by Marla Monroe
When she carried a smaller box over to the bar to put away, it was to find both Dax and Erik along with Mike securing the mirror over the back wall in the center of the bar. All three men had taken their shirts off as they stretched and strained to hold the mirror in place until Dax could get the screws in. Seeing Erik and Dax without their shirts, muscles bulging, created a fiery heat in her pussy that threatened to burn her alive.
What is wrong with me? I can’t get anywhere near them or my hormones go off like bottle rockets.
She’d need a new pair of panties now. The ones she currently had on were soaked, and she was afraid someone would notice a wet spot if she didn’t change them soon. Just before she walked away, Erik turned his head to stare at her with his mouth slightly open. He drew in a deep breath, and right before her eyes, his eyes turned from a light green to an almost forest green with an orange ring around the pupils.
“Jeanie,” he whispered, so softly she shouldn’t have been able to hear him, but she did. It sounded as if it had come from inside of her, maybe her heart.
Dax’s head snapped around so swiftly she wasn’t sure she’d seen it move at all. His hazel eyes darkened like Erik’s had. He lifted his nose and drew in a deep breath before closing his eyes and groaning. All the hair on Jeanie’s arms lifted, sending chills racing down her spine. Holy hell, what was going on?
The sound of her name being called in what she thought might be Carmen’s voice snapped her back from the insane thoughts circling in her head. Dax and Erik weren’t interested in her. They, better than most, knew what she’d done for a living since they’d both worked in security at the club before Kay had the establishment shut down.
“I’m coming,” she yelled back and slowly tore her eyes away from where Erik and Dax were standing on ladders staring at her.
Without looking back, Jeanie hurried to the front entrance to see what Carmen needed. The other woman had packages of what looked like peanuts and pretzels waiting to be unloaded from the trunk of her car.
“These were delivered to the wrong address. I had to go pick them up,” she said.
“Where are we going to put them?” she asked. The pantry in the kitchen was pretty much full already.
“The storeroom in back, I guess. I know that’s where the booze will be stored,” Carmen said. “Makes sense to me to put the bar food with it.”
The storeroom was behind the bar itself, next to the manager’s office. It meant carrying the bulky packages back to where Erik and Dax were working. She wasn’t afraid of them. No, she was afraid of how they made her feel. Jeanie had worried that with her past as a prostitute in a brothel she might not ever feel a real sexual attraction to a man again. Now she knew it was unfounded, based on her body’s reaction to the two men even now staring at her like she was a piece of candy and they had a massive sweet tooth.
She’d hoped she would still be able to feel that way but had figured it would take at least a few months, if not a few years. Instead, barely a month after they’d closed the brothel, Jeanie had an ache that she feared only two men had any chance of relieving. What was she going to do?
“What are you two carrying?” Dax asked them.
“Just peanuts and pretzels,” Carmen said without looking at the men watching them as they walked by.
“Erik and I will take care of that,” Dax said, pulling the package from Jeanie’s arms.
“It’s not heavy. If you don’t stop taking over everything I try to do, I won’t have a job, and I need my paycheck, guys.” Jeanie popped her hands on her hips and glared at the two big men holding the packages as if they were as light as a butterfly.
“We’re just trying to help,” Erik told her.
“Let them help, Jeanie. I think they like you,” Carmen said with a wink.
Jeanie turned to look at them and nearly burst out laughing at the panicked expressions on their faces. Evidently they were appalled by the idea that someone thought they might be interested in an ex-hooker. Shaking her head, Jeanie jerked one of the packages out of Erik’s hands and stomped around the bar to the doorway leading to the back.
“Did you see how flustered they were?” Carmen said with a laugh. “They got caught, and now they’re embarrassed.”
“They’re not embarrassed that they got caught—it’s because you think they might be interested in me, a whore. Those are drool-worthy guys who are nice as well. They don’t want someone like me in their lives. More than likely, they’ve got women crawling all over them as it is,” she said. Jeanie had to fight to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
“I don’t think you were seeing what I was seeing. They’re hot for you, Jeanie. They didn’t look the least bit repulsed by your background to me. Don’t ignore them. I’m telling you they are into you, girl.” Carmen shook her head and then walked out of the storage room.
It took a lot of resolve and a good bit of talking herself into it before she managed to emerge from the back to grab another package. To her surprise, there was no one at the bar any longer. They’d all cleared out.
Guess they finished what they were doing and moved on to the next job. Good. I can’t let them distract me. I need my job.
Jeanie finished helping Carmen unload her car and then found Kay to find out what she wanted done next.
“I think we should call it a day, ladies. We’ve worked hard for the last two weeks, and now that all the major renovations are out of the way, we can get down to planning the grand opening and what direction we want the bar to head in. How about we plan to meet back tomorrow at eleven, and I’ll have pizza brought in for lunch?” Kay asked.
Everyone nodded and started splitting up. Jeanie sighed and stretched. She was tired and could use an early night. Once she’d helped her sister get their mom fed and settled, she could take a nice long bath and soak for a while. The idea appealed to her so much that she didn’t even notice Erik and Dax following her as she walked out the door to catch a ride with either Carmen or Andrea.
