Shifter’s Baby (Alpha Fantasy Paranormal Billionaire Shifter BBW Romance) (120 page)

Chapter Two – Jessica

              Randall Blakemore…  She slid into her car easily, though she felt her hands tremble slightly as she turned over the engine. He may have noticed changes in her, but he certainly didn’t look any different. He had always been the tallest guy in school over 6 feet. Black wavy hair, and a body like a soldier. The truth of the matter was; it had always been his eyes that had her fascinated in high school. They were dark blue, and he always had a way of making you feel like he could see every thought that crossed your mind.

              Of course back then he hadn’t even noticed she existed. He had taken up for her a couple of times, but after that she had learned to stay under the radar, and had been moon-eyed over Randy Blakemore for the remainder of her school years. It wasn’t until she went away to college, and ultimately her career that she realized what a foolish crush it had been. Fortunately, she had put it all to rest, and gotten her life together. College had been a task in and of itself, but she had learned to take better care of herself, and learned to be proud of who she is, red hair and all.

              She sighed as she pulled into the tall apartment building in the city. On her to do list had always been to live on her own and take care of herself, something she was finally doing. The biggest lesson she had learned was to plan, everything. She had gone from chubby school kid to assistant to the mayor in 10 years and she had fought to get there. Her application had gone into the mayor’s office in her hometown at just the right time and she had been happy when she had been told the position was hers.

              Living her life had kept her busy, so busy that fun, and relationships had been put on a shelf for a while, at least until she could relax in her new life. She’d had no real friends in school, so there was no eagerness to look anyone up, anyone but Randy. Just seeing him today had made her feel like a high school kid again. It was foolish the effect he had on her, and one she would make sure to never let happen again.

              Changing clothes, she finally relaxed for the night. She had only planned on running over to the Blakemore house and drop off the paperwork from City Hall, she’d had no intention of actually running into Mrs. Blakemore, or to extract an invitation from her. No, it seemed as though their meeting was fated to happen, ever since she had pulled his paperwork out earlier that morning.

              She had only been on the job 3 days and already, she was facing her past head on. What she needed was to be assertive when she spoke to him again, which she knew would be soon. There was no doubt Mrs. Blakemore had big plans on them enjoying dinner again the three of them. It was obvious that she didn’t realize just how uninterested Randy really was about Jessie Sinclair. She made her way into the bathroom as she found herself reflecting even more about how little he had changed. His black hair was dark as ink, and those clear blue eyes had charmed more than one girl out of their pants back in the day. She had no doubt that had changed very much about him either.

              Looking at her reflection, she was happy to see that she had changed more than a little. Her red hair was always wild, with a mind of its own, but she could manage it now far better than ever before.  Her cheekbones were well defined and her skin was flawless, aside from a few freckles across the bridge of her nose. Her eyes were still a dark green, but now with just the right makeup she could accent her features in a way she had always tried to hide before. No Messy Jessie was certainly a part of her past. Now all she had to do was wait for Blakemore to come see her which she knew would happen sooner rather than later, just as soon as he read over the papers from the city.

Chapter Three- Randy

              The little minx came over to drop off paperwork, not to casually run into his mother as she had thought. He tossed the new paperwork down on his desk. So maybe she did have a little fire to her after all, well either way she was in for a surprise. It wouldn’t take long for him to get dressed and go into town, specifically to see her. If he recalled correctly, she had always been a little moneyed over him in middle school. Maybe he could use that to persuade her to see things his way. At this point anything he could do to make things better, he would do it. He also wanted to see if he could make her squirm a little.

              He hated the city more than any place else. The architecture was beautiful, true, but the people, the smells and the traffic were not something he ever wanted to deal with. How anyone could work in the mess was beyond him. He smoothed down his shirt, having taken great care to look nice. His black button down shirt and gray slacks fit him well enough, and he had shaved this morning, just to make a good impression as he did his sweet talking today. He was escorted to an outer office and led into the room by a younger, very city like young man.

