The Pretend Marriage: A Werewolf Romance (4 page)

Jeff and Mariko both glower at Jake.

This is going to be a very interesting meal, Terry thinks as she picks up her fork and knife. Now who is going to take the first stab?

7

Jake’s quick mind processes what he has found on Jeff Hirsch on Google:

HIRSCH, JEFF

AGE: 34

Major: Mass communications and Advertising.

Former Key Accounts Exec at Newton and Young. Won the Clio Award twice.

Wolf Shifter. Clan:
Drogba (Black Wolf). Former challenger to the alpha of the clan, but defeated in the final confrontation. Left Drogba thereafter and married his mate, Cassandra.

Fierce, independent
, ambitious, brilliant.

Won the
New York State Treasure Hunt cup in 2013.

Second place in
the regional shifter triathlon in 2010 and 2011.

Jake could not find anything on Mariko Ruchi on the net. But it doesn’t necessarily mean there is nothing on her, just that she guards her personal information. So she is a cypher.

Two Mexican women come in to serve
dinner in a succession of platters and bowls. Since there are so many people, there are two servings of everything. Roast lamb. Beef stew. Pumpkin bread. Vegetable soup. Salad. Roasted baby potatoes.

Conve
rsation begins in earnest again with everyone talking all at once – side by side, across the table. Jake steals a glance at Terry. So far, she has been solid throughout all this. Well, she ought to be, with what he’s paying her.

Still, he feels on edge whenever he is with her.
She is looking particularly beautiful today in her lavender sweater and her blue jeans. Very suited for a summer weekend. He is very aware of her presence next to him, and of her thigh accidentally brushing against his in their cramped confines. He can smell the sweet scent of her shampoo. She doesn’t use perfume, and he doesn’t like women or wolves who do. Perfume masks their natural scent, he believes.

On the opposite side, Jeff studies them both intently, but does not say anything. His wife merely looks miserable. Mariko and Hiro
are talking with Ethel, who apparently uses the Japanese cosmetics Mariko used to market.

“So, Terry,” Martha says, “
how did you and Jake meet?”

Terry says in a well-rehearsed note, “We met at the library.”

Jake clenches his left fist in a gesture of triumph under the table while his right nonchalantly spears a baby potato with his fork. He affects a look of innocence.

“That’s a fine meeting place,” Martha exclaims. “I met Peter at the library too!”

“No kidding.” Terry’s smile is plastered.

“Which library would that be?”

Uh oh, Jake thinks.

“
Foxhall,” he says as Terry simultaneously says, “Briggs”.

They both stop to glare at each other.

“Briggs,” Jake says as Terry says, “Foxhall”.

They glare at each other again.

“It was either one,” Jake says. “We can’t remember.”

“Your memory is always faulty, darling.”

“Not always, sweetie.”

“Most of the time, darling.”

“Libraries are such wonderful meeting places. Hardly anyone meets in libraries these days with Kindles and iPads and gyms and clubs and websites offering everything from dating services to hookups,” Peter declares.

Martha says eagerly, “I want to hear every single detail of how you both met. Please . . . tell us.”

“Yeah,” her daughter, Karina, chimes in. As do the rest of the women at the table with the exception of Mika, who looks bored, and Cassie Hirsch, who looks paler by the second. Jake seriously hopes she is not going into premature labor.

Ugh. He hasn’t rehearsed details with Terry.

When in doubt, improvise
.

“We were at the library,” he begins. “I was checking
out the complete works of William Shakespeare.”

He has never checked out the complete works of William Shakespeare since grade school, but he figures he would remember the plot of
Romeo and Juliet
in case anyone at the table asks.
They both die, right?

Mika looks up. “I would have checked out
Twilight
.”

“
Twilight’s
good,” Terry says, and Mika smiles. Jake checks this out and mentally nods his approval.

He goes on
, “Then I saw this beautiful girl walking down the aisle, looking for something.”

Terry glances at him. There is an odd expression on her face.

“Really?” she says softly. “You thought I was beautiful?”

“Of course you are, sweetheart. I tell you that every day, don’t I?”

For show, Jake leans over and pecks her quickly on the cheek. It is the first time his lips have ever brushed her skin, and he feels an unexpected jolt – an electrical tingle which races through his mouth and down his neck to his torso, and right down to his groin. He has never experienced this before and so he is hugely surprised.

Static electricity? He surreptitiously glances down at the floor. Wood beams. No carpeting. Why is his pulse starting to drum up a beat? He licks his lips, trying to calm himself down.
It’s only a kiss, come on!

Terry, on her part, seems surprised he kissed her. Her cheeks flush suddenly.

“Ah, well,” she says, seemingly at a loss for words. Which has to be a first for her, he reckons.

“Go on,” Martha urges.

Everyone at the table has stopped talking and is waiting to hear his next words. Even Jeff Hirsch, who wears a superior smirk on his smug face.

He’d better not fail his captive audience.

“So she was looking high and low for something. And I went up to her and said, ‘Can I help you?’ She turned to me, and my breath did this funny thing in my throat, like it was choked up or something.”

Jeff cuts in, “You mean like having gas?”

Murmurs ripple down the table. The challenge is unmistakable.

Jake glares at him.

Terry interrupts, “No, it was like kismet for both of us. Because I felt it too. This funny feeling in my stomach, like I was kicked in the gut.”

Ethel mock grimaces an ‘Ow!’

“Love hurts,” Jake says solemnly. “Because that was what it was for us. Instant attraction, wasn’t it, darling?”

