The Wilde Crew: Cole: A paranormal shifter romance (The Shifters of Wilde Ranch Book 2)

by Kim Fox

  She picked up the oven mitt and began waving it in front of her face. “How about a cold shower?” she muttered under her breath. Fuck, that guy is hot.

  Jennifer got to work chopping, frying, slicing and dicing. She was always in heaven in a kitchen, making her edible art. It didn’t matter how weird her bosses were, she was still going to enjoy every minute of this. She could gladly put up with a little bit of strangeness if it meant that she could come down here to the beautiful kitchen and do what she loved.

  She had a ‘dream job’ in the middle of Manhattan, working for one of the biggest law offices in the state. The only problem was, she absolutely hated it. She detested the traffic and all of the crazy people in the city, she couldn’t stand the long boring hours of researching, researching, and more researching, and she loathed the people she worked for. Her ‘dream job’ turned out to be a nightmare and one year in, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, she snapped and told her bosses that they could shove her dream job up their dream asses.

  Jennifer bought a plane ticket to France and studied French cuisine for a year before returning to the states to continue pursuing her one true passion: cooking.

  She had always loved Montana, dreaming of the spectacular mountains and gorgeous scenery, so it was natural for her to move there when she returned. Finding a job in a place that wasn’t a diner or a cafe had been trickier than she had anticipated though, so she was thrilled when she found the ad for this position.

  It wasn’t La Belle Vie, the restaurant that she was initially hoping to work for but it was a start. She had dreamed of working in the one true five-star restaurant in the state, owned and run by master French chef, Guy Laplante. He was a true culinary legend and a hero to Jennifer and so many other young chefs trying to make a name for themselves.

  Jennifer never got a call back from Guy Laplante, even after she sent him numerous original recipes so she applied for this job. It wasn’t her first choice but it was a good second.

  She would have a ton of freedom to make up her own recipes and set the menu to whatever she was inspired to cook that day. It was a good start and she was really happy to get it.

  After an hour or two of cooking, Jennifer had a bunch of meals for her new bosses to try. “Cole,” she said, peeking her head out of the front door of the inn. “Can you help me bring the food out?”

  “Sure!” he said, jumping out of his seat.

  “I can do it,” Ashton said, jumping up as well.

  “Thanks, Ashton,” she said, giving him a smile. “But I just need one person to help.” She turned back to Cole and smiled. “Cole, are you ready?”

  He puffed his chest out as he walked over. Ashton frowned as he slunk back into his chair, looking depressed.

  “I’ve been out here salivating to the delicious smells coming out of that kitchen,” Cole said, following her closely.

  She smiled at him as she turned around. “You can smell it all the way out there?”

  “Yeah,” he said, taking his eyes off of her. “A little bit.”

  Either he had an incredible sense of smell or he was bullshitting her. She was going with the latter.

  “What did you make?” he asked as they stepped into the kitchen.

  She turned to him with a grin. “Maple-glazed chicken, a pot roast, and whiskey-glazed flat iron steaks with grilled potatoes. What do you want to try first?”

  Jennifer laughed when his face dropped, staring at the food with wide hungry eyes.

  “All of it,” he said with his mouth hanging open.

  She smiled as she walked over, pressed a finger to his chiseled jaw and pushed it up until his mouth closed. “Please don’t drool on my kitchen floor,” she said with a smirk. “I like to keep it spotless.”

  “I’ll make you a deal,” he said, flashing his sexy dimples. “You give me something to eat and I won’t drool on your spotless floor.”

  “Which one would you like first?” she asked, skipping back behind the stainless steel counter.

  His gorgeous brown eyes were focused on the flat iron steaks that were grilled to perfection.

  “I’ll slice you off a piece,” she said, grinning as she grabbed the knife. Jennifer liked to slice the pieces nice and thin so that they would melt in people’s mouths. “Medium rare okay?”

  “Medium rare is good,” he said with his hungry eyes transfixed on the knife that was slicing through the tender pieces of meat.

  “Remember what I said,” she said, handing him the piece of steak. “No drooling on my floor.”

