by Renee Rose
The Alpha’s Hunger
By
Renee Rose
Copyright © 2015 by Stormy Night Publications and Renee Rose
Copyright © 2015 by Stormy Night Publications and Renee Rose
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Stormy Night Publications and Design, LLC.
www.StormyNightPublications.com
Rose, Renee
The Alpha’s Hunger
Cover Design by Korey Mae Johnson
Images by The Killion Group and Bigstock/Pellinni
This book is intended for adults only. Spanking and other sexual activities represented in this book are fantasies only, intended for adults.
Chapter One
Ben hit the button for the parking garage on the elevator and rubbed his face. As the unit plunged down the shaft, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. His instincts warned him to pay attention.
To what? He looked up to read which floor he was passing and without thinking, hit the next one. The elevator stopped and the doors slid open. He put his foot against one side to hold it open, listening. His skin prickled. Yes, someone or something was here.
He stepped out, keeping his movements silent. Most of the lights were off, computer screens on screensaver. By seven-thirty, all five hundred twenty-three of his employees had left for the night. He rounded a corner and his senses sharpened when he caught sight of a woman’s arm lying on the floor, extending from one of the cubicles. He surged forward, the adrenaline already causing him to partially shift.
A young woman lay sprawled on her back on the floor, eyes closed. What in the—? As he lunged to kneel at her side, her eyes fluttered open and she shrieked. She scrambled up to stand. “M-Mr. Stone!”
He grasped her arms and lifted her to her feet, taking a deep breath and willing his vision back to normal. Something about the feel of her flesh under his palms made it harder to relax. He released her. Still, the hairs stood up on his arms, his instincts screaming for his attention. Why? What danger lay here?
“What happened?”
“Oh, nothing!” the young woman exclaimed, smoothing her long reddish-brown waves back from her face. “I just… I have a migraine, and it affects my vision, so I didn’t want to drive. I was trying to meditate it away.” She spoke quickly, no doubt flustered to have the company’s owner and CEO in her cubicle. “I’m sorry, I’m sure it looked like I’d fainted or collapsed. I didn’t mean to alarm you.” Her blue eyes appeared shrunken with pain, but even so, her beauty was undeniable. High cheekbones, big eyes, and a wide, sensual mouth. As he looked at her lips, his vision domed again, bringing the peripheral into focus along with her face. He blinked, pushing back the threatened change, hoping his irises hadn’t changed color. She didn’t appear to have noticed anything. Strange… no human woman—hell, no female at all had ever had such an effect on him.
Too gruffly, he demanded, “Do you work here?”
The acrid scent of fear told him he’d made her nervous. Which was nothing new. The employees of Stone Technologies had learned in the three years of his reign to watch their step around him. He had little tolerance for any of them. He knew what they called him: Stone Man. Because he never smiled.
“Yes, Mr. Stone. This is my office. I’m a marketing assistant.” She grabbed a framed photo of herself and a girl who looked identical to her and held it up. “See? This is my desk.”
“You can’t have security clearance. How did you plan to lock up when you left after hours?”
Her eyes widened. “Well, Steve is still working down in R&D. He said I could stay as long as he was here.”
For some reason the thought of her getting cozy with anyone named Steve—whoever he may be—made him want to tear the man’s throat out. He gave himself a shake. What was wrong with him?
“What’s your name?”
“Ashley. Ashley Bell.” She held out her hand.
“Ben Stone.” He took her palm, once more experiencing a strange reaction to touching her skin. Heat tingled in at the contact, shooting up his arm.
“I know,” she said with a smile.
He yanked his hand back, unsettled by his reaction to the slip of a human female. “Get your things. I’ll drive you home,” he said curtly.
Her expressive mouth rounded into a little O. “Um, that’s not necessary, Mr. Stone. I can call a friend, or a cab, or—” She broke off at his stern gaze. “All right,” she said meekly. He caught a whiff of another smell, mixed in with the fear: arousal.
He stiffened. For him? The wolf in him surged and he had to steady his breath.
Ashley opened a drawer and grabbed her purse. A paperback book fell to the floor.
He retrieved it before she could snatch it up.
“Oh, that’s—”
He turned it over to look at the cover. A man with a naked torso and washboard abs graced the front, wind blowing his shoulder-length hair. A romance reader. Cute.
“That’s… not mine,” she said lamely, a pretty blush coloring her cheeks.
His mouth twitched in a smile. “Right,” he said, handing it back with a raised eyebrow that caused her to blush again.
She shoved it in her purse and licked her lips. The sight of her tongue sent a pulse of heat to his cock. He took another breath and blew it out slowly, trying to understand what was happening. The girl was human, he was sure of it. Not his destined mate. Weak. Fragile. Not even able to withstand a marking. How could she be calling up his most base desires when no female—human or wolf alike—had ever done so?
