The Bear's Hired Mate: A Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance (2 page)

Moving out into the hallway, Vincent found the alluring scent that had teased his nose earlier. As he walked along the art-clad hallway, he toyed with the fragrant notes in his mind. Was it gardenia? Sandalwood perhaps? Vincent, who had always prided himself on his sense of smell in his human form, couldn’t quite figure out what it was. The smell managed to be both floral and spicy, a deeply sensual scent that called to him. Stopping outside the room where Jane Arnold was being interviewed, the answer to the fragrance sat on the tip of Vincent’s tongue. When he opened the door the answer hit him like a ton of bricks. Looking at the gorgeous woman in front of him Vincent realized: it was the scent of his mate.

CHAPTER TWO

Jane looked up as Vincent entered the room. She felt herself pause for a beat in answering Xavier’s question, but she pulled it together and finished her thought. Jane thought she deserved an award for the self-control it had taken to continue speaking after Vincent Mezzanotte entered the room. Not more than ten minutes ago, Jane had thought that Xavier was the biggest man she’d ever met. Now, seeing Vincent, she had to amend the record.

The man had to be almost seven feet tall. Jane’s eyes flicked to the arch of the door to see if he would have to duck his head to enter the room. Upon closer inspection, Vincent was built similarly to Xavier except he was even bigger. It was as if Vincent’s muscle tone and bulk had grown exponentially in relation to the extra inches he had on Xavier. He wore a button-down that must have been tailored specifically for his body. It lacked any branding that the muscle men Jane was familiar with preferred. Instead, the black shirt was crisp, skimming the sharp V shape from Vincent’s broad shoulders down to a trim waist. He wore dark jeans and a sturdy pair of shit-kickers, just like Xavier, and somehow all of the benign bits of clothing added up to a look of quiet luxury.

Allowing her eyes to focus on his face rather than his bulk, Jane felt her breath leave her body. His hair was enviable, black as night and thick, falling in a light wave down to his shoulders. For all that the man could have been a Pantene commercial, he wasn’t in the least bit feminine. He had a strong jawline and his eyes were the color of soft caramels. Jane thought that they probably warmed up beautifully when the man came in contact with someone he liked but for the moment they were crisp and cool, because Vincent stood in the doorway looking almost as shocked as she felt.

It was at this moment that Jane’s heart dropped. She thought she’d been doing so well with Xavier, but the way that Vincent was staring at her made her think that she was about to get the “not the right body type” speech. Jane sighed, she’d found those pin-up paintings so hopeful.

Vincent walked into the room and nodded to Xavier. “How’s it going?” he asked Xavier by way of greeting.

“It’s going great. Vincent I’d like you to meet Jane Arnold.”

Jane extended her hand, but Vincent didn’t take it. Slowly lowering it down to her side she calculated how much an express bus ticket would cost her to get out of town ASAP, she really didn’t want to stick around to add insult to injury.

Xavier’s eyes noted the rebuff and narrowed in response. Giving Jane an encouraging smile he again turned to Vincent to fill him in on the interview so far. “Jane is quite the candidate, to be sure. She’s over qualified having managed thirty different schedules at once, and keeping the office fully stocked and clean. She has a good record of customer relations and had some nice answers to our theoretical situation questions. Plus,” Xavier turned to Jane, “if you don’t mind me saying so, she’s got the perfect look for the front. Rockabilly is just our style.”

Xavier noted at that statement that Vincent’s eyes hardened slightly and a deep growl emanated from Vincent’s throat. Xavier was pretty sure that it was only due to his werebear senses that he could hear it, but he wasn’t sure what had set Vincent off. Before he could pull Vincent aside to ask, Vincent himself took control of the situation.

“Really, Ms. Arnold, the only thing I need to know is that you can read my email and sync my schedules. I’m going to leave you with today and tomorrow’s issues for twenty minutes and I’ll be back to see how you’ve done.” Both Jane and Xavier stared back at Vincent slack-jawed.