  He put the whole piece in his mouth and closed his eyes as he chewed. Jennifer grinned, watching him as it looked like he was having an orgasm in his mouth.

  She loved feeding people, especially her men. Jennifer was a self-proclaimed feminist and a strong independent woman, but she still thought that it was a woman’s job to feed her man. There was something sexy about it that always got her going. She loved watching a hot guy eat her cooking.

  “That was incredible,” he said, staring at the rest of the steak. “Please tell me that I can have some more.”

  She laughed as she sliced him off another piece. “I have to leave some for Ashton and Joan so that they can try some too.”

  “No, you don’t,” he said, grinning mischievously. “It can be our little secret.”

  He was so sexy the way that he was smiling at her, flashing his dimples around like they weren’t a weapon that could be used against females.

  “Alright,” she said, sliding the cutting board with the steak on it over to him. “Eat it fast.”

  “No way,” he said, picking it up and biting into it slowly. “I want to take my time enjoying this.”

  Jennifer bit her bottom lip as she watched him enjoy her cooking. I think I’m going to like this job.

  She just had to keep it professional. It was never a good idea to knock heels with the boss, no matter how tempting he could be.

  He groaned as he licked his fingers clean, making Jennifer gulp.

  “Let’s take this outside for the others,” she said, quickly gathering the other two meals and hurrying down the hall before he could answer. It was getting really hot in the kitchen despite the ovens and grill being off.

  Jennifer could feel Cole’s eyes on her as she walked down the hall so she gave her hips an extra little sway for his visual enjoyment.

  There was a cool breeze outside which felt incredible against her flushed skin. She still couldn’t get the juicy image of Cole eating her cooking out of her mind.

  “What is that?” Rory asked, walking over to the picnic table.

  “My famous maple-glazed chicken and pot roast,” Jennifer answered, placing the food down on the table with a smile.

  A new muscular guy was there that Jennifer hadn’t seen before. He was a good looking man with long blonde hair that was tied up in a bun on the top of his head.

  “That’s Gunner,” Cole said, pointing at him. “Gunner, this is Jennifer.”

  “Hi,” she said, glancing at his big biceps. I think I’m going to be cooking for a lot of ladies. This inn is going to be popular with the single gals.

  He nodded his head with a grunt as he reached over Joan and grabbed a piece of chicken. “Wow,” he said, narrowing his honey colored eyes on her after he took a bite. “You made this?”

  She raised her shoulders and grinned nervously. “Do you like it?”

  Gunner reached down and grabbed another piece as the other vultures fought for their share. “It’s incredible,” he said, staring at her in wonder.

  “Very good,” Ashton said, nodding.

  Rory was too busy chewing to say anything.

  “I think we found our girl,” Joan said, licking the empty plate after Cole grabbed the last piece of chicken.

  Jennifer was thrilled. The day had gone better than she could have imagined. She got the job in a new kitchen just like she had wanted and she impressed her bosses with her cooking. Things were looking up.

  It wasn�
�t La Belle Vie, the five-star French restaurant that she aspired to work in but it was a pretty close second. Nice people in a cute restaurant with the freedom to make whatever she was inspired to cook, and it was all located on a stunning Montana ranch.

  “Can I come back tomorrow?” she asked as a million ideas raced through her head. “There’s a few more recipes that I would like you guys to try.”

  “Please do,” Joan said with a mouth full of pot roast. “Come back as soon as possible.”

  “It was nice meeting you all,” she said, smiling at each one of them. Her eyes lingered a little longer on Cole’s handsome face. Her cheeks started heating up as she finally turned away. He makes me blush so easily.

  Cole had caught her off guard today, but tomorrow she would be ready for him. No more flirting or dirty fantasies. Jennifer was a professional. She was here to cook.

  Tomorrow will be different. I’ll focus on the meat on the grill and not the meat in Cole’s pants.

  ***

  “What do you think, Ashton?” Joan asked after Jennifer left. “Did we deliver?”

  “He didn’t get laid yet,” Gunner said. “You didn’t deliver anything.”