He touched her back to let her pass and he thought he felt her shiver, the scent of arousal growing stronger. She stole a glance at him from under her lashes.
Closed in the elevator with her, her scent filled his nostrils. She wore a rich, vanilla fragrance, but it was her own natural scent underneath that made his blood warm. He wanted to touch her again, wanted to soften the line between her brows, the one that betrayed her pain.
Get a grip, Ben.
“So, how long have you worked for me?”
She looked up, her lips forming a pretty bow. “Almost two years.”
“Do you like it?”
She hesitated a beat. “Yes, yes, of course.”
“What don’t you like?”
“I said I like it,” she protested.
“You’re not the best liar.”
She flushed. “I’m really happy here. I’m just,” she licked her lips again, “looking forward to taking on more responsibility.”
He rewarded her with a glimmer of a smile. “Very diplomatic, Ashley. I appreciate that. It’s a skill I lack.”
She smiled and looked down at her feet as if to hide it. Clearly she’d heard all the rumors about him.
“So you’re bored?”
The elevator doors opened, giving him the opportunity to touch her back again to escort her out. Her hips swayed, heels clicking on the concrete.
“No… well, honestly? Yes. But I understand I have to work my way up. And I’m willing to do it.”
“I might have a personal assistant position opening up on the top floor, if you’re interested.” He didn’t know what made him say it. His secretary had been trying to act as a personal assistant to him since the day he’d taken over the company after his brother’s death, and he’d been pushing her away. But something about Ashley Bell intoxicated him. He couldn’t have her, but he wanted to keep her near, even if it meant giving up his coveted privacy and solitude.
Her eyes slid sideways. “Is that a
glorified secretarial position?”
He resisted the urge to swat her sashaying backside. “Do you think it’s beneath you? I assure you the pay is at least twice, maybe three times what you’re making now.”
“No, I—” She blushed again.
He wanted to push her against his black Mustang and kiss her full lips.
“I’m sorry, that was rude. Would I be working for you?”
“Yes… do you find that daunting?”
She let out a short bark of laughter. “Yes,” she admitted. “But it would also be the main selling point.”
Her answer pleased him more than he wanted to admit. He needed to regain his footing. “Am I selling this job to you?” he asked drily.
“Oh—” Her smile vanished. “Of course not. I-I would be honored to be considered for the position, of course.”
He caught another whiff of her arousal. Was she turned on by his sternness? The same thing that made his employees complain about him? Wolves responded to dominance, but humans were a mixed bag. While he could make every one of his employees grovel with little more than a disapproving look, not all of them enjoyed submitting. This one, it seemed, lived for it. Maybe that was his attraction to her.
He opened the passenger side door for her and watched her shapely legs as she folded them into the car. When he climbed in beside her, he asked for her address and put it in his GPS. Then he began to grill her. “Education?”
“Bachelor’s in English/film studies from Colorado College.”
“Grade point average?”
“Three point eight seven, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.”
“Work history?”
“Three years as a barista at Starbucks, two years as waitress at Red Lobster. One internship with Channel Four News. Close to two years here.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-five.” She rubbed her temples.
He instantly regretted giving her the third degree. “I’m sorry, he said, softening his tone. “Am I making your head worse?” He realized she’d grown paler since they’d left the building.
“No,” she said, but he knew it was a lie.
“We don’t have to talk,” he said.
He muted the guidance system and followed the map, driving in silence until he reached her brick duplex in the hip but transitional Denver neighborhood.
“I’ll pick you up in the morning. Be ready by seven.”
Her mouth dropped. “What? Really?”
He wrote his cell phone number on the back of a card. “Call me if the migraine will keep you from going to work.”
She blinked at him, looking stunned. “You’re picking me up? In the morning?”
“Well, you left your car in the parking garage, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but—”
He waved his hand impatiently with his usual rudeness, shooing her out of his car.
“Thank you, Mr. Stone.”
“Good night,” he said curtly, putting the car into gear before she even shut the door.
He needed to leave before he followed her in and tore her clothes off, marked her with his teeth, and claimed the little human… He shook his head. That couldn’t happen. Because she wouldn’t forgive it, for one thing. And he didn’t do relationships, for another. No, this very strange development, this sudden interest in a female human could not be pursued. Period.
He sighed and rubbed his palm over his face, her scent still lingering in his nostrils.
* * *
Despite the throbbing in her head, Ashley’s senses zinged from contact with Ben Stone. Talk about magnetism. Some said he had the personality of an ice cube, but all she’d sensed was pure masculine power. Even through his crisp designer suit, she’d seen the outline of sculpted muscles in his arms and chest. His dark, Latino looks dripped sexual prowess and the silence made him mysterious. And those pale green eyes had seemed to flicker to amber under the fluorescent lights at the office…
She dropped her things and started a bath, filling a washcloth with ice for the back of her neck. Heat on the body, cold on the head. Not that it ever worked. Nothing helped when she had a migraine. Her phone rang and she looked to see who was calling. Melissa—her twin sister. She hit talk. “Hey, how’s it going?”