Jane’s eyes bounced between Xavier and Vincent and Xavier thought that it might be too much for her. This happened sometimes with human women, too many weres in a small room and down they went. If that happened...well, then Jane wasn’t going to make it for the long haul anyway. Xavier started in to relieve the woman, “Listen, Jane I know that’s a lot to ask. We can finish the full first interview before moving on to the interactive stuff. Vincent, perhaps you can let me take this one…”

“No.” Jane interrupted, her green cat eyes shining with force. “Lay it on me. Vincent is right, if coordinating his schedule is the most important piece of this job then let me prove that I can do it.” Her eyes flicked to Vincent’s with a challenge. “That is, if you feel comfortable handing over personal property to a stranger.”

Vincent couldn’t help but admire the steel in her gaze; it was a turn on in a mate. Not that he had time to mate right now...he had to focus! The whole point of this exercise was to watch her fail so he could send her packing. Now, if he could just figure out how to leave the room without throwing her over his shoulder, cave-man style...

“No need to worry about the personal stuff. I’ve already set up a business account where all of the scheduling emails need to go. Nothing you read will be personal or confidential.” Vincent took a few steps closer to Jane and handed over his iPad. “There are tabs up with both the email account as well as the tattooing schedule. I refuse to drop clients and their times are set based on their availability, not mine, so I need to make them fit.”

Jane looked over the iPad and, without looking, responded, “In the future, I think you might want to consider setting some availability hours before taking clients, but those are stipulations I can set once you’ve hired me.” Jane looked up at Vincent with a confidence she didn’t really feel.

His eyes were giving her shivers, he looked like he wanted to run but he couldn’t decide if he wanted to do it with or without Jane. Her reasons for being forceful were two-fold; first, she needed this job and something in her gut told her that Vincent would respect a strong voice. Second, and perhaps the driving factor, was that she needed a break from him for a second. The way he filled the room made it hard for her to breathe. She either needed him to leave or get very, very close.

Jane closed her eyes as she felt her cheeks go pink. Where had that thought come from? Jane wasn’t even overly sexual. She hadn’t had a boyfriend since that new car salesman years ago, and that had been an outright mistake. Never again was she going to date in the office. But perhaps it was time for her to visit a bar or two...maybe join match.com or something. Her hormones were suddenly out of control.

For a split second, Vincent wondered why Jane had gone pink but when her scent surged with sexual hormones Vincent decided to hightail it out of the room before his own body responded. “Well, then I shall leave you to the test.” Nodding to Jane he ushered Xavier out of the room and left Jane to organize.

After the door had shut Xavier turned to ask Vincent what was up, “Vince? Man, what was up in there. She’s perfect and you know it. Jane has more experience than anyone else we’ve interviewed and her look is perfect for the front. I’d prefer it if she had a tat or two, but that never takes long once they’re in the shop. Remember Rick at the Mirage shop? It took him all of two months to invest in one…”

Vincent knew he’d have to hire her, even if she failed the impossible test. He had been struggling with the schedule himself for two hours last night and he couldn’t mesh it all. But he knew he would be in trouble if he could barely make it to the front desk without having Jane in his eyesight. Vincent started to pull up the records for today’s incoming tattoos when he became aware of silence. Looking up, he saw that Xavier was looking at him expectantly.

“Did you hear any of that?” Xavier asked.

Vincent sighed. “Sorry man, it was that committee call. I’ve just got too much on my mind.”

“I know you do Vince, but that doesn’t mean that you need to act like an ass. Please don’t turn into your father yet, give the girl a chance.” Xavier finished this glorious bit of advice with a slap on Vincent’s back and then left to prep his station for his first client of the day. In an attempt to distract himself, Vincent searched the day’s roster to see who the client was and what they wanted. Vincent guessed it was a young woman who wanted the stereotypical tramp stamp of a butterfly above her ass.

