“Very well, we’ll be professional then. Here’s the deal. My family owns a fairly large development firm that operates mainly in the greater London area. For a couple of years now, we’ve been buying land in one of the villages south of M25, which we believe will be the next Epsom in popularity for London commuters. The plan is to build an exclusive community of more-expensive cottages. These plans are never popular with locals, however, so we’ve been buying in secret.” He paused and she nodded, indicating that she had been listening, even though her gaze kept dropping to his chest.
Stifling a satisfied smile, he shifted in his chair as if seeking a better position to sit in, offering her a better view. He didn’t mind her looking at his chest. For further measure, he let his wolf peek out too. The aura stretched well out of him towards her, studying her with its better sense of smell. It agreed that she was human, but that didn’t seem to deter it one bit.
Charlotte didn’t react to the wolf at all. She couldn’t see the aura. Humans couldn’t, which in general made living side by side with them a great deal easier, because they could pretend everyone was human. If it bothered the one-natureds that generation after generation dealt with the same client, or that a CEO of a vampire-owned company stayed the same for a hundred and fifty years without growing older, they didn’t let it show. But now Rafe couldn’t help being disappointed. He wanted her to see his wolf, and his beast wanted to be seen in turn.
“Someone found out about it though,” he continued, not letting his upset show. “It could be a coincidence, but I think it’s deliberate.”
“What is?” she asked, lifting her beautiful brown eyes to meet his. Her gaze didn’t waver at all, although humans tended to react to the alpha in him by lowering their eyes pretty fast. His wolf definitely expected it as its due. She just gritted her teeth when the impact of him hit her, and refused to submit.
Rafe was pleased by her show of strength. “Someone sold us a piece of land that wasn’t theirs to sell and then disappeared. We’ve got a long list of previous owners for the land, all of them fake.”
“Have you gone to the police?”
“No, and we’d rather not. We don’t want to draw any attention to our project until we’ve purchased all the land we need.”
“So you want me to do what?” She straightened in her chair, perfectly professional now, his chest forgotten. He felt ridiculously upset for it.
“We want you to find out who sold us the land and also who actually owns it. We’ve been unable to do either with the means we have.”
She nodded. “I’ve got an access to official records. Also, I’ve got contacts that I can use.”
He was intrigued. “What sort of contacts?”
She gave him a sly smile that he took as a challenge, his blood heating all the way down. “Secret contacts.”
He flashed a wolfish grin and, in a fluid move, got up from his chair to sit on the corner of the table. He was on a higher ground now and she had to lift her face to keep looking at him, which pleased his wolf. “Tell me more,” he urged with a smile, leaning towards her, but she wouldn’t budge.
“Are you trying to intimidate me, Mr Green?” she asked calmly, refusing to lean back.
“Call me Rafe.” But she just stared at him quietly, her arched brow challenging him to answer her question. It agitated his wolf, but he was so aroused he could barely breathe. He had never met a woman like her. “Yes, I am,” he answered, his every word deliberate. He pressed his hands on the armrests of her chair and leaned closer to her face, never breaking the eye contact. “Is it working?” Closing in the short distance, he kissed her.
For a long, delicious heartbeat, Charly forgot how to breathe. She forgot how to think too. She could only feel, and the only thing she felt was the firm mouth of the sexiest man she had ever met against hers, softly urging her to deepen the kiss. With a sigh, she complied and leaned into his kiss, opening her mouth for him to explore.
His tongue dipped into her mouth. The sensations it evoked ignited her entire body, snatching it violently out of her control. It was such a shock that she returned instantly to her senses. She broke the kiss with a small shriek she was instantly ashamed of, and stumbled backwards in her chair. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she demanded angrily. She wanted to get up and put some distance between them, but his hands were still holding the armrests and she knew there was absolutely no breaking their hold until he allowed it.
“Kissing you,” he answered simply and leaned back in.
She would not have it. He was all too easily able to override her restraints and she knew what would happen if she lost them completely. Not to mention what would happen if someone came in and saw them kissing. Right after the fight with her boss, it would get her fired. Furious now, as much for his behaviour as for her easy assent to it, she was determined not to let him compromise her standing with the firm.
Her self-control already weakened, she wasn’t surprised when her anger manifested physically, something that hadn’t happened in ages. Unable to prevent it, her upper lip curled as if in a snarl, baring her teeth, and she growled, the sound guttural but perfectly human.
She knew her feral expression twisted her face to something so ugly it made normal men back down, if only in disgust, and the humiliation of it finally curbed her anger. Breathing hard for the effort of seizing back control of her body, she stared at Mr Green defiantly. Let him deal with that.
But he didn’t back off or look disgusted even. He looked positively intrigued. He leaned closer again, braving her anger and her teeth, and took a long, deep breath. Then he closed his eyes, as if savouring her scent.
When he opened them again, he shook his head, a curious look in his eyes. He pulled back, but kept looming over her on the edge of the table, studying her. Annoyed that it more aroused than angered her to have his huge body crowding her, she sat straighter.
He smiled and leaned back, finally giving her some room to breathe. “Well now, Charlotte,” he said, as if nothing had happened. “I know you are the perfect person to solve my problem.”
