Ariane looked down at the remains of their picnic. “Sure, I understand. You go ahead and take care of your business. I can pack this up easily.” She hesitated and then smiled shyly at him. “I enjoyed our picnic, Michael. Maybe we can get together later?”
“Uh, sure, just let me find out what’s going on at work, and I’ll give you a call later.” The disappointment in her face nearly killed him.
“That’s great. I’ll just wait to hear from you then.”
“Okay, then. I need to run now, so I’ll catch you later.”
“Bye, Michael.”
He looked at her for a moment longer, wanting to say something but not knowing what to say. Finally, when he couldn’t take the sadness in her face anymore, he headed back toward the work site.
* * * *
“What do you mean Wilson’s talking about pulling his project away from the firm?” Michael couldn’t control the fury in his voice as he listened to Melissa. He was standing in Maddie’s kitchen, wondering how his life had gotten so complicated.
“He said, and I quote, ‘I’m not putting my money into a project when the damn architect isn’t going to be around. If Michael didn’t want the job, he should have said so.’”
“How the hell did he even know that I’d taken a few weeks off? I hadn’t mentioned it to him because his project wasn’t due to begin until after I was back in Houston.”
“He didn’t learn about it from me. I’m only the secretary and wouldn’t give out any information about any of your schedules or private lives.”
The anger and hurt in her voice came through clearly on their connection. “Melissa, what’s wrong, honey?” Although he had a good idea it had to do with Peter.
“I’m fine, Michael. What do you want me to do about Mr. Wilson?”
“Is it Peter? Is he giving you a hard time?”
“No more than usual.”
There was a brief silence then a strange noise that sounded suspiciously like a sniffle before she spoke again. “Michael, I don’t want to add to your worries, and I’m sorry for the timing, but you should probably know that I handed in my notice yesterday.”
“You what?” Michael winced, thinking he might have deafened her with the tone of his voice.
“I like you, Michael, and I liked working with you a great deal, but I have to draw the line somewhere. I want to work in an environment where I’m respected and not looked down on by either the owners or other employees.”
Her words didn’t make sense. She said respected by the owners and the other employees. Cynthia! “What did Cynthia do, Melissa?”
There was a long pause before she answered him. “She missed two client appointments and then told Peter that I hadn’t told her about them or put them on her calendar. When he checked her computer calendar, they weren’t there, even though they are on my master calendar in my computer. Hell, Michael, all I do is email the copy of my calendar. It’s not possible for it to be on one and not the other unless she deleted them.”
Michael could hear the pain in her voice. “Did you tell Peter, or better yet, show him your computer records?”
She snorted loudly. “Sure, I jumped right in and showed him I was right and everyone else was wrong. You know he never listens to me, and it’s been worse since you left. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they had joined forces to get me to resign.” She sighed heavily. “It really doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t want to work with people who don’t trust or believe me. It’ll be better for everyone if I just go and find a new job.” She laughed softly. “Can I depend on a good recommendation from you, boss?”
“Damn it, Melissa, you know I’d give you a killer recommendation any day of the week, but I don’t want you to go. Can we talk about this when I get back?”
“Sorry, boss, no can do. You’re going to be away for a few more weeks, and I’m out of here in a little over a week. I already told Peter I was leaving. He was almost jubilant.”
“Fuck him, and please excuse my language. I’ll be back tomorrow to fix this mess with Wilson, and we can talk then.”
“What about Maddie’s house? Don’t you need to be there to oversee things?”
“Everything’s going great right now, but it’s still early on. It won’t hurt for me to be away for a few days. They have a great construction crew that has everything under control. I’ll catch the next plane out and be in the office first thing in the morning. After I get things settled there, I’ll come right back here to finish the job.” He softened his voice. “Please, honey, don’t make any permanent plans until I get a chance to talk with you.”
“Damn you and that pitiful little boy voice. You know I can’t say no to that.”
Michael chuckled and felt a little more hopeful about her staying. “I’ll see you in the morning, but do me a favor.”
“Okay, anything you want.”
“Don’t tell the deadly duo that I’m going to be back tomorrow. Let it be a surprise.”
She laughed wickedly. “You’re such a bad boy, Michael. I won’t say a word. See ya tomorrow.”
Michael smiled when he heard her hang up the phone. He was confident he could convince her to stay on with him, but he had his doubts about her agreeing to work with Peter. Maybe it was time for them to have separate assistants. I wonder if Melissa would agree to stay on if she only had to answer to me?
The emergency couldn’t have come at a better time. Getting away would give him a chance to think about the situation with Ariane. She was getting way too serious, and he didn’t know how to back down gracefully. As obsessed as he seemed to be to be with her, the thought of mating with her scared the crap out of him. He’d promised to call her, but he didn’t think he could stand to hear the disappointment in her voice when he said he had to leave.
“Hey, Michael, did you get your emergency handled?”
Michael looked up as Maddie entered the room. She was the answer to his problems. He’d get her to tell Ariane that he’d gone back to Houston.
Chapter 5
“You want me to what?”
