Beauty and the Wolf (5 page)

All he’d wanted to do was lift Sophi
e onto the conference table, strip off her clothes, and
bury his face between her thighs. She’d smelled of arousal and yes, a lit
tle fear, but the wolf enjoyed that. He
enjoyed the thought of pursuing her, calming her
,
and finally cla
i
ming her.
The man
enjoyed that thought as well.

He didn’t know what it was about Sophie’s lush body that drew him. She was nothing like the women he had dated in the past. She was a voluptuous woman. Her curves were
genuine
and plentiful. She was not pencil thin to the poin
t of emancipation as many women
in today’s world. She reminded him of the women in the Victorian age. God, he’d loved that era. A nice ass to hold on to when
you
pounded inside a woman.
He’d forgotten that until Sophie.

He pictured
her
beneath him. Her gorgeous legs wrapped around his waist, her hips and breasts bouncing with each thrust of his body. He’d crush her to the bed and take her hard a
nd fast, knowing she could take his weight and his size.
Only by an iron will did he stop the cum from leaving his body. Damn, but he wanted her.

He
stalked across the room and
barely resisted the urge to take his father by the throat and yank him out of the chair.
“
Again, w
hat the hell are you doing in here?”

“Just wanted to make sure everything was okay.
” He picked up a remote to reveal a panel of screens.

Jake’s gaze swept across the security screens, zeroing in on the one in the conference room. “Well, shit.”

He’d totally forgotten about the security camera
s
.
He had a feed in his office for all the cameras around the building. He liked having eyes and ears on everything under his control.
Since some pack busin
ess was conducted in the conference room, all meetings were recorded. During the meetings, s
ecurity watched just in case a member got a little carried away. It was hard to control the wolf when strong emotions took hold.

“Well shit,” he repeated.

If he had given into his impulses and taken Sophie on the conference table it would have been recorded for al
l of
prosperity
. Not that he would have mind
ed for himself, he’d fucked women in
crowd
s
before, things
had
got
ten
a little wild in the sixties
after
all
. But to have anyone see Sophie spread out all in all
her glory was not gonna happen.

Ever.

A growl escaped.

“Don’t worry, I
came in her
e
as soon as I left the meeting. I stopped the recording and feed to security
.
Not that much happened.”

Another growl as his son realized his father had seen the whole damn thing.

“What?
I had to make sure Sophie was okay.” Robert was more than pleased at the jealously Jake was
emanating
. Even if it was toward h
is own father. A
potential
threat to a mate was a threat to a mate, no matter what the familial relationship.

This time Jake snarled.

“Out.” He
jerked his thumb over his
shoulder
indicating
his father
should
vacate the
executive leather chair.
“You gave up rights to that chair years ago.”

The man rose but didn’t go far. He leaned against the edge of the wooden desk.

“What happens now?”

H
is father
ha
d
seen the kiss he’d given Sophie
and knew
, even as brief as it had been,
he hadn’t given it lightly
. It had taken all his control not to
deep
en
it into something
more, not to claim her
right then a
nd right there. His father knew what s
eeing her surrounded by that many males
had done to his wolf. I
t had made him want to claim her with little finesse or reason.

Jake threw dow
n the pen he had just p
icked up and leaned back in the chair. His pose was not nearly as r
elaxed as his father’s
had been
. “Damned if I know.”

“When did you know?”
There was no more pretending. Sophie was
his mate.

Several minutes passed before Jake answered. “The day I came back from
Europe
.”

He
had returned to
the
country almost
four months ago
after an extended stay in the European division of Anderson
Trading
. Thing
s
hadn’t been quite right in that office for a couple of years but his father hadn’t wanted to deal with the issue. The issue of getting rid of a few pack members. After Jake had sorted everything out almost ten people had lost their jobs both in
Europe
and in the
United States
. They had not been happy wolves.

S
ophie was hired a week before he returned
.
T
he minute he’d s
tepped into the building he’d known.
Now every
time he walked into the lobby he smelled
her. He smelled her everywhere
.

It was slowly driving him insane.

His father whistled. “Four months without sex. That’s a long time
,
son.
One minute you’re thinking of ho
w much tail you can get and the
next you’re cursing because you know you won’t be getting
any from anyone else ever
again.”

“Crude, Dad, real crude.”

The elder
Anderson
just shrugged. “I didn’t make the rules, son.”

“Was it like that with you and mom?”

Robert straightened. “I don’t want to talk about your mother, Jake.”