Melissa lived two hours away in Colorado Springs, but they still spoke almost every day.
“Do you have a headache?”
“How can you tell?”
“Your voice gets all tight. I’m sorry. Did you try the hot bath, cold washcloth thing?”
“Trying it now. I’m taking you into the bathtub with me.”
“Just don’t drop your phone, you might get electrocuted or something,” Melissa teased.
She snorted. “I think that’s just with hairdryers.” She pulled her clothes off and stepped in the tub. “You’ll never believe who just took me home.”
“Who?”
“Ben Stone, the CEO and owner of Stone Tech.”
Melissa whistled. “Nice. How’d you swing that?”
She told her sister the whole story, from him finding her lying on the floor in her cubicle to telling her he had a personal assistant position open.
“So, what’s he like?”
“Super sexy in that dark, brooding Batman sort of way.”
“Did he say I’m Stoneman?” her sister asked, attempting a deep, throaty voice.
She giggled. “I wish I hadn’t had this migraine, because I screwed up my chances at the position by putting my foot in my mouth.”
“I don’t know, Ash. He’s picking you up in the morning. It kinda sounds to me like you have this one nailed.”
She tried to ignore the frissons of excitement her sister’s words caused. “I definitely wouldn’t say that. He’s a tough nut to crack. Totally unreadable.”
“What’s the scoop on him, anyway? He’s South American, right? And he moved here to run the company when his brother died?”
“Yeah, I read in Business Weekly that he’s half Latino. His mom was American and that’s where the name Stone comes from. He graduated from Harvard Business School and he’s only thirty. That’s about all I know. The company has sort of languished since Ben’s been CEO, but he refuses to step down and hire someone more experienced to run it even though the board has been pushing for it. He still owns the majority interest, so they can’t fire him.”
“So, you think he’ll get things figured out?”
“Well, he’s smart enough. Some people say he doesn’t care about the company, but I’m not sure that’s true. I don’t know, but I sure would like the chance to get close enough to him to form an opinion.”
“Well, tell him tomorrow when he picks you up.”
“Tell him what?”
“That you really want the job.”
Her pulse quickened just at the thought of sitting beside him in his car again. “Okay,” she said.
“You’re not going to,” her sister accused, probably catching the nervous twinge in her voice.
“No, I will. I will. You’re right. It’s worth groveling over.”
“So, guess who’s coming over here tonight?”
“Ooh, who?”
“Donny. The guy I met at the roller derby meet. Remember I was telling you about him?”
“Of course I remember.” She couldn’t always keep track—her sister was a bit of a serial dater. “That’s awesome. What are you going to do?”
“We’re just going to watch a movie we talked about that night we met.”
“Mmm hmm. Sure you’re just going to watch a movie,” she teased.
“Well, if stuff happens in the dark, I’m not going to call 9-1-1 or anything,” Melissa said with a laugh.
They chatted a little more and she hung up, leaning her head back against the cool porcelain of the tub, the ice tucked up behind her neck. This migraine had better be gone by tomorrow morning because there was no way she was missing out on another ride with Ben Stone.
* * *
The
next morning, she changed five times before she finally settled on a short, fitted skirt and silk blouse. Her headache had mostly disappeared, although the aura of it still made her face feel tight and her eyes appear too small. She stood at the window of her duplex, ready to go by 6:45 a.m.
Even so, when the black Mustang pulled up, she snatched up her things and dashed out as if she were late. Ben was just getting out of his car when she came flying down the porch steps to the sidewalk. He stopped, leaning against the car, gazing at her with a speculative look. “Good morning, Ashley.”
“Good morning, Mr. Stone,” she said breathlessly.
She opened the car door and got in, holding her satchel primly in front of her. She suddenly wished she owned a nicer briefcase, not this old leather schoolbag that made her look young and immature.
“How’s your head?”
“Better,” she said, forcing a bright smile.
He scanned her face. “Not quite,” he said.
Her smile dimmed. “Mostly,” she said, oddly defensive.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
Her heart picked up speed. Did the man who never smiled find her amusing? She hoped, rather desperately, that he did.
“So… I, uh, wanted to apologize for that secretary comment I made yesterday. I didn’t mean to sound like a spoiled brat.”
Again, the twitch of his mouth as his eyes slid sideways to meet hers.
She caught her breath when their gazes locked and held, his dark-lashed green eyes melting her with each suspended moment. He looked back to the road and the spell broke.
She exhaled and tried again. “I hope you’ll still consider me for the position. I mean, I’d like to interview for it, or submit my application or whatever the process is…” She trailed off. She wasn’t usually this tongue-tied, but she found the gruff CEO more than a little intimidating. Which was half of the appeal. The other half being his brooding good looks and the power of his position.
“Three o’clock, my office.”
