Xander's Mate

by Abigail Raines

  Chapter Four: Olivia

  I’m not lying in bed with Xander post-coital long before I heard the roar of the Jeeps returning. In fact I was lying there only long enough to think that the sex was fantastic and that it was incredibly stupid of me. I’m not usually stupid like that. But I’m also human and attracted to men and I’m not sure anyone attracted to men wouldn’t at least want to climb Xander Tremblay like a tree when he’s giving you the bedroom eyes, his muscled chest bare and heaving.

  Now I sit up with a start and scramble to find my pants and pull them on. We don’t speak but Xander gets up and gets dressed, seemingly unperturbed. He’s in no rush. I have an urge to tell him to hurry it up as I hear the car doors slam. Then again, he’s not only the boss but a guy. Nobody cares if he’s banging me, it only matters that I’m banging him. Still, he doesn’t stop me from dressing lightning fast. I wonder if he regrets it. Anyway, he doesn’t stop me and we only exchange one look before I walk out of the tent, and I have no idea what the look means.

  Nobody looks twice at me walking out of Xander’s tent and I don’t look too dishevelled, or anyway not more dishevelled than I’d be expected to look while camping and my hair always looks wild when it’s down. But Mike approaches before I can make it to my own tent and regroup. He doesn’t look suspicious or anything (not that it would be his business, but I just don’t want everyone to know). He looks more concerned and then it occurs to me that his boss just punched out that foreman… Of course, he’s concerned.

  “You tame the beast?” Mike says wryly.

  That takes me aback. For a moment I almost wonder if he knows what Xander is. But then Xander could be called a “beast” regardless, I suppose.

  “Are you telling me that’s possible?” I say, pushing my hair back. “Nah, I was just bandaging up his knuckles. And his pride. I think he’s disappointed in himself. To be honest, I didn’t think he would...care this much.” I glanced back at Xander’s tent. The guy keeps surprising me. I wonder how else he could possibly surprise me.

  “You’re underestimating Xander Tremblay,” Mike says knowingly. “That’s always a bad idea.”

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “Anyway, if I were you,” Mike says, “I’d grab some grub. I don’t know if we’re going to get a formal dinner tonight. If I know Xander, we’re going to be discussing our next move and it’s likely to get intense.”

  Just to make Mike happy, I grab some of the goofy gourmet “camping food” from the fancy cooler where it’s being kept; dried meats and berries and nuts. But I take it back to my tent and only nibble on it a little before giving myself a little bird bath with some giant handi-wipes for camping that Mike gave out. I still wish I could take a shower, but this will have to do. I tidy up and try not to think about how Mr. CEO is definitely going to give me the brush off. He might be a better guy than I thought he was, even if punching a guy’s lights out isn’t the best way to handle this type of situation, I really wasn’t sorry to see that foreman take those hits. But that doesn’t mean Xander isn’t a love em’ and leave em’ type. I just don’t see how he wouldn’t be. It’s fine. I’m a big girl. Just have to brace myself a little. Because as much as I hate to admit it, even to myself, Xander isn’t just hot...I’m starting to like him. What seems likely though is that Xander will take some of my concerns under advisement and send me back home. Which is all that I expect. I don’t expect him to not make the Godrun (although I don’t know if they can manufacture it now if they’re not going to use altanium) but I thought I’d push for it. Another drone, another destructive weapon that will inevitably end up being used to kill mostly civilians. Accidents happen and all. The thought really pisses me off but I’m often pissed off.

  “We’re meeting in five,” Xander’s voice says outside my tent. It’s the first thing he’s said since we had sex. Huh. Mike was right.

  Alright, he’ll be all business. That’s fine too.

  I change into a clean t-shirt and grab my water bottle and some of that gourmet trail mix stuff and head outside to get a seat under the pavilion where Mike is already set up with his laptop.

  “He likes you,” Mike says, his eyes on his screen. “He’ll probably try to hire you.”

  “Ha!” That does make me laugh and I shake my head, chuckling as I idly check messages on my phone. “That’ll be the day. Besides, I have a job, thanks.”

  “You’re underestimating him again,” Mike says, seeming very confident about the whole thing. “And he’s very persistent.”

  I look up from my phone and I can’t tell if Mike is joking about this or not. “Look, I appreciate how much he’s been willing to listen and for coming out here and dealing with all this. It’s more than most CEOs would do. But he’s not going to try to hire me. I mean...to do what?”

  “He likes smart people who yell at him,” Mike says, shrugging. “Twenty bucks says he offers you a job. And it’ll pay well, let me tell you. You’re going to want to take it.”

  “You’re on,” I say, with a wave of my hand. “And you’re nuts.”

  A minute later Xander comes swaggering outside not at all looking like he just had some pretty furiously passionate sex with me...although he does somehow look even sexier in a loose linen shirt that’s unbuttoned just enough. He grabs a bottle of water from the little fridge as the other two assistants come over to take their seats and bust out their laptops. They already seem like they’ve got work to do.

  “First things first,” Xander says before taking a long drink of water. He swallows, points at me, and says, “I want to hire you.”

  Mike smirks and mouths, “Pay up.”

