Beauty and the Wolf (4 page)

CHAPTER TWO

Sophie turned,
trying to see her backside in the full length mirror attached to her closet door. Against her better judgment, she’d allowed Mary Ann to talk her into trying
to attract Jake’s attention
again. She hadn’t revealed exactly what
this great plan
was yet
probably because she didn’t want to be reminded of the
dismal
failure of the week before. Her friend had
only warned her to dress cute.

The pinstriped pants and vest coupled with a white t-shirt was about as cute as Sophie could get while still lo
oking p
rofessional. In fact, she was
looking a little too unprofessional. Taking a hand full of bobby pins she twisted her hair in
to
a bun at the back of her neck.

There, what looked more professional than a nun bun?

She rummaged through the plastic container
that acted as her jewelry box until she found the chunky red earrings
she’d bought on sale on Valentine’s Day. Talk about a dismal
day that had been. The earrings
were not very
professional but the outfit just screamed for them.

Satisfied that she had done all she could
to make herself cute
, she stood in front of the mirror studying her reflection. She wasn’t bad looking. She had a nice nose, a full lower lip that some men had found attractive and her eyes were a pretty brown. Unfortunately, her hair was also brown. Brown hair, brown eyes. A mouse. Nothing glamorous about her appearance. Nothing noteworthy about her at all.

This was a crazy idea. Why sh
ould Jake notice her?
Find her attractive?
She was a big woman, well, not as big as some, but not as small as others. Definitely not
as small as the women Jake dated. She had curves. Lots and lots of curves.

“Sophie, get your butt in gear, it’s time to go.”

Taking one last look in the mirror,
she sighed. All she wanted was for Jake to notice her.

* * * * *

Jake
tried to rein in his
a
lpha
power. He knew the
energy
hit
the occupants of the conference table
like a dry
electrical
storm
.
Some
were humans unaware of their
supernatural
co-workers
but most were pack members.
All of them refused to look him in the eye. H
e knew the humans
had an unexplained urge
to get up and flee and the wolves were curious abou
t the show of power. Allowing his wolf to dominate in the business arena
was not Jake’s usual style.

His
father
just grinned. He knew his father
suspect
ed
he’d found his mate.
Unfortunately
,
this
uncontrolled show of power gave
credence to his
suspicion
.

The reason was simple. O
nly one woman
sat
at the conference table,
Sophie. She’d
pinned her
pretty
brown hair
to the back
of her he
ad with what she assumed to be a
sophisticated style. It wasn’t
.
Sophie was too innocent
and
pure to emote
sophistication
. But she w
as the rea
son
his wolf wanted to take control of the man
. His mate was surrounded by twelve males. Something he – and his wolf – didn’t like.

He took his place at the head of the table and started the meeting.
He tried to i
gnore his wolf who clawed
to be set free
j
ust as he ignored his dick throbbing to be
released
from the
confines
of his dress pants.

“Down, boys,”
he mentally commanded.
“We’ll have her soon enough.”
He had come to that
conclusion late last night as he’d jerked off for what seemed like the thousandth time that he couldn’t fight fate. Sophie was his mate and he would claim her. It was n
ow just a matter of when and where
. His lips turned
up
at the corners giving him, naturally, a wolfish smile.

The
department heads made
their
reports i
n
a
concise to-the-point manner.
There was no
small talk
,
no bull
shitting, no male bonding of any type today. Usually the men shared stories of what happened in their departments or their home lives.
Jake
was
usually
a laid back boss,
a down to earth alpha,
taking an interest in his men. But not today.

All the men were
relieved when the meeting was over.
On any given day, they were
intimated by the CEO, who wouldn’t be? The man stood six foot t
wo, had to weigh at least 22
0 pounds of solid muscle and carried himself like gladiator.
Today Jake had shown the side of himself that made him the head of the
company, alpha of the pack
,
and one scary son of a bitch.
They picked up their folders and
headed out the door as soon as he’d
dismissed them.

As Sophie fell in behind the other department heads,
Jake
spoke. “If you would stay a few
minutes
, Miss Abbott
, I would appreciate it.
”

He stood
half
way across the room ta
lking to the
vice-president of marking
and his father.
He hadn’t turned to look at her and she wondered how he knew she was almost at
the
door
. Just a few more secon
ds and she would have been
out
o
f the conference room and free.

