Beauty and the Wolf (2 page)

Thank goodness the older employees were faithful individuals who had been in the s
ervice of the pack for decades so
they
didn’t question why father and son looked more like brother
s
.
The youthful features of his father had been explained away to the newer employees as good genes and becoming a parent at a very early age.
Usually a change in leadership
at Anderson Trading
involved the unfortunate, fictitious demise of the CEO.

Some days
Jake
wanted to kill his father off – for real. These
latest
shenanigans
had him
pull
ing
out
his hair
. His father thought it was time he settled down and he was determined to find his son a mate.

Little did the old man know, he’d already found his mate.

She came in a package full of curves who worked down in legal.

He’d hid his attraction to the lovely
burnett
from his father and his pack for months. He’d though
t
he’d been successful in hiding it from everyone but he knew he didn’t fool his assistant. She knew all about the hard
-
on her friend gave him every time she walked through his office door.

If he didn’t know better he’
d accuse her
of being in
cahoots
with his father in finding him a mate
,
but she knew nothing about his true lineage. Neither did her best friend.
And h
e planned on keeping it that way.

Taking a human for a mate was not against
pack law, but it was not readily
accepted by some members. When
his grandfather had
mate
d
a human
, he’d faced challenge after challenge. Of course, his grandfather had remained
alpha. And married his mate.

Jake
just didn’t know how the
new generation
would react to the a
lpha having a human m
ate.
More importantly, h
e
didn’t want to mate. Not y
et.

Hell, he was
still a pup by some standards. Was he ready to commit to one wo
man? Start a family?

He ran his fingers through his hair disrupting the
solid black
locks. In wolf form he was a dark grey.
What was it about the woman that attracted him? Granted she was pretty, but not at
all what he had envisioned as his
mate. He’d expected to be mated to the type of woman he’d been draw to all his life – tall, blonde
,
and gorgeous. Here he was lusting after a woman who barely came to his shoulder with hair the color of a mouse.

But God
how her full, voluptuous figure made him pant like a wolf.

* * * * *

Sophie looked at her reflection in the elevator trying to determine if her hair was straight and nothing was stuck between her teeth. She’d eaten some
gummie
bears right before she left her desk. With her luck one of the little boogers
might have
lodged in her front teeth.

Oh why, oh why, had she le
t
Mary Ann
talk her into this insane idea?
The plan was to thrust her in
Jake
’s face a
s much as possible
until he broke and asked her out
. She moaned. W
hy had she used the word thrust? All that brought to min
d was the image of him surging
inside her body as he held her to his bed and claimed her.

She couldn’t do this. She had too many issues with her size. How
could she possibly attract
a
man like
Jake
Anderson? The society papers were filled with him escorting one beautiful blonde after another. He went to sporting events with ex-Dallas cowboy cheerleaders and charity events with southern debutant
es. One of her
thigh
s alone
was bigger around than any of those women.

Just as her hand came out to stop the elevator
and this insane quest
,
it
di
n
g
ed
to let someone on.

“Good morning, Sophie.”

Sophie smiled back. She couldn’t help it. The elder
Anderson
was
too much like his son
– t
he man she loved.
But this
Anderson
didn’t make her insides turn to jelly or give her the nervous heaves.

“Good morning, sir.”

“Now didn’t I tell you to call m
e Robert?” That trademark
Anderson
smile spre
ad across his face.
She bet he
’d
had more than a few women wetting their panties when he was younger.

Good lord, her
obsession with
Jake
was turning her into a nympho.

I
t wouldn’t do for this man to know what she was thinking. It was bad enough that she had the hots for his son. Even though no one
could really blame her for the
somewh
at inappropriate thoughts. F
ather and son could
easily
pass for brothers.
Sophie
knew if she were ever lucky enough to have
Jake
as her own, this was what he would look like in thirty years.

He frowned as
he looked down at her. “Are you okay, Sophie?
Your
face is very flushed.”

She groaned silently. Why did he have to be such a hands on employer? He knew everyone’s name and made an effort to keep abreast of what
was going on in their
lives.
“I’m fine, Mr. Anderson. It’s just a little hot in here, don’t you think?” She fanned herself with the folder she held in her hand to lend credence to her claim.

The man didn’t answer just kept staring at her with those inten
se gre
y e
yes. For a moment it
felt like he was reading her mind.
“I think you’ll do
fine, just fine.”

