Beauty and the Wolf

BEAUTY

AND

THE

WOLF

By Lynn Richards

Copyright 2012

Patricia Mason

Wolf Publishing

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

WARNING: This book is intended for mature audiences only.

This book is dedicated to my husband, the man who inspires me every time I write, but who truly inspired this story because he looks so damn good in a white dress shirt and red tie.

CHAPTER ONE

“When are you g
oing to tell him how you feel?”

Sophie busied herself serving the
pepperoni
pizza that had been delivered
just moments before
,
ignoring her best friend’s qu
estion.

When she continued to be ignored,
Mary Ann
snapped her fi
ngers
in front of Sophie’s face.
“Hello, anyone in there?”

“Have I told you lately how annoying you are?” Sophie took a bit
e
of her pizza.

“Not in the last few minutes.”

“Well, then I guess I need to
step-up
my insulting.
You
are annoying.”

“When Sophie?”

She put do
wn her piece of pizza and picked up her diet drink
. “What am I suppose to do
Mary Ann
? Bat my eyes
over morning coffee and say ‘Oh,
Jake
, would you be my boyfriend?’”

“No, but you could say,
Jake
would you be my fuck buddy?”

Soda spewed from Sophie’s mouth. “You are so bad!”

Mary Ann
just grinned and took another piece of pizza from the box. “Yeah, but ca
n’t you just image having Jake
Anderson
as a fuck buddy?”

Both women were silent as they ate their pizza and imaged having sex with
Jake
Anderson, CEO of the Anderson Trading Company in
Roanoke
,
Virginia
.

“He’s my boss,
Mary Ann
.
I can’t
have sex with my boss.”

“No, he’s my boss.”

“
He’s the freaking president of the company
.”

Sophie worked in the legal department
of
Anderson
as a paraleg
al.
Jake
was
the company. Rumor was he’d owned a multi-million dollar European company which he sold to take
over
the business from his father about five years ago. No
one re
ally knew anything about
his life before he moved to the
United States
, just the
basics: attended an
Ivy League
college and dated w
illowy, long
legged blondes. T
he
total opposite of Sophie.

She was happy with her life
most days.
Her job was f
ulfilling, researching patent and
intellectual
property law for the company.
Her family was close and
boisterous
and
her friends might be few but they were people she could count on. Her only complaint
would be she had no close relationship with someone of the opposite sex. She dated, she had
sex on occasion, but she had no
one to share her life.
Unfortunately
, that close personal
relationship
she wanted, she wanted with
Jake
.

Yeah, she was happy with her life most days. Today
, however, was not one of those
days.

Jake Anderson
was the
perfect man. Well, perfect in her eyes. She
knew
Mary Ann
didn’t exactly share
her heart-pounding, panty wetting attraction for the man.
Her friend
preferred taller
,
leaner men.
She
loved men built like
Jake
– broad shoulder
ed
and big. Oh man, she hoped he was big all over.

“What p
ut that gleam in your eye?”
Mary Ann
poked her.

“Just thinking about
Jake
.”

“And?”

“And that’s all.” She knew her face turned a bright shade of red. She’d been thinking about how he’d look without his navy suit and red striped tie.
He was big enough to make even her size eighteen feel small. She could jus
t image his broad chest with it
s slight mat of dark hair. S
he’
d had the pleasure of seeing that chest
in the company gym one afternoon without a shirt.
She’d been walking by and h
e’d been
ex
c
hanging
his swe
at soaked t-shirt
for a dry one. That had been a fine day indeed.

“You were thinking about the size of his cock, weren’t you?”

“No.”
Sophie
vehemently
protested. “And you should watch your language.”

“Y
ou l
ove me when I talk dirty to you.
”
Mary Ann
winked and grabbed another piece of pizza.

Sophie
took another from the box as well
. She knew if she didn’t it would all be gone before she had her share.
Mary Ann
was her best friend, but she could eat her under the table
any day of the week
.
This was saying something since
Mary Ann
stood only five foot
one
and had weighed just over a hundred pounds her whole life.

Sophie sighed. What she wouldn’t give to
have
that fast of a metabolism. It seemed
as if she just wa
lked into a room with food and
she gained we
ight. She went to put the
piece of pizza back.

“What are you doing?”
Mary Ann
asked.

“I don’t really need that.”

“Sophie.” Her friend
’
s voice held a warning.

“Really, I’m full.” She loved the fact that her friend accepted her just as she was. And always would.
Now she just had to find a man who loved her the way her best friend did.

Lying
back on the sofa, she sighed again. They were in their apartment holding what had become, sadly, their Friday ni
ght ritual
of pizza
and a chick flick. In the back
ground
Sweet Home Alabama
played
silently
.

“What am I going to do Mary Ann
? I really
do
love him
.”

“T
he first thing we’re going to do is get you a date with him.”

“
A date?
He doesn’t even know I’m alive.”

Mary Ann
laughed. “I keep telling you, the man can’t keep his eyes off you when you come visit me. He knows you’re alive, believe me.”

“But how do I get him to ask me out and more importantly how do I get him to stay the night?”

Mary Ann spr
awled out beside her
.
“
Believe me, i
t’s not difficult
to get a man to stay the night and i
f it’s the weekend, he’ll stay two nights.”

“Whether you want hi
m to or not!”

Sophie
’s comment sent the women into uncontrollable giggles.

* * * * *

Jake
Anderson
hit save on his laptop and slumped
back in his
leather chair. He’d spent the last two hours trying to save an
account
gone bad. Even though h
e had surround
ed himself with top people,
every now and then he had to step in.

Night had fallen over the city an
d he was re
ady to go for a run.

Literally.

He rose from his chair
and walked to the
bank of
glass windows that took up one entire wall of his office. He wanted to
get away to his home on the outskirts of the city. He wanted to feel the wind against his face a
nd the ground beneath his paws.

Yes, his paws.

He watched t
he people scurrying down below
like
insects in a child’s ant farm, s
o
oblivious
to the things around them. Only a few knew
the legends of
Hollywood
’s box office hi
ts were real. That he was real.

That
Jake
Anderson
was a wolf.

Thanks to the invention of electronics such as the camera phone and the internet, it was m
ore difficult to hide
, but they had been doing it for hundreds of years and would continue to do so for hundreds more. Despite the popularity of movies and books tha
t featured vampires and werewolves
, the world was not ready for the supernatural. They just thought they were.

His family had been in the
Roanoke
area since the first settlers had made their way from the Mayflower. His ancestors, hell, some of his family members had wa
tched the fledging human fort flourish and grow
into the
metropolis
spread out below
.
On the outside
he looked like a typical thirty
three year ol
d man but he was way older than that. Way older
. He’d lived through protests and wars,
economic booms and bust
s.

His
grandfather had wanted to retire but his father refused to be name
d alpha. So it had fallen on
Jake’s shoulders to take on that mantel of responsibility.
Since the dea
th of his mother, his father did
n’t want much to do with anything. The running of the company had suff
ered f
r
o
m his lack of interest.
Over the years the pack’s
holdings had diversified, but the bread and butter of the income came from Anderson Trading.
N
ot only was Jake na
med alpha, but he was forced to drag
the company back from the edge of bankruptcy. A challenge he relished, but still found unfulfillin
g.
It had only been a few
years since he’d taken over the pack but it felt like forever. Maybe it was because he had no one to share his successes and failures. No one to call his own.