Wicked As He Comes: BBW Tiger Shifter Paranormal Romance (Tiger In Her Bed Book 3) (4 page)

“John, I—”

A creak at the door interrupted her, and both of them snapped their attention to the entrance, where a pair of identical faces had just appeared.

Damnit, Harry!

Immediately, she pushed on John’s chest to get him off her, and he rolled to the side in compliance.

“Hey, look George,” said Harry innocently. “Janey and John are wrestling.”

George pushed his glasses up, correcting. “No, I believe they are about to attempt what adults call sexual intercourse.”

“What’s that?” Harry turned back to John. “You’re not hurting my sister, are you?”

John looked as if he was about to laugh but resisted at the very last second. “Just a little, but she’s going to love it.“ He winked.

“Out! All of you.” Jane shoved her brothers out of the room. “You too.” She pulled John off the bed and pushed him to the door.

“Why me? What did I do?” her new husband protested.

Jane grabbed his clothes and thrust them in his arms. She was too mortified to answer. Caught in a compromising situation by her brothers. Her younger brothers. Those innocent children. She was beyond embarrassed. Especially when George could guess what they were about to do.

And where did George learn such thing, anyway?

Ugh. She needed to screen his reading materials from now on.

“Good night, John.”

She closed the door on him.

*  *  *             

She couldn’t sleep a wink that night. After putting the twins to bed, she retreated to John’s room to rest for the night. Her new husband left after he said goodnight to the boys, saying he had some business he had to take care of. She didn’t ask and John didn’t offer explanation. She still couldn’t overcome a wall of awkwardness between them, even though John made himself fit in her life effortlessly.

Twenty-four hours ago, John Alexander was still a stranger.

And now, he was her husband.

Husband
.

Jane wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. She hadn’t calculated that her plan would take this dramatic detour. She’d thought John would begrudgingly agree to marry her in secret, and then after some time, he’d consent to a quiet divorce. She had presented him with her terms that she didn’t want any monetary support from him during and after the marriage ended and with his most charming smile, he flat-out rejected.

What kind of man willingly went along with being blackmailed? With no prenup, she could get away with half of his assets once they got divorced.

But then he told her divorce was out of the question. Once he married, he married for life.
Be careful what you wish for, he’d said.
You’re stuck with me
,
for better or for worse, ‘till death do us part.

Jane pulled up the comforter up to her chin. Staring at the ceiling, she wondered why the prospect excited her? It wasn’t because of his wealth or his fame. It was because, well, he was John Alexander. He was quick to smile, with a warm disposition, and yet beneath his debonair persona, he seemed dangerous to boot. In a way, it added to his charm.

Husband…

She was clearly in way over her head with this blackmailing business. Was John serious about making this marriage work? Did he really have feelings for her?

How could he develop feelings for someone that easily? Considering his reputation, it felt like this marriage was nothing but a game for him.

He kept telling her it was love at first sight, but he had to be joking. But then again, she had a hunch he was serious. If he was joking, he wouldn’t bring her and the twins to live with his mother and all that talk about a grand wedding.

A grand wedding. To make it official. Announcing to the world that she was his, he’d said.

Good lord. Was he serious about that? Out of nowhere, heat flooded her cheeks. Her heartbeat quickened.

Being with him made her feel some emotions she’d buried inside a long time ago. She had sworn she would never open her heart to someone again after Nick. Nick Preston, the boy who broke her heart.

Even though her father had only begrudgingly claimed her, she was brought up in a ritzy environment. However, her status followed her and made her an outcast among the children of the elites.

In her sophomore year, she had a crush on a popular boy in school; Nick Preston was everything that she wasn’t. Then, one day, Nick asked her out on a date. She thought dreams did come true. They dated for about a week when Nick suddenly broke it off. She was devastated. And to add salt to the wound, she found out that Nick only dated her because he’d lost a bet.

The truth crushed her to the core. From that moment on, she had sworn she’d never fall in love again.

Although, she hadn’t avoided the opposite sex altogether. She
had
casually dated over the years, mainly for sex. But when the guy was getting serious, she’d always run.

Now that she was officially John’s wife, running seemed like it wasn’t an option.

Especially when the ice in her heart was slowly melting.

Ugh. Jane hoisted herself into a sitting position and massaged her temples.

I’m losing focus.

Falling in love wasn’t part of the game even though the man in question was her own husband. The welfare of the twins came first.

She slowly let out a long breath, trying to tame her conflicted feelings.

George and Harry were safe now. As long as they remained under the Alexander’s roof and she stayed married to John. The Alexanders’ name commanded great respect in polite society. Tomorrow, she’d call Uncle Alfred and let him know about her marriage. She’d also make it clear that if he didn’t keep his hands off the twins, he’d stand to lose everything.

She fell back on the bed, marveling at how the soft sheets caressed her skin. She looked around at the luxurious surroundings. Yet, one thing remained missing.

John.

Is it weird that I miss my forced husband?

*  *  *

The small Irish pub near Central Park was a little too dumpy for John’s liking, but Markus Alvares, his PI, liked the place for its steak burger and always insisted on meeting there every time John needed his services.

John called Markus to do some digging on the Benedict family while he was still in Vegas. He was surprised when Markus called him back with his findings after just a day.

