Trolling for Trouble (The Lynlee Lincoln Series Book 1)

by Olivia Hardin

  “So tell me about your job,” I urged, wanting just to hear his voice and have time to look at him some more.

  He started in about the new art center project and how they were about two weeks behind schedule. I listened half-heartedly to the words, mostly just enjoying the smooth sound of his voice. His hair was reddish-brown, cut short and parted on the side. His “look” was clean and business-like, with a white button-down, striped tie and a sport coat. I hadn’t noticed his pants and couldn’t see them now, but I imagined they were probably something along the line of flat-front khakis.

  With two fingers, I pushed my tray forward a bit and propped my elbow on the table, my chin in my hand. Beck just kept on talking, random wit and chuckles drawing more of those strange laughs out of me.

  “I’m sure your business is much more exciting than mine. What do you ...”

  There was a racket behind us, and my stomach twisted as I heard Teddy’s all too familiar growl. I was on my feet and at attention immediately, my hand twitching and ready just in case I needed to summon my wand.

  “You’re a creep! Get your hands off me.” A blonde girl, who had just a few moments ago been practically swooning over Teddy, was now standing, her face flushed and her eyes narrowed in anger. I spotted a few burly dudes checking things out from the restaurant’s order counter, and I recognized them as jocks. Things were about to get messy if I didn’t jump in.

  I rushed forward and squeezed in front of Teddy, wrapping my arms around him and whining into his chest. “Oh, Teddy. Teddy, I’ve been looking for you since yesterday. When you didn’t come home last night, I was so worried about you.”

  He tried to shrug away from me, but I held tighter, mentally willing the tension in his body to relax. If he turned into a werewolf, things would get messy, and Tig would be pissed. I was too close to becoming a Neutralizer to let that happen.

  “Who are you?” the blonde woman demanded.

  “I’m his wife!” The people surrounding us all took a collective step back, horror on a few of their faces. “Teddy, you promised,” I continued, somehow managing some tears for effect. “You promised me you’d stop doing this after the twins were born.”

  That pretty much finished things off. The crowd disbursed within a few moments. I looked back at the table I’d been sitting at just a few moments ago to find it also empty. My heart and my stomach collectively tightened in regret.

  I told myself it was just as well. My lifestyle didn’t really have room for romance right now.

  Chapter 2

  TIG WAS LAUGHING UNCONTROLLABLY, one knobby hand reaching out for the banister to hold himself up and the other slapping at his stomach with each wheezing guffaw. “Oh... oh, Lynlee, I wish I coulda seen that little pup’s face when you said ... when you said you were the mother of his twins. Bwahahaha...”

  “Geez, Tig, it wasn’t that funny.”

  But apparently to him it was. I decided to count my blessings that he was happy now because Tig wouldn’t like what I had to say next. He finished catching his breath, then proceeded through the foyer to the kitchen of my soon-to-be-home. In just a few days I was set to close on this house, my very first home. I was going to hire an inspector, but Tig insisted he could do the job and do it better.

  “Well, at least you won’t have to bother with him until school is back in session after the holidays.”

  My brows drew together as I followed behind him. “Before I orbed him back to his pack, I told him I’d see if there was a spell or a potion that could help him.”

  Tig’s stopped short and turned to face me. He was an ugly little goblin, but then most of his kind were ugly. His body was squatty with a mole-covered face and bulbous nose. His frown did nothing to help his appearance. “Help him what?”

  “Fight the change. Fight the call of the pack. Lead a normal life.”

  “And what exactly is normal, girlie? He’s a werewolf. He can’t change that. There are no quick fixes in this world. The best thing for him would be if we could find him more of his kind, another werewolf pack. There are new packs starting all the time from weres who want to go out into society. You shouldn’t fill that pup’s mind with crazy promises.”

