Wolf With Benefits

by Shelly Laurenston

  Ricky knew he hadn’t been in his room that long. He’d showered, shaved, and changed clothes as quickly as possible. But when he came out, he found his mother and Toni . . . eating scones?

  And no Vic! Damn feline-bear hybrids were not to be trusted!

  “Everything all right out here?” he asked, easing up to the pair.

  “Yes.” Toni held up the plate of scones. “Would you like one?”

  “Sure.” Ricky took a blueberry pastry while he kept his eyes on both women. “Guess we better get you to work, Toni.”

  “Yeah.” Toni blew out a breath.

  “What’s wrong, darlin’?” his mother asked, shocking Ricky with the concern he heard in her voice.

  “I haven’t talked to anybody. I mean I e-mailed all the details about the deal to the team’s coach but . . . she’s hard to read. I think I annoy her.”

  “What is she?”

  “Tiger.”

  Tala Lee Evans clicked her tongue against her teeth. Her typical sound of disgust.

  “Momma,” Ricky warned.

  “You know how I feel about those felines, Ricky Lee. Not to be trusted,” she told Toni. “But you don’t let some cat get you down. You walk in there with your head held high and tell her exactly how well you did for them. Understand?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Good.” She stood and motioned them both toward the door. “Now y’all go on. And I’ll see you tonight at your parents’ place, Antonella.”

  Ricky froze. “What?”

  “Yes. I already texted my mom.” Toni grinned. “I’m dying to know what she’ll order in for dinner.”

  Then the two females laughed while Tala Lee led them to the door. “Have a good day, you two. And Ricky Lee . . . ?”

  Now in the hallway, Ricky faced his mother, his mouth slightly open because he was so confused. “Don’t you worry about Laura Jane anymore. I’ll handle her.”

  “Wait, Momma—”

  “Go on now. I’ll see you tonight.” She blew a kiss and closed the door in Ricky’s face.

  Slowly, he faced Toni. She looked up at him, smiled.

  That’s when he picked her up and dropped her onto his shoulder and carried her down the hallway to the elevator. The treacherous feline-bear followed behind them.

  Once on the elevator, Ricky put Toni back on her feet and demanded, “What did you do to her?”

  “Nothing.”

  “That was not my mother. My mother is an untrusting, fairly miserable She-wolf whose only friend is the scary Alpha Female of the Tennessee Smith Pack. The woman who just shooed us away is not that.”

  “Well—”

  “And what did she mean about coming over to your parents’ house tonight? Why is my momma coming over to your parents’ house?”

  “Don’t yell at me.”

  “This is not yelling. This is panicked loud talking!”

  “Yeah.” Vic decided to chime in. “His yelling’s not usually this high-pitched.”

  “Shut up, unhelpful!” Ricky shot back.

  “Why would you be panicking? I like your mother.”

  Ricky couldn’t help asking, “Why?”

  Toni rolled her eyes and stepped out of the elevator now that the doors had opened on the main floor. “That is a ridiculous question.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “It is. Your mother is perfectly fine and considering she successfully raised four children says a lot about her.”

  “She had my daddy and an entire Pack behind that.”

  “You don’t give her enough credit.”

  “Look, I love my momma, but I have no delusions about her. And I like your parents. They are wonderful, good-natured people, and I really don’t think we should force them to spend time with my mother.”

  Toni stopped and spun around to face Ricky. “Why don’t you admit, you just don’t want your mother spending time with my jackal parents?”

  “Because that’s not true. I don’t want your jackal parents spending time with my mother.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “Huge difference. It’s just like I don’t want your parents hanging around Reece.”

  Toni shrugged. “Well, that I completely understand.”

  Toni stepped off the elevator in the Sports Center and headed toward the team offices. Behind her were Ricky and Barinov. It seemed they really were going to follow her around all day.

  As Toni walked, she caught sight of Cella heading toward the practice rink. She picked up her step, wanting to catch up with the feline but not look like she was running.

  “Hi, Cella.”