His father’s voice was angry. Jake knew he was still grieving for his mother. He didn’t know how he would survive if something happened to Sophie.

But he knew his father still deserved a chance at more happiness.
It was time to pull his father back into the land of the living.

“I loved mom and I know you loved her too, but you need to move on. She wouldn’t have wanted you to be alone for the rest of your life.” A wolf’s life span was more than triple the average human’s. That amount of time could seem like eternity without someone to love.

* * * * *

Sop
hie saw more of Jake in the next
two weeks than she had seen him in t
he last year she had worked at Anderson Trading
. Everywhere she went, there he was. Holding a
conference
in the hallway, talking to an employee in the cafeteria. She s
w
ore to God that he had not frequented the cafeteria ever before.

“What’s bugging you?”
Mary Ann
asked. They were in the women’s restroom, repai
ring their hair and makeup before going to lunch
.

“He’s everywhere.”

“Who’s everywhere?”

Sophie
scowled
at her friend’s
reflection
in the mirror. “Don’t give me that innocent look, you know who.”

Mary Ann
grinned and stroked on a deep cheery red lipstick. “It is as if he’s getting out more, isn’t it?”

“He used to stay holed up in office from dusk to dawn, now it seems like I trip over him going to the bathroom.”

“It’s just
coincidence
. Now that you’ve decided to do something about him
you’re just noticing him more
.” She
frowned
at her friend. “Y
ou
are going to keep trying to do
something about him, right?”

“Yes.” Sophie’s answer was almost a growl.

Mary Ann
kept the other thoughts to herself. She knew for a fact that Jake was out of the office more and more. And she knew
that
her boss was stalking her friend. At first it had b
een
her own subtle maneuvering that had sent the CEO out and about
.
A suggestion to m
eet with
an employee in their own office
when she knew Sophie had to
deliver something, o
r meet
with
his father in the cafeteria for a mid-morning
coffee
just when Sophie had been getting hers.
In fact, his father had arranged some of those meetings. It made her feel good
to know
someone else thought Sophie and Jake were made for each other. I
t
also
felt
damn
good to play fairy godmother.
She glanced at her watch. Almost perfect timing.

“Are you ready? I know you need to get those files to marketing
before lunch
.” Setting on the counter was an armful of manila folders. Legal had gone over the new
advertising
campaigns and they were now ready to launch.

Sophie made one last pout in the
mirror
then put away her own lipstick. It was a very safe, very light, almost not there pink. In fact it might even be considered lip gloss. She signed, she couldn’t pull off the
deep red her friend did, it mad
e her look like a made up doll.
“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

She picked up the folders and walked through the door
Mary Ann
held open. She turned to the right
and
headed toward the bank of elevators
.

“Are we going out to eat
tonight?”
She kept walking, talking to her friend over her shoulder.

And plowed straight into a wall. A very hard, breathing, flexing wall. Of muscle.

“
Oomph
.” The breath was knocked out of her and the folders cascaded to the floor.

“I’ve got you, Sophie.” The words were spo
ken in her ear as
her momentum
continued to carry her
f
orward. L
a
rge hands gripped her shoulders to prevent her from falling.

“Oh, Mr. Anderson, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I saw you, now isn’t it.
Let me help you.” He grinned as he knelt before her tidying the folder
s
into a neat pile.

Over his head,
Mary Ann
grinned.

What should I do?
Sophie mouthed.

Mary Ann
shrugged her shoulders.
Hopefully Sophie wouldn’t have to do anything.

And she was right.

Jake
’
s hand slid
up her leg, cupping her calf. Today s
he’d worn
a flared
s
kirt and gypsy like blouse
with sandals and no hose. His hand touched her bare leg and she almost swooned at the sensation.

“Nice,” he said, stroking her leg up and down. “Real nice.”

“Jake!”

He straighten
ed,
the folders safely tucked under one arm. “Now that’s what I like to hear, the sound of my name on a beautiful woman’s lips.”

Sophie just stood and stared at him. His dark brown eyes were twinkling and his mouth curved into a
roguish
grin. She sighed. He was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.

When she didn’t move, and lord knew she didn’t want to, he held the folders out to her. After a moment, she took them.

Jake turned
to
Mary Ann
. “
So the two of you are going out? Allow me to buy you dinner. I think that would be a good idea, don’t you Mary Ann?”

His
secretary’s eyes opened wide as she realized Jake was asking her permission to take out Sophie. “I think that would be a wo
nderful idea.
”