Shifting the Night Away (47 page)

“I’m here to see her,” he said, pointing to the dark-haired one with golden eyes.

The blonde, Belinda by her nametag, replaced her tight smile with a grimace. “Whatever you need Johanna for, I can help. I’m her supervisor.”

Johanna?
He could get used to screaming that.

“Sir?”

 
“Right. Sorry. I’m here for licensing a new restaurant.”

“I see. Looks and you can cook. The total package.”
 

He didn’t miss her eyes flickering down in the Wedding Band Snoop. He rubbed the area where a wedding ring would be and this Belinda person cleared her throat.
 

“Lost your ring? Or are you getting married? If your wife owns half the business, we’ll need—”
 

“I really need to speak to Johanna.”

Thin lips froze into a straight line. “Well, you’re not marrying
her.
”

He had two ways to play this. One had him leaving without that license. “Actually, she sent for me. Told me to register the business straight away. I wasn’t sure if I needed—”

“Did she? Interesting. She’s only in training to handle those sorts of things. Right now, she’s just a cashier. Have a seat in my office,” she said and gestured for him to follow.

‘Office,’ was being a mite generous. It was more a set of carefully arranged cubicles that laughed at the promise of privacy. While he handed over his tablet with the documentation, she pursed her lips and giggled at the things he was fairly sure weren’t jokes.
 

Like the weather.

Or the differences between LLCs and INCs.
 

Or the weather…again…

Ugh.

There was a time for flirting and it wasn’t when he sat on the other side of the desk…unless you were a she-wolf named Johanna.
 

He let down his barriers, projecting his annoyance to anyone with the ability to sense it. He didn’t want his little Johanna thinking that first bit of desire was for anyone other than her.

“Mr. Wyatt? Here’s what you need to do for…”

He settled back into the conversation, accepting the conditional approval in hand at the end of a mind numbingly annoying conversation.
 

He thanked Belinda, shoved the paperwork into his briefcase and walked straight to the counter and its long line. There was plenty of time to note guys in business suits, construction workers and all the rest of the people he one day hoped to serve in his restaurant. What could he feed Johanna? How would she…take it?
 

Her honey gold skin appeared natural and not from a bottle or blue lights. Shapely hips begged to be kneaded and slapped and pinched and…

Johanna’s head jerked up again.

He winked again.

And this time, she did smile.
 

Progress!

He waved two people to go ahead of him until Johanna was finally free of her last customer, then went straight in for the kill. “Hello. I’m persistent.”

“I see that. You’re also not fit to be in public.”

“Because I’m too hot?”

She stood up on her tiptoes and leaned over. “Because you’re tenting.”

***

Johanna’s hand flew to her mouth in a triple-stupid attempt to shove the words back in. Where did that come from?
 

Still, she gave herself a small break - she’d never smelled a man like him before. Or seen one so beautiful. He had a nose any angelic sculpture would be envious of and a wide smile cemented his hotness. The muscles were just unfair. No one should be this attractive.
 

He wore a suit, but carried a ruggedness about him that told her he’d be more comfortable in jeans. Though he’d have to paint them on over thigh muscles like that.
 

Despite what her sister loved to say about her, she’d had a few men, wolf and human. None of them ever smelled like
this
. And
this
roped her in.
 

Not cool.

She believed in restraint and good common sense, but something about this man wouldn’t let go. There was no such thing as fate or love at first sight. Wolves, like humans, didn’t mate for life unless they wanted to. Probably. But something about this guy had her hoping those legends had a bit of truth to them.

He pointed to his trousers. “This is your fault, Johanna,” he said, in a voice heavy and low. “You smell amazing.”

“Rude!”

“You feel the same way.”

“No I don’t!”

He sniffed.

Loudly.

Busted.

“Liar.”

None of this was her fault. Not really. This was the perfect storm of her most fertile time of the month, plus a new hot guy combined with the new den…err…apartment. Never mind the full moon. Yeah, that must be it. Best to send him on his way. “Is there anything you actually need? You’re holding up the line.”

His brows furrowed in mock outrage. The jerk even pouted. How messed up was life that this only made him hotter?

She bit and sucked in her lip, a nervous habit Kate loved to rib her about. This man, however, couldn’t seem to turn away from it. His eyes lasered in on her mouth and he licked his lips.
 

Some wicked thing convinced her to lick her own.
 

Adonis-Sent-To-Play-With-Mere-Mortals groaned loud enough that Tony in the next aisle looked over and coughed.
 

Okay. Playtime’s over. She had to shut this down.
 

Should shut this down.

Would.

In a minute. “How did you know my name?”

He pointed to her nametag and the plaque, the certificate, then jerked a thumb behind him to where a glaring Belinda sat with another client. “I told her that you called me in. Not altogether untrue.”

“Great. She’ll hate me even more now. Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
 

 
“I kinda picked up that you two weren’t painting each other’s toenails. Here’s the thing, I don’t want to talk about her. I just met a hot wolf and I’d like to ask her out.” The man leaned across the counter and pushed at her index finger with his.

