Hearts on Fire

by Serenity Snow

  “Really, Joslyn, I need those papers ready in an hour. I’ll admire you all you want after that.” Cyanna didn’t even look up, though her tone held a distinct hint of amusement. “Don’t dally. I don’t want to look unprepared for the meeting.”

  “Umm. Yes, ma’am.” Her cheeks were so hot with mortification that she was glad Cyanna hadn’t looked up to see her beet-red face. Damn. “How can I not make a fool of myself in front of that woman?” she asked in a whisper as she stepped out of the door. “She must be laughing at me, thinking I’m an utter dumb-ass. Ugh.” She pushed out a rough sigh, sat down at her desk and got the computer fired up.

  Joslyn was working for ten minutes when she got an email. Joslyn ignored it with a rueful look. She didn’t want to start appearing unreliable. The papers looked like some kind of contract.

  Joslyn finished ten minutes before the hour was over and snagged the phone on her desk when it rang. “Eye of the Beholder, how may I help you.”

  “Hey, Joslyn.”

  “Mariana. I’m going to have to call you back,” she said. “I’m working.”

  “I just want to know if you’re bringing a guest. We’re finalizing things today.”

  “Mari, I can’t talk about your wedding right now,” she insisted. “My boss asked me to finish something up.”

  “It’ll only take a minute or two for you to answer the question.”

  The humor in her sister’s voice just ticked her off. Mariana was the oldest and most popular of the two of them. Their parents adored her, doted on her, and she had so many friends it should be illegal.

  Yeah, Joslyn was jealous. Mariana had everything. Never mind that the marriage had been an arranged one by their parents to ensure their daughter didn’t marry a human.

  “I’ll call you right back,” she said, picking up the scent of her boss as she opened her office door. Joslyn hung up just as a six-foot-two-inch-tall male strode into the reception area. Damn. Double damn. This wedding was turning her into a nervous wreck and she wasn’t even the bride.

  “Mr. Anchorman,” Cyanna said coolly. “Please, step into my office. I’ll be right with you.”

  There was no ice, but there was irritation coming off Cyanna that made Joslyn’s wolf bristle. “I’ll bring the papers in shortly,” she said facing her boss. “I apologize.”

  “We’ll talk after the meeting,” she said patiently.

  * * * *

  The meeting lasted thirty minutes and Joslyn took in coffee before getting to work on some other things she wanted to finish before this weekend. She looked up when Cyanna’s office door opened.

  Cyanna walked her guest to the elevator, chatting with him about something. When she returned, Joslyn looked up finding cool brown eyes on her.

  “My office,” Cyanna ordered.

  Joslyn got to her feet with resignation. She heard the door close with a soft snick behind her and felt Cyanna coming up behind her as she moved to the chair in front of the desk, now awash in light.

  Joslyn had fantasized about a scene like this so many times. It was just before the store opened and all was quiet. Cyanna took her to task with a spanking over her knee and then she took her wearing a dildo.

  Joslyn loved women, the feel of their skin, the taste of their kiss, and the scent of their pussy. However, she did enjoy the feel of hard cock. She just wished she could find one attached to a woman instead.

  “Don’t sit,” Cyanna said at her ear. “I asked you not to be late last night when we talked, and this morning, I distinctly told you not to fuck around. You seem to have the hardest time focusing today. Is there a problem?” Cyanna perched on the edge of her desk and their eyes met. “Or do you just need a spanking to get you back in line?”

  Joslyn’s breath caught, her heart stopped. There was something in the other woman’s eyes that made Joslyn’s wolf bow its head in submission while her body ran hot with hunger to be dominated.

  “You’re usually such an obedient girl, even when you’re staring at me like you wish I’d fuck you blind,” Cyanna said softly.

  Joslyn’s eyes widened, her cheeks heated, and she looked down at her feet. Oh my God!

  “Why are you off your game?” Cyanna asked with a thread of concern in her voice. “Are you not feeling well?”

  “I feel fine,” she said quickly. Her gaze darted up to Cyanna’s, then down to rest on the bridge of Cyanna’s nose. She didn’t want a pity fuck, and she certainly didn’t want her boss firing her because she thought she was going to make unwanted advances.

  “I want to help if I can, so talk to me, Joss,” Cyanna said softly, “and look at me.” The last was an order that snapped Joslyn’s gaze up to crash into her boss’s.