Immediately she started torturing herself. What
had she done wrong? Why did he want to see her? She went over the presentation she had just made.
Even with those dark
eyes seeming to bore a hole in her,
she’s managed to give legal’s report. She still didn’t know why her boss had insisted she give it this week.
Surely this hadn’t been Mary’s plan? Little did she know that was her exact plan. She’d
called and insisted
Sophie attend the meeting. W
hen the CEO’s assistant i
nsisted, you did what
you were told
, no questions asked.

The men walked toward her.
The vice-president veered toward the doo
r, but father and son stopped beside
her.
Both men
exuded
an
air of power
, but while Robert Anderson
carried
a veneer of civilization and
sophistication
, there was something raw and wil
d in Jake.

He
had his hands behind his back, the stance drawing the dark blue dress shirt across
his
chest. He wore no t-shirt and
the light
matt of
hair pressed against the starched linen. Sophie focused on the matching stripes
of his tie. His father
stood to the side. She knew both men were watching her.

“Do you want me to stay?”

Sophie’s eyes snapped
up meeting the elder
Anderson
’s
grey
eyes.
They were twinkling with suppre
ssed laughter. If he wasn’t ang
r
y
then she must not be in trouble. Her face turned red. Had Jake told him about the incident in his office?

“No.”

Sophie shivered. Jake’s voice was cold and ang
ry, much as it had been
that day
.

Robert’s
eyes lost their laughter. “It might be a good idea.”

Jake’s gaze never left Sophie’s face. “No.”

“But she’s –”

“No.”

Robert
never finish
ed
his sentence. He stood for a moment before shrugging
his shoulders as if to say I hope you know what you’re doing.
He gave his son
one last look before turning and walking away.

Jake’s
wolf howled inside his head. His mate was
scared. He smell
ed it on her and so had his father
.
Damn it to hell, why was he always scaring her?

“Did I do something wrong, Mr. A
nderson?”

“I’m sorry I scared you the other day, Sophie.
And
I didn’t mean to scare you just now, either.
You’ve done nothing wrong.
”

She looked at him, her beautiful brown eyes awash with confusion, and a small amount of trepidation. “You didn’t scare me.”

Jake’s eyebrow rose.

“Well, maybe a little,” she admitted.

“That was not my intentio
n. You, uh, took me by surprise that day.
”

Sophie pushe
d a
tendril
of hair behind her ear. The hairstyle she had worked so hard on this morning was falling down.
What she didn’t realize was t
hat it made her look
a
ll mussed up from a man who’d loved her.

Jake wanted to make her look like that for the rest of their lives. His dick twitched thinking of the nights they’d spend together.

“I shouldn’t have walked in to your office unannounced,” she apologized prettily, pink flooding her face.

Jake raised his hand, tracing his knuckles down her cheek. “You are always welcome in my office.” What he wanted to say was you are always welcome in my life. He sig
h
ed silently. What was he going to do? He wanted to claim this woman, had decided to claim her, but she looked so young and so innocent.

And so goddamn beautiful.

Her breasts pushed against the cotton of her shirt with each breath. He wanted to push it up and out of the way and taste the sweetness of her nipples. He bet they’d be berry red, peaking into hard points as he licked and suckled.

He had
to walk
away
before he picked her up and placed her on the nearest flat surface. The floor, the table. The wall
.
It didn’t matter. He wanted to slide
himself
i
nside her pussy. She’d be hot and wet. She’d want him as much as he wanted her. He’d make damn sure of it.
His wolf howled inside his head.

He ben
t
and kissed her, hard and swift, then strode out the door.

* * * * *

Jake stomped into his office and the first person he saw was hi
s secretary. His cunning, match
making secretary. She knew he was attracted to her best friend a
nd had set
out to make his lif
e a living hell.
He knew Sophie hadn’t
been scheduled to present the report from the legal department.
If she had, he’d have cancelled the meeting. No way in hell had he wanted
her surrounded by all those males
.

He held up his hand when she started to speak.
“Not a word. Not a
g
od
damn word.”

He continued on to the
sanctuary
of his inner office stopping short at the sight of
his father behind his desk
. The m
an was cool and relaxed, as if he’d never left the helm.
Sometimes he thought he’d misjudg
ed his father’s abilities.

“What are you doing here? Interfering in my life
? Again?” It pissed him
off to know
his father knew he’d found his mate.
Well, to be
honest he was pissed off because his cock was so hard he could hammer nails with it. Cliché, but that’s how he, it, felt.