“Do you treat Jane like a princess?”
“She’d kick all our asses if we tried.”
“Jules, I’m sorry, that kind of rejection is hard.” She took a step towards him.
He took that as a good sign. “I’m sorry Kaylee. That day in the airport, that was a bad change. And the news has been hyping it for months now. Maybe sometime you could come to the safe house with me. Brock could be there, he’s dominant to me and has very good control. You could see me shift and meet the bear.”
“Is it safe?”
“We generally don’t encourage people to interact with us when we’re in bear form because we are wild animals, but I think my bear would rather protect you than harm you.”
“Oh?”
He looked down at his hands. “I think somewhere along the way I fell in love with you, Kaylee.”
“I see. Look, I have to hang out here until my mom gets home. Or at least until Cora gets home, whichever happens first. Did you want to grab wings down at the pub later?”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. “Why don’t you come inside? You can play video games with Tony. He’ll love that. Just watch yourself, he’s a shark.”
“I’ll take my chances.” He stood and slowly closed the gap between them. He could sense that she was nervous but she didn’t run. He smiled. “I won’t chase you if you run,” he said. “I’m not that much of a wild animal.”
“I wasn’t sure,” she said. She reached up and touched his cheek. “You look like a bear,” she said.
He kissed her soft and sweet, keeping it chaste just in case Tony or June were watching from one of the windows. “Thank you,” he said. “Thank you for this chance.”
The pub was busier since it was later in the evening, and they had to sit at one of the little tables in the middle of the room. The noise of the crowd gave them a little privacy—not enough that either of them was going to say the word ‘werebear’ out loud, but enough that they didn’t feel like every eye in the room was on them.
“What’s he like?” Kaylee asked.
“Honestly, he’s like a lazy hippy. All he cares about is food and sleep and staying safe.”
“I would never have pictured him as a hippy.”
“Totally laid back most of the time,” he said, grinning.
“Not grumpy like my mentor at the office?”
“That’s all me,” he agreed. “And about that, I sort of quit.”
“What?!”
“I quit my job at the shop. Or rather I had Brock call Freddie and quit on my behalf.”
“Why? I need you there. You’re my mentor. How am I supposed to finish my schooling now?”
He took her hand. “I didn’t want Freddie to fire me when that video came out. Now he can tell everyone who calls that I no longer work there. It’ll keep some of the media heat off you too.”
“Well, isn’t that just great. What about my degree?”
“I’ll email Freddie and recommend that you simply take over doing all my work and that you send everything to him for a final review before it’s passed on to the client. If you need help, there are two other designers there who can give you pointers and advice. And when you’re done with school you’ll have a job.”
“Wow. Well, that sounds good to me.”
“And it means things won’t be weird at work for us,” he said. Her blush made him smile.
“So, uh, the kids want to go to another movie,” she said, changing the subject to something much safer.
His smile grew bigger. “They were a lot of fun to hang out with. And you were right about Tony, he’s got some mad video game skills.”
“I think you’re his new hero.”
“That can’t be too bad,” Jules said. “Tell me more about them. You smile a lot when you talk about them.”
It was dark out when they left the pub, arm in arm. “That was fun,” he said.
She didn’t answer.
He looked over to see she was staring at him. Her expression was soft and yet her gaze was intense. He felt like he’d suddenly been put under an interrogation spotlight. “Kaylee.”
“Take me back to your place,” she said.
“Are you sure?”
“I haven’t had that much to drink,” she said. “I’m sure. Let’s go back to your place.”
She dropped her purse on the floor as they came in, turned, and kissed Jules, cutting off whatever he was about to say. He wrapped his arms around her. It felt good to hold her. It felt even better that she was pressing herself hard against him.
He had always hosted her in the living room with his bedroom door closed because that was the polite thing to do. Today, he guided them straight to the bedroom. It was almost like dancing, if you could dance while you were kissing someone and couldn’t see anything.