              “Coffee, water?” The boy asked him.

“No… no I am fine thanks.” He watched as he straightened a few things in the office and turned to go.

“Miss Sinclair will be in shortly; she is just wrapping up a meeting.” He gave a smile and then left the room in a scurry of activity.

The whole situation seemed a little odd, but hey, whatever suits you. He shrugged his shoulders and stood to look around the room. The key to getting what you want is to find common ground with your opponent. Surely there was something in this room that he could find to talk to Miss Jessie about. Her office was perfectly neat and clean, and there was very little at all to look at. In fact, there was one picture of her Jessie and her parents, and another of her dog. Aside from that no friends, boyfriends or otherwise among her things.

No boyfriend pics were a good thing; he could use that later. Even still it seems like she would have more… well stuff. He had never met a woman that didn’t always have more “stuff” than necessary. He moved over to her large windows and looked out at the city below. He whistled slowly, taking in the view. He had finally figured out what good there was in the city, and this view was it. Instead of facing the hub of the city her office faced the opposite direction. You could see the bay, the water moving swiftly and the long bridge stretching over it. People were nothing more than ants crawling around. In act this view was breathtaking.

He was still standing that way when she came in. He could tell she was there before he even turned around to look at her. With a grin he spun around to face her. She seemed to be both puzzled and surprised at the same time. He knew it was a good time to start things off right.

“I have to say Jessie; this is some view.” He gave her a wink, the double meaning obvious.

He waited for a blush or reaction and all he could tell that she did do was roll her eyes slightly as she made her way over to her chair. She was in a black dress today, form fitting and in sharp contrast to her pale skin, she was beautiful. He would try until she told him to stop.

“I guess you know why I am here? I got your letters after lunch with my mother the other day, seems like something some dirty businessman would do, taking advantage of an old woman like that.”

He saw the flush in her face then, ok anger was something.

“Mr. Blakemore...”

“Randy, please.” He sat down in the chair with a smile in her direction.

“Fine, Randy.” She crossed her arms still standing. “For your information I was on the way to her house and did, in fact, run into her. I just gave them to her since I was already there.”

“I have my own place, you know; my mother doesn’t need to be bothered with all the legal stuff? It will only stress her out.” He gave her a once over slowly, still nothing.

“I am sorry about that Mr. Blake...er Randy. I When they assigned it to me, your mothers address was the only one on it. I will rectify it as soon as I can.” She settled down in her chair. “What exactly can I help you with?”

He paused, she was all ice, no reaction to anything. This may be a little more of a challenge than he had initially thought, he found himself smiling. He did enjoy a good challenge.

“These papers are b.s. and I need to figure out what I need to do… this time. I figured since our relationship goes way back, maybe you can steer me in the right direction.”

She noticeably frowned. “Our relationship was that we had a math class together over 12 years ago Randy, I’m not sure what kind of leverage that is, but humor me please.”

He grinned. “we had a math class together true, and I remember a dance we shared for a moment.”

She blinked twice, swallowing hard. Aha, so she did remember.

“Fine, I’ll give you that one. I was in a bad situation and you helped me. I’ve never thanked you for it, not really. So tell me the situation with your property.”

“It’s an easy story to tell, I’ve had it for years. In fact, it’s been in my family for as long as I can remember and yet every couple years I get some paperwork telling me I need to close it up.”

“Every couple years?”

“Yes, exactly. I don’t know why, but that’s how it goes. Then I jump through a bunch of hoops and pay a bunch of money and they leave me alone for a while.”

“Have you ever thought about fighting the situation instead of just paying fines? I mean every time you pay it you accept that you're guilty of whatever its for?”

“No,” IN fact, I call they give me an amount I don’t even know what exactly it’s for. They give me some bunch of codes and log numbers. If I don’t pay it I can’t open up, if I can’t open up I don’t make a living.” He stood, walking towards the window once more.

