by K. S. Martin
“Nothing yet.” I pull my phone from my pants and dial the building security. Within seconds I have two female guards hustling into the ladies bathroom then I get a call back.
“It’s empty.” The blonde says into my phone. I see her come back out of the bathroom into the lobby. She’s looking up into the camera that Michael has trained on the ladies room. I mutter a thanks and disconnect.
“I’m live.” Dan says. “She never came out.” I look at screen.
“With me.” I say. Dan pops up from his chair and follows.
“Stay on the cameras Mike.” I hear him say ‘yep’ as I stride to the elevator. I stop just as my finger reaches.
“Have you dusted this for prints?” Dan nods.
“Only yours. She wore gloves. She hid her face entering and exiting too.” I tap in the code and we go down to the lobby. The security team on duty behind the desk jumps up. I motion to the blonde and she hurries over.
“Check the room again, if anyone is in there, send them out.” She goes in and comes right back out.
“Still empty.” She stands aside and I go in to look for myself. I open each stall door. Nothing. In the last stall there is an air vent behind the door. I look at it. The screws have been unfastened and refastened. I point at the small curls of paint on the floor and Dan nods. He pulls a screwdriver from his pocket and makes quick work of them. He looks inside and finds smudges in the dust.
“This is where she exited.” He says from inside. “It splits in about ten feet.” Dan scoots out and thinks for a moment. He pulls out his cell and dials. “Mike watch the feed on the men’s room. I think she went out there.” The men’s room was on the other side of the security area. She would’ve have passed through the wall behind the unsuspecting fools. We check the men’s room and it is empty too. Dan and I go back to the elevator. I don’t have time for this crap. Jane is upstairs in that bustier and I haven’t fully enjoyed the view yet. Dan’s phone chirps and he looks at it. “He has her.”
“He has her on tape?” Dan nods. “Who is she?”
“He has her exiting the men’s room dressed as a man, he’s sure. No one went in but she came out. She was dressed as a man in a utility worker’s uniform. Nobody pays attention to blue collar.” They will now. They will pay attention to everyone entering the building. I make a mental note to install cameras that are lower, at normal height, where you can’t hide your face. We go up and he gets off at his floor.
I don’t understand the reasoning. Why not just walk out the front door? Why make a detour through the bathroom? It doesn’t make sense. Did she think that we wouldn’t figure it out?
“Thank Mike for me. Review earlier footage. She had to come into the building at some point.” Dan nods as the doors close. I have to change all of the damn codes now without Jane suspecting. I never want her to feel unsafe in my house.
~8~
Jake is sitting on the bed beside where I’m curled up. He’s watching a video of a woman on an elevator. She’s small and has short blonde hair. Who is this woman? He keeps scrolling back and forth looking at her from all angles. Is this someone he would rather be with? She’s everything that I’m not. She’s dainty and pixie like. She makes me feel like a huge nasty ogre. He closes the lid and I look up at him watching me. “Girlfriend?” I say sharply.
“Uninvited guest. She broke into the building today and she got away before we could get a clear picture of her. I’m going to change all of the building codes as a precaution. She was probably trying to steal software but just to be safe, I think we should change them. How does your mom’s birthday sound?” I nod, then shake my head. “Mine? Nah, too obvious. How about Dad’s?”
“Jake, I can remember a six digit code. Just make up a number. He thinks then says 38, 32, and 36. He grins. He thinks he’s cute. I know those are probably whatever the personal shopper said my measurements were. Whatever. I nod and don’t say anything else.
“Are you cold?”
“No.”
“Take off the robe. I want to see you in that.”
“You’ve seen me.” I flush at the memory of what happened in the foyer. I wanted it too but now thinking back, anyone could’ve walked in. The woman that greeted me at the elevator for instance. “Where did Jocelyn go?”
“She’s flying to New York, her sister is ill. We’re all alone.” He lays the laptop on the night table and slides down beside me. “I’ve been thinking about you in that all day.” I feel my face go hot. “You were supposed to give me a fashion show today. Remember? I’ll settle for seeing you in the one that I picked out.”