  Her stomach quivered. “I guess I’m a little on edge about my sister’s wedding,” she confessed, but she certainly wasn’t going to ask Cyanna to go with her. Cyanna obviously thought she was a lesbian crushing hard enough on her to lose focus.

  “You’re on edge because you don’t have a date, and hate that the family will ridicule you and question your ability to secure a mate?”

  It was funny Cyanna should put it that way. Did her boss know she was a wolf?

  “I know it’s stupid. I’ll be focused the rest of the day. I swear,” Joslyn said firmly.

  “Misty isn’t available?”

  Her boss knew a little more about her than she thought. The woman must have overheard a dozen of her conversations. “No, and neither is the person I was going to ask.” What made her say that? Ugh! She just wanted to kick herself.

  Cyanna’s lips curled with amusement as she studied Joslyn. “Have you asked her?” Her tone was low, with that characteristic bit of huskiness, but there was nothing masculine about it. Joslyn cleared her throat. She hadn’t come out at work, so how did Cyanna know? Had she overheard her mention it when she was talking on the phone?

  “Yes.”

  Cyanna cocked a brow at her and pushed to her feet so she was looking down a half inch at her. “Then, if you really don’t want to go alone, why didn’t you just ask me, Joss?” she murmured. “I’ve noticed you giving me long looks, brushing against me when you didn’t really have to, and staying until everyone’s gone just to be alone with me a few minutes.”

  Joslyn’s jaw dropped, and she flushed scarlet. She felt the heat burning her cheeks and wished a hole would just open up and swallow her in a big gulp. She swallowed hard as she averted her gaze, brushing an imaginary wisp of hair off her face.

  Cyanna chuckled and Joslyn looked back at her with a frown. Damn her, she knew how hot she made Joslyn and was enjoying it.

  “A woman knows when someone’s interested,” Cyanna told her. “I’ll go with you if you ask, but for a price.”

  Joslyn’s brows drew together. “What’s the price?”

  “I want you in my bed, and not just for the weekend. You smell as good as a bitch in heat, and I want to be the alpha whose bed you grace.”

  Chapter Two

  Joslyn’s mouth opened, but nothing came out as her mind searched for a response. Her skin heated in nervous confusion, yet her nipples were hardening at the very thought of her fantasies coming true.

  “I’ll expect you to be obedient and discreet, but I have no objections to you challenging me in private.” She caressed Joslyn’s cheek with her knuckles. “I won’t hide the fact that we’re together, but I won’t spread it around the store.”

  “You’re asking me to be your sub?” Joslyn found her voice as excitement pumped through her veins. She enjoyed S&M, but she wasn’t that familiar with the BDSM culture as a whole.

  Cyanna shrugged her shoulders. “I wouldn’t say sub, but I do enjoy S&M,” she answered. “I want you to be my lover. No strings attached. We’re both free to walk away at any time.”

  “Why me? You could have anyone.”

  “I like the way you walk, I like the way you look at me when you think I’m not looking, and I love the way you smell when you get hot for me.” Joslyn’s eyes widene
d. “You didn’t think I could miss how sweet you smelled yesterday when you brought me those papers to sign, did you? I wanted to push my fingers into your little snatch and fuck you until you screamed.”

  “Ms. Storm,” Joslyn said on a pant. Her heart beat faster. She hadn’t expected that.

  “Are you going to ask me to go with you?” Cyanna asked as she pushed her hands into her slacks pockets.

  “I—umm, will you go to my sister’s wedding with me?”

  “Do you agree to my terms, Joss?”

  Joslyn nodded quickly. She wanted her boss so bad right now that she would bend over her desk if Cyanna asked her to.

  “Say it,” Cyanna commanded softly.

  Joslyn swallowed, her skin increasing in warmth, her desire growing. “I agree to your terms.”

  “When is the wedding?” Cyanna asked.

  “It’s Saturday.”

  “There is one thing I want you to know about me, Joss. It’s important. It might impact your decision.”

  “What?” she asked carefully. “I’m an intersex female, and I’m not ashamed of that. Look it up, and decide whether you still want to go through with this.”

  * * * *

  Joslyn returned from lunch with her mind made up. She’d done a little research while she snacked on a sandwich and half-listened to Misty complain about the trip to see her ailing father this weekend.

  Joslyn knew one hour couldn’t fully do justice to the knowledge she needed to fully understand what Cyanna was, or the psychological issues she might have had as a teenager. However, she also knew that she craved Cyanna like an addict craved their next fix.