  Well, shit.

  “Xander, I don’t even understand what it is you want to hire me for.”

  The meeting did go on forever. Xander seems to be the type who gets a million ideas while talking to people but he needs others around to temper him a little bit and give him feedback. He asks me a million questions, many of which I don’t know the answers to but I do my best. I tell him about ten times that he needs to talk to lawyers.

  He tells me he’s suspending manufacturing of the Godrun drone which was intended to be released soon and for which there has been all kinds of build-up and a ton of press. I’m sort of blown away. I’m not sure how he would manufacture it anyway without an ongoing supply of altanium but presumably he’s already bought a ton of altanium out of Chile that he would be using. It strikes me fully then just how seriously Xander really is taking all this.

  He’s not full of shit even a little bit.

  “Your stock’s going to drop like a rock,” I said dully when he told us that news.

  “I’ll hold a meeting with the shareholders,” he said. “And also...yes.”

  Now it’s nearly ten at night and the only ones left under that pavilion are Xander and I. We’ll be flying back in the morning. But for now, we’re just shooting the shit outside, drinking wine as he attempts to convince me I should work for him. It’s as if the sex never happened at all. I really hate how let down I am by that.

  “I’d be hiring you as a consultant,” Xander says. He’s sitting back in one of those director’s chairs with his long legs stretched in front of him. He’s holding a glass of wine in his beat up hand. He keeps absently brushing his bandaged knuckles with his fingers as he talks to me, his eyes glittering and intense. I don’t think I noticed the exact intensity of Xander’s gaze before.

  It’s a lot.

  “You’d advise me on the company’s ethical obligations. You’d be doing exactly what you’ve been doing except for free.”

  “I don’t think that works realistically,” I say, sitting forward. “I don’t know that I can keep a company truly accountable when they’re paying me. Don’t you see that?”

  “What, are you planning on, pulling your punches?”

  “Well, no…”

  “Then…”

  “But I have a job.”

  “I’ll hire you part-time,” Xander says, shrugging. “I
can see that the work you do as a witch matters a lot to you. You can still do it. And the rest of the time you come tell me what a piece of shit I am and I’ll pay you for it.” He grins at me.

  Shit. I want this job now.

  “There’s just one thing,” he says, his smile faltering now. “What just happened between us…”

  “Ah..” I wave a hand as if it’s nothing. But I don’t think it was. I never feel the way I felt with Xander. Not with anyone.

  “It can’t happen again,” Xander says firmly, looking me right in the eye. “It’s just not possible. Anything...between us…”

  I can’t help the stab of painful disappointment I feel when he says that but I don’t show it. Instead I nod firmly and say, “I totally agree.”

  Chapter Five: Xander

  The upside of finding out that I need to radically rethink the way Tremblay Company does its business, is that it gives me a lot to think about while trying not to think about Olivia Hathaway. That turns out to be quite a chore. If she was a shifter, this woman would be perfect for me. If she even had the shifter gene like Aaron’s mate, Michelle, she would be perfect for me. But apparently she’s totally human and my pack and my clan have been making some surprising allowances lately, often at my behest on behalf of my brothers, but this is not a line that has ever been crossed. What I do have on my side is that I don’t know her and I’ve only just met her. I need to cut off any possibility of feeling more for her than I already have and focus on the professional relationship that we enjoy.

  I am quite aware that sleeping with Olivia was not the best way of focussing on our professional relationship.

  But I can’t make myself regret it. It was just too good. The feel of her in my arms felt so right, her kisses so electric, and the heat and powerful pleasure of being inside her as we looked into each other’s eyes...I’ve never felt that kind of connection with any other woman before. And I don’t know if she shares this feeling, she might not have felt anything like that and she might regret doing it. But I’m glad we did. Because, if nothing else, I’ll always have the memory of that feeling.

  Memory is going to have to be good enough because anything more with a human is utterly impossible.

  The rest of the trip goes smoothly anyway. In a way, I’m disappointed by just how well Olivia takes it when I say that this can’t happen again. Maybe it’s foolish of me, but it would have been nice if she’d been even a little put out. Then again, since the moment I met her, she’s been striking some hard blows to my ego and I guess I can take them if I have to. It’s easier anyway, if she’s not hurt. And it might make her more willing to work for me. Because I really do want to hire her. And it’s got nothing to do with how I might feel about her. She’s smart and she disagrees with me a lot. She’d keep me in line and I don’t always have enough people in my life who are willing to do that, other than maybe Mason.

  On the flight back, Olivia mainly sleeps. She hasn’t given me an answer on the job yet. She did seem hesitant about that and it made me want to shake her. For Christ’s sake, I’m willing to hire her part-time at a full-time salary to do what she’s already doing for free. It seems like a pretty good deal to me.

  Now she sleeps ever so peacefully in one of the big, comfy reclining seats on my private jet. She obviously wasn’t planning on napping, her laptop is open in front of her. Her face looks soft and pretty in sleep and the light through the windows is shining a stripe of a sunbeam right across her cute little freckled nose…

  These types of observations do not bode well for me.