  I waited for him to turn away from me to roll my eyes. He whipped his head back around and pointed his finger at me. I wasn’t sure if he had somehow seen my impertinent action or if he just guessed. Either way, I pasted the necessary look of contrition on my face.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand why you’re so keen on him going back to his pack. He was miserable there, and they refused to let him come to school. All the kid wants to do is get an education.”

  He growled but proceeded with his inspection. The master bedroom was on the first floor, a big room in and of itself. But the closet attached to it was massive. About as large as the bedroom, it was completely lined in cedar and with built-in shelves and cubbies along all of the walls.

  “Whew!” Tig said and then whistled, cocking his head and looking around. I knew what he was thinking. I loved this house and the awesomeness of its crazy features gave it a sense of character that I was drawn to almost immediately. It was a really strange building, but in a way, I thought it was practically made for me.

  While I admired the expansive closet and mentally considered all the possibilities for it, Tig was looking at something behind me and up high.

  “What was it you said the realtor called this house?”

  I grinned just a little. “The mafia house. Why?” When I turned, I saw what he was staring at. In the far corner of a shelf up above the closet door were two huge blue plastic bins. Written in bold letters on each box were the words: Cheating Wife

  “Do you suppose the boxes contain the cheating wife’s possessions ... or perhaps the cheating wife?”

  “That’s silly. Of course, it’s just her things.” I muttered, but my hand involuntarily flew to my mouth in alarm.

  Tig swung his arm out and whacked me in the leg. “I’m just screwing with you. If there was a body in one of those boxes, I’d have smelled it the moment we entered the house.” He tapped his nose, and I rolled my eyes at him again, this time to his face.

  “So do you have any plans for the holidays?” he asked as we started up the stairs. There was a large landing that looked down on the living area and a few bedrooms were down a hall off to the right.

  I hesitated before answering Tig’s question. He knew enough about me to know I didn’t have any family ties and wouldn’t likely have any plans. That meant he was asking for a reason. “I don’t have anything special going on.”

  “Good, ‘cause I do have plans, and you’re gonna cover things for me while I’m gone.”

  My eyes widened, and it was a struggle not to show more eagerness in my expression. Tig rarely left town, and when he did, he had never once asked me to keep an eye on his charges for him. “How long will you be gone?”

  He shrugged, looking into the medicine cabinet in the upstairs bathroom, then scratched his head a moment. There was a small door inside, which I knew was a sort of peep-hole into the adjoining bedroom. Little surprises like this were the real reason this was called the mafia house. “I’m going down to inner earth. I’ll be back about New Year’s Day. I’ll have my calls forwarded to your phone.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  When he glanced at me a strange spark entered his eyes. “Are you sure you don’t have plans?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “You look like there’s something else that happened today.”

  I shook my head, then brushed a lock of thick black hair out of my face.

  “Did you get laid?”

  As dead-panned as I could manage, I answered him. “Now when would I have the chance to get laid? I work for you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”

  He chuckled. “Exactly. If you’re getting laid, then I’m not doing my job as your boss. You shouldn’t have time for men in your life.” He paused and looked up at me again. �
�Or women.”

  Chapter 3

  JUST BEFORE TEDDY AND I had left campus the day before, we’d walked past a bookstore that claimed to be having a huge clearance sale. That seemed as good an excuse as any to go back to the university. I needed to tell myself I had an excuse that didn’t rhyme with the word “heck.”

  There were a number of patrons in the store, most of them with books clutched against their chests in the crooks of their arms. I took my time looking around, trying to keep my mind clear of any and all thoughts of a very good-looking man with perfect red-brown hair and warm brown eyes.

  I told myself that I would spend at least an hour perusing the bookstore before I went off to get a bite to eat. I knew as soon as I started walking around campus I’d start making a concerted effort to find the man I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about. And I refused to let myself become desperate.

  My intent to remain clear-headed instead left me a little compulsive in my shopping. Before I knew it, I had an entire box full of books on everything from the occult, to ancient history, recent history and also about 58 Nancy Drew novels.

