by Terry Spear
“Absolutely. A change in color and texture or print can make a world of difference from so-so to spectacular. Just like rearranging or adding to a garden. Big bed.”
He glanced at his king-size bed.
She laughed and headed out of the room. “If the pack knew I left with you and we never went back to the ranch, can you imagine the rumors that would go flying?”
“I would be reprimanded for sure,” Brock said. By everyone!
She smiled. “All for a good cause, if we make any headway on this Marek guy.”
They drove back to the ranch. When they arrived after a few minutes, they walked inside.
“It’s six. Do you want to grab a bite to eat and take a wolf run?” he asked, heading for the kitchen.
“Yeah, I’d love that.” She looked in the fridge. “Well, we have some leftovers from the wedding.” She began bringing out assorted dishes, though other pack members had taken some of the food home with them.
After they heated up the food, they ate their fill and visited for a while longer. Then they cleaned up the dishes and decided it was time to run. They stripped and shifted and tore out of the house. Brock had thought he’d be sitting at home alone after the wedding, maybe having some of the leftovers, certainly not working a case and not running with a beautiful wolf. They explored the land for a couple of hours, with him taking her around the area so she’d feel comfortable there, and he wanted to share the sunset with her again.
By the time they returned to the house, they found Jillian had made up a bed for him on the couch while they were gone. She must have returned to make sure he had everything he needed, even though he’d slept there the night before. She must have forgotten that part. Jillian had already left, but he smelled her scent on the sheets. His laptop was sitting on the coffee table.
He pulled on his boxer briefs, and Natalie pulled on her long T-shirt.
“I hope you don’t get in trouble because Jillian came and didn’t find us here,” Natalie said.
Brock shook his head. “I’m sure she and Vaughn will be speculating away, but they won’t tell anyone else in the pack.” He sighed. “No good-night kiss? After all the discussion of being ‘together’ to make the cover story more plausible? And…the kisses we’ve already shared?”
She laughed and went up to her bedroom.
He smiled. So much for having a nursery set up anytime soon. “Night, Natalie,” he called after her. He climbed under the blue-and-white covers. Normally, he would be thinking of the case at hand, planning his next move. But all he could think of was Natalie and how different she was from any other woman he’d ever known. None of them would have wanted to accompany him to investigate a case, let alone go to such lengths to create a charade. It was a shame she lived in Amarillo. Most of his friends didn’t scuba dive, so he’d gone with his brother. And with Jillian now too because she was into scuba diving. But he would have enjoyed doing that with Natalie. If she’d lived closer.
He just hoped nobody learned of the ruse they planned to use on the wallpaper lady.
Chapter 6
Natalie loved gardening more than anything else in the world. She hadn’t thought helping with a PI investigation could be so much fun too. Poor Brock. She was just playing the game, setting up a cover story for them. He was happy with his decor, and that was all that mattered. If it were her place, she would definitely redo the wallpaper in the bathrooms to lighten them up and add elegance or western appeal or charm, just something that would give them more…character. But if the black paper was him, then by all means, he should leave it.
Her dad was the same way about doing anything different. Except for gardening. In the nursery, he was all for changing things up to make it more profitable. Even adding the water gardens and a few cats to provide entertainment for visitors to the gardens. Those had been her idea, but he had been eager to design the water gardens himself. The koi in one of the ponds really added a special touch. But in the house? He hated it when her mom moved things around or overhauled decorating schemes. So she understood Brock’s need to keep things the way they were.
She stared up at the ceiling in the guest bedroom. She had wanted to kiss Brock before she went to bed. Even now, she was thinking about his masculine lips on hers, making her blood heat and her heart pound, but she knew this wasn’t going anywhere between them. She didn’t want to keep thinking about him when she was home and he’d left there for good.
Yet she kept thinking about him, his hands on her as they had danced, their bodies snug, his whispered breath on her ear while he talked to her over the loud music, making her think of sizzling nights and sexy encounters. He was just plain hot.
The problem for wolves was they didn’t have a huge population of partners to choose from, not like humans did. Narrow that down to the few she had encountered, factor in eligibility, sexual interest, commonalities, and being with the wolf forever and ever, and with them aging one year for about every human thirty, and it was damn hard to find the right mate.
After tossing and turning for what seemed like forever, Natalie finally drifted off to sleep, and it felt as though she had barely fallen asleep when she heard people up and about in the kitchen. She glanced at the clock in the bedroom. Eight o’clock already? She never slept in that late. She hurried out of bed, showered—so nobody would smell Brock on her—and dressed.
She wondered who would be having breakfast with them since so many of the pack members lived in the area.
Natalie reached the large western kitchen, which featured marble counters and beautiful mosaic tile on the wall beneath the microwave of painted ponies running across a field of purple flowers. Brock was opening cabinet doors, looking for something. The aroma of pancakes and scrambled eggs filled the air, but there wasn’t any sign of the food.
“Good morning. Did everyone eat and then leave?” she asked Brock.
