Already Freakn' Mated (4 page)

Lucky for Chris, he didn’t need to answer Stu’s crude advice because Mitchell took offense and dove on their mouthy brother, the two of them ricocheting off the walls. With them busy pounding each other, Chris slipped into the bathroom to get ready. He wanted to look and smell his best, but for one person only. Despite what Stu implied, and how Mitchell chose to live, Chris wasn’t about to be a third wheel in any relationship.

One dick. One hole. And that was final no matter how much his blood raced and his cock swelled at the thought of seeing her again. If things looked like they were heading into freaky threesome land, he had a backup plan. He’d move to Antarctica and freeze his balls off. Or kill the guy, whatever worked better.

*

Nervous, Jiao took more time getting ready than usual. She and Sheng shared the same weekday off. Unusual given they both worked at different places, she at a childcare center, and he at a car dealership. She still couldn’t believe she’d convinced Sheng to call Chris and apologize, although, the concession only comprised part of the battle. Sheng still insisted that only the best quote would win. How crazy was it for her to cross her fingers and hope Chris came in first? Thankfully, Sheng didn’t notice anything amiss, accepting at face value when questioned on her jumpiness that she was excited to finally see the gym plan moving forward.

Although Jiao expected it, the ringing of the doorbell still took her by surprise. Having hovered nearby on ridiculous pretexts, like dusting the spotless living room, organizing the front hall closet, washing light switches, she made sure she stayed close, wanting to see Chris for a moment alone before Sheng stepped in.

Lucky for her, when Chris arrived, Sheng was nowhere in sight. Wiping her hands on her jeans, an unusual giddiness flooded her. She hurried to the door and took a deep – not very calming breath – before opening it.

Awareness smacked her like a ton of bricks, followed by a heat wave, then a wet tsunami. How could Chris look even more perfect than before? Just who could wear a t-shirt reading ‘Need Money For Beer Research’ and still look sexy? Chris did, and his slow, sensual smile just made it worse.

Cheeks flushed. Nipples tingling. Cleft wet and aching. Jiao questioned her decision to get him back, even as she applauded it. As for her cat, you’d think the feline was given the biggest batch of catnip, she spun so happily in her mind.

“Hi,” he said in a low rumble.

“Hi.” The word barely whispered from her lips. How unlike her. She usually had a retort for everything. Confidence should have been her middle name. But, faced with an overwhelming attraction for the man before her, her body awash with sexual need, she doubted she could speak coherently.

Good and bad for her, Sheng chose that moment to arrive. Pushing her aside, features tight, Sheng stared up at the bigger man. Forget pleasantries or more apologies. Sheng did as she demanded, and no more.

“You’re here.” Sheng sounded so disappointed. “Follow me.”

Jiao stepped to the side as Sheng whirled around and led Chris into their home. The handyman’s fingers brushed hers in passing – intentionally she’d wager – and she sucked in a breath at the electric zing which shot through her. Her startled eyes met Chris’s gaze as he swiveled his head, his expression equally shocked. A slow, sexy smile crossed his lips, unseen by the still moving Sheng, and her heart pitter pattered in her chest.

What was the reason for this insane attraction? Why did she have the biggest urge to throw herself in his arms and run her hands over his body?

Only one answer came to mind.
He’s my mate.

Oh dear. Sheng wouldn’t like that at all. Jiao dropped her gaze and stared at her feet as the sexy contractor and her husband walked deeper into the house, heading for the door to the basement. A part of her yearned to follow, to stalk behind and watch. She didn’t give in to her cat’s curiosity, though. Instead, she did the smart – boring – thing and busied herself in the kitchen preparing dinner, even if it wasn’t needed for hours.

Despite the fact she worked alone and forced her mind away from the handsome shifter, whose scent reminded her of the wolves she used to know in captivity, her body refused to quell, every nerve tingling. Anticipating what, she couldn’t have said.

And somehow she doubted Sheng would like the answer if she decided to find out. As if that would stop her.