Last month, she would have said no. Last week too. But these were interesting times. “Maybe, but I still have no idea who you are.”

“Shhh…” He dropped his voice to wolf range, the same one she and her sisters once used to cheat in class when they were kids. “Your coworker is listening.” He coughed and resumed his normal speaking voice. “I’m sorry, baby, but I didn’t want Daddy’s money to help us out. Please forgive me. Tell me you still love me. Go on, tell your ol’ Baron what he wants to hear.”

Good show, Baron. Real good. To the point, she could feel the glares and certainly heard the gasps of workers and customers alike. This might get back to her sister and it would be friggin’ glorious. She could kiss him for that alone.

The crazy man leaned back and crossed his arms, clearly enjoying his handiwork. Then he took two of her business cards. One he pocketed, the other, he wrote his number on and slid it back over. When she reached for it, he latched onto her hand, snatched it to his lips and gave it an over the top smooch, complete with a
pop
at the end.
 

At this point, she half expected Kate to materialize in a puff of imperious smoke. Better to get ahead of the story and call her sister the second Baron and his bun-hugging trousers walked out the building.
 

Two problems with that.

Number One, Baron wasn’t leaving.

Number Two, they hadn’t properly set up a date yet. There was nothing to tell Kate. Not really.

“So I’ll pick you up tonight around seven? It’ll still be nice out and you can give me a walking tour of the area.”

She legit went to war with herself. One foot tapped. One set of fingers drummed the counter. Thank heavens her mouth worked. At least now, she could tell him to shove off. “I guess I’ll see you later, then.”

Or not.

New Number Two, Kate didn’t have to know everything. She’d take over. Either Kate would try to talk her out of her date or iron out which panties she ought to wear. Nope. This was her thing. Hers and Baron’s.

Right.

Fat chance getting back to work after all that. Tony scooted his seat toward her and Belinda slithered over the second the door closed behind Mr. Hot Pants. “How do you know our Baron,” the woman asked.

Lying had never felt more right. “We’ve known each other for a while.”
 

Tony imitated a spectacular faint before doing circles on the stool and tossing spirit fingers above his head. “Spill. He looks like a man who knows what he’s doing.”

“Well, I—”

Belinda flipped her hair and shot her a sideways look. “I don’t know, Johanna. You need to be careful with those Hit It and Quit It types. Sometimes they take advantage of women like you. They can sense desperation.”
 

Tony sucked in air but didn’t exactly lunge to her defense. As for Belinda, that woman had a lot of nerve. She’d slept her way to the top and everyone knew it. Not that anyone could do anything about it. In addition to her good looks and her money, Belinda was also brilliant and doing a better than decent job of things. She was just a bitch. Like Kate.

Under those circumstances, the lying felt even better. “Why do you think he moved here? Like he said, he left his family’s fortune when I broke it off. They didn’t accept me. I guess I never expected him to really do it.”

“I see.” Belinda’s hawkish eyes narrowed.
 

Tony attempted to high-five her, but she didn’t meet him halfway. Blessedly, the late lunch crowd poured in just as she ran short of patience and out of material. What would happen when they found out the truth? Who knew? But for now, this Monday ranked number one of all time.

Chapter Three

Baron had come to this town to unscrew his life and start fresh. Dating wasn’t on the menu originally, but this woman messed with his head. He hadn’t been able to think of anything else since seeing her this morning.

He left his realtor’s office and shoved his hands into his pockets as he strode down the semi-crowded streets of a picture perfect New England town. Women stopped in their tracks, a few bold ones waved, but he hardly spared them a passing glance. His focus centered on a curvy haired woman with a wide smile. She wasn’t his type and he definitely had a type: blonde, thin and loud.
 

Johanna was nothing like the last woman he’d gotten caught up with. For one, she ate. But she also had a kindness and cleverness about her that kept him intrigued.

And her scent!

The doggone woman smelled like home. Not in the usual ways – no pine or sawdust – but something deep and personal. It ought to have freaked him out, but even the memory of her aroma soothed his hackles.
 

Scenting out a mate ranked right up there with winning the lottery. Sure it happened, but never to anyone he’d met.
 

Except for his little brother.

And a cousin.

And that guy he went to high school with who had a turtle tattoo on his face.

Hmm…
 

If it could happen to those numbskulls, why not him?
 

On the off chance that’s what
this
was, he wasn’t about to screw it up. He ran home, changed and rushed to meet Johanna at the office at five in the most non-stalkerish way he could think of. It took all of two seconds to justify it. He didn’t feel like walking around town with his nose to the ground to find her apartment, nor had she given him
her
number. Sure she had his, but he didn’t trust her not to wimp out.

Honestly, the only reasonable option was lounging against a lamppost and waiting for her to leave work. He liked to call this Wolf Logic.

He started waving the second she stepped outside.

Johanna’s eyes widened and she jumped back, but he scented surprise, not apprehension. Good. See? Wolf Logic.