Beauty and the Wolf (7 page)

Right. Like he hadn’t been
able to
control his animal since he hit
puberty
. But then again, he’d never fought it over a mate.

“Go bac
k inside Dad
.” His voice was still rough, his sexual high had been that great
.

“I’m not moving until you let her go.” The man’s stance was casual, his hands thrust in his pockets,
but his words were deadly.

Jake turned his head and felt his fangs grow and his eyes burn signaling
they were glowing again. Robert
just met his gaze with a calm controlled one of his own.

“First law, Jake. First law,” was all he said.

Jake closed his eyes and willed his beast under control. Neither beast nor man had taken kindly to the challenge o
ver their mate. Jake knew his father
couldn’t, in all good conscience leave until he knew Jake had his wolf reigned back in. The first law of pack was to protect the women and the young. As soon as Jake had made any overtures toward Sophie, she had become a woman
the pack was sworn
to protect. Knowing she was, indeed, Jake’s
mate
made her doubly important to protect. Whether the alpha wanted her protected o
r not.

He lowered
Sophie’s
leg
to
the ground, smoothing the rumbled material
of her skirt
over her ass and down her leg.
Her round, gorgeous leg
. He’d been moments away from feeling both of them wrapped around him.

He loosened his hold
at the nape of her neck, but stil
l held her close
. No way was his dad
going to see the kiss ravaged swell of her mouth.

“Sophie, tell Dad
you’re fine,” he ordered.

She mumbled into
his chest, but Jake knew the man
had heard her.

He l
eft as silently as he had appeared.

CHAPTER THREE

“Am I moving too fast, Sophie?”

She shook her head, her lips still pursed around the straw in her drink.

“L
ittle l
iar
,” he said
. “It’s alright to feel something for me. Do you want me tell you want I feel?”

Another shake of her head.

He gently took the drink from her hands and urged her back against the soft leathe
r of the booth. He leaned
over her, crowding her space. The soft hitch in her breathing delighted him. He lowered his h
ead until his mouth touched
the pink shell of her ear. “I want to fuck you, Sophie.”

He grinned when she drew in a deep ragged breath.

“I want to fuck y
ou so hard and so fast that you’re raw when I come inside you. Then I want to turn you over and do it again.”

Jake turned her head until he could see her eyes. Her pupils we
r
e wide, almost obliterating the
rich
chocolate
brown of her eyes.

She was excited. As turned on and ready for sex as he was.

“You know I almost took you against the wall, don’t you Sophie?”

A rapid blink was
h
is only answer.

He nuzzled her ear again, moving down he
r neck until he breathed in the
wonderful fragrance found where her neck met h
er shoulder. The place where he
would mark her as his. “And you would have let me, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes.” The word rushed from between her lips.

Jake grinned, placing a kiss just where he would bit
e
her
as he claimed her
before drawing away.

Moments later, his dad
and
Mary Ann
appeared at the table.
They had just finished a dance on the crowded floor.

Robert
looked from one to the other, noting Jake’s cat that got the canary smile
or should he say the dog
that
got the bone smile
and Sophie’s rapid breathing. He smelled no fear on Sophie, only sex.

He’d only stopped his son
before because he had no
way to protect him.
If he had claimed her,
Jake may have partially shifted in order to mark her
. It had been known to happen if the man lost control of the wolf. Plus, Jake would never have forgiven himself if he’d claimed his mate against the side of a
restaurant
where anyone could have seen them. Or heard them. He’d been in the same house once or twice when Jake had taken a woman
to bed.
Every wolf wanted to make his part
ner scream, but when a wolf took a mate to bed he made her beg
for mercy.

His eyes flickered to the woman beside him.
Mary Ann
Worthington
, Jake’s s
ecretary for the past two years and his future daughter-in-law’s best friend.
There was something about h
er that drew him. Maybe it was the fact that she cared so much about her friend
she
manipulate
d
her
boss. He grinned. They’d had some revealing
conversation
over
the past two weeks as they’d put their heads to
gether concerning Sophie and Jake
. She was younger than him, way
younger if you considered his true life span, but that didn’t matter. He liked her. He liked her a lot.

His mat
e, Jake’s mother, had di
e
d years earlie
r. He’d take the loss hard. He
knew what the
pack thought about his business
acumen
but to tell the truth, he just hadn’t given a damn. Five years ago he’d had to make a decision, one he didn’t regret. When his father had announced his ‘retirement’ he’d refused the role of
alpha and given up
Anderson Trading
in order
to entice his son away from his European ho
me. He knew what his son needed
– t
o be alpha. He was too much like
his
father to accept anything less
.