She saw Carmen backing out of the parking lot and sighed. Looking over, she noticed that Andrea’s car wasn’t there either. Guess she would be walking home after all. She’d let her sister, Tilly, take the car and caught a ride in with Andrea that morning. Tilly had needed it to take their mom to her doctor’s appointment. Boy was she going to need that soak when she got home.
“Where are you going?”
At the sound of Erik’s voice, she spun around. How had she not heard him walking up behind her? She’d always been good at being extra aware of what was going on near her.
“I-I’m going home. I just live a few blocks from here,” she said.
Dax stepped up next to Erik. “It’s more than a few, Jeanie. You’re talking a couple of miles. You can’t walk home after working all day. You’re bound to be exhausted, hon. We’ll give you a ride.”
“No, thanks. I’m used to walking, guys. Thanks anyway.” She turned back and started walking across the parking lot again.
What sounded like a growl stopped her in her tracks. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and a fine tremble started in her knees. What had made that noise? Was there a wild animal close by? It sounded a lot like what she’d heard when the man who’d attacked her at the brothel all those weeks ago had seemed to change. She slowly turned to find both Dax and Erik close enough she could have reached out and touched them.
“Did you hear that?” she whispered.
Erik had a pained expression on his face. Dax merely looked ticked off.
“No, what?” Dax asked her, looking over at the other man.
“I thought I heard something growl,” she said in a slightly stronger voice. “I must have imagined it.”
“It’s not safe for you to walk, Jeanie. Please let us drop you off at home.” The plea in Erik’s voice got to her. Or maybe it had been the growl she was sure she’d heard. Either way, she nodded.
“Okay. I’d appreciate the ride then.” Both men seemed to relax at the same time. Had the
y really been that worried?
“This way, sweet thing,” Erik said with a broad smile.
The two men kept her between them as they walked her back to where they’d parked an old Dodge that had seen better days, a long time ago. Dax took the driver’s seat while Erik helped her up until she could slide across the bench seat to the middle. She felt tiny and feminine between the two hulk-like men with her much smaller body.
“Here, let me buckle your seat belt,” Erik said.
“We’re just going down the road,” she said. It wasn’t like they had a lot of traffic in Hickory Hill.
“Seat belts always, no matter if all we do is drive across the street. We don’t want you to hurt even a fingernail, babe,” Dax told her.
Jeanie sighed and lifted her arms out of the way while Erik secured the belt before putting on his own. Dax nodded and started the truck. When he pulled out of the lot, it occurred to her that they must have known where she lived or they wouldn’t have said it was over two miles away. Plus, Dax had turned left instead of right, which would have been the natural way to go if they assumed she lived closer to town.
“How do you know where I live, guys?” she asked.
Dax spoke up with a smile. “Remember, I was head of security. It was my job to know everything about all the employees. If you hadn’t shown up for work one night, I knew where to go check on you.”
“Oh. I guess that makes sense.” It still didn’t sit well that he had obviously read her employee folder. That wasn’t fair. She knew nothing about them outside of the fact they were good carpenters and seemed to have an excellent work ethic.
She tried to remain perfectly still so that she wouldn’t brush against them since all three of them were jammed together like sardines in a can. Evidently the guys didn’t have a problem rubbing against her though. Erik’s thigh pressed against hers and moved suggestively up and down as his leg jumped. Was he nervous for some reason?
“Here we are,” Dax said as he pulled into the partially graveled drive.
She wondered what he thought as he looked at the piece of trash they rented. It had needed paint five years ago, and the drive was more potholes than gravel. She refused to allow herself to be ashamed. They weren’t on the streets and didn’t get food stamps, though they might have qualified.
“Hold up, baby girl,” Dax said. “Give Erik your keys so he can make sure it’s safe for you to go in.”
“Baby girl? Why did you call me that?” She shook her head. “Never mind. There’s no need for that. My sister and mom are inside. See, that’s Tilly peeking out between the curtains now.”
She scooted across the seat to jump down, but Erik lifted her instead, letting her slide down his ripped body. The shock waves from that little trip were going to hang around for days.
“Thanks for the ride home. See you guys tomorrow,” she said as she jogged over to the front steps.
Tilly opened the door for her just as she topped the porch. The look on her sister’s face said it all. What the hell was she doing with them?
I don’t have a clue, Sis. Believe me. I don’t have a clue.
Chapter Three
Dax wanted to howl at the trash their mate lived in. It couldn’t possibly be safe for her, let alone her family. The ladies were bringing in a ton of money—just how much of it had they gotten to keep? Did their queen know how they lived? He doubted it. She would have already done something about it as much as she loved those girls. He would talk to the Betas about it. They could decide if the Alphas needed to know or not. One thing for certain was that their queen would throw a fit.
“We can’t let her continue to live like that, Dax. It’s dangerous, and they’re in a pretty remote location,” Erik said.
“I know. We’re going to talk to our Betas about the ladies. I have a feeling that none of them live in safe places. Evidently all that money they were pulling in wasn’t being passed on to them. If our queen finds out, she’ll have a temper tantrum.”