Still shaken, she wanted to tell him she would do nothing for him, but she held her tongue. Mr Latimer couldn’t fire her for not making coffee, but if she said no to Mr Green, he might use it as an excuse. So she just nodded. “I am.” She could only hope she didn’t live to regret it.
Chapter Five
The air-conditioning switched off at nine-thirty, plunging the office into eerie silence with the absence of its steady humming. Roused by the change in her surroundings, Charly straightened her back, groaning when the muscles there protested their new position. She spent a moment stretching her stiffened neck and then she looked around. She was the only person left, the still-mute TV her sole company.
The debates in the Commons had ended ages ago, but the protesters remained in place. They were gathered as close to the Palace of Westminster as they were allowed, keeping up the pressure for the voting the next day. There were only humans protesting against the two-natureds. Either those who had the most to gain from the vote didn’t care enough to put pressure on the MPs or they had other means for lobbying. Charly suspected the latter. But despite the wealth and influence of the vampires and the shifter clans, the vote would go against them. It always did.
That wasn’t her problem though. Hers was an overactive libido that threatened her self-control. She had been unable to put Raphael out of her mind ever since she’d returned to her desk after seeing him out of the office at the end of their meeting. At least the rest of it had gone smoothly and without breaches of personal boundaries. Then she had spent the afternoon fantasising about him instead of actually working, until she had forced herself to concentrate via sheer willpower. She had lost so much time however, that she was still in the office hours after everyone else had gone home, trying to catch up with her work.
Well, it wasn’t like she had someone waiting for her at home. Except that tonight she did.
Bob.
Charly sprang into action when she remembered her brother’s dog she had promised to look after while he was in New York for a week. She and her four-years-older brother, Jack, had never been very close, but Bob, a drooling mass of fur that ate everything it found, had made them spend more time together. Jack had been brought up to be their father’s successor in the family firm and he was too much like their father for her to respect him. But he couldn’t be all bad if he had a dog like Bob.
She hurried out, pausing only to lock the office for the night before heading to the lift. It would be a long ride to the other side of London to Mayfair where her brother lived in a luxury flat near Hyde Park. Bob wasn’t fussy about walks, but if it got bored there was no telling what it would do to pass time. She hoped it was nothing messy this time round that would take a long time to clean up.
Perhaps she had best spend the night at Jack’s? It would be late no matter what Bob had or hadn’t done before he was properly walked and fed, so it would be more convenient. No point in heading to her own home in the dead of the night for a couple hours of sleep. She kept clothes in her brother’s spare bedroom for that purpose, and since his housekeeper stocked the fridge whether he was home or not, there would be food as well.
She thought of her own small flat and its empty cupboards she had been too busy to refill, again, and had to stifle a pang of envy for everything Jack had been given simply for being a boy. He had held good positions in the family firm even before graduating, and at thirty-six, he was already running the show, their father having had to retire after succumbing to a stroke. But father’s dictates continued to hold sway, especially the one about women and their place in society, and since she refused to condone, she had to make her own way.
And made it she had, she thought with pride, even if it meant she had no time for grocery shopping.
It was dark when she got out, but the business district never completely closed for the night and her path to the tube station was well lit and surprisingly busy. She descended to the platform and boarded the tube with other late-nighters, her mind occupied with the same thing it had been the whole day: Rafe and the kiss.
She could still taste him, and she remembered how his mouth had felt against hers, deliciously demanding. His chin had felt slightly raspy against her skin, as if he hadn’t shaved that morning. It had only aroused her more, contrary to all her previous experiences with men. She didn’t date very often, she was too busy and too afraid of ceding control of her body, but all her partners had been sophisticated and definitely well-groomed. Though none of them had made her lose herself so completely with a mere kiss.
Her body energised by the memory, she walked the short distance from the Marble Arch station to Jack’s building in record time. Every time she entered the grand lobby, its marble floor, high ceiling, and brass detailing made her pause and admire the craftsmanship of a hundred years ago. She then checked who was on security duty that evening. The highly exclusive building employed ex-military and trained bodyguards to keep its residents safe, and tonight it was Jim sitting behind the front desk. He looked every bit like an ex-soldier with his tall, lean body and clean-shaven head, his demeanour alert even though nothing was happening. She waved to him in a greeting as she went past.
“Bob’s been getting anxious,” he said, smiling at her, and she forgot all about Rafe and his kiss. Sometimes Bob howled forlornly if it was left alone for too long, annoying the neighbours.
“Thanks, Jim,” she said, hurrying to the lift to get to the sixth floor.
The greeting she got the moment she opened the door to Jack’s flat was enthusiastic. Whenever she wondered about Jack’s decision to keep a Newfoundland, she only needed to remember how happy Bob always was to see her. It was nice to have someone waiting for you at home. Even if the said someone got slobber all over her second best suit.