Michael cringed at the anger in Maddie’s voice. “Just give her a call later and let her know about the emergency. I don’t want to leave a message on her answering machine if she has one, and I’m not comfortable giving messages to her uncle. Just let her know that I had to go back today for a couple of days and that I’ll call her when I get back.”
Maddie looked at him for a long moment. “So you are planning on coming back.”
“Of course I am. I’m still going to stick around until your house is finished. Mali has everything under control right now, and I’m not needed. I can take care of this problem back in Houston and be back before you know it.”
“And you really are planning on calling her when you come back?”
Michael sighed and looked away. He wasn’t too pleased with this new Maddie who could see so much without him saying anything. “Yes, I’m going to call her when I get back. I just need some time to think, okay?”
Maddie frowned. “What happened?”
Michael sat down at the table and frowned at his baby sister. “She said the dreaded three words, Sis. I wasn’t ready for it and didn’t know how to respond.” He laughed harshly. “Hell, I still don’t. I need a little time to think, away from her and the mountain here. My life is in Houston, Maddie. I don’t believe she’d ever fit in there, much less be happy there. She’s the type of woman who wants forever, and I don’t think I can be that for anybody.”
“Her feelings aren’t gonna go away. I think you’re doing her an injustice to just assume she’d never be able to fit into your life in the big city.” Maddie walked over and hugged him around the neck. “I’ll love you no matter what you decide. I just want you to be happy, Michael.”
He rested his head on her shoulder. “I love you too, Kiddo. Just give me this time to think, and I’ll come back and talk to her about everything.”
“Okay, just come back soon. I’ve gotten used to ha
ving you around even in this short time. I’m gonna miss you something fierce.”
“I kind of like being around you and Remus, even if you do scare the crap out of me from time to time.” He laughed when she bopped him upside the head with her hand. “I’m gonna head out now, grab an overnight bag from the cabin, and go to the airport. Is it okay if I just take what I need and leave the rest in Remus’s cabin?”
Maddie smiled broadly. “You bet it is. That tells me for sure you’ll be back.”
“Brat!” He smacked her on the butt and headed out the door. “I’ll call you when I get home.” Then the door slammed behind him.
* * * *
Maddie was just hanging up the phone when Remus walked through the back door. The scowl on her face had him hoping that she wasn’t still angry with him. He walked over and put his arms around her, rubbing gently on her still flat stomach. “Hey, my love. How are my little mate and our pup this afternoon?”
“Hi, Remus. We’re fine I guess. It’s hard for me to imagine that there’s a baby in there, but I believe it if you say it’s so.” She smiled up at him, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I just got off the phone with Ariane. Michael asked me to call her and explain that he had an emergency that took him back to Houston for a few days. She didn’t really say anything, but I could tell how unhappy she was.”
“Michael’s gone back to Houston?”
“Yeah, he got a call from Melissa. They have some kind of emergency with a big client that he needed to fix.” She looked up at her mate. “I don’t think that’s really why he left, though. I think he was getting scared and didn’t know what to do about Ariane.”
“Why would you think that?”
“He told me that she told him she loved him today.”
Remus whistled low. “Boy, how did he take that?”
“Scared him worse than when you came in the door as a wolf.”
Remus laughed. “That bad, huh?”
Maddie giggled. “Definitely that bad. He was practically shaking in his shoes to get away. He said he just needed time to think things through and then he’d be back and talk to her himself.”
“Do you think he’s really coming back?”
“Well, he left most of his clothes and stuff here in the cabin. He only took a couple of things with him, so, yeah, I’m pretty sure he’ll be back. I wish there was something we could do to help them.”
“Come here, baby.” Remus walked over and took Maddie into his arms. He hugged her tight for just a moment then bent down to kiss her lips softly. Breathing deeply, he took in her scent. It was a mixture of her pregnancy and unmistakable arousal. It fired his lust like nothing else could.
He moved his lips close to her ear so he could whisper while he nibbled on her lobe. “I want you, now.” Remus picked her up suddenly, laughing at her little squeal, and set her on the kitchen counter.
“Remus, what are you doing?” Her voice was husky, and her eyes were full of need and want.
He cupped her head and gazed into her eyes before lowering his lips to hers. She willingly accepted his tongue, and for a few minutes they merely tasted one another. Soon tasting wasn’t enough for Remus. He raised his hands to the front of her shirt and pulled harshly. The buttons flew in all directions as he exposed her plain white bra.
“Remus, have you lost your mind? We’re in the middle of the kitchen, in somebody else’s house! Your brothers could come in any minute.”
Maddie’s voice had a hint of hysteria that Remus chose to ignore. He placed his hands on the front of her bra and tore the material down the middle, exposing her beautiful, rose-tipped breasts. He smiled when he heard Maddie gasp. His large hands cupped her gently and squeezed before he lowered his mouth. His tongue teased around the peaks with maddeningly slow circles while Maddie gripped her fingers in his hair and tightened her legs around his waist. She cried out when he drew her nipple between his teeth with an edge of roughness and then moaned softly when he laved the sting with the flat of his tongue.