“You chose this?” He nods and gives me a lopsided grin. “Ok.” I whisper. I stand up beside the bed and unfasten the belt of my robe. He’s propped his head up on his hand and he’s watching. His eyes are amber. I take the robe off and toss it on a chair. When I turn back he’s in front of me. God he can move fast.
He’s staring down at me and unbuttoning his shirt. All of the muscles in my core clench down sweetly. He wants me. He’s coming out of his pants now and I watch. It’s like he’s unwrapping my Christmas present. Jake looks really good naked. He could be the poster child for nudity.
He strips the tiny thong panties from me. He’s squatting down to help me out of them like I’ve never taken my own clothes off. He buries his face in my curls and inhales. I try to step away because I’m embarrassed but his hand is on my thigh. He licks up my cleft and slowly drags his tongue over my clit. My hands fist and my eyes slide closed. He kisses my mound and eases my foot out of the panties. I step out of them and he stands.
“You look so good in this. I knew you would.” I run my fingers up his abdomen to his chest. Jake grabs my hand and spins me around. My back is to his front. I can feel his hot hard length against my bottom. My toes curl into the carpet. I want him like this. He hooks his arm around my middle and he lifts me. Jake turns easily and I’m facing the bed. “I want you like this. Do you want to stand or do you want to be on all fours.” I climb up on the bed and he pulls me back to the edge. “I want to stand.” The blunt tip of his erection is against my opening. “I’m not going to be gentle Jane.” He growls.
“Good.” I look back at him and he slams himself into me. It takes my breath away for a second, the force and the feeling. It’s incredible. Jake pulls out to the edge and does it again. I moan. When he does it a third time I clench down on him. I’m gripping him all the way in then back out again. He mutters something that I don’t understand but it doesn’t matter because I just want him to keep going. I feel his fingers biting into my hip and I know there will be a bruise but I don’t care about that either. He shifts angles and I nearly fly apart.
“You’re going to think about me every time you move tomorrow.” He says and it makes me feel so wanton. I want to feel that.
“Yes.” I scream. “Please.” I push back against him and clench down hard. He roars his release and I go with him. The climax ebbs and flows over me like an ocean in a storm. I needed this. I needed to feel like a she-wolf. I needed to be taken like a she-wolf. I feel her, she’s close and she’s happy. She’s been taken by her alpha. I’m happy about that too. Jake pulls me upright but he’s still inside of me. I can feel him softening though. He unfastens the bustier and tosses it to the chair. He still has his arm hooked around me. I am his.
He felt this when he had me the first time but I didn’t, not really. I needed to feel his possession of me, of her. I didn’t feel it until he took me like the wolf. I turn and wrap my arms around his neck. “I love you.” I say then kiss his chest. He lifts me and puts me on the bed after he flips the comforter out of the way. I realize that this bed has been remade and I hide my face.
“Why are you doing that?”
“Your house keeper changed the sheets.” Jake shrugs. “That means she saw the evidence.” He grins then and kisses me.
“She knows you aren’t just some random slut.” I think about that. “Now what? I see the wheels turning.”
&
nbsp; “Have there been a lot of them? Random sluts?” Jake was very busy when he was at home. Sometimes there was more than one in a day. This bed should probably be replaced if he’s still like that.
“No.” I study his eyes looking for the lie. “There haven’t been and never in this bed. This bed was always meant for you. I’m not going to tell you I haven’t fucked anyone since the semester that I spent at home. I won’t lie to you, ever. I’ve been with random women but there haven’t been a lot and none of them were ever here.”
“How many?” I whisper. He scoffs.
“Since I lived in your house?” I nod. He thinks about it. “A few.” I raise my eyebrow. “Seven.”
“How many altogether?” He shrugs. Too many to count. I nibble my lip. He can’t change his past and he can’t take it back. He waited to have me so I could have the education that I wanted. “Were any of them serious?” He makes a face.