Bad as it made him, Chris wanted to ditch the serious Asian dude and follow the hot female. Wrong move. He knew that. Doubly wrong, given she was already freakn’ married, but dammit, having gotten a second whiff and then a brief touch, everything in him clamored – and howled – for him to hunt her down and make her his. The whining of his wolf in his head wasn’t necessary for him to know for a fact she belonged with him.
Ours.
His wolf seemed happy he’d finally gotten the memo.

Finding his mate should have resulted in a celebratory moment, a naked sweaty moment, but somehow he didn’t think her husband would approve, and Chris couldn’t blame him. He wouldn’t want to share her either. The possessive sort, Chris didn’t want anyone touching his woman. Of course, that might be hard to enforce, given her husband had more rights than him.

Damn.

Surely destiny wasn’t so cruel as to make him yearn for a woman already claimed? He didn’t want to get involved in a polyamorous mating. He didn’t want another man touching her silky soft skin. Making her pant. Or keen. Or…

Jealousy burned and his fists clenched at his side as he followed that other guy. How crazy was this? He wanted to beat the hell out of the dude for touching his own wife.

Perhaps he was mistaken. Maybe she wasn’t Chris’s mate after all. He’d not gotten any horizontal – cowgirl, or doggy style – action in a while, so perhaps he just reacted to her attractiveness. Yeah, right, and his uncle Hector didn’t eat that tourist the year the deer were scarce.

Still though, what could he do? If she was truly his mate, then married or not, now that he’d met her, the mating urge, the fierce fever that caught his kind and brought on a sexual frenzy, would start. He feared it already happened given all of his fantasies and dreams which featured her – minus the husband. Whether the Asian dude liked it or not, and despite the fact Chris wasn’t about to get involved in a ménage, simple hormones might force him into a situation not of his choosing.

Bloody freakn’ hell.

But perhaps he jumped the gun. Just because she was married didn’t mean she needed to stay that way. Not all marriages meant a true mating. He needed to find out more about her, and her marital situation, such as, was she happy? Did she and the uptight dude love each other? Were they actually mated, marked and everything, or just together? If Chris ‘accidentally’ killed her mate, would she forgive him and visit him in jail?

Important questions, and the best way to get some of those answers was to make sure he got this job and an opportunity to return, which, given the scowl on buddy’s face, seemed less and less likely.

I’d better get my head in the game.
The big one
on
top, not the massive one in my pants.

“So this is the space?” Chris said, gesturing to the unfinished basement. Empty of even a cobweb, the area was a blank palette waiting for his touch.

“What do you think?” was the sarcastic retort.

I think you’re a douchebag.
Easy. Calm. This wasn’t a brother Chris could punch, but a client, a client whose wife he hoped to steal. “I think we can make an awesome gym.” Turning on his contractor mode, Chris whipped out his measuring tape and got to work. He asked questions. Took notes. Made suggestions. Did everything he would normally do on a new job, and bit by bit, the dude relaxed, which meant the stick up his ass withdrew a few inches.

Crouched on one knee, finishing a sketch, Chris made small talk. “I never got your name by the way.”

“Jack. Jack Smith.”

Talk about a totally Anglophone name, unexpected given buddy’s accent and obvious Asian parentage.

“You seem young for marriage,” Chris blithely remarked as he packed up his tools.

“Jill and I have known each other all our lives.”

Jack and Jill? Seriously? There went his wolf sense screaming something was hinky. But what? He doubted Jack would tell him. And there went his hope that he could steal Jill easily. Childhood sweethearts meant they shared some kind of bond. Even if they weren’t officially mated, as a married couple, it meant to get Jill away from Jack, they’d need at the very least, a divorce, which made him think of something else. “Any kids?”

“No.”

One small blessing. Chris would hate to wreck a family home. “So where are you and the wife from?”

“West.”

The art of small talk seemed more than Jack could handle, but Chris didn’t let up. “I’ve always wanted to see the coast. I hear its real pretty. So what brought you guys to town? Family? Work?”

“Is my life history necessary for you to do your job?” Jack rudely queried.

Clipping his pencil to his notepad, Chris stood up, and stared down at the shorter fellow. It took a lot to swallow his annoyance at Jack’s continued rudeness. He’d be doing his Asian honey a favor when he took her away from this dude. “I didn’t mean to pry. Just curious. I don’t know how it worked back west, but out here, the shifters tend to stick together, like one big family.”

