“Oh, thank you!” Janie said. She was honestly surprised. It wasn’t often that things seemed to go so smoothly. Especially not without at least several weeks or months of planning.
Dean grinned at her and she felt her cheeks flush.
“Go on!” he said, nodding to Janie’s car. “Go and get your keys!”
“All right,” Janie said, smiling. She couldn’t help it. The unexpected reality of having a home of her own was exciting, and she beamed at Dean. “Thank you.”
Dean smiled at her and again, she felt her heart surge with warmth. He was something else, that was for sure.
9.
Dean watched Janie’s car pull away, his mind seeming to follow her along with it. As soon as she was out of sight, he pulled his phone out again.
“Dean?”
“Hey, Douglas. I hear you have a new tenant.”
“Yeah. What about it? Can I help you with something?”
“As a matter of fact, you can. I know this woman. She is an employee of mine. I want your word that you will look out for her. If something in the house goes wrong, you do what you have to do to fix it as soon as you can. I don’t want to hear any horror stories from her. Because trust me, I will be asking.”
“Sure man, whatever. I do that for all of my renters.”
“Sure you do,” Dean said with a scoff. “Just make sure that you at least do it for this one.”
“You got it man.”
“Good. Take care of yourself,” Dean said.
“Right.”
He hung up, feeling a little bit better about Janie’s situation. Douglas had always been the reliable sort of guy, but he didn’t want to take any chances.
About twenty minutes later, most of the furniture and boxes were loaded up in the moving van, and Dean waited in the heat with the other men who had come with the truck. They were hot, hungry, and miserable.
“How much to just use the truck for the rest of the day?” Dean asked. “You guys can just head home. I can drive it to the house and unload when Janie gets back.”
“Oh! You don’t have to pay us to borrow the truck, Mr. Resner. Just call when you’re done so we can pick it up.”
“I could just drop it off at the lot,” Dean offered.
He could see the relief on their faces knowing they were dismissed, and Dean wondered since when Johnston’s moving company had hired wolf-human hybrids for their moving jobs. It seemed like a bad business move. Shifter men were noticeably stronger. Hiring boys like that would only cost more in the long run.
After the other men left, Dean waited in the truck for Janie.
“Lead the way!” he called out his window at her when she pulled in about ten minutes later.
She smiled at him, a look that lit up her face and completely astonished Dean for a moment. He had never seen a woman look that beautiful before. It was sorcery.
“All right,” she said. The excitement on her face was unmistakable, and Dean felt pleased with himself for having a hand in putting it there. There was no harm in helping out an intern, right? She was simply the new girl in town. The new people to Stonybrooke needed as much help as they could get. It wasn’t wrong to lend a hand as long as the wolf knew its place…right?
***
They finished unloading the truck at about 6pm, and Dean’s stomach growled comically.
“You’re hungry!” Janie exclaimed, as if she had done something wrong. “Please, let me treat you to something. You’ve done so much to help me.”
“No,” Dean said, thinking she wanted to spend the money she’d earned from him on him. It seemed kind of icky. “Please, don’t worry about it.”
“I’ll cook you something!”
Dean looked up at her with a slight frown. Nobody had offered to cook for him for free before. He had grown quite fond of the diner because Maurice had let him work there when he was a boy so he could earn a living and fill his belly, even when his mother had been on the prowl for weeks. But Maurice had always expected him to work for and earn his meals. Someone making him food voluntarily almost seemed dangerous in a way.
“You really don’t have to do that…”
“I insist,” Janie said, beaming at him. He was swept away, once again, by the light in her eyes, the ease of her smile. She was everything he had ever wanted in a woman. Except that she was barely a woman at all. She was half his age.
“But-”
“Please, sit down and have some wine. I stopped by the grocery store on the way back from picking up my keys, so I have enough to cook for us both. I promise, I’m good at it.”
Dean studied her and sighed, then sat down and pulled the cork off the wine with his bare hands. Janie’s eyes widened but she said nothing about it.
“Make yourself at home. You have certainly done the same for me.”
Dean smiled uneasily at Janie and she disappeared into the kitchen.
He hated waiting for a meal. It reminded him of all the days he had spent as a child with a rumble in his belly. Now that he was an adult, and rich to boot, he always tried to make sure that he had food when and where he needed it, no exceptions. He wasn’t sure how long it would take for Janie to finish, so he took a long swig of the wine and followed her into the kitchen.
“Let me help,” he said. “It will get done faster that way. Besides, you’ve been working hard enough today.”
“Really, I hardly had to lift a finger with you around,” Janie said, laughing at him and shaking her head. “You were pretty on top of things.”
Dean looked away, embarrassed. It was true. He had treated Janie like she was precious or fragile, almost the way he had seen other shifters treat pregnant women. But Janie wasn’t pregnant, at least not that he knew of. For some reason, the thought made him feel bitterly jealous. He really didn’t know a thing about her, did he?
“Well, you know. I’m a shifter. We’re good at those kinds of things. Stronger than humans, anyway. Usually.”
“Right,” Janie said with a small laugh. “Well, I appreciate it, but I’m not porcelain.”