“Hell no. You have always been my future Jane. They were just somewhere to drop an urgent load. That’s all. A receptacle.” Eww. It sounds so gross like that. I’m a receptacle. “Stop over thinking it. I wanted to spend my life with you. You are my mate. I want to put my pups in here.” He traces a finger over my belly and I shiver. “You are the mother of my children Jane. You could never be compared in any way to any of those women.”
“Did they know that?” I can’t help but ask. He shrugs again. I think it was unfair just to use them as a receptacle then toss them to the wind. “Were they just women or were they professionals?
“I’ve never paid for sex, not as a transaction. They were all willing participants. Whether or not they had further expectations, I couldn’t say, but I never had any. They were all one timers except one that I did twice in the same night. Her request.” I scrunch up my nose. “Enough of that. How many boys have you been with?” He’s teasing me.
“None. You know that.” I look away and he draws my chin back up with his finger.
“So you’ve never been felt up at a party or kissed in the closet for seven minutes of heaven?” He grins again when my face gets hot. “Ha, who was he? Was he wolf?” I shake my head. “Tell me.” I know I have to tell him, he told me his secrets. He also said that he doesn’t want to beg for answers. I decide just to give him what he wants.
“Luke Daniels, he was in my psyche class and we met up at a frat party. He was really cute and he kissed me when he walked me home. He came inside my room and pushed me against a wall. Jake’s eyes were amber now. I got rid of him. He didn’t try to force me. I just think he thought that I was more into him than I was.” Jake nods. “There was the guy in the pool last summer. He shoved his tongue down my throat on a dare.” Jake growled and I giggled.
“So you never wanted to fuck anyone?”
“I didn’t say that, I did, but it just felt wrong.”
“Me.” I nod. He grins. “As far as the world is concerned Jane, we aren’t related. Our parents lived together, that’s all. To the humans, they would expect them to be married for us to be related.”
“That’s bullshit Jake. People are weird about this kind of thing and I don’t want to live in shame.” He puts his finger over my lips.
“We’ll wait a year. I want to fill you with pups right now but we’ll wait. In the meantime you’re my personal assistant. That will explain your access to my life for anyone who wants to question it. We need to eat.” My stomach growls on cue. “Get dressed then come to the kitchen.” I go to my closet. I don’t like that I have to go into the hallway to get to it. I’m looking at the wall and trying to figure out where that would end up in the bedroom if I cut a hole in the drywall. “What are you doing?” Jake says from behind me.
“I wondered if I cut a hole there, where would I be in the bedroom?” He cocks his head then shakes it.
“You want a door from the bedroom into here?”
“It’s okay.” I say and go to my set of drawers.
“Jane, put on something that I bought. Please?” He smiles softly and I move away from my drawers. I find a pair of jeans that probably cost more than Mom’s car and a white silk pullover. Jake nods and moves away from the door. This is too fancy just to eat lunch in. I shake my head and go to find panties and a bra. That shopper needs to discover Wally World. I could outfit myself for a year with the money that she spent on this outfit alone. I pull the clothes on and wonder if I should eat in front of him. He make me feel so self-conscious sometimes. I decide that I will have to get used to eating in front of him. We will be together for the next millennia. I am bound to get hungry.
I’m heading down the hall and I see the door to the office is cracked. Jake is inside on the phone. I hear him talking and I stop outside the door. “Find her. I don’t care what it takes. Hack the surrounding buildings security and find her.” Jake is angry. “I want to know how she got the codes and I want to know why she was trying to break into my apartment.” I startle. She was trying to get in here? Why? Who is she? Is she an old girlfriend? A stalker? I cover my mouth with my hand. It’s trembling. Someone is trying to hurt Jake. My backbone stiffens. Someone is trying to harm my mate. My wolf pushes. She’s pissed. Let her come. The thought drifts over my mind and I know it isn’t mine. Let her come.
