Up in Smoke (2 page)

Nathaniel quickly scooted around the counter and kept his front side turned away from the now narrowed eyes of his feisty, newfound mate. He knew exactly where his brother was, because he was late for the staff meeting that should have started five minutes ago.
Running late on your first day on the job, Nate.
Great way to leave a good first impression
, he thought. He could hear his brother speaking as he approached the door.

“Good morning. I know we have been adding some new members over the last few months, but I am adding one more. My brother has decided to join us and is relocating from Wyoming.”

Nathaniel heard that and wondered if his mate was one of the "new staff members". How long had a human, let alone a female and HIS MATE, known about them? How long had she been working for his brother? How long had he been in Wyoming wondering if she even existed when in reality, she was sitting here at the front desk waiting for him to walk through the door!? Nathaniel growled as he walked into the room and narrowed his eyes at his brother who sure as hell had some explaining to do.

*****

Walter knew something was going on the second his brother walked in the door. The man looked like he was ready to kill. He had just arrived in town yesterday, what trouble could he have found in such a short time?

“I was just telling the team about you. Gang, I’d like you to meet my brother, Nathaniel.”

The reply that came from his brother’s mouth was the last thing he’d ever expected to hear from him.

“So, just how long has my mate been working for you? And since when do humans know our kind even exist?”

It took Walter a minute to comprehend what his brother was saying.
Ahh, crap
. Hoping that what his mind was telling him was dead wrong, he questioned Nathaniel. “What are you…oh shit, Susan is your mate?”

Nathaniel merely raised an eyebrow at his brother. “Is that the name of the little blonde, five foot nothing, sitting at the reception desk?”

He could hear a snicker or two coming from someone to his left. Unable to contain himself, the next thing he knew, he was booming out loudly, “She’s MINE!”

Everyone else in the room went dead silent, watching the brothers with rapt interest. Heads were swinging back and forth as if watching a Ping-Pong match.

Walter did the only thing he could do at the moment. He cleared his throat and then announced, “Meeting adjourned.”

He walked over to his brother who was still standing in front of the door. “Come with me to my office so we can discuss things, please, Nathaniel.” He would have liked to growl that out as an order, but he knew his brother’s temper was a tad bit hotter than his own. The last thing he wanted was for his entire staff witnessing a wrestling smackdown, vampire style, between him and his brother. Although, at the given moment, he was irritated enough at his brother that he wanted nothing more than to beat him to a bloody pulp.

Walter reached behind Nathaniel and opened the door, letting his brother go out before him. Nathaniel had come to visit him many times, so he knew exactly where his office was located. Walter noticed Nathaniel giving a longing look over at Susan as they headed for the office. He then watched his human receptionist narrow her eyes at his brother. She was so pissed he could have sworn he saw steam coming out of her ears. Her emotions, which most of the time were very calm and good-natured, now were black waves of pure anger rolling off her. What the hell had happened? Nathaniel shook his head and chuckled as he opened the door to Walter’s office. Walter watched Susan slam something down on her desk and growl out in frustration.

Regardless of what had happened, Walter would need to get a handle on his brother first, and then go calm down his receptionist.

As soon as the door to his office closed, Walter ordered his brother, “Sit!” It wasn’t a request by any means.

“Mind telling me what that was all about? And why you had to do it in the middle of my staff meeting?” Walter began as he walked around his desk and sat down behind it. It didn’t bother him that his brother was now part of the team. Hell, he welcomed his experience in law enforcement. But there was one thing that was going to be made perfectly clear before either of them left his office. He was the boss! It was entirely up to Nathaniel about whether the point would be made by open discussion or pounded into his thick skull.

Before his brother had a chance to answer him, Walter narrowed his eyes and continued, “Let’s start by you telling me exactly what the hell is going on between you and my receptionist!”