  I happened to be very fond of Nancy Drew.

  There was no way I could lug that box around with me, so I begged the store clerk to let me leave them in the store on the promise I’d return for them after lunch. She relented, but she wasn’t happy about it.

  The sandwich shop where I’d eaten the day before was practically deserted. I stared for just a moment at the table where Beck and I had met, then ordered a sandwich combo to go. The weather in Virginia was unseasonably lovely for this time of year, so I decided to sit out in the courtyard. The sun was just warm enough to fight off any chill the wind might offer.

  “No husband today?”

  I recognized Beck’s voice immediately even though he was behind me. Quickly I wiped my face with my napkin and turned to him. “No, no husband today.”

  “He must be home with the twins, then.”

  My face turned hot, and I knew I was probably as red as a cherry, but I managed to force a nervous chuckle.

  “Can I sit down?” He came around to the front of the bench and motioned to the spot beside me.

  “Yeah. Sure.”

  His dress was a little more casual today with jeans and a pullover sweater, but again topped by a sport coat. I let my eyes rove over his backside as he sat down, then felt my face get flushed all over again when he caught me. His lopsided grin told me he didn’t mind that I was checking him out.

  “So, what are you doing back on campus?” he asked. “I was pretty sure you were going to yank Casanova from school for whatever infraction he was committing and re-enroll him somewhere else.”

  “Well, we worked things out. Not all problems require us to reassign our witnesses.”

  “So then we’re back to my original question.”

  I hesitated and looked over at a piece of paper flitting across the yard, carried on the wind. Part of me wanted to bolt up and grab it just so I’d have enough time to come up with some excuse as to why I was back at the university. I decided honesty was the best policy.

  “I was sort of hoping I’d run into you.”

  “Thank God!” he burst out, clutching his chest dramatically. A giggle popped from my lips, and I was so startled by the involuntary reaction I slapped my hand over my mouth.

  “Guess that means you don’t mind if I was semi-stalking you.” I told him when I found the wherewithal to speak.

  The breeze whipped up again and caught my bag of chips, tossing them to the ground. Beck hurried to grab the bag before I lost them all, handing them to me in a way that ensured our hands would touch. The look in his brown eyes sent tendrils of warmth straight through to my center.

  “Something just occurred to me,” Beck spoke, his face just inches from mine. “You probably don’t live here, do you?”

  I blinked a few times to try to clear my mind, but the fact that his lips were close enough I could have leaned forward and tasted them was making me daffy. “Oh, here in Virginia? No, no, I live in Texas. Why?”

  He pulled back, peering at his hands as if looking for the answer to some question in his own palms, then he smiled up at me again. “Well, because people are vacating this campus at a pretty good clip for the holidays, and I’m sure you have some sort of plans for Christmas, and if you’ll be leaving soon, I’d like to get the chance to spend a little time with you before you do.”

  I studied him a moment, noting how his hands fidgeted, how his smile faltered a bit the longer I took to make a response. Finally, I held my bag of chips out to him in offering. “Maybe we could have dinner tonight?”

  Relief washed over his features, and he nodded his head.

  “Dinner it is.”

  Chapter 4

  BECK GAVE ME THE INFORMATION on a small Italian place about ten miles from campus, then we parted ways with a plan to meet there that evening at seven. As soon as he was gone, I grabbed my books and orbed back to my apartment to get changed. It took me over an hour to choose just three potential outfits.

  The first pair of pants I tried on were a little snug through my thighs, and they gave my legs an overall weird look. I took them off and kicked them towards the clothes hamper. I next tried on a pair of black jeans, and when I turned and examined myself in the mirror I liked the way they hugged my backside. I got to my third top option and decided that the peach-colored button-down slimmed my waist and showed off the curves of my chest just enough to entice without looking cheap.