“My wife and I prefer our privacy.”

Gee, what a surprise, but like it or not, Jack and Jill would end up getting swallowed into the community, because it was what they did. His mama was all about being neighborly, whether a person liked it or not.

“Well, I’m done here. I’ll email you the quote tonight after I get a chance to type it up. I can start as soon as you want.”

“I’m getting other contractors in as well. For comparison, of course.”

For a replacement you mean.
Imagine that, Jack didn’t trust him. Good thing he couldn’t read Chris’s mind and see the things he planned to do to his wife. Jack would really have a problem then.

The client saw him to the door, without a glimpse of the beautiful Jill. But Chris would return soon enough, even if he had to pay out of his own pocket to make sure he won the job.

When worried about getting a contract, there was one sure fire way to beat the rest. Make it so freakn’ cheap, they couldn’t pass it up. Or sabotage the competition. Chris wouldn’t leave anything to chance, not with his future at stake.

*

Sheng did not look happy when he stalked into the kitchen.

“Was his quote that horrible?” Jiao asked as she dropped the chicken into the pan. It sizzled in the melted butter.

“No idea. He’s going to email it to me later.”

“If it’s not the price, then why do you look like you swallowed a lemon?”

“There’s something about him I don’t like.”

“You don’t like anyone,” she retorted flipping the chicken she precooked for the casserole so it could brown on the other side.

“I’m just being careful. I won’t do anything to jeopardize us.”

“And how is a handyman going to manage that? Or do you think everyone works for Kaleb?” The man who’d held them captive from a young age. Their parents too, until they died. For a long time she and Sheng believed he ran the world, and he did in a sense, the compound in the mountains its own world outside reality.

“I am not paranoid. Just cautious.”

“No, you’re paranoid. Not quite tin hat crazy, but close. But I love you anyway.” She grasped Sheng’s hand. “Seriously though, isn’t it time we stopped living like frightened animals? It’s been six years Sheng. Surely Kaleb has stopped looking.”

He sighed heavily. “I wish I could believe that.”

“We have to put down our guard eventually. Why not here? I like it. It’s nice. We finally have our own house. A yard. I met some of the neighbors. One even invited me over for coffee.”

“This place is still too new. Unknown. Let’s give it a while. Make sure it’s safe. Then, maybe, just maybe,” he repeated sternly, probably to counteract the smile crossing her lips, “we’ll think about dropping the charade.”

“Yay!” Jiao hugged her brother, the only family she had left. She loved him, but at twenty two, their fake marriage was really starting to grate. Especially since she’d met a wolf who made her want a fake divorce.

“Don’t thank me so quick. I said we needed to wait still. So don’t get your hopes up yet.”

His admonishment didn’t stop Jiao from grinning the rest of the afternoon, doing hand sprints down the hall to appease her caged kitty, and singing to herself in the shower the following morning after a night spent dreaming of chocolate brown eyes and a sexy smile.

Imagine a life where she could go back to using her real name instead of her newest one of Jill Smith. A life where she could date, maybe kiss a man and plan for a future. True freedom instead of a hidden existence where no one could know the truth.

Only one thing marred her reverie. While she suspected Chris was her mate, he thought her married to her brother. If she told him they weren’t, Sheng would kill her. If she said nothing, then Chris would walk away, or worse, find another woman.

The partially folded t-shirt in her fist shredded under the claws that popped out. Oops. Seemed her cat had jealousy issues. Well, so did Jiao. How to let Chris know she was interested? An honorable man wouldn’t intentionally seduce a married woman.
But I could drop hints that ours isn’t a match made in heaven. Maybe let him know I am open to
cheat
ing
on my husband.
However, she’d have to keep it a careful secret. If Sheng thought for a minute she jeopardized them, he’d have Patricia relocate them faster than she could beg for forgiveness.

And I can’t let that happen. Not when I
might have
finally
met my mate.
She needed to find a way to distract Sheng while she explored her reaction to the wolf. First though, she’d have to convince him to hire Chris for the basement project without letting on she rooted for him. How? She didn’t know, but she’d figure something out. Hopefully.