The Bucklin Wolves Next Generation: Return (4 page)

“But we have police here,” Seth said.

“And they’ll still be here,” Jacko said, leaning forward with a shit-eating grin that Seth wanted to wipe right off his face. “But they won’t have any authority over me and my team. We’ll have a makeshift holding facility for any criminals and we will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. As for anyone that the law doesn’t know about, like say a wild werewolf or bear, well, we will deal with that as we see fit.”

Seth began to open his mouth to protest, but William’s hand snaked across the table and squeezed his wrist with force. He looked up to see William shaking his head, eliminating Seth’s protest. This didn’t sit right with him at all. How the hell could they give up this much authority to a man who was obviously bad news?

“It’ll be okay,” Jacko said, trying to reassure him with all the care and comfort of a snake coiling to strike. “We usually just sit around bored during these jobs, anyway. There’s nothing to worry about, right? Your citizens are well behaved and you don’t have wild wolf incidents, do you?”

“No,” Seth said, nodding in agreement. “I suppose you’re right.”

Reluctantly he put his pen to the paper and signed the document before finishing off the rest of the stack.

Ms. Wilson squealed with delight and slid them into a large attaché case. “Splendid! This is the best decision you’ve ever made, Mr. Mayor.”

“I don’t think I’ll regret it at all,” Seth said, standing to shake hands. “I’ve studied you guys enough to know what you do for towns like ours. I’ll be excited to get the construction started.”

“There is one more thing,” Ms. Wilson said, then reached over and motioned for Maribel to stand. The shy girl reluctantly rose to her feet, still looking at the ground as she did so. “Maribel is our risk analyst. She has to complete a report that will go back to corporate to determine our security needs and the amount of insurance needed for this project. She has some more questions for you, a short interview if you will.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Seth said, feeling the wheels turning in his head. He was cleverer than most gave him credit for and a plan was already formulating in his head. “How soon does this have to be done, though?”

“As soon as possible,” Maribel said, finally looking up at him. It took everything he had not to grab the back of her head and pull her in for a rough kiss.

“Oh, that’s not good,” Seth said, wincing. “I have another meeting I really have to get to.”

“I wasn’t informed of that,” William said, standing up.

“It’s not work-related,” Seth said. He was making this up on the fly and he didn’t need William prying. “I’m hiring an out-of-town contractor to put new energy efficient windows in my house. I’ve already rescheduled on him twice.”

“Okay,” William said, backing down. “Of course, after this deal is done you won’t have to worry about bills ever again.”

“Those windows do save you thirty-two percent on your heating and cooling bill. On average, of course,” Maribel said before quickly biting her bottom lip and looking away.

“She can’t help but give her numbers,” Ms. Wilson said. “Then you guys can just have this meeting later.”

“How about over dinner?” Seth asked.

Even though Maribel’s skin was dark, she still turned red as he spoke, trying to hide her face from him. “We can always do it tomorrow.”

“No,” Seth said. “I think this is important. I’ll pick you up at the place you’re staying around seven. We’ll grab a bite and I’ll answer whatever questions you want. Besides, I’ll be more relaxed over food and you’ll get more out of me. You want to do the best job possible, right?”

“Of course I do,” Maribel said with more conviction than anything else she had said so far.

He could tell she was a workaholic and the kind who didn’t take her job lightly. He knew exactly which buttons to push—and hopefully later he’d be opening buttons on a blouse rather than pushing any. But he didn’t want to get ahead of himself just yet.

“Where are we staying?” Ms. Wilson asked.

“My secretary will get you all the details,” Seth said. “It’ll all be taken care of. We have several fully furnished houses for you ladies and the security team to stay in.”

“Wonderful,” Ms. Wilson said, shaking his hand again. “I can tell this is going to be a profitable enterprise for all of us.”

“So can I,” Seth said, looking down at Maribel and trying not to drool. He didn’t know what it was about this girl, but his wolf wanted everything to do with her and nothing to do with anyone else. Seth was ready to give in to the beast this one last time. Hopefully Maribel would feel the same way.