After John said goodnight to the twins, he kissed his new wife and went out to see Markus. The investigator was in the middle of his second burger when John arrived. A stack of folders waited for his perusal. It turned out Markus had been hired by an insurance company to investigate the death of Lynn Sinclair Benedict—Jane and the twins’ mother. Before Markus concluded his investigation, the insurance company decided to settle with the executor of the estate: Alfred Benedict. Jane did tell him that she received a small sum of money from her mother’s estate every month until it suddenly stopped last year. Alfred gave her excuse after excuse, until she threatened to sue. Supposedly, the attempts on the twins’ life began soon after.

“Did you say you married her in Vegas?” asked Markus between hearty bites of burger.

“I did,” John answered without tearing his eyes from the report.

“Without a pre-nup?”

“Yep.”

“Without a background check?”

“That’s what I asked you to do.”

“After you married her,” Markus said pointedly. “What if she turned out to be a gold digger?”

John lifted his head from the paper, one eyebrow arching “I have good intuition. She isn’t a bad girl. She’s just desperate.”

Markus stared at him with a healthy dose of skepticism. “Hold it right there—I’m going to take your picture. I’m going to show it to you three years from now when you ask me to tail her to find grounds for a divorce.”

Annoyance mowed him down like a freight train. Even though they had been friends for a long time, Markus still had no idea who he really was. Humans get married and divorced all the time. Shifters like him mated for a lifetime. John had never believed that creed until he met Jane. He couldn’t really explain the feeling to a human like Markus. Fuck. He didn’t even believe it until he experienced it firsthand. That feeling when every fiber of his being screamed for her, wanting her to the point he thought he’d gone insane. It was primal instinct at its purest. “I’m certain that would never happen. I assure you—she’s the
one
.”

Markus laughed boisterously, and it invited some irritated stares from the nearby tables. The investigator wiped his hands on a napkin and gulped down his beer. “You have no idea how many times I’ve heard that line.”

“I’m sure you have,” said John dryly. “But I’m not like other people. When I say she’s special, she is truly special.”

“Uh-huh. I find it hard to believe considering your reputation.”

“I think you’re getting a little too personal, considering you’re on my payroll.”

“Sorry, boss.” But Markus didn’t seem sorry at all. “Why did you ask me to run a background check if you don’t care about the results anyway?”

“I still want to know everything about her.” John flipped the pages. “Hmm. I see she got a scholarship to NYU.”

“She majored in Fine Arts. Only lasted two semesters, though. She quit when her mother died. Tragic. Lost both parents in a span of months.”

“Don’t you think that’s kind of suspicious?”

“Depends on how you look at it. Every day, thousands of people die from motor vehicle-related incidents.”

“I am
asking
you if the circumstances behind their deaths are suspicious?”

“The police reports ruled them as accidents. The insurance company pulled the plug on Lynn Benedict’s case before I could dig deeper.”

“I want you to take another look at this particular case. Not just Lynn Benedict, but Rob Benedict as well. I was told there had been attempts on the twins’ lives as well.”

“The twins?”

“George and Harry Benedict.” John briefed the investigator on the short version of the twins’ strange accidents.

Markus didn’t say anything but John could see the investigator was intrigued.

“So, you’ll look at these cases for me?” asked John.

Markus nodded.

“Let me know if you find anything.”

Markus’ attention seemed somewhere else.

John was about to leave when Markus suddenly said, “I heard rumors about Alfred Benedict a while ago.”

“Oh yeah? What about him?”

“Some unsettling rumors.”

“Come on man, the suspense is killing me.”

“Did you know that Rob and Alfred Benedict are actually half-brothers?”

That was news to him. John’s dad had never mentioned that to his children. And besides, their family had been out of touch with the Benedicts long before his dad died.

“They said Rob was a lovechild with the woman who got away, so the old man, William, favored him more than Alfred, his legitimate child with his wife Dorothy. They said that tension in the house made Dorothy want to protect Alfred to the point that the relationship between mother and son seemed kind of unnatural, if you know what I mean. We’re talking about Norma and Norman Bates here.”

Yikes.

John suppressed a shiver. Who would have guessed? He’d never met William Benedict, the grand patriarch, or Dorothy, when his father was still close friends with Rob. He remembered that William Benedict had passed away and Dorothy was in a private clinic in Europe, convalescing. He later heard that she died from chronic illness. As far as what transpired
inside
the household had remained unknown. John’s mother rarely spoke of the Benedicts since dad passed away. John didn’t even know that his family had invested a substantial amount of money into the Benedicts’ company. He would have to ask Quinn about it, since he was the one who ran the family business.

“Unsettling, indeed,” John said. “Where did you hear that?”

Markus shrugged. “I have my sources.”

“Wrong answer. Try again.”

“Lynn Benedict’s longtime friend. Dora Marsh.”

“You don’t think she could make things up?”

“Could be. But I also dug around for Alfred’s ex-wife at that time and she didn’t have anything good to say about him.”

“Ex-wives rarely have anything good to say about their ex-husbands.”

“True. But this one is particularly nasty. Read my notes.”

John stared at the thick folders. “I will.”

“A word of advice: stay away from Alfred Benedict. He’s dangerous.”

“Is that so?” John accepted this as a challenge. He couldn’t wait to meet the man who made his new wife and the twins’ life so miserable.

*  *  *

John didn’t immediately go home after meeting with Markus; instead, he went to Central Park and ran all night in his beastly form. There were paths and trails that even homeless people and the cops didn’t traverse after dark. After months of making fun of his brothers for being afflicted with mating fever, he now knew just how much of a nuisance it was.