He was neat by nature, so he didn’t have to scramble to clean up dirty laundry or make his bed with the appearance of unexpected company in his private space. Kaylee didn’t notice that the laundry was all in the hamper. She wouldn’t have noticed if it was all over the floor either. Her full attention was on Jules, the way he kept his arms around her, the way he brushed against her as he walked them backwards.
They stopped by the bed and he smiled down at her, his hand gentle on her cheek. “I want you,” he whispered. She reached down and grabbed the bottom of her shirt, pulling it over her head and letting it fall to the floor. He felt the breath catch in his throat and he let his eyes take in all of her. The lace of her bra framed her breasts, bright pink against her dark skin. He’d been expecting something more subtle, like her makeup, but this was beautiful and bold and suited her.
He trailed a finger along the strap and down the edge of the cup. She shivered. She licked her lips. “What about you?” she said.
Reluctantly he pulled his hand away from her and undid the buttons of his shirt. He shrugged out of it, and she was in his space, touching his skin before the shirt even hit the ground. “You look like a bear,” she said again.
“The bear is a lot hairier,” he said.
“Don’t care.” She kissed his chest.
They took their time kissing and touching each other while their clothes came off slowly, a piece at a time. She marveled at the feel of his muscles under his skin. He was so warm. His hands were so wide. One covered her entire breast or could encircle her arm, but they were gentle, always caressing, never digging into her skin.
They crawled into the bed and continued to explore each other, touching and kissing in the most intimate of places. Their pace was unhurried and they often paused to smile at each other, to touch each other’s faces, and to exchange gentle, tender kisses.
She reached down and touched him, her fingers soft along the sensitive skin of his shaft. She took him in hand and spread her legs, guiding him closer. He paused, his face close to hers.
“Kaylee, I love you.”
“I love you too.”
He covered her mouth with his and started pushing into her. He moved slowly, teasing her with it and savoring the feel of her. They moved together slowly but passionately. When his breathing began to grow heavy and the tightness began to grow low in his groin he pulled out and took his erection in his hand.
She reached up and slid her hand over him, pushing his hand aside. She tugged and pulled, all the while looking up at him with seductive bedroom eyes. Her hair was mussed and her skin glistened with sweat. She was the sexiest and most beautiful person he had ever seen.
It didn’t take long for him to reach his peak. He leaned forward, his weight on his hands, and closed his eyes. His cum landed all over her chest and stomach.
After a moment, she started to giggle. He opened his eyes and looked down at her.
“Do you have a towel?”
“Yeah.” His cheeks went bright red. “Yeah, hold on.” He grabbed a towel off the top of the hamper and wiped her clean. “Sorry about that.”
“Why? I’d be more worried if I couldn’t make yo
u cum.”
She rolled over and crawled over the bed and flopped down again, her head on the pillow. He joined her and they snuggled in close together.
“I should get you home.”
“Mmm. I could just call my mom and tell her I’m not coming home until morning. I am an adult.”
“If you’d like. You can stay. You can sleep here.”
She snuggled in closer. “Yeah, I’d like that. You’re so warm.”
The mental autopilot almost took Jules to the print shop Monday morning. He had to drive around the block at one point when he made a left instead of the right. It didn’t help that the weekend spent with Kaylee had left him low on sleep. Remy was waiting for him in the lobby of a very large office building. “Here’s your temporary office pass and your parking pass. Where did you put your car?”
“The metered parking on the street. I only paid for an hour.”
“Let’s go then. I’ll show you where to park. Someone will appreciate the extra time on the meter, I’m sure.”
There was a two-story underground parking lot under the office building. The entrance was off the side street. Remy directed Jules to a numbered stall. “You park here every day. If there’s someone in your spot, you park in the visitor stall, the first one on the left as you came in, and you report it to security. They’ll page you when you can move your car into the proper spot.”
“Do you run into that problem often?”
“Parking in the city can be a nightmare. People will take any spot they can find some days. The elevator is just at the end there. Grab what you need and we’ll head up to HR on fourteen. They need to take your photo for your permanent staff ID tag. And there’s paperwork to fill out for payroll. Don’t expect to get much done today.”