“Morning. I told them we had a late night trying to run Marek down and that we’ve gotten a lead in Boulder. His ex-girlfriend, presumably. They had other things to do, but if we would like, my brother and his mate want to have dinner with us tonight. They were glad you slept in a bit and are hanging around for a while longer. I am too.”
Natalie smiled. “Sure, sounds good. And then we can head to Amarillo tomorrow. And check on Marek’s house.”
“Sure thing.” Brock looked a little surprised that she’d want to continue helping him with trying to solve this case and not just go back to working her job.
She wanted to know if this guy was operating alone there. Or if other wolves had moved into the Amarillo area and would cause trouble for them if they learned Natalie had seized Marek’s bag at the airport and knew what had really been inside it.
“Did you want to make an appointment with the wallpaper lady?” Brock asked.
“Yeah, I’ll do that.” Natalie was excited he was including her on the mission and pulled out her phone.
“What would you like to eat?”
“Um, what are you having?” She glanced over to see what he was getting ready to prepare.
“Ham-and-cheese omelet. Does that appeal to you?”
“Yeah. Sure. You cook too. That’s nice.” Natalie opened up the website for Ms. Storm’s wallpapering services and made an appointment on the online form. Then she received an email verification and submitted the confirmation. “We’re in.”
“Good. Do you want anything else on your omelet? Bell peppers? Onions? Mushrooms?”
“Everything but the onions.”
He was soon serving their breakfast at the kitchen table while she poured them both cups of coffee. “So what color scheme do you want in the bathrooms?”
“I thought we were doing just one.” Brock raised a brow at her.
“We might as well do all three.”
He smiled and shook his head. She thought if she mentioned all the bathrooms, the woman might be more
willing to talk.
They sat across the table from each other, and he took a bite of his eggs.
“I think blue would be nice. It would pick up the blue in the tile in the first bathroom.” She scooped up some of her omelet. “Not sure on the other two.”
Brock didn’t say anything, just continued to eat his eggs and drink his coffee.
She was amused. “Don’t you think we should agree on this beforehand?”
“No. Don’t you think it would sound more realistic if we don’t agree on it?”
She laughed. “Okay, I’ll buy that.”
After they ate and cleaned up the dishes, they drove to Boulder. Since they were early, they went to a building supply shop to look at wallpaper, to give them an idea of what they might say to the woman. “Do you like any of these?” Natalie pointed out a selection in blue.
“I don’t see any that look like the paper I already have.”
“You’re no help.” She pulled up her phone and looked at the picture she’d shot of the first guest bathroom. “I think this will work.”
Brock glanced at the picture and then the wallpaper. “I like mine better.”
She chuckled. “You’re going to have to agree to something, or we won’t be able to hook her.”
He was looking on his phone at the woman’s website. “She needs two months to get to a job.”
“Well, if we did schedule something with her so you could learn what you needed to from her, you’d have time to cancel on her.”
He shook his head.
“Hey, it’s about that time. Ready to see the woman and learn if she’s a wolf?”
“Yeah, I am,” Brock said, and they exited the building supply store and parked around the corner from her shop, just in case.
Then they left the Humvee and headed to the woman’s shop. A green-and-white-striped awning shaded the windows in front of the redbrick building, with a hand-painted sign in the window to match. As soon as Natalie drew close to the green door and smelled a she-wolf, Brock motioned for her to stop and quickly moved away from the shop’s door and beyond the sight of the windows.
“What?” she whispered, figuring the PI/SEAL had an indication something wasn’t right, but what?
“Let’s go. This isn’t going to work.”
Natalie didn’t question him further until they rounded the street corner and she hurried back to the Humvee with him. “Okay, what’s going on?”
“Either my former girlfriend used this woman’s services to wallpaper her place and that’s why her scent is there, or L. C. is Lettie. Lettie didn’t go by the last name of Storm when she befriended me.”
“Oh, wow, the one who was trying to save her brother from you?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, well, I’ve got to meet her alone then. You and I haven’t touched each other today, so she won’t know I’m with you. Do you have a picture of her so I’ll know if it’s her? I didn’t smell her at your house.”
“We always met at her place. Afterward, I figured she didn’t want to meet any of my pack members or me at the house, since she was seeing me for devious reasons. Here’s the picture of her.” Brock pulled up a picture of Lettie’s driver’s license.
“No boyfriend-girlfriend pictures,” Natalie said, thinking he might have gotten rid of them already.
“No. I didn’t realize until later that she never wanted pictures of the two of us together or of her alone either.” Brock frowned at Natalie. “This isn’t going to work. I’m supposed to be your bodyguard and protecting you at all times.”
“I’ll be fine. I just need to verify if she’s the same woman. If so, she was most likely Marek’s girlfriend. I’m going to be late. Just stay here and I’ll meet her, then let you know what happens.”
“Don’t tip her off.”
“I’ll try not to.” Though Natalie wanted to remind him she wasn’t trained for espionage work, and she couldn’t guarantee that she wouldn’t make any mistakes.
She hurried back to the shop and entered it, the doorbell jingling on the green-painted door. A perky brunette wearing a blue knit sweater, blue slacks, and high-heeled boots greeted her. “Welcome to my shop.” The woman was the same one pictured on the driver’s license Brock had of Lettie. She was a wolf with a big smile.