He gazes at Terry beside him, and an inexplicable pang flowers in his chest. He remembers the first time he saw her opening her door
many months ago, her butt in the air as she bent down to pick something. Hot new neighbor, he thought. Scorching. He could feel his core temperature rising several notches.

Then she turned, did a double take when she saw him before she recovered and
acidly retorted, “You looking at something?”

Terry says to the gathered throng, “It was epic.
We couldn’t take our eyes off each other. And then I dropped the book I was holding. And I bent down to pick it up . . . ”

“But I was there first,” Jake puts in. “And there we were, at ground level together, colliding.”

“Sparks flew,” Terry says.

“Planets combusted,” Jake says.

“Rainbows aligned.”

“Unicorns stomped their hooves.”

They both pause at their unique choice of phrases.

“Well, go on,” Martha demands. “
You can’t leave us hanging!”

Jake says, “
In short, we already knew we were in love the moment we met. I did the honors and asked her out for coffee.”

“All throughout coffee,” Terry says, “we were staring at each other with stars in our eyes.”

“Never took our eyes off each other for a second, did we, darling?”

“Not a second.”

“Naturally, the only thing to do was to get married,” Terry says. Her cheeks are pink. “He proposed to me within the week.”

Gasps all round.

“That is so romantic!” Mariko gushes. “Isn’t it romantic, Hiro?”

“The best,” her husband gloomily chimes.

“And did you get married within the week?” Martha asks.

“We went to – ”

“Vegas,” Jake puts in.

“The Strip.”

“We got married in one of those packages where they throw in a honeymoon suite and a mariachi band.”

“He got me a ring.” Terry flashes the faux diamond ring that Jake bought her. It is cubic zirconia and it looks amazingly real.
Jake chose one with a smallish stone rather than a huge one which would have attracted the wrong kind of attention.

“Then we went up to our honeymoon suite and had great sex. I think we must have had sex five times that night, honey.”

“Oh really? I thought it was seven. I wore you out.”

“Uh uh. It was the other way round. I wore
you
out. You could scarcely walk to breakfast the next morning.”

Martha clears her throat. “OK, that’s too much information for the young ones at this table.” She winks at Terry. “Though I would love to hear every juicy detail about your strapping young wolf privately later.”

Terry winks back. “Anytime.”

Dinner continues – a raucous, chatty affair.
Peter regales them with stories of how his father came to America with nothing but the fur on his back and stresses once again on the importance of family.

When the dishes are being cleared,
Jeff Hirsch pulls Jake aside.

“Just so you know,
I’ve got my eye on you,” he says in a low voice.

Jake pulls his arm away from Jeff’s loathsome touch. “
Good for you.”

“I did some digging up on you.
Quite a little corporate climber, aren’t you? And you’ve completely lost touch with your canine self, according to a little wolfie who told me. Almost human now, are you?”

A frisson of nervousness
dances down Jake’s spine. “Well, believe everything at your peril.”

“Or maybe it should be
your
peril.” Jeff grins unpleasantly. “Funny how you should show up with a wife overnight. The same little wolfie can’t recall you ever being with a girlfriend, let alone a wife.”

“The same little wolfie recalled wrongly, I suspect.” Jake moves away. “Now if you will excuse me, I will have to go up to
bed with my
wife
.”

He strides to Terry. “Come on, honey, let’s grab our bags and go upstairs.”

Martha says, “Jake, Terry, we haven’t had a chance to let you settle down yet. Apologies for rushing you off to dinner like that.”

“It’s OK,” Jake says. “We didn’t want to keep everyone waiting for us anyway.”

“I have to see to the maids, so is it OK if Mika shows you to your room?”

Mika is slinking nearby, trying to make herself inconspicuous,
and she immediately scowls when she hears her grandmother.

“Now, Mika, don’t make that face. Back in the old country, they used to say
that when the wind changes, your face would freeze in that exact expression.”

“I don’t know
which room you’ve assigned them,” she shoots back.

“It’s the
last one on the east block. Upstairs. Go on now. I’ll see you all at breakfast, which will be at eight. Then Peter has a very busy day planned for you.”

I’ll bet, Jake thinks.

“Your room’s haunted,” Mika announces.

“No, it isn’t, Mika. Don’t tell lies
now and don’t go around scaring our guests,” says her grandmother.

“But it is. I saw
an old lady drift out of it. She was all in white and her feet were off the ground.” Mika grins at Jake and Terry. “Come on, I’ll show you to your room and the chest she sleeps in, which is at the foot of your bed.”

Jake grabs both his and Terry’s bags. They follow Mika
upstairs. It is suddenly weighing very heavily on Jake’s mind that he will be sharing the same room with Terry. All night.

OK, they discussed this
on the way down.

“No way I’m sleeping in the same bed with you,” Terry said in their ‘discussion’.

“OK, so I’ll sleep on the floor. Big deal.”

Honest to truth, he doesn’t trust himself sleeping in the same bed with her.
He might accidentally grab her tits in one of his wet dreams.

Mika takes them to one of the wings and goes to the end of the short passage.

“This is your room,” she says.

She opens the door and sends
it flying so that it bangs against the wall. The bedroom inside is the size of a hotel room, but without the trappings of a mini-refrigerator and a wall safe. The king-sized bed is covered with a green comforter and strewn with more pillows than there are people in the room. The large bay window looks out into the forest. As Mika warned, a large decorative chest sits at the foot of the bed.