  Joan rolled her eyes as she turned to give the lion shifter a dirty look. “We got her here, didn’t we? The closing part is up to him.”

  “The only closing that’s going to go on,” Gunner laughed, “is going to be her closing her legs.”

  Ashton frowned at him. “Maybe I should get my nails painted,” he said. “Think that would help?”

  “I do,” Gunner said seriously. “Girls love flawlessly manicured nails.”

  “Is that true, Joan?” Rory asked.

  “Yes,” Joan said, nodding sarcastically. “Nothing gets me hotter than a thick layer of lacquer on a man’s hand.”

  “Lacquer to lick her, I always say,” Gunner said with a grin.

  Cole grinned, feeling the devil on his shoulder whispering in his ear. “That could work,” he lied. “She’s a chef so she might respect someone who takes careful care of their hands.”

  Ashton scrunched his nose up as he tried to process the ridiculous tip. “Really?” he asked, tilting his head in confusion. “You think?”

  “Definitely,” Cole said, swallowing hard as he nodded. He should have felt a little guilty for pointing Ashton in the wrong direction but he didn’t. All was fair in love and war, and Cole wasn’t about to lose this girl, even to his best friend.

  If he had to steer Ashton wrong with horrible advice than he was willing to do it.

  “What do you think, Joan?” Ashton asked his alpha. “Should I get a manicure?”

  She shrugged. “It’s not my thing but Cole is the pussy crusher. I’d listen to him. He wouldn’t steer you wrong, right Cole?”

  Everybody turned to him.

  “Nope,” Cole said, keeping a straight face. “I definitely wouldn’t.”

  four

  Cole sat at the edge of the path that led to the road with his pulse racing. It was early in the morning and Jennifer wasn’t due to arrive for another few hours but he couldn’t help himself.

  It beat wearing out the floor in his trailer by pacing back and forth as the second hand on the clock dragged on, way too slow.

  He had spent the whole night thinking about her and dreaming of her beautiful face. He tried to picture every detail and then punched his pillow in frustration when he couldn’t come up with the exact slope of her jaw or the curve of her ears. He couldn’t wait to see her.

  He even snuck over to the kitchen in the middle of the night to catch a light sniff of her lingering scent and to touch the handles of the knives that she touched. Cole knew it was ridiculous, and even a little pathetic, but he didn’t care. He was very taken with her and felt compelled to do it for some unknown reason.

  A naked body emerged from the forest and Cole sighed. He wasn’t the only one frustrated with love around here.

  Gunner was walking down the path towards him as naked as the moment he slid out of his mom’s hooch. It wasn’t a pretty sight then and it wasn’t a pretty sight now.

  “Come on man,” Cole said, raising his hand to cover the lion shifter’s exposed cock. “It’s too early for penises.”

  “Sorry, Cole,” he said, covering up with his hands. “I was just letting my lion blow off some steam in the forest.”

  “Take this,” Cole said, pulling off his shirt and tossing it to him.

  “What do you want me to do with your shirt?” Gunner asked, standing in front of him with his dick way too close to Cole’s face.

  “Cover yourself,” Cole said, turning his head to get as far away from his hairy balls as possible.

  “Thank you,” Cole said when Gunner bunched up the shirt and hid his junk. “You can keep it.”

  Gunner looked upset as usual. The guy had never been happy-go-lucky like Rory was, but over the years that Cole knew him in the military, Gunner was never this bad. Joan was really getting to him. Wanting the one that you couldn’t have was always devastating and emotionally draining.

  “How you holding up?” Cole asked as Gunner sat down beside him.

  “I’ve been better,” he said, taking a heavy sigh. “Have you ever loved someone who didn’t love you back?”

  Cole thought back to all of the girls in his life. There were too many to process. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “But I can imagine that it sucks.”

  Gunner let out a sad laugh. “It does. It’s fucked up. I think about her all of the time when I’m awake, and when I’m asleep I dream about her. She’s constantly on my mind. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t get over her. I love the way that she acts so strong but there’s a soft vulnerability hidden underneath her mighty roar. I love her jokes and hearing her talk. Her voice is like a song that I just can’t get enough of.”

