off toward its den. “Do you have a cell phone? He wants to know.”

“No
, I don’t have a phone. I can’t afford one. Tell him that…I’m working and I don’t have time for him right now.” Clare, the dispatcher, laughed. “Ask him what he wants. I have a bear on the run.”

The bear stopped moving and turned to her.
That’s when Jade saw the three cubs. And Jade was between them and their momma. When her walkie went off again, she pressed the button and told Clare, in a voice she hoped didn’t carry to the bears.

“Mother and three cubs located.
She’s not happy with me being between them. I need a team to…shit.” Jade dropped the walkie and reached for a stick. She was screaming at the bear to stop when it started running at her. Jade knew that if it reached her at the speed it was going, it was going to be very painful for her. Just as the momma was about five feet from her, the radio squawked again. There was nothing for her to do but try and run.

Jade was walking out of the forest with three other men when she saw Blair. She wondered what he
was doing there when she saw Quentin, too. Angie ran to her and wrapped her arms around her legs before she made it to the ambulance.

“Did you really see a bear?”
She nodded at Angie. “Wow, I would have been scared to death. Daddy was cussing up a tornado when you said you saw one. Then when you didn’t answer him…gosh, he was really scared.”

“
Of what?” Jade was seated on the back of the ambulance while she was looked over. There was nothing wrong with her other than she’d been knocked on her ass, but they had to make sure. “The bear is fine, and so are her babies. No need to worry.”

“It wasn’t the bears I was concerned about.”
Quentin looked like he could have chewed the bear up and spit it out he was so pissed off. “What the hell were you thinking being out there with nothing more than a radio? What if she had attacked you?”

“She did.
But it was my fault. I got between her and her cubs.” Jade looked at Angie. “You should have seen them. They were tumbling all over each other and playing. They looked like little kids out in the yard. I wish I’d have had a camera. I would have—”

“You most certainly would not have snapped a picture when she was attacking you.”
Jade looked at Blair, then at Quentin. Blair was backing off, but Quentin was standing close enough that she could smell his expensive cologne again.

“You’re fine, Jade. Nasty bump
, but that’ll teach you to trip over your own feet.” She thanked the medic for his time as she stood up. “See your doc if there are any vision problems.”

“I will.” Jade was headed to the ranger station when she was suddenly jerked around. Quentin was pulling her back to where the
ambulance still sat when she pulled from his grasp. “What are you doing? I have a ton of paperwork to fill out and don’t have time for social hour with you.”

“You could have been killed out there.”
She shook her head. “I suppose a big bear attacks you daily and you think that you’re some invincible woman who can leap tall buildings.”

“No, I’m a person
who has been trained on how to do my job properly without hurting the wild animals or getting myself killed in the process. Believe it or not, I know what I’m doing. And that bear only attacked because she thought I was going to hurt her babies. When she attacked, it was no different than what you would have done to save Angie.” She started away only to be stopped again. “What do you want?”

“You.
” He scrubbed his hand over his face and glared at her. “Christ, all I can think about is how much I want to throw you over the first hard surface and fuck you until neither of us can move. All night long all I wanted to do was to find you and ask you to show me if your nipples were as dusky pink as I thought they might be, if your skin tastes as good as I want it to.”

She took a step away from him
, putting her hands behind her back. “I don’t know what to tell you. I’m not….You have to learn to live with disappointment just like I have.”

“We don’t have to.” Jade looked around to see if anyone could hear him. “We could have sex once and see if what Blair and Thad told me was true.
That we’re mates.”

Jade felt her skin chill and the hair on her arms dance.
He knew that they were mates and thought they could fuck it out of each other. She took another step back. Then another. When she was three feet from him, she turned and went to the ranger’s office. Never in her life had she felt more dirty.

Chapter
4

Roger looked over the books again. There was no way he was going to be able to skim anything off the top here if they were barely making the bills. He thought about simply not paying them and keeping the money earmarked for them, but Quentin had all the bills mailed to him, and he paid them before giving him the receipts. The man was getting more and more cautious all the time.

“Where
do you want the truck emptied at?” Roger looked at the woman who’d come in to work about an hour ago. “Mr. Witt said you’d have the information.”

He looked down at the notes that Quentin had dropped off
that morning on his way to his new office. There was something about a truck coming in, but Roger couldn’t for the life of him remember what he’d said. Picking up the notes, he scanned them until he found it.

“H
e said to put it on the left side of the warehouse. There are inventory men coming in at three, and he wants the old put out before the new.” Like it would make a difference in sales. “I’ll let him know the truck’s here.”

Quentin answered on the first ring. “Good. I have several interviews set up for tomorrow and the next day. I have an appointment with someone to come in and run the shop for me later today, if she shows.
Thanks for helping me out with this.”