The ding of the elevator stopped her from replying to
cryptic
comment.

“I’ll see you later,
Sophie
.” The man left with a big smile on his face, making her frown even more.

She walked down the hallway to her best friend’s office
feeling as though she were Daniel about to enter
the lion’s den.
A cliché
she knew, but that’s how s
he felt. Hand on the
door,
she took a deep breath
before stepping inside
.
Jake
was
supposed
to be
in
the o
ffice going over a project with his vice-president of acquisitions
, hen
ce the covert call to bring the legal
file. Her friend was determined to give
Sophie
a chance with her boss. And
Sophie
, love-sick fool that she was, was
going right along with her
.

She
hadn’t expected much to come of this little adventure, but she had expected
Mary Ann
to be behind her desk waiting to
facilitate
the meeting so to speak. When she opened the door, no one was around. Frowning,
Sophie
came completely inside and closed the door
behind her.
She had warned Mary Ann not to leave her alone with Jake, not yet. So where was her friend?

T
hey usually did everything together – even bathroom breaks.
Mary Ann
said it gave her a chance to stretch her legs and walked down the hallway to us
e
the main bathroom. There was actually a bathroom for visitors off the waiting room and the
CEO’s suite
had a
separate full bath
.

She walked to the small hallway that housed the guest bath and knocked on the door. “
Mary Ann
? Are you in there?”

When no reply was forthcoming, she twisted the handle. Nope. No
Mary Ann
there.

Going back
into the lobby, s
he placed her hands on her ample
hips and frowned again. She was actually a little worried about her friend. She should have been there. She walked to
Jake
’s door and listened intently. Of course, she could hear nothing through the solid oa
k which left her one of two choices. Turn tail and run or open the door. Sophie voted for door number one, but knew she’d regret it if she didn’t choose door number two.

No Jake, no vice-president, no Mary Ann.

Hearing a sound toward the back where some of the files were stored, she walked across the plush carpeting. To her
deter
rent
she didn’t stop to remember that the private bath was
also located in that direction.
“
Mary Ann
? What are you doing, girl?
I brought that file you wanted.” Migh
t as well keep up the pretense.
Jake
must have left before
she could get her butt in gear and bring the file.

“Get out of here!”

Sophie
instinctive
ly took a
step back as the words were growled – yes, gro
wled – and
the bathroom door
opened.

Jake
stepped outside, his hair disheveled, his shirt
unbuttoned. His eyes glowing.

OMG – his eyes were glowing.

Sophie
blinked rapidly as she contin
ued to back pedal to the door. She dropped the file and a
hand flew
to her mouth to stop the squeal
that threatened to erupt.

When s
he dared to look him in the eye
again, the glow was gone. H
is features
were
set in a taunt, angry mask.

“Get out of here,
Sophie
.” His voice was
low and deep.

Sophie
r
etreated until her back
pressed against the
office
door.

“Now.”

His hands
clenched at his sides. He made no move toward her, but
Sophie
was suddenly afraid.

Twirling, she opened the door and fled.

* * * * *

“Damn it to hell!”

Jake
strode to the door to stop her. He’d smelled her fear. Fear was the last thing he wanted
Sophie
to experience. At his hand or any other.

He hit the wall,
making a fist sized dent
in the oak paneling.

Like a randy teenager, he’d been in the bathroom
fantasizing
about his mate. The mate he’d just scared. He hit the wall again.

He’d had to take a
cold shower in the middle of the damn day to relieve the lust he felt for Sophie.
Hearing her voice so soon after ejaculating to the image of her on her knees sucking him off had him shifting. He knew she’d seen the glow in his eyes.
He pi
cked up the file
she’d dropped
and flung it across
his desk.

The outside office door opened and his father walked in.

The older man couldn’t help but notice
Jake
’s distress. “What happened, son?”

Jake
buttoned up his shirt and walked to his desk. Last nigh
t he’d tried to have sex but he couldn’t
.
H
e’d known even bef
ore he’d picked up the bleach bottled blonde
, he wouldn’t be able to sat
isfy his lust. But he’d tried
. Lord, how he’d tried. N
othing had happened. Nada. Zilch. His wolf hadn’t come out to play so to speak.

“Damn it,” he muttered the curse this time.

The five foot piece of fluff had
him so screwed up he was impotent
around other females.