  Busy reading a newspaper and drinking a cup of coffee, Cella glanced back at her. “Oh. Toni. Hey. How’s it going, hon?”

  “Good. Did you get all the deal particulars I e-mailed you?”

  “Yeah. Yeah,” she said, still reading that paper. “The deal looks pretty good.”

  “Pretty good?” Ricky asked, but Toni waved her hand at him to put a lid on it. So maybe she hadn’t impressed Cella Malone. Felines were notoriously hard to impress, but that didn’t mean Toni needed Ricky Lee to push the issue for her.

  “Yeah. Like I said. Pretty good. Uh . . . nice job.”

  Well, even Toni would have to admit that Cella didn’t sound like she meant that last part.

  “I have something else for you to do,” Cella went on.

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yeah. A few things I need you to organize in my office.”

  “Organize?”

  “Yeah.” Cella stopped outside the practice rink doors. “You said you’d help out with my workload, right?”

  “Yeah. Sure.”

  “Great.” She motioned to the rink. “Come on. I’ll give you the list while I’m setting up for morning practice.”

  “Okay.” Toni worked hard to not audibly sigh. It was a big drop to go from negotiating with Russian bears to cleaning up the coach’s office, but it made Toni even more determined to impress Cella Malone. She would impress her.

  Toni followed Cella into the rink, swinging her backpack around so that she could pull out a notepad and pen to take notes. But as she stumbled to a stop, digging into her bag trying to find her stupid notepad, she heard banging. A weird banging.

  Toni looked up and blinked, her mouth dropping open a little in surprise.

  Because the entire Carnivore team was on the ice in their hockey gear, including their home jerseys, banging their sticks against the ice while the office staff, including her assistant Kerri, and the team’s current staff photographer, Livy, stood outside the ice clapping and cheering.

  Reece Lee skated across the ice, his arms behind his back. When he reached the very edge of the ice, which was right next to where Toni stood on the carpeted floor, he stopped and brought his arms around. He held two dozen roses wrapped in cellophane in one hand and a box of expensive chocolates in the other. He grinned at her and winked.

  With shaking hands, Toni took the gifts and Reece skated backward. That’s when he howled and the rest of the team joined in. Except each player did their own thing. So the room filled with roars, growls, howling, and violent hissing. She didn’t even realize she was crying until the tears hit her bare forearm.

  Cella slung her arm over Toni’s shoulders and hugged her in close. “After the way you fucking rocked in Russia, little girl, you better start getting your family ready. Because the Carnivores are not letting you go anytime soon.” Cella shook her head and added with a laugh, “And Ivan Zubachev called and, after praising you to heaven and back, he wanted to know if you were single.”

  That made Toni laugh until Ricky, standing next to her, said, “Nope. She’s not.”

  Both Toni and Cella looked at him, and the wolf shrugged. “What? You’re not.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Toni couldn’t believe how busy her day turned out to be. She had meeting after meeting, and a bunch of phone calls to handle. Yeah. Sure. Everyone was really impressed wit
h what she’d done in Russia, but now they expected her to keep impressing them.

  She didn’t know if she could manage that. Maybe the Russian negotiations were just a fluke. And she had had Vic Barinov’s help, hadn’t she? So she’d need to tread carefully to make sure she really deserved all the attention she’d gotten today.

  Well, if nothing else, being so busy meant her workday had flown by. It was already four o’clock and she was ready to head home, check on the kids, and order dinner before Ricky’s mother showed up.

  Toni peeked over at Ricky Lee. He’d sat in that chair all day, taking phone calls and remotely working on other jobs for his security company. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem to mind being stuck here with her. That was good. She didn’t know if she could keep him entertained when she kept having to answer e-mails from Bo Novikov every couple of hours asking about team travel.

  “You ready to go?” she asked.

  “Yep.” He and Vic Barinov, who occasionally left the office to do a “sweep of the area” as he called it and get coffee and more food than seemed natural from the food court, stood.

  That’s when Livy walked into the office, a tablet computer in her hand.

  “Hey, hey.”