He assured him it was fine. “There have been several calls from other vendors.
They want to know if it’s business as usual. I told them just what you said, that they would have to wait to hear from you.” What Roger had actually told them was yes, and to double their order, but he didn’t think his fine upstanding brother would find the humor in that. “Debra wants you to call her, too. She said that she wanted to know about your dinner plans. She also has some information on boarding schools.”

Roger hoped to Christ that she would be able to convince Quentin to send Angie off to school somewhere. Hopefully someplace where there was a pit and she’d fall into it. He hated that kid as much as he did his brother.

“I’ll talk to her about it.”
Quentin was talking to someone else, then came back on the line. “My ten o’clock is here so I’ll have to get back to you. Is there anything else?”

He told him no and hung up.
Picking up the phone again, he called Debra. Christ, he wanted her to come down to where he was right now and blow him under the desk. She answered a little breathlessly and he felt his cock get hard.

“I’ve been thinking about you.” She purred at him
, and he reached down to his cock and stroked it. Roger was hard as stone but wanted more as he teased her with his voice. “I want you to come here now. I’ve a mind to come deep in your pussy before your date with my brother.”

“I wish I could
, but I’m in the middle of a hair appointment.” He heard the noises in the background and now and then the click of the door before it got quiet. “It’s been three days. I need you to fuck me so badly I hurt with need.”

This woman was going to cause hi
m so much trouble, but all he could think about when he was with her was fucking her. She was loud when she came, and he wanted to hear her scream out his name again and again. Roger got up to lock the door and pulled the shade down.

“I want you to come for me while I jerk off.” She never told him no
, and he could hear the moving of her clothes. “Dip those fingers into your pussy for me and lick them clean.”

Her moan told him she was doing as he wanted.
When he’d freed his cock, he wrapped his fist around himself as he listened to her pant.

“That’s it
, baby, work that pussy for me. Think of my long tongue fucking you and sucking on that pretty clit. Do you want it? Do you want me to fuck you with my mouth?” She hissed out her answer, and he felt his own climax coming. “I’m going to come over to your room later, and I want to find you lying on the bed ready for me. I want to pull out my cock and jerk off until I’m coming all over you. Then I’m going to fuck you until I come again, shooting my cum deep inside of you.”

His climax shot from him.
Christ, he came harder just seeing his cum spray onto the desk and floor. When she cried out as well, saying his name over and over, Roger had to pull the phone from his ear or hurt himself. She was speaking when he put the phone to his ear again.

“…honey, you’ve no idea how much I needed that.
Your brother hasn’t fucked me in over four weeks, and with you lying low, I’m hurting.” He grinned, then realized what she’d said.

“You have to get him to fuck you
, darling. Without him doing that, how the hell will you claim you’re having his baby? You go into heat in a week and I want to fill you.” The plan was foolproof. She’d have his baby and claim it was his rich brother’s. Then after a year or so, Debra would divorce him and they’d live pretty on the checks he’d send each month for the upkeep on a brat that wasn’t even his. So long as Debra did her part.

“I’ve done everything but fuck him while he sleeps. And even that is nearly impossible.
He keeps his door locked at the hotel, and that damned daughter of his is constantly under foot. You might have to have a little talk with her again.” He grinned. “The last time didn’t stick apparently.”

Roger had told her to go to her room
, and when she didn’t listen to him, he’d shifted and chased her. The scratch on her face had been an accident, but Christ, he’d gotten off on her screams so many times over the past few days. Not having sex with the kid—he wasn’t a pervert—but the screams. He felt his cock wake up just thinking about them again.

“You leave her to me.
I’ll make sure she’s taken care of.” He had had some thoughts of kidnapping her and then ransoming her for some quick cash. Maybe he should give that a little more thought. “What have you found out about that woman and her family? Surely you don’t still think of her as competition, do you?”

Debra
laughed bitterly. “Her? Hardly. She’s way too athletic for his tastes, and we both know it. And her being a wolf won’t help her either. Stupid cunt just doesn’t know when to quit. I’ll take care of her today or tomorrow. I’ve got a plan that will make him see her just like I want him to, just someone out to get his money. Just like me.”