Remus continued to suckle her breast as he moved his hands to the waistband of her jeans and quickly unfastened them. Before she could protest, he’d raised her up, pulled them down her hips, over her knees, and dropped them to the floor. He moved his body closer, pressing her thighs even further apart. Reaching for her panties, he ripped them down both sides and pulled them free of her body.
He smoothed his hand up her leg, easing his way to her core. The area between her thighs was wet when he gently pushed two fingers inside her pussy. “God, you’re so wet for me.”
“Remus, you, uh, you have to stop. We can’t do this here.” Maddie said the words, but her voice was laced with desire.
Remus leaned over and let his hand spread her pussy lips apart. He licked the length of her slit and then delved his tongue inside.
“Remus,” Maddie cried out as she tightened her legs around him even more.
Slowly he began to lap at her clit while she writhed against his mouth. Wetting his finger in the juices pouring from his mate, Remus reached down and circled the puckered opening that always brought her such pleasure. Her loud groan and her fingernails gouging into his shoulders rewarded him.
Taking her clit between his lips, he began to suck rhythmically while gently inserting one finger into her ass. For just a moment she tensed and then seemed to melt all over. She began to rock her hips to the rhythm of his lips sucking. When he could feel her thighs begin to tremble, he began alternately sucking and nibbling at her clit and added a second finger to her puckered opening. When he could tell she was near, he took her clit between his fingers and raised his head. He wanted to see her when she came.
Pinching her clit between his fingers, he plunged his fingers all the way into her ass, and Maddie came in a rush. She cried out, her body shaking with the pleasure. His tongue pushed into her mouth, absorbing her cries of release. He kissed her until she began to relax against him and was just about to reach for his zipper when he heard the front door open.
Maddie froze. “Oh my God,” she whispered.
Remus quickly pulled off his shirt and threw it over his naked mate. Not wasting a minute, he grabbed her around the waist and then lifted and placed her over his shoulder.
“Remus,” she hissed, “put me down.”
Ignoring her, Remus made sure her ass was covered and then walked toward the living room. His cock was about to burst, and he wasn’t letting his mate go until they’d both been satisfied. Ignoring his brothers’ looks of shock, he strolled past them and walked quickly to their bedroom, slamming the door behind him.
* * * *
Ethan followed Latan as they walked into their house, both men excited because they had a date later in the evening. They watched as their brother walked calmly through the room with his mate over his shoulder and then followed his progress down the hall as he went into their bedroom.
They looked at each other before Ethan spoke. “Was I imagining things, or was Maddie nearly naked?”
“Uh, no, you weren’t imagining things. I’m glad you needed to stop for gas, or there’s no telling what we would have walked in on.” Latan laughed.
Both men headed into the kitchen and stopped cold when they saw the clothing on the floor. Ethan walked over and picked up Maddie’s shirt and a couple of buttons off the floor. He groaned when he thought of what had gone on in their kitchen. He turned to ask Latan what they should do about it and lost his train of thought when he saw what his brother had in his hand. “Is that what I think it is?” he asked.
“If you think it’s a pair of panties that have obviously been ripped off, then yes,” Latan replied. “It was on the counter here.”
“Great,” Ethan snorted. “Now I’ll never be able to eat anything that’s been cooked in this kitchen again!”
* * * *
Michael was waiting for Melissa when she arrived at work the next morning. He didn’t say a word, just took her arm and led her back to his office, shutting the door firmly
behind them. Without saying anything, he gave her a brief hug and urged her to take a seat. After she was seated, he pulled up a chair and sat close to her.
He took one of her hands in his. “We’ve been friends a long time, Melissa. I don’t want to lose you over something stupid.”
She sighed. “It’s not stupid, Michael. I can’t work with them any longer. I used to love this job and now I have to make myself get up in the morning and come here. I can’t live my life that way.”
Michael rubbed her hand between his. “I know, honey, and I think I have a solution.”
She eyed him warily. “Okay, I’m listening.”
“What if you just worked for me?”
Melissa looked intrigued. “What are you talking about?”
“Simple, I’m going to tell Peter that he needs to hire his own personal assistant and that I’m keeping you for myself. We’re busy enough now that we could both use some help, and we can each pay our assistants from our own percentage. We’ll hire a receptionist for the front desk to field calls from the corporate budget.”
“He’s never going to go for that, Michael. There’s too much room for conflict. You both still have jobs that you do together, and there would be no firm chain of command.”
“Come on, Melissa. You’re grasping at straws and looking for trouble where there is none. He’ll agree, or he might find himself in business alone. I’m not opposed to the idea of starting my own firm away from here.”
“Oh no, I never wanted to cause trouble between the two of you. It’s not worth it. I can easily find another job.”
Michael took her chin in his hand and made her look him in the eye. “It’s worth it to me. I don’t want to lose you. You’re as much responsible for getting this business off the ground as we are. Hell, you’ve been with us since day one. I’m not just letting you walk away without a fight.”
Melissa still looked skeptical, but she nodded. “Okay, if you’re sure you want to make this an issue, I’ll stay on working for you personally.”
Martine, Missy - Denying His Wolfen Heritage [A Wolfen Heritage 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 12