*****

Susan stayed at her desk as she tried to regain her composure. The nerve of that arrogant jerk! “Don’t go anywhere, I want you for lunch?” What the hell was that supposed to mean? Surely he wasn’t one of the bad guys that drained bodies of blood. Walter would have never let him in the building. But still, what the hell did he mean when he said, “I want you for lunch?” Ever since he had said it, her mind had been whispering to her that he had meant it in a sexual way. And she couldn’t, for the life of her, figure out why she wanted to throw his extra-large body down on the ground and ride him like a bull. Yee-hah! Her panties were soaked by this point, which only made her more frustrated.

Yeah, she would openly admit she hadn’t had sex since her husband died, and even before that, it had been few and far between. He just never seemed that interested in her. During their ten year marriage, she had never even experienced an orgasm. No, her deceased husband was more of the stick a finger in and hope you were wet kind of guy. Even if she wasn’t wet, he never did anything about it. He would then immediately plunge his dick into her. He’d ride her all of two minutes at most, get his rocks off, and be done. He’d pull out, leave her with his cum still oozing out of her hole, turn over, and go to sleep. She would usually go take a quick shower and then grab her crossword puzzle book until she was sleepy. That was the extent of their sex life.

But this guy, this guy had her thinking all kinds of wicked thoughts, like sucking that big cock she knew he had. Yes, she had gotten a quick glimpse of it when she first looked up before he covered it with his gigantic hands. His hands had to be at least twice if not three times the size of hers. Oh, and the things she was thinking those big hands could do to her body…

A clearing of a throat brought her out of her thoughts and made her snap her head up in a hurry. Sissy, Walter’s wife, was standing at the counter with a grin on her face. “So, what’s got you in such deep thought, missy?”

Susan brought her head back down as she felt her cheeks heat up in mortification, because she had been caught. And she could well guess that since Sissy was a vampire, and since their senses were off the charts compared to humans, she could probably smell the sexual desire coming off her. Talk about a day from hell.

“I stopped by to see if you and Meredith wanted to go to lunch.”

Not knowing what to expect when Walter’s office door opened, she took the chicken route. “Only if we can leave immediately.”

Sissy shrugged her shoulders. “Sure, I need to be back at the library this afternoon anyways. Let me go track down Meredith and see if she wants to join us.”

“Okay. I need to visit the restroom. I’ll meet you back here in just a couple of minutes.”

Susan grabbed her purse and walked over to the restroom. She needed a minute or two to pull herself together before she was grilled by her two friends. And she just knew they would grill her. Oh, but what are friends for if she couldn’t share her humiliation with them?

She went into the stall and pulled her panties completely off. Cleaning herself up the best she could, she threw her soaked thong into the trash can on her way back out. It felt weird wearing a skirt with absolutely nothing on underneath it, but it just couldn’t be helped. She would just have to suffer through it.

The other ladies were waiting for her at the front door. She noticed both women were wearing smirks on their faces, but decided she wasn’t going to open her mouth until she had to. She figured she had until they were sitting down at the restaurant, and with any hope, after their orders were taken before the grilling began.

Sure enough, she bet it hadn't taken all of fifteen minutes from the time they left the office to the time the waiter had picked up their menus after taking their order when Sissy leaned forward, linking her hands together and resting her chin on her fingers. “So, I hear you met Nathaniel today.”

Susan gave her good friend a scowl. “The man is a pig-headed jerk.”

Sissy just cocked an eyebrow at her. “Really? I heard you made quite the impression on him earlier. As a matter of fact,” she stopped and leaned forward as if she had some big, dark secret to spill. “I heard you made a big impression on him. He likes you.”

Both Meredith and Sissy looked at each other and burst into giggles. Then, Meredith proceeded to give her best impression of Sandra Bullock from
Miss Congeniality
. “He
likes
you, he wants to
hold
you, he wants to
kiss
you, he wants to
loooovve
you.” She strung the “L” word out way longer than necessary.

