Wolf's Touch (6 page)

He was an addiction. Her weakness. One she’d tried to subdue over the past year—by staying away from him.

Arianna fought to regain normal breathing and reign in her control.

“I missed this,” Jayson whispered, and then he took her in his arms as he lay out beside her.

“Me, too.” She curled up against him and surrendered her body…but this time it was to exhaustion.

Jayson was on his third double cheeseburger and they were getting more than a few stares from customers seated at the tables nearby. There was no shame in his game as he went to town on the platter of food piled high in front of him.

Arianna sipped her chocolate milkshake and glanced over the glass at him.

It had probably been a bad idea to come out in public with a starving wolf. The way he gobbled down his lunch made it seem as if he hadn’t eaten in days.

“When was the last time you ate?” she asked.

“Yesterday.” He picked up a group of fries, plunged them in some ketchup, and stuffed his mouth.

“When was the last time you fed your wolf?”

He paused, took a few sips of water, and then ran his hand through his hair. “Two weeks ago.”

Although the human branch of the Caedmon’s could not shift, she knew the consequences for depriving the wolf of food and other essentials were detrimental as a whole. His kind was relentless and adamant in their conquests.

“I need a cab back to my father’s,” she said.

“No,” he answered quickly.

Arianna frowned. “What do you mean, no?”

“If you go to him alone, you will be in danger. Which is a sad fact considering that he is your own flesh and blood. Zeldano’s men were chasing you like their lives depended on it. This leads me to believe there is more at stake here than the contract. What aren’t you telling me?”

Arianna looked down at her cold fries and half-eaten cheeseburger. He was right. Zeldano didn’t just want her agreement in ink. He wanted a different type of union altogether.

“What’s done is done,” she said. “You can get out of this mess, but I can’t.”

Jayson sat back in his chair. “He will always be your father. I know.”

“Either way, I haven’t spoken with him since I found out. I might be able to convince him to withdraw his proposal in the new venture.”

“How?”

“Zeldano isn’t exactly the ideal partner,” she said.

Jayson lifted an eyebrow. “Know something I don’t?”

“I’d only been employee a few months at Drake and Murphy until I was bribed to resign. This firm and its owners had vast connections with the wealthy and elite of the world. They knew enough about Zeldano’s dealings to decline his many proposals. His agendas are ruthless.”

Jayson drew his eyes into small slits. “Interesting.”

“Time is running out. I need to do this now.”

“If you can wait a few hours, I’ll go to my office and sign my part of the agreement to end our partnership. We dissolve the business and cash out on the shares.”

“Don’t act in haste. Think carefully about what you plan to do. My father would have moved on with his plans one way or the other even without you holding up his shares,” she said.

“I’ve been thinking carefully about it for over a decade. It’s time.”

“He wanted me to sign the initial contract to get the deal on paper before the investors bailed. Now that you plan to free up his shares, I have to convince him that depositing the proceeds into Zeldano’s business is a bad idea.”

Jayson frowned. “You might be able to convince him that his intentions will lead him into more trouble, because I certainly can’t.”

“Why have you been stalling anyway? The actual offer to dissolve has been on the table for months.”

Jayson’s Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat, and he glared directly at her. “I think you know.”

Her shoulders slumped. “You would endure an unhealthy business relationship and possibly lose loyal clients to keep me in your life?”

“I would do
anything
to keep you in my life,” he said through clenched teeth.

“This isn’t about me anymore.” She pulled her chair back from the table and stood. “I love my father, but no one else should suffer because of his imprudence. It’s time you cut the ties, Jayson.”

He threw enough money on the table to cover the check and tip, and they headed for the door.

As Arianna jumped on the bike behind Jayson, she knew that this one solution wouldn’t solve what had turned out to be an army of problems.

***

As they drove up to the gates of her father’s mansion, Jayson came to a slow stop.