Dean looked up at her, surprised. No other woman he had ever been with would even think to tell him that. Not just because he was usually with other shifter women, but because they seemed to want to be helpless for some reason. Maybe it made them feel more feminine, or maybe it was just another way to keep a sucker of an alpha on the hook, like what had happened with Kiera.
The thought of his ex-wife made Dean prickle. He wouldn’t let himself get caught in another tangled web like that again. It just wouldn’t be good for him, or whatever unfortunate woman he ended up with. He was cold and difficult to be with, and only high-maintenance people could tolerate him because they made him feel like he had a job that he could do to earn their attention. Lord knew he hadn’t been able to earn his own mother’s.
“What are you thinking about?” Janie asked softly, chopping an onion. “You’ve been staring at me like that for almost a minute.”
“I…personal things, I guess. My ex to be exact.”
“Ah…did the two of you like cooking together?”
Dean snorted.
“No, nothing like that. If we ever ate together, it was at a five-star restaurant. I can’t imagine Kiera in the kitchen.”
The thought made him laugh out loud, and Janie smiled, focusing on her task. Was that jealousy he was smelling on her? For some reason, that made him feel heartened. But Janie wasn’t the type to flaunt her feelings like some of the other shifter women he’d been with did. For whatever reason, she was playing it cool. And he liked that. A lot.
“Actually, you’re the first person who has ever offered to make me something to eat.”
“Really? What about your parents?” Janie asked, her face horrified.
“Father is out of the picture for good, and my mom…well…I don’t really know where she ended up.”
That was partly a lie. Dean had hired a private detective to keep tabs on his mother, and every few months, he would get
an update on where she was and what she was doing. The last he’d heard, she was spending a lot of time on the coast with a group of strippers. She wasn’t stripping, per se, but she was hanging around for the drugs and attention.
But that update had been a while ago. Every time the detective got back to him, Dean found himself feeling surprised that his mother was even still alive.
“I’m so sorry,” Janie said, putting her hand gently on Dean’s arm. He scoffed. He was twice her age. There was no way he would allow her to comfort him like he was some sad little baby.
“It was a long time ago,” Dean said, shrinking from her touch and walking to the other end of the kitchen. He had to admit, the house she had chosen for herself was really a nice one. The kitchen was vast, and it almost felt like he could get away from Janie and her inquiries if he walked long enough.
“Still, sometimes the worst pains are the oldest,” Janie said quietly.
“You’re talking like you know that from experience,” Dean said, somewhat bitterly. Why was it he almost hoped to tear the bad feelings right out of her the same way she had to him? He wanted to hear that she hurt too. To see the same pain on her face. But that would be impossible. He had too many scars to count.
But he was surprised when her pained smile sent daggers through him.
“I’ve had my share of ups and downs,” Janie said. “But what matters most is that we’re here now. Right?”
Dean stared at Janie, his heart beating hard in his chest.
“Right,” Dean said. There was nothing left to say.
10.
“I can’t believe it,” Dean said, his eyes bright. “Thank you.”
Janie smiled shyly at her plate. “It’s an old recipe. I can’t believe you even liked it. I heard that the shifters had really high standards for food.”
“Well, we do have much more sensitive senses than you humans do,” Dean admitted. “But I really enjoyed this.”
Dean stood from the table and Janie couldn’t help but stare at him, her mind wandering back to the moment she’d first seen him huddled on the sidewalk at the motel. Dean had been very disoriented, but he seemed to have found her room completely on purpose.
That would have been strange enough on its own, but somehow, it had been taken a step farther and she had discovered him completely naked. The memory filled her with a confusing combination of longing and concern. He hadn’t been there intentionally. There had been rumors circulating that day that he had left the office abruptly and had been spotted shifting into his wolf form.
Janie had been considering posing the question of whether or not he was all right, but it seemed such a strange thing to ask somebody out of the blue. Still, it was clear he had a lot weighing on his mind.
“I’m glad you could enjoy the meal,” Janie said. “I wish there was more I could do to thank you, but what more can you do for the man who has everything?”
Dean laughed quietly. “I wouldn’t say that I have everything.”
“No?” Janie said, clearing the table and taking the dishes to the sink. Dean got up quickly.
“Please sit,” he said, walking briskly beside her. “I can take care of these.”
“On any other day I would say no, because it might ruin your suit,” Janie said, a teasing smile playing her lips.
Dean returned her smile and she allowed him to stand beside her at the sink.
“I’ll wash and you dry?” she proposed. They had been busy all day long, but somehow, she wanted to keep moving, keep working if it meant spending more time with this unbelievably handsome man.
“Sounds good,” Dean said, picking up a towel.
Janie set to work on the dishes, trying not to let Dean’s nearness or his earthy scent send her down a train of thought she would have trouble recovering from. It was becoming painfully obvious that the more time she spent with him, the more she would want to be with him. But there were so many things to consider. Not only was there a major age gap, but it was unprofessional as hell. If something happened between them and then they no longer had any interest in each other, that would mean that she’d lost her job.
They worked together in silence for a while before Dean glanced at her and smiled.
“You’re not pregnant are you?” he asked.