“Well, I’ll definitely look into it for you, since you helped me all those years ago and all, and since we go way back.”

He heard the smirk in her voice and turned to catch a smile on her face for a split second.

“Jessie, are you married?” He asked her calmly, enjoying the surprised look on her face.

“Um, what? I mean no.” She shuffled some papers at her desk. “I don’t think that has any bearing on your situation Mr. Blakemore.”

He smiled as she shifted back into the formal names. Yes, he affected her more than she wanted to admit.

“I just noticed no pictures, was catching up a bit, you know since school.” He gave her a wink and she averted her eyes away from him, causing a chuckle. “Well, I really must go, being in the city doesn’t sit well with me.” He moved towards the door.

She moved to follow him, holding the handle of the door. She was poised and ready to open it for him, but instead he covered her hand with his. He looked down at her, only inches separating them. She really was beautiful.

“I’m glad we had a chance to talk Jessie.” He let his eyes travel over her face and down her neck, watching the throbbing heartbeat there as he moved closer to her. “Do you have a boyfriend Jessie?” He moved to tuck a curl of hair that had escaped her bun behind her ear.

She cleared her throat. “You certainly ask a lot of questions Blakemore.” She let her eyes travel back up to meet his.

He admired her spirit, in fact, he was more turned on than he had been in a long time, perhaps because she was fighting him, or perhaps because all he could think about was kissing down the long slender column of her neck. He paused for a second longer, letting his eyes meet hers. She subconsciously let her tongue slip out and moisten her lips and it did him in.

He crushed his mouth to hers, a simple kiss, but the pressure of it caused them both to be surprised. She tasted like honey, and sugar and he drank from her mouth. He felt her resistance at first, and then she melted into him, lost in the moment. He had meant to kiss her and appeal to her with his charm, but instead he pulled away from her shaken to the core.

“I’ll see you Wednesday for dinner then.” He dropped another quick kiss on her upturned mouth before letting go of her hand on the door and opening it up himself to go.

Chapter Four- Jessie

              She leaned against the door after he had finally gone. It wasn’t until she was sure he had left the building that she final exhaled loudly. He had kissed her, actually kissed her. Not some little meaningless peck either. She would have to be careful with him, she knew he was a playboy and she did not want to be added to the list of women he had gone through in his life.

Settling into her desk, she gently touched her fingertips to her lips. Regardless of the reason, she was still surprised. For a long time, she had wanted nothing more than to be kissed by Randy Blakemore, more than once she had stayed up late daydreaming about him and now, finally it had happened. The reality was it didn’t matter. She needed to stay focused on work, and leave all that nonsense alone. Nothing good ever came of all that mushy stuff, and she wasn’t about to start to fall for any of it now. No, she would just get back to work and forget all about it.

A couple hours later she had managed to dig up some old records on the Blakemore property. It had been mishandled, that was obvious by the hodgepodge of paperwork and receipts found inside. They were still a smaller city than some, so digitizing the files was something they were working on, but she didn’t have time to wait until then. She would help him as much as she could, and do it by staying away from him at the same time.

She finally organized most of it, and set it aside. As much as she wanted a quick fix for him, she had other projects that were ongoing as well, and she would have to come back to it. Some things were easy to work through and she tackled them first. A new stop sign here and there and a sign for children’s play area. There were some tax adjustments that needed to be handled, which took longer than expected but were still completed after a couple of days. Finally, by Wednesday she had carved out some time to focus on Blakemore.

She still thought about the kiss, despite her efforts to try and pretend it never happened. He probably had already pushed it aside, just like in high school, and moved on to the next thing. She was still day dreaming like a teenager, and it was obvious to her that some things couldn’t be changed. With a long sigh, she slipped into the change of clothes she brought to work with her. Going over to Mrs. Blakemore’s was closer to work than her apartment so it only made sense to change into something more relaxed hand a suit to go for dinner. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror. Some jeans and a T-shirt, her hair straightened that morning, pulled back, she looked like she was relaxed and ready to enjoy herself. She wanted to erase the business image altogether, she didn’t need the reminder over dinner that he wanted her to do him any favors.