Custom built in an elite neighborhood more than a decade ago, this was the home that Arianna had spent the majority of her childhood. It was the home where he’d frequented many times with his father and by himself to conduct business with Mr. Klein. It was also the home where he snuck into to visit Arianna many times in the past during their secret relationship. A relationship she’d tried to conceal from her father out of fear that he’d disown her.

A guard came from behind the post and approached them.

Arianna took off her helmet. “It’s me, Roy. Let us through.”

Without further hesitation, the guard pushed the buttons that opened the gates. Jayson pulled his bike up and halted next to the gravel walkway beside the iron horse sculpture.

The three car garage door was closed, but there was a light shining in a window on the first floor in her father’s office. He knew the exact location.

Jayson got off the bike, lifted her by the waist, and placed her on the ground. Her forehead was creased and her lips were pursed in uneasiness. He hated seeing her that way and preferred her smiling and worry-free. Those days were buried somewhere in their past. He’d dig as deep as he needed to in order to find them again.

“You look troubled,” he said.

“It’s because I am.” Her attention shifted from the home, and she finally met his gaze.

He grasped her forearm and pulled her in closer. “All this will be straightened out soon. I have the signed paperwork. You have the information on Zeldano that will give your father second thoughts about his plans.”

Arianna sighed. “I fear that even this may not be enough.”

“Don’t worry. There are other ways to fix this, but my priority right now, is you. It always has been…and always will be.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Why do you continue to push me away, Arianna? Even after what we experienced together last night.”

“Not here. I don’t want to talk about this. We had sex because we were both aroused. That’s all there is to it.
Nothing more.
”

His heart slammed hard against his chest. Her words hurt him, and he almost wondered if she truly meant them.

He didn’t have a chance to protest or plead his case.

Arianna pulled away from his embrace and walked up the steps toward the door. She used her key to enter the home, and turned the lights on in the foyer.

“Father,” she called out at the office door.

Jayson came inside behind her, and closed the front door. He glanced around the main receiving area with its fourteen feet ceiling, walnut flooring, and traditional furnishings. Whenever he visited the Klein’s, it always left him in a damper mood with its drab neutral color scheme. It was grandeur, of course, but his style called for small, cozy, and modern.

Arianna picked up some letters on an end table and thumbed through them. She plucked one out of the bunch and tore it open.

As she read, her eyelashes gracefully brushed her cheeks. Her lips moved slightly as she scanned the letter.

Jayson wanted to kiss her lips again. He remembered the taste of them…like berries and whipped cream. It was a combination that he craved on a daily basis.

Had his wishes been granted? What had he done to deserve this fortune of having her back by his side? If only he could keep it that way. His only regret was coming together once again under these trying circumstances.

“What is he doing?” Arianna walked toward the hallway leading to the office. “Father! I need a word with you.”

“Arianna, I’m on the telephone.” Her father called out. “Come join me in my office.”

Jayson followed closely behind her as she walked down the wide hall to her father’s office. The door was cracked open slightly, and he could hear her father on the phone line. His keen sense of hearing allowed him to identify the caller on the other end as male. They were discussing the stock market.

As soon as he entered the office, Mr. Klein rose quickly from his chair. Jayson could sense a threat as well as intimidation from afar. It didn’t take him long to know that her father’s demeanor exhibited both of these.

Mr. Klein narrowed his eyes. “What is going on here?”

“I think you know,” Arianna said, stepping further into his office. “We end all of this tonight.”

“I will call you back,” Mr. Klein said into the phone and threw it on his desk. “How dare you bring him here into my home?”

Arianna folded her arms across her chest. “That’s not the issue here.”

“What have you told him?” Her father came out from behind the desk with an enraged expression on his face.

On instinct, Jayson growled and shielded Arianna behind him. “Your temper is rising, Mr. Klein.”

His eyes bulged and his face reddened. “I told you to stay away from my daughter!”

“And I told you a very long time ago that wasn’t going to happen,” Jayson declared, firmly.