Erik nodded. “I’m not waiting any longer, Dax. We need to claim her this weekend. We’ll just have to deal with anything that comes up as it does and pray we don’t kill someone.”
“Tommy is the one I’m worried about,” Dax said. “He’s the one who nearly changed on her and scared her to death. Mike told me about it.”
“If she saw anything, she’s going to be scared to death of us, brother. What are we going to do?” Erik looked at him with worry and maybe even some fear.
Dax didn’t blame his bondmate. The thought of having their mate afraid of them bothered him as well. How had the Alphas dealt with not scaring Kay off? Maybe they should approach them to find out what the best way to handle it might be. They could ask one of the five other mated Wolfen, but their situation would be slightly different. They didn’t have as much time to allow their mate to get to know them, and their mates hadn’t already been frightened by a Wolfen in the past.
It was a problem that he and Erik needed to think about. They also needed to go ahead and deal with Tommy so the wolf didn’t cause problems later down the line. Approaching him now would be the best thing to do.
“I can tell you are planning something, Dax. What is it?” Erik asked.
“We need to go ahead and talk to Tommy about our mate. I don’t want him to say anything and embarrass Jeanie. It’s going to be difficult enough not to kill him. If he hurt her, there would be no way I could control myself,” Dax told him.
“I think we should have at least one of the Betas there as well,” Erik said.
“Maybe nearby but not with us,” Dax said. “It will weaken our message to seem to be hiding behind the Beta.”
“You’re right. Tomorrow is Friday. We better talk to him tonight. I want to take our mate somewhere for dinner tomorrow night and then claim her on Saturday. Tomorrow we can find out about her family and how we’ll need to handle them,” Erik suggested.
“I know her mom has been very sick, but I don’t know much more than that. It’s why she was working at the club. They didn’t have the money to move so she could get a better job. I can’t imagine the strength it took for her to do what she did. I can’t help but be proud that she cared for her family that much. She’ll make an excellent mate and mother to our pups, Erik.”
“I hope she’ll accept us as hers. I can’t imagine how to go on without her now that she’s in my blood. Her scent is driving me insane. I dream about her and wake up with my dick so hard I could cut glass with it,” Erik said.
“I’m having the same problem. We’ll convince her that she’ll be happy with us.”
“But how? We can offer her so much, but happy means different things to different people.”
“That’s why we’ll find out everything we can about her tomorrow. We’ll find out what she likes and what her dreams are. Then we’ll figure out how to make those dreams come true for her,” Dax said. “I have a feeling that making her smile is going to be my new favorite thing to do.”
* * * *
“Who were those two men? I’ve never seen them before,” Tilly said when Jeanie walked past her into the house.
Tilly closed the door and locked it, and then followed her into the kitchen. “So? Are you going to tell me? You aren’t still doing what you were doing for extra money are you?”
Jeanie flinched and then wiped the pain from her face before turning to look at her little sister. “No. I’m not doing that anymore. I have a better job now. Those are two of the security guys from before who are working on the bar now. They gave me a ride when Andrea and Carmen had already left.”
“They sure were good-looking. I made soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. The soup’s still warm. I’ll grill your sandwich to go with it,” Tilly said.
“It smells good. Thanks.” She lifted the top to the pan and smiled. “How is Mom doing? What did the doc say?”
“Actually, she’s doing pretty good today. The doctor said that so far, nothing has changed since the last chemo treatment. He soun
ded pretty positive,” Tilly said as she added butter to the frying pan.
“That’s good news. I’ll go say hi and wash up. Thanks for taking her, Tilly.”
“Hey. I can take her any time you’re working. Do you think they might have a job for me? I could wash dishes if that’s all they have.”
“I don’t know yet, Sis. As soon as we get ready to open, I’m going to ask Kay. Don’t worry. I’ll ask her, and if there isn’t anything right now, there might be later if business picks up.” At her sister’s nod, Jeanie strode from the room to check on her mom.
She knocked softly on her mom’s bedroom door and went in when her mom called out.
“Hey, sweetheart,” her mom said. “How was your day?”
“It was fine. How are you doing? Tilly said you got a great report today,” she said walking over to sit on the edge of her mom’s bed.
“I did. I wanted stay up and wait for you, but the drive today took a little more out of me than I had planned. I’m glad I was still awake to see you,” her mom said.
Jeanie tried to look past the paleness of her mom’s skin and how thin she was to the woman her mom had been before the cervical cancer. Thank the good Lord they’d caught it so early. It had been a miracle that they’d all taken advantage of the free screening day at the clinic. If they hadn’t, not only would her low potassium problem have gone undiagnosed, but also her mother’s cancer wouldn’t have been found in time for them to save her. She prayed it had been soon enough every night.
“I’m glad, too. I don’t have to be at work until eleven tomorrow. I’ll read the paper to you in the morning if you like,” Jeanie said.
“That would be nice, but you should sleep in. You don’t get enough rest as it is. I worry about you.” Her mom had no idea what her job had been up until now, and Jeanie planned to keep it that way.