“Calm down, Bob,” she commanded the drooling mass of joy with her most assertive voice. Bob knew which one of them was the boss, but it still took a while before the dog got over its excitement and let her cross the combined living room and dining area – a vast space of sleek modern furniture and neutral colours – to Jack’s spare bedroom he used as his office when he worked at home. It had a bed she could use – though she was probably the only person ever to use it – and the closet held some of her clothing. She needed to change into something more suitable for a late-night walk in early October. There wasn’t much to choose from, but since the clothes she had left there were meant for walking the dog, she had what she needed. Soon she had put on a pair of jeans, a cashmere sweater, and knee-high riding boots. To ward off the wind that had picked up, she donned a trench-coat too.
“Come on then,” she said to Bob, putting it on its leash. “It’s late, so we have to be quick about it.”
Down in the lobby, Jim halted her. “Are you sure you want to go out there alone at this hour, Miss Charlotte?” he asked sternly, too polite to forbid her outright. “If you wait a moment, I’ll have one of the boys to escort you.” Bodyguard services were part of the building’s exclusive image, and as Jack’s sister she apparently merited them too.
But she didn’t feel like having someone trail behind her. “Thanks, but I won’t need anyone. I’ll be back well before midnight.” Everyone knew that when Hyde Park closed for the night, shifters claimed it. And humans were not welcome among shifters when they were in their animal form.
Jim gave her a look that had probably made recruits quake in their boots when he was in the service, but after the strength of Rafe’s gaze, it fell flat for her. “It’s not the furry-ones I’m worried about,” he said, reaching for the phone. “Tensions have been running high the whole day because of the debates, and some of the protesters are gathering in the park in order to march against shifters. You don’t want to get mixed with them.”
Charly hadn’t known about it, but she held her ground. “I’ll be all right. I have Bob with me,” she quipped, making Jim smile. They both knew that Bob’s greatest weapon was its amazing ability to drool, but at least he let the matter be. He probably hoped that since shifters weren’t known to keep pets, the protesters would know her for a human. For her part, she was armed with a pepper spray and her long legs. She could outrun any assailant.
Once in the park, Charly was relieved to notice that if there were protesters around, they weren’t anywhere near their usual round. Bob was in no hurry, and so it took them the better part of an hour to complete their walk, which brought them perilously close to midnight after all. Walking at a leisurely pace, Bob went about sniffing every bush and barking at every night bird and squirrel that got in its path.
That was how it usually behaved though, so Charly didn’t immediately react when Bob paused again as they neared their gate, staring intently at a bush bathed in darkness, unusual tension stiffening its body, its tail held low. Danger.
Perhaps it hadn’t been such a great idea to come to the park alone after all, Charly mused, her heartbeat accelerating. She dug out the pepper spray, hoping that it was only someone wanting to expose himself and not a mugger. But she wouldn’t count on it. So she fished out her mobile phone with her other hand, ready to hit the speed dial to Jim’s desk if she was attacked. Security would be there in no time.
The next sensible thing to do was to beat a hasty retreat. She took a firmer hold of Bob’s leash and tugged it, but Bob wouldn’t budge. It just stared into the darkness, growling. The sound was so surprising coming from the affable dog that she got truly scared. Bob wouldn’t growl at a mere human. But it might growl at a shifter in animal form. Her stomach dropped in fear.
She didn’t wait to see if she was right. Taking a good hold of Bob’s collar, she began to drag the heavy dog towards the gate. She didn’t know if shifters reacted the way most predators did to a fleeing prey, so she took slow steps, keeping her face directed towards the bush. Once it was out of sight, she began to run, and Bob followed her at a surprising pace.
They reached
Jack’s building in no time and she paused at its corner to catch her breath so she could make a dignified entry. But when she tried to make Bob move on, it had frozen again, this time staring down a maintenance alley that ran towards the back of the building. It was well lit and monitored with CCTV cameras, but Charly wasn’t stupid enough to enter it. She couldn’t resist taking a look herself, however, and what she saw made her freeze too.
A wolf-shifter.
She had no doubt that the form standing in the middle of the alley was a shifter. It didn’t look purely like a wolf. It was larger and much more muscular than a wolf, kind of how a Rottweiler was bulkier than a Greyhound. It had something of a male lion about it even, in the sturdy strength of its powerful build. Yet it was graceful. In the artificial orange light of the alley, she couldn’t tell the colour of its thick fur, only that it was something light.
Charly stood staring at the wolf-shifter, transfixed. She knew she should be terrified, but instead she felt elated and exhilarated. She felt as if her soul had grown freeing wings simply for seeing such a magnificent beast. Besides, the creature wasn’t hostile. It shot them a disgusted look and took off towards the back of the alley, disappearing from sight. She stared after it for a long time, until Bob got restless and started tugging its leash, snapping her out of her reverie.
Finally, she had managed to banish Rafe from her thoughts – a state that lasted all of two minutes. Entering the lift, she suddenly came face to face with him again.
Chapter Six
The wolf slipped under a gate into the car park beneath the building, the route familiar to them from many nightly explorations. There, they made their way along the dimly lit walls behind the cars to a dark corner where they had left their clothes, a convenient blind spot in the building’s surveillance, left there on purpose. The wolf didn’t want to release its preferred state, but the human was stronger, as always, and forced the shift.
The Wolf's Call (Two-Natured London) Page 3
