The Pretend Marriage: A Werewolf Romance Read Free Page B

to compose himself before the Peter Skaarsgard interview.
    He needs to land t hat job more than anything, or he would have to give up everything he has amassed so far.
    Failure is not an option.
    (God, how cheesy and Star Trekkie that sounds, he thinks. )
    And how unfortunately true it is.

4
     
    Terry hears the rap on her door just as she is about to turn on the vacuum cleaner.
    “Coming!” she says, adjusting the bandanna on her forehead. She always wears one when she is cleaning her apartment to keep her curly hair from crawling into her eyes.
    She opens the door without peering through the peephole. And immediately regrets it. Dwayne Tuney stands out there, grinning. The smell of cigarettes comes off him like a heat wave.
    Shit!
    She tries to slam the door on him but he wedges his foot in. She tries to close the door on him anyway.
    “Ow!” he cries. “Open up, bitch. You’re going down, for sure.”
    “Seen too many cop shows, Dwayne?” She hefts her entire body against the door, and he pushes back. “I’ll have the rent for you, I promise!”
    “When?” he challenges.
    He has considerable bulk on her and the door is giving way. This is the last time she is ever going to blindly open the door for anyone again. But she doesn’t want him to come in. The last time he did come in, he made all sorts of leering innuendoes and he checked out everything in her apartment with the precision of a rectal surgeon doing an anal probe.
    “Tomorrow!”
    Tomorrow is the due date for Shep’s college tuition fees. Maybe the college would turn a blind eye if she is late for a day or two. Right? She can’t ask Shep to fork out any more. The poor guy is already doing two waiter shifts out of campus. He needs time to study.
    Dwayne licks his lips. “You know, I’ve always wanted a wolf lady to do me. I can give you an extension on the rent if you’ll just – ”
    “No!”
    The thought of it is so loathsome that she almost retches with the sudden bad taste in her mouth.
    “You just have to open your mouth, and – ”
    “If you don’t get out this instance, I’ll yell rape!”
    This seems to shut him up.
    “Please,” she begs, “I’ll get the rent to you by tomorrow.”
    “I’d rather you put that nice, hot mouth around my cock and blow me.”
    Ewwww!
    “Goodbye, Dwayne,” she says, firmly pushing the door with all her strength against his shoulder.
    He seems to relent this time – maybe the threat of rape scared him off – and she is able to close the door fully on him.
    She locks it with a resolute click.
    Okayyyy . . . now she has a problem.

5
     
    Jake checks his look in the mirror for the tenth time. He bares his teeth. Thank goodness he flossed yesterday at lunch. He checks his hair. Looking good. He briefly wonders if Peter Skaarsgard likes to hire men with longish hair but decides it’s too late to give himself a crew cut.
    He is dressed in a Van Heusen shirt and suit. Very preppie. Very serious-like. He decides the long hair will give him edginess in that ‘I’m imaginative and avant garde’ sort of way.
    Resume? Check.
    References? Check.
    He takes a deep breath. OK, world, this is it. I really, really need this job. He has to appear eager but not too eager. Hungry but not too hungry. Hungry as in ‘I’ll do my best for your company, sir’, but not hungry as in ‘I really, really need this and I’ll do anything, please, because I’ve just unwittingly resigned from my previous job in a moment of self-righteous anger’.
    That last would not look good on him at all. No way.
    Jake steps out of the men’s room and into the reception. The pretty and rather full-faced receptionist smiles at him, sizing him up. He’s used to that, and so he nods at her, smiling back. She is probably wondering if he is human or a shifter. Pure humans are curious that way, especially in wondering how shifters would be in bed.
    “Mr. Skaarsgard will see you shortly,” she says.
    “Thank you.” He glances at