She grabbed the bottle of wine she had chosen to give as a gift and slid into her car. She wanted to be relaxed when she saw him again, not let him know the kiss had bothered her at all. She made the short trip over and was about to knock on the door when it swung open wide.

He smiled at her, his smile reaching his eyes and staring at her intently. “Well, you came.” He said it, though it didn’t seem like a question at all.

“Well, I was invited, so yes.” She gave him a half smile, which made him grin at her even more.

He opened the door wider, letting her in, coming in behind her. She found a smiling Mrs. Blakemore sitting at the table welcoming her over.

“Jessie, come on over here and sit with an old woman. Tell me all about how things are going for you.” The older woman patted Jessie’s hand as she slid into the chair beside her.

They chatted, swapping stories about things in the workplace. Jessie found herself laughing more than a few times as Mrs. Blakemore shared stories of her and her husband as they had worked to build a life together. Jessie was well aware of the fact that Randy was the one in the kitchen doing all of the cooking. She caught his eye more than a few times, always glancing away and jumping back into the story Mrs. Blakemore was sharing.

Soon both women found themselves being served a beautiful meal. Lasagna, crusty fresh bread and a green salad. He delivered it all with such flair even Jessie found herself laughing at his antics. He jumped in adding to the stories from time to time.

“So did you know Randy much in school Jessie?”

Jessie felt herself blush. “Well a little. We didn’t exactly run in the same circles, but from time to time we would run into each other.”

“Is that so? I can’t imagine that, you two would have made such a cute couple back then.” She gave Randy a wink who rolled his eyes at the older woman.

“I was very different back then, much more of me than now.” She started.

“She was still beautiful, even then.” Randy added, this time her blush was quick and true.

She changed the subject quickly.

It was obvious that the combination of the wine, and that kiss had left her weak to some of his even basic flirting. She brushed it off by taking another long drink from her glass.

“I wanted to let you know Randy, if you have time tomorrow morning I’d like you to come by. I found a couple things I have questions about.”

He stopped for a moment, thinking about it. “I can do that definitely.”

“I think I need to go sit a spell, that was delicious Randall.” Mrs. Blakemore let him lead her into the living room where he helped to settle her in a chair.

She jumped into the dishes, knowing that he would be back soon, not wanting to have another conversation alone with him. She felt him return, the heat of him close to her as he picked up the drying towel on the other side of her. They worked in silence, both lost in their own thoughts.

Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore. “Dinner was lovely Randy, thank you.” She whispered.

She waited for him to say something, anything but instead she felt him moving, turning her to face him. She felt him press her against the sink, his lips finding hers quickly and surely. The pressure was almost too much as she felt her head spinning. The heat from his mouth invaded her senses, her inability to stop it leading her to respond without even trying to. She felt his hands under her lifting her to put her on the counter, his lips never leaving hers.

It was more than a kiss, it was all fire and she felt herself opening up to him, to his hands as he pressed the small of her back, pulling her closer to him. His hands were in her hair, losing the mass of hair and letting it fall in silky waves down her shoulders. He tipped back her head, letting his mouth travel down her throat kissing his way down.

There was a laugh from the living room, breaking the mood, causing them both to look up at each other quickly. She pulled her hair back up and slid off the counter, still unsure how it had happened at all.

“Jessie.” He called to her, but she refused to stop moving.

She grabbed her bag and jacket, never looking at him once as she made her way into the living room to say goodbye to Mrs. Blakemore. After she said her goodbyes, she made her way outside, enjoying the cool night air as it hit her face, still flushed from his onslaught. She didn’t relax until she was at home and in her own bed. Only then did she let herself reflect on what she had done.