  When we finally get back to Quinton, Olivia politely thanks me for taking her along and assure me she’ll be in touch regarding the job. I feel like her look lingers as we stand there on the runway where one of my company cars and a driver waits to whisk her back home to her apartment on the wrong side of the tracks. I suddenly feel a jolt of fear that this might be the last time I see Olivia. I don’t know why. I only work about ten miles away from her home. But if she doesn’t take the job and I deal with the problems she’s presented to me regarding the company to the best of my ability there’s no real reason for us to see each other again and even as a witch and a shifter, we don’t exactly travel in the same circles.

  We’re both standing on the runway and the wind is whipping her gorgeous hair around and it glows red gold in the sun as her pink lips part with something unsaid. I shake her hand and I don’t want to let it go.

  “Thank you again, Xander,” she says, speaking loudly over the noise of the air field.

  “It’s me who should be thanking you,” I tell her. I smile a little sadly and take one last look at that smattering of freckles across her nose before she nods and turns away from me and climbs into the car.

  Then she’s gone.

  Meanwhile, I really do have a million things to do and it’s not like I didn’t already have a million things to do. So, I guess I have two million things to do.

  I have contacts in Washington and my very first priority is dipping my toe in the water of finding out how best to put pressure on Chile. I want to be quick but effective. I put my guys in legal on that. If somebody needs to be glad handed, I’ll gladly take a senator to lunch or something. In the meantime, I hold a meeting of my Godrun engineers to announce suspension of the drone.

  Nobody takes this very well. I have to tell them that the supply of altanium has been cut off for the foreseeable future. Best case scenario, that mine gets cleaned up with an entirely new distributer and organization but God knows when that’s going to happen.

  It’s only a matter of a few hours before word gets out and it’s one in the morning as I write out an email to shareholders about the Godrun suspension. I haven’t even been home since the plane landed and I’m badly in need of a shower and some food. I send out the email and down a finger of whiskey (I don’t understand CEOs who don’t keep at least a little bit of booze in their office for hard days) before finally making my way home. I’m going to have to hold a shareholders meeting but I’ll see how the email goes.

  I head home, take an extended and scalding hot shower and jerk off in the steam and the heat, still thinking of Olivia’s body under mine and the way we seemed to mould together so perfectly. I don’t feel even a little bit sated and when I’m done I get dressed in jogging gear. I don’t live right by any good woods like Mason or my parents do. That means I have to go to them. I don’t often drive though. It’s just three miles to a good spot near Mason’s place where I can run around and feel unleashed. It’s too bad that the bulk of Quinton would flip out seeing a giant wolf running through town because it would be nice to also run to the woods. Today though, I feel pretty good as I run, if pretty hungry. I’m going to need to hunt a bit, at least a couple rabbits although deer would be better. By the time I reach the woods, I only feel well warmed up, and when I shift it’s like the best kind of stretch of my muscles. It’s the middle of the night. Nearly four in the morning by now as my huge paws pound through the dirt and my legs flex and test themselves as I jump boulders and logs and creek beds. I haven’t pulled an all nighter in a while and the next day is Monday but I do have a shifter’s stamina. I’ll be tired but I’ll be fine. I can probably catch a nap in the office on my big fancy designer office sofa.

  I take down three rabbits and feel a little better but when I shift back at the mouth of the woods, feeling fed, satisfied but tired, and breathless from the run, Olivia appears in my head again.

  I’m in for some pain from this woman. I have only myself and my stupid heart (and my cock) to blame. She’s not going anywhere and she’s not getting any less human.

  The next morning, I roll into work right on time as if I’ve had a full night’s sleep. When I sit down at my desk, I see a mass of “concerned” emails from shareholders. Some of them are more upset than concerned. It’s going to be a long day.

  I plunge into things and at ten I get a text that makes everything seem better.

  It’s from Olivia.

&nb
sp; It says, I’ll take the job.

  I swear, I’m not planning to meet Olivia for lunch. It’s her third day on the job. I’ve had my meeting with the shareholders. It went better than I’d thought it would. But then again, I can be pretty persuasive when I’m really going for it. They seem to trust me. On the other hand...I assured them that the Godrun was not cancelled. Only suspended for now. If that changes, I’m not sure how they’ll react.

  Meanwhile, there’s been a whole lot of press about my trip to Chile and its aftermath. Olivia seems to be diving into PR as much as our ethical obligations. It surprises me. I wouldn’t think she’d give a damn how the company is perceived. Yet, I find myself reading all over Twitter about how I’d punched out the foreman at the altanium mine due to his employment and mistreatment of underage miners. The internet seemed pretty happy about it anyway, although some loud mouthed pundits seem to think I’ve lost my marbles. Mike would never have leaked that. I don’t think the assistants would have either. I think it was Olivia. I’m just not sure why. This woman makes me as curious as much as she arouses me.

  So when I see her in the commissary as I’m stopping by for one of their fancy burgers with the aioli, I invite myself over to her table and take a seat.

  “Hey there!” I say brightly, as if we’re old friends. I’ve barely seen her since Chile. I shook her hand on her first day but I was so busy and if I’d made time for Olivia, I would’ve been distracted for the rest of the day.