Chapter 4

Why the hell did he have to insist on going to dinner with me?
Maribel wondered as she paced back and forth in the little house they had given her to stay in.
How can I do my job when I’m alone with that…that….slab of man meat?

It was a terrible thing to think of Seth as, but she couldn’t help it. He was eye candy to the nth degree. She didn’t have to run the numbers to know he was one of the sexiest men alive. She wasn’t quite sure what was going on between his ears, but she couldn’t keep herself from wondering how much girth his suit concealed. Surely he had a girlfriend? A mate? Was that what these wolves called them? A man like that wouldn’t be left to his own devices.

Just sitting across the table from him had caused her face to grow hot and the slit between her legs to grow wet. And she was ashamed of herself for having those thoughts. It wasn’t professional and it wasn’t who she was.

But there was something about the way he’d looked at her, something that had made her pause and look again. Was he interested in her? Surely not. Why would an Adonis like that be interested in a short, fat little Hispanic girl with more numbers in her head than a phone book?

She looked around the house they had given her, trying to take her mind off the sex god who was coming to pick her up in a few short hours. It was a quaint little place. It had two bedrooms and one bath along with a small living area and kitchen/dining room combo. It couldn’t be more than nine hundred square feet, but it was clean and cozy. Ms. Wilson had gotten one all to herself as well, while Jacko and his boys were splitting five of them.

This wasn’t the first time she had been in the field, but she didn’t exactly have a ton of experience in this department. There had to be a reason Seth had looked at her the way he had. Most of the mayors and CEOs she had met to this point had barely noticed her because they were too busy drooling over Ms. Wilson. She knew Ms. Wilson had fucked more than one of them, too, but in the end it got the job done, even though it made Maribel feel dirty.

Of course nothing could make her feel dirtier than the first time she’d had a one-on-one meeting with Mr. Sokolov. It had taken several drinks, a lot of soothing talking from Mr. Sokolov and maybe even some vampire hypnotism for her to reconcile the things she had seen and learned about the world during that first meeting.

For the longest time she had just worked in the loss prevention department of Sokolov Enterprises. But as she progressed through the ranks, doing a better and better job, someone higher up took notice and wanted to meet the girl who had saved them so many millions of dollars over the years. Eventually she ended up face to face with Aleski Sokolov himself—at a club called Pandoreum. She’d never heard of the club, and for good reason. It was an invite-only supernatural pleasure club that Mr. Sokolov had financed for a very good demon friend of his.

It was there that Maribel had learned there was more to the world than what she could see. At first she was scared, but the supernatural mist that ran through Pandoreum had served to calm her and leave her open to suggestion. She’d even been invited to experience some of the pleasures of the demon, but she had hastily declined. Even the euphoric mist couldn’t bring her to abandon her moral center.

It was during that meeting that Mr. Sokolov had explained his plan to expand into the entertainment industry and his desire to have her expertise present at each job site as he made it happen. Her preliminary report had declared Bucklin a safe bet, but would he really take her advice to heart if that all changed and she advised him to pull out?

Thus far he had made good decisions and she had done a good job on risk analysis, leaving everyone’s bank account a little fatter at the end of the day. She hadn’t failed him yet, but she also hadn’t run into a town like Bucklin before.

But here she was, in the middle of a strange, ‘out there’ situation, about to go on a date with a hot werewolf. No. It wasn’t a date. It was just dinner so she could conduct her interview. She was doing business and nothing more. Hopefully Seth didn’t think it was going to be anything more than dinner.

Why would he even want a girl like her? Everyone in the room had seen the semi-hard-on he had for Ms. Wilson. That was the only explanation for what it was. She had already begun to flirt with him the moment they walked in and he had responded pretty favorably to it—all men did. But this deal was done, so Ms. Wilson had no reason to sleep with him. Surely someone as miserable as Stacy Wilson didn’t enjoy sex—it was just another tool in her repertoire.