“You have some nerve coming here.”

“Father,” Arianna said, returning to Jayson’s side. “I’m here to ask you to reconsider your decision. There’s still time to fix this. I will turn this business around. You know I can.”

“No.” Mr. Klein shook his head. “This is how it has to be. You’re my daughter. You were never meant to work in this manner.”

“Why?” Arianna asked. “Because I’m not the son you’ve always wanted…?”

“I’ll explain everything…” he concentrated his gaze on Jayson “…once he leaves.”

Jayson retrieved the rolled contract from his jacket pocket. “I’ve signed the dissolution forms.” He thrust it out to Mr. Klein. “I’ll contact the bank in the morning when they first open. Your share of the funds will be wired to you.”

Mr. Klein frowned and appeared to bite at the corner of his mouth before accepting the contract. He snatched it. “It took you long enough.”

“Father, you’re making a mistake.” This time Arianna moved to stand directly in front of her father.

“You don’t understand now, Arianna, but you will in time.” Mr. Klein moved to sit back behind his desk.

“I will never understand why you are doing this. Zeldano is a crook. He’s conned hundreds of businessmen out of their hard-earned dollars. You know this much, and you still want to move forward with this.”

“Arianna! Not another word.” Mr. Klein crumbled a piece of paper between his fists.

“He will do the same with you,” she continued.

“What you will do right now is lead Mr. Truman back to the pound where he belongs—”

Jayson growled and threw himself forward. If it wasn’t for Arianna who blocked him from going any further, he probably would have wrung her father’s thick neck.

This time he bit into his bottom lip and took deep breaths until his blood rage reached a safer lever.

Arianna loosened her grip on him and turned back to her father. “I will have no part in this.”

“This is not a mistake. Everything has been finalized. And it has been that way since the day you were born.”

“What?” she gawked.

“You heard me. The deal was not inked by the pen, but by blood.”

“You’ve known about this…?” Arianna backed away her hands over her mouth.

Mr. Klein gripped the edges of his desk. “This ensures that our family name lives on.”

“No.”

“You deceived my father this whole time.” Jayson’s head spun as reality sunk in. “You’ve been planning this for twenty seven years?”

“It was not deception,” Mr. Klein snapped. “Sooner or later, the partnership would have ended. I’m surprised that my relationship with your family has lasted this long…all because of a piece of paper signed long ago by your great grandfather. I made plans—and did what I had to do—for the sake of my family.”

“Undo this! Everything.
Now,
” Arianna ordered her father.

Her father’s facial expression softened, but only for a moment. “I cannot.”

Arianna stormed out of the room, leaving Jayson standing alone with the man he’d put up with for over a decade. He was gratified to be free of the partnership and employment contract, but there would be no celebration as he’d anticipated.

“You’re doing a grave disservice to your family, as well as your daughter,” Jayson said.

“You’ve been brainwashing Arianna all these years,” Mr. Klein barked back, and his irises clouded over in gold. “I warned you to stay away from her. Sometimes verbal warnings aren’t really enough.”

“Is that a threat?”

“Call it what you will,” Mr. Klein said, firmly.

Jayson turned and left the office.

He didn’t have time to exchange threats. Arianna needed him now more than ever. If he could only convince her that he would be there for her, no matter what. Jayson was concerned with her well-being. Nothing else mattered.

“How long have they been living here, exactly?” Arianna asked, observing the recently built cottage as Jayson parked his motorcycle under a tall oak tree.

The home was one story, but predominantly large and situated in the middle of the clearing in the forest. It was built on the outskirts of the Caedmon village where the houses were spaced further apart. Two columns flanked the front entrance leading up to a covered wrap-around porch. It was a traditional, yet elegant estate. One that you could certainly lounge around in for days—without being bothered.

Jayson helped her off the bike. “About a month after Devin signed the law welcoming the human branch back into the pack, the home was completed. They wasted no time moving out of the Caedmon mansion.”