  My stomach tightened when I went digging into my shoe closet and came up with only one black boot. For the life of me, I had no idea where the other darned boot was, but it certainly was not in that closet. I wasn’t much for shoes, and most of mine were flats. Good for running around after Tig and his MAUC clients, but not what I needed to truly set off my ensemble.

  Darn.

  With a huff, I took off the peach tunic, wadded it into a ball and slammed it onto my bed in a pout, then I put on a t-shirt, slipped into some loafers and headed off to the mall.

  By the time I orbed back to Virginia and got a taxi to the restaurant, I was at least 5 minutes late. The waitress showed me the way to Beck’s table, but before following her, I took a minute to pat my hair and smooth my hands down over my hips to make sure everything was just so.

  At the mall, I’d finally decided on a fitted sweater-dress with a cowl neckline. It wasn’t something I would ever have chosen on my own, but a girl had tossed it out of the stall of her dressing room at the department store and hit me in the head with it.

  When she peeked over the top of the door to apologize, she insisted I should try the dress on. I’m not much for making friends on the fly, but I knew I was in way over my head in the fashion department. The young lady was a Chatty-Cathy, and she grated on my nerves, but she helped me choose the right tights and heels to go along with the sweater-dress.

  “’Tis the season,” she’d chortled, and as much as I wanted to vomit at her overly-bubbly personality, I decided I couldn’t complain too much.

  All of my frustrating wardrobe issues became well worth the trouble when I saw the appreciative glint in Beck’s eyes when he saw me.

  “Wow, you are absolutely breathtaking.” His eyes roamed up and down before he placed a hand on my shoulder and leaned in to place a kiss on my cheek. I had the overwhelming urge to bury my face into his neck but managed to offer him a coy smile instead.

  “Not looking too bad yourself,” I said honestly, taking in the dark denim of his jeans and his navy button-down top with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

  The waiter came to get my drink order, and I chose a glass of chardonnay, practically begging for it in the tone of my voice. When I glanced back at Beck, he was taking a long sip of a deep red wine.

  “That looks good. I’m partial to white wine.”

  He tilted the glass a bit and made the dark liquid swirl a few times. “It’s not bad. Honestly, I’m more of a beer drinker, but I was t
rying to be a little more refined.”

  I chuckled and situated my napkin in my lap. “You don’t have to put on any shows for me, Beck. Order a beer.” I leaned forward. “I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

  It was his turn to laugh. “I’m nervous as hell. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that I haven’t dated much since starting with the firm, or maybe because I know I only have a very short window to make an impression before you head back to Texas.”

  It would have been easy to take his comments for a joke, but the sincerity and mild embarrassment in those warm brown eyes of his stymied me. I didn’t date much either, so I knew exactly how he felt. Attachments to the opposite sex weren’t something I encouraged or sought, so most of my encounters were short and somewhat impersonal.

  From the moment I saw him, I knew Beck would be different.

  “So tell me about the firm,” I began. “If it’s anything like my job, I guess you’re probably busy paying your dues to try to get a footing.”

  He nodded. “Definitely. All the shit jobs come to me. If something gets messed up, I have to fix it. If a customer isn’t happy, I take the heat while the partners smooth the ruffled feathers. And most importantly, if something goes right, I make sure not to take any credit for it.”

  I rolled my eyes with a bob of my head. “I get it. I mean my boss goes out of town and finally decides to put me in charge of all of his clients. I feel like the third-string quarterback who gets put into the game at the end of the fourth quarter when we’re already winning two hundred and twenty-two to nothing.”

  Beck put his head back and laughed, the sound rolling along the air and thrumming straight to my core. I decided there was no better sound than his laughter.

  “Two hundred and twenty-two to nothing, huh? That’s a helluva score. I wish I knew what game that was.”

  It was my turn to be embarrassed. Heat flooded my cheeks, and I mentally repeated my own words and tried to convince myself they didn’t sound as stupid as I thought they must have. I was saved from too much contemplation when the waiter returned with my drink.