I go to the kitchen and start putting sandwiches together. Jake joins me a few minutes later. I have his piled high with meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato and onion. This was how he liked it when he lived with me. If he doesn’t anymore, he’ll have to tell me. I put it in front of him. I drip mustard across my bread and put some turkey on it, no cheese and no veg. “My security team says you were standing outside my office listening to my conversation.” Jake takes a bite and grunts with satisfaction. His sandwich preferences haven’t changed. I nod. He raises his eyebrow and I put the mayonnaise and mustard back in the fridge. “What did you hear?” He asks.
“That a woman, probably the woman in the video was trying to break into the apartment. You want her found and you want to know why. My wolf thinks you should let her break in when the cameras are off.” I bite into my sandwich. The turkey is good, there’s black pepper around the edges. I wonder if Jocelyn made this or bought it. I decide it’s store bought and my new favorite.
“What would happen if I let her?” Jake is being coy. He knows exactly what my wolf would do to her.
“She’d die.” I say smoothly. The corner of his mouth lifts.
“Jane you can’t just kill people. You have to have a plan, like what to do with the body and make up an alibi. Oh and you would have to have a vicious animal to put at the scene.” He chuckles.
“No problem. I always wanted a dog. Mom said it was stupid but I still wanted one.”
“You realize if you blame a dog for an animal attack, they’ll put it down. Right?”
“What if he’s a guard dog? It’s his job to kill trespassers.” Jake thinks about it but doesn’t say anything.
I go to the cabinet and look for chips. I open each door to disappointment. “Over there in the closet.” I go to where he is pointing. I thought there would be brooms in here because it’s tall but it’s full of dry goods. Chips are front and center but the bag of cheese curls wins my heart. “I bought those for you.” He smiles. “I know how you like to sink your teeth into them and suck the air out. I laugh. He still remembers stupid stuff like that. “I swear your teeth were orange the whole six months I was there.” I stick one in my mouth and do exactly what he described. Yes, I still like eating them that way. I take my plate and sit at the table. Jake follows me. He doesn’t have much of a sandwich left and once he’s put the plate down he goes back for what I left on the counter. He brings the makings of another sandwich with him then goes back for the mustard.
“We should probably be eating steak or something.” I think out loud.
“Dinner.” Jake piles meat and cheese on his sandwich. He slices a tomato so thin that I can see through it, the onion follows. “Less salad, more meat.” He winks at me. He is hungry. I should’ve made the steak i
n the fridge but I really wanted this turkey. “On Monday, we will go into the office very early. I want you to be in place when the rest of the staff arrives.” I nod and finish my sandwich. “You are my new assistant. We have a meeting at nine with a company that wants to merge. I plan to absorb them, nothing less. Try to keep your faces to yourself.” I make one and stick out my tongue. “That one especially.” He bites and chews then swallows. “You are to simply observe and take notes. I have the office tapped but I am the only one with access to the recording. You will too.” I look down at my plate and push the crumbs into a little pile. “What’s wrong?” He’s watching me. I really do need to learn how to keep my thoughts from making expressions. I was always lousy at poker.
“I don’t know. I wonder why you’re handing me all of this.” I gesture with my hands.
“You’re my mate. I built this for us.” I think about that. “I know that it seems like I started down this road before we met and that’s true, but I was building it for my mate. That just happened to be you. I want us to run it together Jane. I want you as involved as I am, at least until we have pups. Even then though I would like it if you were still involved if not as deeply.”
“What do I know about big business?” The thought of being in charge of this frightens me.
“Nothing.” He says bluntly. “But you are smart and you are going to learn. The advantage you have is that I am going to tell you everything and I will answer any question you have honestly. That doesn’t usually happen. People have to guess and separate the lies from the truth. You won’t have to, it only wastes productive time.” I take our plates to the sink and rinse them then load them into the dishwasher. “Jane.” He’s beside me now. “You are going to get a crash course in business. I know you didn’t study for this and if you really want to go out into the world and find a job in your field, I will support that.” I shake my head.