“Hi, I’m Natalie, and you must be…” Natalie almost said Lettie and felt her face flush with warmth.
“I’m Lettie. And you’re… Well, how refreshing.”
Natalie knew she meant to say a wolf.
“Come in here, and you can look at all the wallpapers I have. You can tell me what your interests are and the color scheme you’re thinking of.” Lettie led her into another room.
The whole little shop was wallpapered smartly, and Lettie had tons of shelves housing large books of wallpaper. A couple of long tables were available to set the books down and look through them. Lettie opened a couple of them for her.
Natalie was glad Lettie hadn’t been to Brock’s house where she might have seen the guest bathroom. Natalie showed her the picture of the first guest bathroom.
“Hmm, black and white. And you want something different?” Lettie asked.
“Yes, I was thinking something blue to match the blue tiles.” Natalie pointed at the tiles.
“Oh, absolutely. So many new bathrooms are all in beige. It’s fun to see the older tile that has more color, and it’s important to embrace it.” Lettie brought out some more of her wallpaper sample books. “Floral? Geometric shapes? Textured?”
“I’m thinking a textured wallpaper would be the nicest. One of those grass-textured wallpapers in blue. So it’s not too busy but picks up the color of the tile and looks like it was meant to be there, not just some sale paper stuck up there.”
Lettie laughed.
“But I have to get my mate’s approval before I decide. After we do the one bathroom, maybe I can convince him to also do the other two.” Natalie ran her hand over her stomach. “He and I will be having a baby or more in the future, and if the bathroom turns out well, I’ll be back to pick out wallpaper for the baby’s room, depending on what sex the baby is and if we have two or more.”
“Oh, well, congratulations. You’re from Denver, right?”
“Yes. I looked up reviews and saw that you’d been in Denver too. I really liked the idea of having a woman wallpaper the bathroom. It’s really not too far for you to drive, is it?”
“The distance is no problem. I still have a lot of repeat customers from Denver. I lived there for a couple of years.”
“Oh, super. Do you have a mate?” Natalie wondered if Lettie had a new boyfriend yet.
“Nah, just had a boyfriend. But we broke up.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear it. I didn’t see any reviews for your Boulder location, so you must have moved here recently.” Natalie continued to look through the wallpaper samples.
“Yeah, we’d been fighting a lot. I just needed to end it.”
“I’ve had that happen before,” Natalie said, trying to connect. “It seemed we couldn’t agree on anything. Is your ex-boyfriend still living in Denver? I don’t blame you for moving.”
“Nah, he moved to Amarillo. Best for both of us. I just wanted a change of scenery.”
“Well, that’s a shame, but I hope you love it here.” Natalie pulled out her phone and took a picture of blue wallpaper that looked similar to the color of the tile. Not that she was going to go through with this, but she had to make the trip seem real. “I think that this would be the right one. Do you have a sample of it? I’ll have to show it to my mate and compare it to the bathroom when I get home, and then I’ll get back with you.”
“Yeah, sure. Be right back.” A few minutes later, Lettie came back with a sample.
“Thanks. Okay, you are backlogged for two months before you’re ready to do a job, corr
ect?” Natalie tucked the wallpaper sample in her purse.
“Yeah. I’m booked up. Sometimes I get cancellations and then I can move clients up earlier in the schedule. I’d have to measure the bathroom to give an accurate quote. Here’s a quote sheet that gives you an idea of the cost of the paper per square foot and my cost of papering. You can do a rough estimate of the square footage to get an idea of the cost.” Lettie smiled brightly at her. “It’s so nice to meet another…wolf.”
Natalie smiled back and thanked her. “I agree. I can’t wait to do this.”
Then she left the shop, not feeling guilty since the woman had used Brock and made him distrust women and relationships because of it. She hoped the woman didn’t look out the window to see where she was going and notice Natalie wasn’t parked nearby.
When she reached the corner, she didn’t see the Humvee. She sighed and walked into a coffee shop nearby, ordered a white mocha, and sat down at the window. Then she called Brock. “Where are you?”
“I parked a couple of blocks from the coffee shop, in case she followed you.”
“She didn’t. I’m sitting at the coffee shop. I’ve been watching for her, but no one’s followed me.”
“Okay, walk down the street two blocks north and then turn right.”
“Do you want something to drink?”
“Yeah, that would be great. White mocha.”
“Are you kidding me? Once we agree on the wallpaper, we’re going to mate.”
He laughed out loud, and she loved that she could amuse him so.
“I’ll bring it. Be there in a few minutes.” Natalie got another cup of the white mocha and began to walk to where Brock had parked the Humvee. She soon reached him, and after she got in the vehicle, he drove off.
“Thanks for the drink. You like the same thing too, eh?”
“My favorite is the peppermint mocha during the holidays. But the white mocha is my go-to drink any other time.”
“I haven’t tried the peppermint mocha before. Sounds good. All right, tell me what you learned,” Brock said.
“The woman on the driver’s license you showed me is Lettie. When did the two of you part company?”