Roger hoped so because a great deal laid on her getting him to claim the child. He was sick to death of being broke all the fucking time.

~~~

Quentin watched her squirm in her chair. He had no idea why that turned him on
, but it did. There was something about Jade Erickson that had him harder than a rock all the fucking time.

“I’ve fired the idiot.” She’d just told him what had happened yesterday with his manager. “I don’t treat my employees that way
. And while I generally believe that the customer is always right, that woman was stupid.”

She laughed before she spoke.
“I guess it takes all kinds. It probably wouldn’t hurt you to update that sign. It’s getting a little…outdated.”

“What else would you do? If you could run it, what other improvements would you do?” S
he looked at him, then away. He knew she had ideas. Emerald had told him earlier that Jade loved the Touch and had a list a mile long of things she’d do to make it work better. And make money.

“Hire more staff. You
can’t run that place with just two people and a manager. I guess Margo was trying to cut corners, but at what cost?” He nodded and glanced down at the notes he’d been making and saw that there. “Also, you’d need to put in more inventory. Not just plants, but everything. People want something pretty to decorate with, not just the plants we sell.”

That wasn’t there.
“Like what? You mean pots and stuff? Or more? I’m willing to spend the money if it will help business.”

“Pots would be a good start
, but…when have you ever gone to a green house or nursery? I mean they sell everything. Garden tools, more than a hoe and shovel that we sell, but hand tools.” She flushed. “You probably already know that.”

“No.
Actually, other than what I needed to make an investment, I don’t know anything about a green house. It was a good deal, and Thad told me that it would get a great return on my money once I got the right people in there.” He took a deep breath, not wanting to fuck this up. “I’m making a list of people. I’ve put your name on it.”

“I can’t run a business.” He
thought she was wrong but didn’t say anything. “I’m just the behind the scenes kind of worker. You know, plant the plants and run the register once in a while.”

Too soon
, he thought. “In addition to the hand tools, what else? I’ve been looking online and there are a great number of things that can be bought. One of the larger green houses in Texas is open year round. We wouldn’t be able to manage that here, would we?”

“You could if you wanted.
There are trees that could be sold at Christmas. Ornaments, too, if you wanted. Then you could close up in January to get ready for spring. People could buy online, too. Something Margo was never willing to do.” When she got up to pace, he watched her stride across the room in long easy steps as she talked and walked. “We sell only ornamental cabbage now in the fall. She never wanted to put in any sort of decorations for Halloween or Thanksgiving either, both holidays that would show some sales. There’s enough land out in the back that you could plant pumpkins and have a patch for people to pick them. I take some of the kids in the neighborhood to the one in Columbus. It’s not all that big, but they have a blast. And face painting, too. Not all the time but at the pumpkin patch. Bales of hay, too. You could make a lot of sales from the farmers around here just letting them sell their own bales.”

He was writing as fast as she spoke
, naming things to sell at both the latter holidays, like corn stalks and pumpkin decorating kits. “Margo wouldn’t even have contests for pumpkin decorations. And I was at a fair once that had people lined up selling things like kettle popcorn and pumpkin butter. We could have weekend activities just before each holiday. Or better yet, a monthly thing to bring in the family that could be centered on the kids.”

When she stopped to stare at him
, he felt the pen drop from his fingers. She looked surreal standing with the light of the window behind her and her hair down around her shoulders. Quentin wanted to get up and go to her, pull her into his arms and simply hold her. But before he could act on his impulses, she spoke to him softly.

“Did you know that your brother is sleeping with your girlfriend?” He
didn’t move as she continued. “They are mates, too, if I don’t miss my bet. She’s about to go into heat soon and when she does, if you have sex with her, she’ll have your baby.”

“I’m not sleeping with her.”
He watched her nod. “How do you know that he’s sleeping with her?”

He didn’t
not
believe her; he just didn’t know. Because he’d been thinking that they were just a little too close anyway. Quentin had been trying to work up the courage to break it off with Debra, but knowing that she’d cause a scene had him avoiding her instead.

“H
e’s marked her. And they’ve bonded, too. I can smell him on her.” Quentin leaned back in his chair as she started pacing again. “What do you know about our kind?”

“Nothing much. I have a book that Thad gave me
, but I’ve been sort of distracted too much to read it.” He was glad she didn’t ask him about why he’d been so distracted, because he would have had to tell her it was her. “Tell me what to look for.”

“There is nothing really to see except she’ll have a mark on her throat or shoulder.
He might have put it somewhere that you couldn’t see right away if they’re trying to hide the fact that they’re mates.” She looked at him, then the window. “You can get her pregnant because she’s still human. If she were wolf, only her mate could.”

“I’m not sleeping with her. I haven’t for a few weeks now.” He got up and stood beside her but not touching her.
“Show me what it means to mark or to be bonded. And how the scent thing works.”

She put her hands behind her back
, something he’d noticed she did when someone was close to her, like she was afraid to touch anyone. He wondered about that until she started talking. Her voice was low and seductive.

“Marking someone has different levels.
I can mark you by simply touching your bare skin. Hugging marks people too if you rub yourself against them. Males will know that a woman has been hugged by another male, whether it’s a human or not, by simply sniffing her. Same for a woman, I guess. Female wolves, bitches, will smell when their mates have been touched as well, and can be more vicious about it than a male sometimes. I think it has to do with the need to breed.”

He touched his finger along her arm to her elbow
, then pulled her hand around to the front of her. She was so incredibly soft. And when she sighed, he looked at her face. Her eyes had darkened.

“How do I mark you so that no other male comes near you?” She shook her head
, and he smiled. “I want to kiss you. Will that be enough?”

“It’s not smart for you to claim or mark me, Quentin. I’m not…I’m not any good at being
…I’m bad in bed.” She flushed again. “Not that I’m saying you want to take me to bed, but—”