Beauty and the Wolf Read Free Page A

anything else I can get you, sir?”
    “No Mary Ann, I think you’v e given me quite enough today, don’t you?” H is smile was lethal. H is pack members wo uld have been bowing before him at that look but the woman was made of sterner stuff. She sim p ly smiled at him and his father and backed out of the room.
    * * * * *
    Sophie sat on the couch dressed in her favorite sweats and t-shirt. Both were baggy as hell but so comfortable she didn’t care . Lord knew she needed comfort. After the incident with Jake she’d left work early and come home to lick her wounds.
    Not that Jake had hurt h er in any way. In the business world she was use to men who ranted and raved when things didn’t go their way. No, she was hurt more by what he hadn’t said or do ne . He had been g i ving off a n “I want sex ” vibe you could feel a mile away and h e had looked at her with anger and contempt.
    But man, oh, man he’ d been gorgeous. She closed her eyes and pictured him as he’d looked in the hallway. The light from the bathroom had cast an aura behind him setting off his muscular physique in an oh so mouth watering way. The top button o f his dress pants had been open and his crisp white shirt unbuttoned to reveal the dark hair covering his chest. She so loved dark haired men with just the right amount of body hair. Jake had just the right amount, forming almost a perfect arrow from his pecks to his, um, well , past the waist of his pants. She assumed he didn’t go in for manscaping, or at least she hoped he didn’t . She thought that look so unmanly.
    He had presented a perfect OMG moment .
    And then he had growled.
    And then his eyes had glowed.
    Sophie started to hyperventilate when she thought about what she ’d seen.
    Why would a man’s eyes glow? Surely it had just been a trick of the light .
    Before she could think too much more about it, or scare herself silly with wild, fanciful thoughts, the front door burst open.
    “S ophie honey, what happened ?
    Her friend’s concern unleashed the flood of tears she had tried hard not to shed. The other woman pulled her into her arms, stroking her back.
    “I’m sorry I wasn’t there. Right after I called you, things went to hell in a hand basket. Jake cancelled the meeting without warning, then ordered me go take notes in a meeting in marketing – which I have never done before. There wasn’ t time to call and warn you not to come. ”
    The tears finally stopped and Sophie pulled back from the comforting embrace of her friend. She grabbed a tissue from the coffee t able, wiped away her tears , and blew her nose.
    “ How did you know something was wrong?”
    “The two holes by Jake ’s door were a dead giveaway.” Mary Ann grinned at her friend’s look of disbelief.
    When she’d walked into Jake ’s office, she hadn’t seen any holes. “What holes?”
    “He didn’t confess to me, but I’m assuming he put them there after you left. What exactly did you do to the man? ” Mary Ann ’s voice was dry with suppressed humor.
    “Oh Mary Ann.” She didn’t know what to say. The walls were solid oak paneling, thick and sound proof or so Mary Ann claimed. It would have taken something – or someone – very strong to d ent the aged wood. “Oh Mary Ann ,” she said again.
    Mary Ann didn’t know what she should tell her friend. She knew her boss had made those holes, and she knew they’d been made with his fist. Over the last two year s she had seen things at Anderson Trading that couldn’t b e explained. Even though they purchased top of the line brand furniture, said furniture broke on a regular basis. There were clandestine meetings late at night when no one was supposed to be there. And her boss’s eyes glowed when he was angry.
    “His eyes glowed.”
    “What?” For a moment Mary Ann thought she had spoken out loud.
    “His eyes glowed, Mary Ann . When he got mad at me, his e yes turned this beautiful golden brown.”
    Mary Ann saw the look of adoration