Janie blushed furiously and frowned at him.
“Why, because I’m fat?”
Dean’s face turned red and he looked flabbergasted. “What? No! I was just thinking about how little I really know about you. It seems strange, you know? We’re going to be spending a lot of time together.”
“I’m really not pregnant,” Janie said, glaring at Dean.
He grinned at her, and despite herself, she felt her anger deflating. It was difficult to stay angry at such a handsome man, even if it was a rude question.
“I don’t think you’re fat, anyway. I say you can have your body however you want it. Everything is beautiful.”
“Really? That’s not the impression I get from seeing pictures of your ex wife.”
Dean darkened and glared down at the plate in his hands.
“She was different. I loved her, and I would have loved her fat. I would have loved her pregnant. I would have even loved her if she had two heads.”
“Really?” Janie asked, squinting at Dean.
“I don’t know,” he said with a laugh and a shrug. “I was pretty blinded. Not thinking with the right head, probably. I know I should have known better. I just wanted so badly to be able to trust someone.”
“It must be hard,” Janie said softly. “Having all that money must make it almost impossible to know who is truly your friend.”
“To say the least. Even without my baggage.”
“Baggage?”
Dean smirked. “I wasn’t always fit to be some hero for the kiddies. I have always been a hard worker, but there’s more to the story than that.”
“I’d love to hear about it,” Janie said.
Dean shook his head. “I don’t talk about myself. Especially not to women.”
Janie raised her eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Dean froze and furrowed his brow. “I don’t want the whole world knowing my life’s story. It’s bad enough that I told Kiera anything. Now she thinks she has some kind of power over me. She’s even going after the company now.”
“You’re kidding!” Janie gasped. If Kiera took the company from Dean, then he would have nothing left to show for his years of hard work. Sure, he would have memories from his long-standing football career, but not much else. “She can’t take your company.”
“She seems pretty certain that she can,” Dean said, glowering as he dried the last cup and set it gingerly in the dish strainer. “And I have a feeling that she knows what she’s talking about. It all seems like everything is heading for disaster.”
“Don’t give up already,” Janie exclaimed. “The fight has just barely begun yet. And if she thinks she’s got some big guns ready then you’re just going to have to get bigger ones. Don’t worry so much. You’ll figure things out. You always have before. Things like that don’t change.”
Dean’s face seemed to lose a bit of the darkness to it and he sighed deeply. “If you say so.”
“Come on,” Janie said, draining the sink. “Let’s have a drink before you go. I don’t want to leave on that note. You’ve done so much to help me today. Let’s just try to stay positive.”
Dean nodded and followed Janie to the living room, and they sat together on her comfortable little loveseat. She’d never had to buy much furniture before. Her apartment in California had been tiny, and she rarely dated or had friends over because she had always been so busy with work and school, so the loveseat had suited her just fine.
Now, though, with Dean on the other side, it suddenly seemed far too small. Her heart tremored nervously as his elbow brushed against hers and they turned awkwardly to face each other.
“Sorry it’s so tiny,” Janie said with a nervous
laugh. “I should probably upgrade.”
“No, it’s comfortable,” Dean said decidedly. “I like it.”
She gazed quietly at the man labeled the sexiest entrepreneur in the world and swallowed hard. Did he mean everything he said to sound like a warm invitation? Or did he actually like her?
“So, since you live on your own, what do you do to occupy your time, anyway?” Dean asked, his voice a soft, gentle rumble that stirred the heat in her loins. “I’m a loner too, but all I ever do is think about my company. What’s it like to be normal?”
“Normal?” Janie laughed. “Hardly. I’m constantly trying to find ways to achieve the goals I’ve set for myself. It’s obsessive, really. If my goal is to get through school, I find a way to get through school. If my goal is to get you the best PR campaign you’ve ever had, then not even the most shifter-phobic person in the world will be able to look at what I create without thinking twice.”
“That’s a lofty goal,” Dean said with a soft laugh. “I just thought we were going to hang out with a couple of brats for the season and hope for the best.”
“Well, that too,” Janie said. “It’s all part of the plan.”
Janie tapped her temple and laughed. She was shocked by how easy it was to speak to Dean. She had originally thought that because of his billionaire status, he would consider himself far above doing trivial things himself, such as moving her in or just sitting on a beat up old loveseat in thrift store clothes and listening to her make corny jokes about her obsessive need to plan and organize her life. Dean was surprisingly good company.
“Well, I know a thing or two about plans,” Dean said, “and having to surrender my company to the woman I married was never in my plans.”
He sighed heavily and Janie turned to him, doing her best to smile reassuringly.
“It’s going to be okay, no matter what happens. I believe in you. There is no doubt in my mind that if anybody can fight this bullshit and come out on top, you can.”
Dean smiled tiredly at Janie. “I appreciate your confidence.”
“I’m serious!” Janie exclaimed, looking into Dean’s sexy, stormy eyes and finding herself lost in them as she spoke. “I wanted to work under you for a reason. You’re the most confident, capable man I’ve ever seen, and unlike most people with a lot of money, you actually have a vision. You want to make this world a better place…”
HAMMER (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 16) Page 104