The waitress came to take their orders. Jake frowned when Sophie ordered only a small steak and side salad.

Her friend
Mary Ann
seemed to order on
e of everything much to his dad’s
amusement.

“Aren’t you
hungry
?” he asked after the waitress left.

Sophie wouldn’t meet his gaze, just looked at him from beneath her lashes. “No, not really.”

Jake’s frown deepened. Something in her tone told him
s
h
e was lying. He looked at his dad
to see if he sensed it as well. The other man gave him a small nod indicating he had.

Both men frowned. What was wrong with Sophie?

Sophie cringed inside wh
en Jake asked if she was hungry and saw the looks that passed between the two men.
Of course she was hungry. She hadn’t eaten since lunch and that had been a skimpy meal since she’d spent most of her lunch break flirting with her boss on the twenty-third floor.

Flirting with her boss. And now she was on a date with him. An actual date.
When she’d thought about what would happen if they ever did go out together,
she’d just assumed he would take her to some out of the way restaurant and then ask her back to his apartment where they would go at
it
like rabbits until he asked her to l
eave.

A
t least
that’s
how she hoped this
evening would end.

After the kiss they’d just shared she was pretty sure it would.

She glanced around the restaurant, knowing it was one of the most exclusive in town. While the atmosphere was light and lively, there was also an intimacy about the place that encouraged a m
an to seduce the woman he was with.

She sighed. That wasn’t going to happen for her.

Next to her was Jake Anderson, the man she’d had
a
crush on since
Mary Ann
had started working in the company. That crush had turned to lust and then love when
Mary Ann
had become his secretary. The woman had shared all the little nuances she discovered as only working with someone closely would. Of course, the lust was still there.

She squirmed thinking about how much she wanted to jump his bones.

The waitress brought everyone’s salads. Sophie looked at the small house salad she had ordered and sighed. She was so hungry.

“Damn it, Sophie, I knew you were hungry.
”

Before she could stop him, he signaled the waitress and ordered
enough
appetizers
to feed a small army. The waitress melted under his charming smile when he asked for expedited service and
hastened to assure him she would br
ing the food as
soon as it was ready
.

“Don’t lie to me about being hungry,” Jake ordered. His
countenance
was no longer so charming, in fact it was downright angry. “Don’t lie to me about anything.”

Sophie’s chin jaunted
out. “I’m not hungry.”

“The hell you aren’t.”

Sophie trembled. She hated when people assumed since she was a big girl that food was her main concern. She’d even had a man in the past state he w
ouldn’t be taking her to any of the all
you can eat buffets because he didn’t want to be embarrassed if she couldn’t control herself around all that food. That date had needed before it even began.

Much like this d
ate was going to end. She’d known
it was too good to be true.

She rose
from the booth and placed
her napkin on the table
very gently
. “I can decide what I want to eat and when I want to eat it
. I’ve decided I’m not eating a
nd I’m most certainly not eating with you.”

She turned on her heel and walked away.

“Well that didn’t go
quite like you expected.” Robert leaned back i
n the booth watching as
his
pseudo
date f
ollowed her friend from the restaurant.
Mmmm
, he liked the sound of that, his date.

“What the hell happened?” Jake looked at his father
with
bewilderment in his eyes. “What did I do?”
The number two rule of pack was to keep your mate healthy and sa
tisfied. By any means necessary
. Sex, food, love. It didn’t matter. The needs of your mate were to be met above anything else.

“I suspect you didn’t do any
thing, Jake. She just needed
an excuse to get away from you.”

“What?”
He looked
at his dad as if he’d gone crazy
.

“That was some kiss you were giving her outside. I’d say she’s running scared about having sex with you.” Robert tried to keep his expression somber. He loved the fact that his son’s mate was giving him hell. He just hoped it wasn’t too much hell, he’d like some grand pups before long.

“What?”

“Sophie isn’t like
the other women you’ve dated
. She has no confidence in her ability to attract a man. Much less a man like you.”

“A man like me?”

Robert laughed. “You’re damn good looking, son, even if I do say so myself. You’re intelligent, rich
,
and a wolf. In short, you’re a woman’s wet dream.” He frowned. “Do women have wet dreams?”

“She doesn’t know I’m a wolf.
” Jake motioned the waitress away as she started across the room with th
e appetizers he’d requested
. They meant nothing now that Sophie wasn’t here.
He motioned the bar
keeper over and ordered a
whiskey.

“That’s another hurdle you’re going to have to face.”

At a loss for probably the first time in his life, he asked his fath
er what the other one
s were
.

“
First, you going to have to convince her you love her. You do love her, don’t you?”