Vincent had been tattooing for far too long to still find that sexy. Now, Vincent was well known for his pin-up art. It was a difficult style to get right. Many people had trouble figuring out how to get the impossible curves to look lifelike and not to mess up the face. If you’d ever watched those reality tattoo competitions you saw that they always messed up the face. Vincent continued to scroll through the clients and art for the day. The schedule was jammed and Vincent was a little worried that he was going to be staying late, yet again, to finish his last tattoo of the day. It was a back piece and he’d forgotten how large the dude was.

The buzzing of his cell took him out of his mental worries and reminded him to relieve Jane of the impossible task and give her the job.

Vincent entered the conference room and saw that Jane had about ten tabs pulled up on the iPad. He opened his mouth to tell her to just stop trying; he knew that there was more than one conflicting appointment in his schedule. But he was stopped by one finger topped with a cherry red nail. “Just give me one second.” Jane requested tapping between screens. “There. Done.” Jane looked up at him with a victorious smile on her face.

“You’re current through next week. I could even find you at least twenty minutes free time every day to keep to yourself.” Jane was positively gleeful. At first she’d thought the task impossible but once she realized that when she emailed what she was calling the “bear contacts” other assistants and managers emailed her back and she worked with them to shift and coordinate. They were more than happy to oblige when they could. Apparently, Vincent was well liked.

Vincent stared at the screen, his mouth gaping. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had free time, much less twenty glorious minutes a day. Now he could kiss her for a variety of reasons. None of which were overly appropriate at the moment. Instead, he looked up and simply said, “The job is yours. Come on, I’ll head out front and show you the ropes.”

*

The last week had flown by. Vincent threw her into the job and Jane had to hit the ground running. By the end of her first day, Jane had her own iPhone and iPad and she’d completely taken over the bear email account and had a cheat sheet of the names and contact info for the other wranglers, as she thought of them. The women kept a Google chat open to more easily shift schedules, as well as gossip a bit about the men. Jane was so happy to have found such a fiercely funny group of women right off the bat. She thought it was a good sign for her new life here in Las Vegas.

Her bank account was a different story. She was working in the lap of luxury but she couldn’t go another week living at that fleabag hotel. The problem was, Jane couldn’t find an apartment within her budget. Her biggest issue was that she didn’t have a car. Yes, it was ironic that her previous job had been for a car dealership and yet she didn’t have a ride herself. But no wheels meant she had to live fairly close to the strip and everything close to the strip was uber expensive. But with her savings rapidly dwindling, Jane admitted it was time to play the apartment game fast and loose. She was going to have to turn to Craigslist and pray she didn’t decide to room with a serial killer or something. Jane double-checked the bear email and chat group as well as her own email and text messages for new info before really diving into the Craigslist ads.

Vincent walked out to the front of the parlor. It was about twenty minutes till they opened for the day and he wanted to make sure that Jane had everything on point. He started by looking around the rotating gallery and noted that Jane had switched out the art according to the schedule. They used the wall as a way to showcase the shop’s artists’ work that wasn’t inked on skin. Besides its decorative value, they sold the pieces right off the wall. His eyes then skimmed over the deep gold brocade wingback chairs and long leather couches, and he spotted nary a piece of lint. Vincent also noted that all of the artist's portfolios were straightened and ready to be flipped through. Finally allowing his eyes to move to the massive piece of black marble, which was the parlor’s front desk, he was greeted by the sight of Jane bent over the countertop, her ass pushed back, inviting Vincent to grab her by the hips and ease those full hips toward his own; ease the ache that started the moment he was within the same room as her. Jane shifted her weight and her pinstripe pencil skirt swayed in response. Vincent almost groaned. Turning around, Jane greeted him with a smile that showed innocence.

Vincent had to remind himself to speak like a normal person and not like the savage bear he felt like. “Hello Jane.”

“Oh, hello Vincent.” Jane quickly straightened up and put the iPad to sleep. She felt herself going pink at the idea of her boss finding her browsing the internet during work time. Jane felt the need to redirect his attention fast. “Do you like the new art?” Jane gestured at the gallery wall. “I asked Carrie for some more of her organic stuff, we sold three this weekend alone. They seem to be a hit at the moment, especially when they’re paired next to Xavier’s harder stuff.”