  Cole’s heart broke for him. The only time he saw Gunner smiling these days was when he was talking about Joan.

  “But what’s fucked is that even though I think about her all of the time, I know she never thinks about me.”

  Cole sighed. He didn’t know what to tell the poor guy. “She bonded to Rhett,” he said softly, shaking his head. “You have to let her go.”

  Gunner lowered his eyes to the dirt. “That’s the really fucked up part,” he said, his shoulders slumping forward. “I know she bonded to her mate and that she’ll never be mine. I know that. I’ve accepted that. But I can’t let her go. I don’t want to.”

  He closed his eyes as he took a deep breath. Cole could feel the pain in his voice, the sadness radiating off of him.

  “Loving her has been the best thing in my life,” Gunner said, smiling sadly. “Even if she doesn’t feel the same way, even if she’ll never be mine, I just don’t want to let my love for her go.”

  “But look at what it’s doing to you,” Cole said. “It’s killing you.”

  He looked like a drowning man that refused to take any life preservers thrown his way.

  Gunner was the one who really needed to move on with another girl. They should have been trying to set him up before Ashton.

  “I can’t live without her in my life,” he said, his chin starting to tremble. “That would be worse than seeing them together.”

  “It’s just going to get worse,” Cole said, trying to be the voice of reason for his friend. “They’ll eventually get married, probably even have kids. What’s that going to do to you then?”

  Gunner sighed, running his hand through his blonde hair. “That will probably be the last nail in my heart that finishes me off for good. But I’ll take it like a man.”

  Cole shook his head, staring down the empty road. He couldn’t imagine seeing Jennifer with another guy. It would be too much to take.

  “It can’t be good for you,” Cole said softly. “To see them together all of the time.”

  Gunner took a heavy breath, composing himself. “My body tingles when I see her, but then it all comes crashing down when she looks in Rhett’s direc
tion and her beautiful face lights up in a smile. She never looks my way, never searches for me. It’s never my hand that she reaches for or my lips that she kisses. I just have to learn to accept that and take what I can.”

  “Take what you can?” Cole said, turning to him. “You deserve more than scraps. You’ll find the right girl, Gunner, and all of this will feel like a bad dream. Your mate is out there, you just have to look around. Get your eyes off of Joan or you’ll never find her.”

  The lion shifter sat beside him in silence, pressing Cole’s favorite t-shirt to his dick. Cole wore it to impress Jennifer and now it was absorbing Gunner’s ball sweat.

  Cole perked up like a dog hearing a doorbell when he heard a car approaching. His heart started pounding when Jennifer’s red car turned off the road onto the path.

  “That’s the cook,” Cole said to Gunner. “We can talk again. Whenever you like.”

  “Thanks,” Gunner said, slapping Cole’s shoulder as he got up. “Want your shirt back?”

  Cole cringed. “You can keep it.”

  “I’ll put it in your trailer,” he said, walking away.

  “Put it in the fireplace,” Cole said over his shoulder. He wasn’t wearing anything that had been that close to Gunner’s junk.

  Cole stood up slowly, trying to see past the sun’s reflection on the windshield to the gorgeous woman driving the car. He got a rush of adrenaline as he saw her ash blonde hair and then her beautiful face.

  Jennifer parked the car and got out, staring at Gunner’s bare ass as he walked away. She turned back to Cole and grimaced when she saw him without a shirt on.

  “Am I interrupting something?” she asked, leaning back towards the inside of the car. “I can go if you’re with your boyfriend right now.”

  “What?” Cole asked, nearly choking. “No! He’s not my boyfriend. He’s in love with someone else.”

  “Okay,” she whispered, dropping her eyes.

  Cole slapped his forehead. “I mean, I’m not gay. Neither is he.”

  She looked skeptical.

  Cole swallowed hard, desperate to make her see his heterosexuality. “I’m not attracted to penises,” he said. “At all. Or balls.”