“Should I change?” she asked herself aloud as she stared at herself in the mirror that sat right beside the front door. She was still wearing the suit she had put on earlier. It looked nice, but it had an entire day’s worth of wear on it and it wasn’t exactly the most flattering of outfits. But she wasn’t trying to flatter her figure, she was trying to get information to do the best job possible so her boss wouldn’t fire her.

Look at how big my boobs are,
she thought, reaching up and grabbing a handful of each. She’d always heard anything more than a handful was a waste. Not even Shaq could palm these puppies; they were venturing into the double-E range. She didn’t think it was attractive, plus they sagged a little. She had to give herself credit; they’d held up much better than most girls her size, but they weren’t exactly slapping her in the chin with their perkiness, either. Plus there was a spare tire around her waist that was clearly visible.

More than once she’d opened up her fridge and cabinets and thrown everything away and vowed to go on some new crazy diet. She’d gone on all-vegetable, all-meat, liquid, no liquid, paleo, no carb, vegan, you name it and she’d tried it. But none of them had ever worked and she couldn’t ever consistently convince herself to go to the gym. There was no way in hell a wolf like Seth, who obviously took very good care of his body, would be interested in a girl like her.

She yelped as the doorbell rang, not realizing how long she had been standing there feeling herself up and running herself down at the same time. Was it seven already? She glanced at her watch: it was six. Did werewolves run on some sort of a different clock?

Timidly she pulled the door open, not revealing herself completely until she could take all of Seth in. It felt like she was going to slam the door and shield herself if she didn’t like what she was seeing. She wasn’t quite sure how that would work—he probably had a key to all these houses—but it seemed like a good idea as she peeked around the heavy door.

The suit he had worn earlier was well fitted, but it was nothing like the plain gray t-shirt and blue jeans he was wearing right now. Instantly she felt moisture between her legs and she knew she was blushing. Her panties were probably ruined at this point, but she couldn’t help it, looking at the god of all werewolves who stood before her. She’d never met a man that simultaneously took her breath away and made her want to curl up in a hole and hide.

“I’m so sorry I’m early,” he said with a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his neck. “The guy finished early at my house and I was really hungry. I just thought I’d stop by and see if you’re ready to go.”

She could see every ripple of his abs behind that shirt and every contour line from his pecs. Yeah, she was ready to eat—ready to eat sushi off his naked body. That was something she had seen at Pandoreum and something she had always thought looked hot, right up until the girl they were eating off of got fucked in every hole by a tentacle demon. That part still made her shudder, even though Azmoff, the owner of Pandoreum, had claimed it was all bought and paid for by the recipient of the tentacle nightmare.

“Yeah, let me grab my bag.” In all her confusion and haste she’d almost forgotten the whole reason for dinner: the interview. She couldn’t do anything without her files. She hoisted the bag onto her shoulder and met Seth on the front porch. He had his hands in his pockets and he was staring off into space.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he said, shaking his head. “I was just looking at all these abandoned houses, thinking about what once was and what could be again. It’s cheesy. I’m sorry.”

Cheesy or manipulative?
she thought.
Is he trying to charm me to get what he wants? I’ll have to be extra careful and on the lookout when I finish my report. I can’t let him sway me if I think Mr. Sokolov needs to pull the plug. He trusts me to make the right decision.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t have a car here with me. The Mercedes belongs to Ms. Wilson and I think she went somewhere in it.”

“I drove,” Seth said. “That’s why I came to pick you up and you didn’t come to pick me up.”

Duh,
she thought as he winked at her silly blunder.
Don’t be an idiot. You’re already flustered and not thinking straight.

It was true. In the company of an extremely attractive man, women could sometimes lose up to twenty-three percent of their normal mental capacity. That was bad enough, but a man around a woman he found even mildly attractive? Up to forty-eight percent. Attraction hit both sexes hard, and men a little bit harder. Unfortunately Maribel was feeling like she’d lost more than twenty-three percent of her brain.

She followed Seth onto the driveway and stopped, looking around for the mysterious car that he’d said he’d driven there in. She was shocked that a werewolf could drive, but then again she realized she didn’t know a lot about them and the only ones she had been around in the past were wild.