  “Hey.” Toni smiled at her friend. “Where did you go? I haven’t seen you since this morning.”

  “I wanted to finish this up.”

  Livy put the tablet in front of Toni and touched the screen. Toni’s face lit up. “Oh!” Then her smile began to fade. “Oh.” The smile faded completely, replaced by a frown. “Oh . . . my God! Why are they naked?”

  Ricky and Vic practically sprinted across the room to see what Toni was looking at.

  “Good Lord!” Ricky stepped back from her desk. “Why am I looking at my brother’s penis?”

  “What’s wrong?” Livy asked. “This is some of my best work that didn’t involve getting shot at.”

  “So to speak,” Vic mumbled under his breath.

  Toni flicked through the other photos. They were mostly in black and white, but some were in color but just gave the illusion of being black and white. Each player was beautifully lit, showing off every muscle and vein. Yes. This was some of Livy’s best work.

  And completely useless for Toni’s needs!

  “What am I supposed to do with this, Livy?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I needed team pictures for the fans. For the kids. Not boudoir pictures for their wives.”

  “Come on, these are—”

  “Useless to me!” Toni leaned in closer. “I don’t even know who this is. He’s headless!”

  “He has kind of a ‘butta’ face.”

  Barinov snorted a laugh at Livy and walked back to his chair. “What’s so funny?” Livy snarled at him.

  “Do I really have to tell you?”

  Toni stood up and she did something she’d never done before. She made demands.

  “Fix this,” she ordered her friend.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean”—Toni faced Livy—“fix. This. I don’t want your bullshit art. I don’t want moody lighting. I want amazing, useful pictures of the team. That’s what I’m paying you for. Remember? Check out Sports Illustrated for ideas or something.”

  “Sports—”

  “Sports Illustrated, Livy. Not Mapplethorpe. Mapplethorpe is not and should not be your inspiration for what I want for this job. Do you understand me?”

  Livy looked off and Toni snapped her fingers in her friend’s face. “Do you?”

  “Yes. I understand you.”

  Toni grabbed her backpack, swung it onto her shoulder. “I’m heading home. Talk to Kerri about setting up new appointments with the team.”

  “Fine.”

  Toni stopped. “If you can get releases from the guys, I’d suggest using these for an art show.”

  “I don’t care what my brother signs,” Ricky said, pulling the office door open and holding it for Toni. “I better not see his naked ass or penis on anyone’s damn wall.”

  Livy’s eyes crossed and she swiped her tablet off the desk. She stormed out, pushing past Ricky.

  Shaking her head, Toni followed. As she walked past Ricky, she complained, “Artists.”

  While sitting on the couch in the Jean-Louis Parker living room, Cooper stared at his sister. “You need me to do what?”

  “I need you to play in Siberia.”

  “Why?”

  She cleared her throat, clearly uncomfortable with asking her brother for this favor. “Because I promised the bears you’d go out there and play for them.”

  “They’re real big fans,” Ricky told him. “Once they realized Toni was your sister, they couldn’t help her enough.”

  “Can’t they just come to Moscow or Saint Petersburg to see me . . . like everyone else in Russia?”

  “I promised.”

  “You promised without asking me. You used my name to get what you want.” He wiped a non-existent tear. “I’m so proud.”

  “Oh, shut up!”

  “Maybe Kyle’s right. You’d make a great business manager for him.”

  “Is that a yes or a no?”

  “It’s a ‘my agent will handle it.’ ”

  “They’ll want dinner with you.”

  Coop snorted, elbowed Ricky. “Great. Dinner with bears. I know that’s something I love to do.”

  “You do it in Italy all the time.”

  “Do you know how the Italian bears eat? Like gods, big sister. Like gods.”

  Toni and her brother laughed. Ricky didn’t even think they noticed when Dee-Ann silently entered the room and stood behind the couch. But they did. Both immediately stopped in mid-laugh and slowly looked over their shoulder.

  “Hi, Dee-Ann,” Toni said, trying to smile.

  “Hey.”

  “Is there a problem?”