*****

Forty-five minutes after the office door had been shut, both Nathaniel and Walter walked out laughing and slapping each other on the back. All was good. They had worked things out quite easily once Nathaniel had a few minutes to stop and think about his less than stellar performance at the staff meeting this morning. He immediately apologized to Walter, feeling like a complete heel. Back as town sheriff in Wyoming, he’d had a couple of deputies under him and he knew damn good and well he would have never tolerated that sort of behavior out of someone working under him. He counted himself lucky that his brother was sometimes a bit more levelheaded than he was.

He turned toward the front desk, ready to go make amends with Susan, only to find it empty. Fisting his hands at his sides, he growled, “Where is she?”

Walter simply turned his head to see the unoccupied front desk and shrugged his shoulders. “She’s probably at lunch. You honestly didn’t expect her to listen to you, did you?”

When Nathaniel glared at him for a moment, Walter gave him a tsk, tsk sound. “You need to brush up on lady etiquette, my friend. One, she didn’t listen to you, because you gave her an order. And two, she’s a woman. The only way they listen to us is if we make it not sound like an order. Try asking next time. That will at least get you a fifty/fifty shot.” He chuckled at his brother’s dumbfounded look and shook his head. “Come on, I think we can find some answers fairly easily.”

They soon came across Lucas, Walter’s second in command, who seemed to be full of information. “Yeah, Sissy stopped by about thirty minutes ago and her, Meredith, and Susan all went to lunch together. They were heading over to that café they like to go to so much.”

So, after directions were given, Nathaniel asked for the afternoon off so he could hopefully straighten a few things out with his wayward mate. He’d also been nice enough to request the remainder of the afternoon off for her, as well. His brother chuckled, “Tell Susan to take all the time she needs. I know that a newly mated pair typically doesn’t come up for air for days. Things can easily wait until next week here if the two of you need the time off. I can get Sissy and Betty to fill in for Susan.”

Nathaniel had heard about Sissy’s sister, Betty, but had not met her, yet. She, too, had just relocated. Only, she came from California after almost being beaten to death by her so-called drunk ass boyfriend. He had also gone after Betty’s little boy, Timmy, who was currently staying with his grandfather in Atlanta.

From what Walter had told him, Betty was in such bad shape when they arrived that arrangements were made for Sissy to turn her almost immediately. They had waited until she was fully recuperated, and then brought her home with them.

Besides, even though Betty was now a vampire, her drunken ex-boyfriend had been heard threatening that if he ever found her, he would kill her for sending him to jail. It didn’t matter that she had been too injured and close to death to ever pick up the phone and call for help, that an outside source had actually heard her son screaming for help and had taken action. Evidently, the man still blamed his lot in life on her. And Walter didn’t like that at all.

Nathaniel arrived at the little café in record time and parked in the side parking lot. As he entered the front door, he easily spotted the group of ladies. He was thankful that for the moment they were too busy talking to pay any attention to who was walking in or out of the establishment. He asked for a small corner booth on the other side of where the women were and sat down with his back facing them. Where he was seated, Meredith and Sissy were facing him, but he didn’t think either of them noticed him. If they did, they certainly didn’t let on about it.

He ordered a steak that he knew would be going home to his dog and sat back to listen in on the conversation. Knowing how women could talk, he was not disappointed.

“You know, you are his mate. The other half of his soul.” This came from the woman with long, dark hair that he assumed was Lucas’s mate, Meredith.

“His mate!” Susan almost yelled, to the point that he didn’t even need his vampire hearing for the comment to travel across the café.

“I don’t even know him. And he’s a Neanderthal! And he’s…” Nathaniel could imagine her eyes getting wide as she whispered, “He’s huge!”

“Oh, so you’ve already checked at his package? You naughty girl. And here I thought you weren’t interested. Don’t hold back, hon, we want details!” This came from Meredith. Nathaniel wanted to both chuckle and throttle the girl at the same time. What was it about women wanting to know about guy’s package? And she was mated! If Lucas ever heard her talk like that, Nathaniel would lay down good money the vampire would come unglued.

He continued listening and heard her gulp down some liquid before continuing. “When he walked in this morning, he had…well, you know…”