“It’s looking that way. On my first day at the print shop, I was shoved behind a desk and given a half-finished project to complete by day’s end. Freddie is not this organized.”
“We have to be. It’s a much bigger machine at work here. You won’t have an office yet, just a cubicle.”
“That’s fine. I’ll probably miss having a door though.”
“Brock is working on it. If you prove your capability here, he’ll get you an interview with one of the smaller subsidiary companies that is requesting an in-house designer so they don’t have to send up to corporate HQ for all their needs.”
“I guess it pays to know the CEO.”
“Keep that fact to yourself for as long as possible.”
“Won’t everyone put two and two together since I’m out and he’s out?”
“Still, don’t advertise it.”
The elevator dinged at floor fourteen and Remy led him to the HR offices.
Kaylee was nervous as she walked into work Monday morning. Even with Jules’ reassurances, she had no way of knowing if Freddie would keep her on.
Mark waved her over as soon as she walked in. “Did you hear?” he said in a hushed voice.
“Which part?”
“Jules. All of it.”
She nodded. “I know he’s a werebear, and I know he quit.”
“The phone hasn’t stopped ringing, and Freddie is pacing like a caged animal. And when I tell the press that he doesn’t work here anymore they want to know if we discriminate against shifters.”
“Good thing you can honestly tell them he quit to pursue a job in a bigger company.”
“You’d think so.” The phone rang. “Hold on.”
Freddie stepped out of his office and waved her over, a phone against his ear. “Yes, sir, that’s right. No, he left the company Friday. That’s right, your project will now be handled by one of our other designers. Yes, I can guarantee that she is human.” He covered the mouthpiece and said, “Please tell me you’re human.”
She nodded.
“Of course. No, I didn’t know either. Of course. Have a good day.”
“Asshole,” Kaylee muttered.
“It’s been one or the other this morning,” Freddie said. “Either the clients want assurances that no shifter is working on their project because they don’t want to fund a shifter agenda—whatever that means—or they want to know if Jules can do their job for them because “designed by a shifter” would be a huge marketing bonus for them. I don’t know which is worse at this point.”
“Is anyone threatening to pull a deal because Jules isn’t here?”
“No, thank God.”
“Then the assholes are worse.”
“That’s a practical way of looking at things. You don’t seem surprised by all of this.”
“I saw Jules over the weekend.”
“At least he had the courtesy to speak to you in person. He had his all-powerful buddy Brock call me.”
“Well, to be fair it sounds like he had a stressful weekend.”
“Who wants to be fair at this point?” Freddie sighed. “Look, I called your professor and explained the situation.”
Panic gripped Kaylee’s stomach and twisted.
“I’m keeping you on. I agreed to this mentorship program, so I’m not kicking you out. You can have Jules’ office space. You can finish the projects you were working on with him since you know what’s going on with them. After that, I will give you clients I think you can handle and everything will go through me before going to the client. If you pass your finals, and if I still like the work you’re doing without Jules there to guide you, you can have his job when this mentorship thing is done. Deal?”
“Oh, my God! Thank you so much!” She threw her arms around him and squeezed. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She suddenly remembered who she was hugging and stepped back. She pointed a finger at him. “Don’t get any ideas.”
He put both hands up. “Promise.” The phone rang. “Get to work. I’ve got this mess to deal with.”
Her cellphone rang mid-morning. “Hey, Alice,” Kaylee said, grateful for the chance to rest her eyes. “How did that project go?”
“Great. You were right about that green—it needed more blue in it. I’ve been watching the news all weekend, you know, the story about the airport bear?”
“I know all about it,” Kaylee said. “Why?”
“So, that is your print shop then? It was on the news this morning, and I thought it was the same place where you’re doing your program.”
“Yup. He worked here.”
“Worked?”
“Quit on Friday, got an offer from Tandell Corporations.”
“The lucky guy,” Alice said. “That’s a dream job right there. Did you know him?”
“Alice, he was my mentor.”
Kenny (Shifter Football League Book 2) Page 48