  “Nah. That badger around?”

  Toni quickly looked at Ricky, her eyes wide.

  “Why?” she asked Dee.

  “Yeah,” Ricky chimed in, “why?”

  “Ain’t your never mind, Ricky Lee.”

  “I will not never mind if this is about Laura Jane.”

  “Laura Jane’s on her way home. Your momma handled that right quick.”

  “She did?”

  “Yep.”

  Ricky was surprised. His mother had arrived at the Jean-Louis Parker house less than an hour after Ricky and Toni. She hadn’t said another word about Laura Jane. But she had come with groceries, planning to make her famous fried chicken. Jackie had told her it wasn’t necessary, but his momma wouldn’t hear it. She’d been busy in that gourmet kitchen ever since.

  “Besides,” Dee added, looking around the room, “some of those lacerations that badger gave her had gotten infected.”

  Ricky cringed at that. He didn’t want Laura Jane to suffer or anything, he just wanted her to forget he’d ever existed since he was sure she didn’t really care about him.

  “Anyway,” Dee went on, “y’all see her, tell her I need to talk to her. Ya hear?”

  “Okay.”

  With that, Dee-Ann ambled out of the room and Ricky’s momma walked in. She had a paper grocery bag in her hands and it smelled delicious.

  “Here,” she said, handing the bag to Ricky.

  “What’s this?”

  “Your dinner and dessert. Y’all get now.”

  “Get now?” Ricky looked at Toni and she shrugged. “What are you talking about?”

  “It seems Miss Antonella has her own apartment. I think it’s high time she learns to enjoy it. And her momma and daddy agreed with me.”

  “But I thought we were all having dinner together,” Toni said, getting to her feet.

  “We’ll do that. For now, I think y’all need some time away from these kids.”

  Toni blinked, her head tilting. “Why don’t I hear them?” she asked.

  “I’ve been keeping them busy making cookies.”

  “You kept my brothers
and sisters busy making cookies? Really?”

  “It wasn’t that hard. I just had Dennis and Kyle design the look of the cookies—told them to try and outdo each other—while Oriana analyzed the fat content and tried to come up with a less fattening cookie, and I got Troy to help her with that by dealing with the actual percentages. Cherise monitored them all and the twins watched and tried to sneak licks of the batter. See? Easy.”

  But before Ricky could congratulate his momma on her skills managing the kids, Toni beat him to it, suddenly racing over to Tala and hugging her.

  “Oh, Miss Tala! Thank you!”

  Tala chuckled and patted the She-jackal’s back. “Good Lord, you’re just like your momma.”

  Reece walked into the room. “Hey. When are we gettin’ to eat?” he began, but Toni turned on him like a snake.

  “You be nice to your mother!” she roared at him, one finger pointing.

  Reece stumbled back. “I was just asking a question, woman!”

  “Ask it nicer!” She hugged Tala again. “This woman is a saint. A saint! And you boys don’t forget it or I’ll come down on you like the wrath of God!”

  Reece shrugged and whined, “But I’m hungry!”

  They walked into Toni’s apartment. Sitting on the side table by the door was a small stack of mail.

  “I’m already getting mail here?” she asked him.

  “Seems so. And someone to bring it in.”

  She looked around, sniffed the air. “I smell Lysol. I think I have a maid.”

  “I’m sure you do.”

  Ricky headed into the dining room and set the food out. By the time he went into the kitchen and retrieved plates, glasses, and silverware, Toni was sitting at the table pulling things out of envelopes.

  “What’s all that?” he asked as he put down place settings.

  “The lease for this place. Ric wants me to sign it. It’s apparently a rent-to-own.”

  Ricky flinched. “I’m afraid to ask how much that’ll cost ya.”

  Toni didn’t answer, just stared.

  “You’re kidding?” he asked. “That cheap?”

  “I could put it on a credit card.” When Ricky’s mouth dropped open, Toni giggled and said, “I’m kidding. It’s not that bad. But . . . Ric is definitely charging a hell of a lot less than he probably should.”