  She’d been just thinking how she wished she could find a woman with a penis, but now that she had, she was curious. Would she really like that, or would it be awkward and weird to have a girlfriend with a dick?

  Would she enjoy going down on Cyanna?

  Her pussy moistened at the very thought of Cyanna’s hands on her, and her mind created an image of Joslyn on her knees before Cyanna. She groaned softly and cupped her breasts, wanting nothing more than to find out just how good Cyanna was.

  She bit down on her bottom lip, nipples peaking in her bra. Heat washed over her, and she glided her hand down between her thighs. It would be better than a dildo and more delicious than the feel of a man, because Cyanna was a woman.

  The phone on her desk rang and Joslyn quickly jerked hand away from her center with a hint of guilt. She grabbed the receiver, irritated that the fantasy her mind had been building was interrupted.

  “Hey, Joslyn.”

  “Mariana,” she said with breathless confusion, and then remembered her earlier conversation with her sister. “I’m bringing a date.” Her lips curved and her wolf growled in her mind in approval of her decision. Her family would be pissed, but she’d be with the woman she ached for.

  “A date?” Mariana asked carefully. “Why don’t you just come by yourself, and that way you can keep company with Seymour? Now, that he’s out of the military, you two could get back together if you gave him a chance.” Joslyn rolled her eyes as she sat back in her chair. “ The fact is, I’m not interested in him, Mari,” she said quietly. “You know that.” She would never have called herself bisexual. She’d had a single boyfriend for three years in high school.

  “If you would just open yourself up, you’d meet the right man,” Mariana said. “Seymour might not be that man, but you have to be more open.”

  “I’m not interested in them. Yeah, they have their uses, but women can’t be underestimated in their abilities.” She smiled as she recalled her last girlfriend. She’d been quite handy with a wrench, but she just hadn’t been girlfriend material.

  “You’re a wolf, for crying out loud, not a gazelle.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Joslyn demanded, and said wolf sat up as the sensual scent of sandalwood floated to her, but Cyanna wasn’t alone. She had her manager, Rory, with her.

  “Wolves aren’t gay!” her sister screamed at her, “and I don’t want her at my wedding.”

  “Fine, I won’t come,” she said, watching Cyanna come into view. Joslyn’s eyes slowly slid down her lean body, and the wolf growled low in approval of the mental picture.

  “Are you listening to me?”

  “Yes, but I have to go.”

  “Joslyn, I mean it,” Mariana snapped, but Joslyn was already setting her phone on the desk as her gaze met Cyanna’s.

  “Hi, Joslyn,” Rory greeted her with a smile.

  She returned the brunette’s smile. “Hello, Rory. Ms. Storm.”

  Cyanna gave her a nod. “Joslyn.”

  * * * *

  Cyanna tore her gaze from Joslyn as she moved smoothly to her office. She was one delicious morsel, with her sun-kissed, golden skin and luscious auburn hair with natural copper highlights. Cyanna wondered if her pelt was that color, too. The Redwood Pack of Ridge Hollow produced that rare variation of red wolves that was so attractive to the northern copper-haired cynogryphon pack, Blood Moon.

  Blood Moon did mate with those outside of Ridge Hollow, but some of them couldn’t shake the attraction of those red-pelted wolves. They had a scent that was nothing short of a siren’s call to the beast within.

  “Those fabrics you ordered came in, and the store in France wants to increase their order of sheets and the coordinating room sets.”

  Her designs had gained popularity once she’d learned the fine art of putting together coordinating pieces for a complete room. Her best-sellers were the country designs that fit modern and contemporary tastes. Her other lines kept her at the top of the business food chain.

  “Have them call me,” she said. “We’ll have to renegotiate the contract.” Rory frowned. “Why? They just want to increase their inventory.”

  “That increase equals more money in their pockets and less in mine if I don’t do it right,” she said.

  “And Mandeni wants to renegotiate her contract,” Rory told her after glancing at her phone’s screen. “I’m emailing you all the particulars.”

  “Thanks. If she calls, tell her I’ll meet with her on Monday.”

  “Monday?” Rory frowned, confusion in her brown eyes.

  She’d worked nonstop in the course of building Eye of the Beholder. A social life had meant little unless networking was involved. Now, she could support a mate and live comfortably while doing what she loved.

  “Yes, anything else?”

  “No.”

  “Great,” Cyanna answered. “Now, I have a few things to do before I leave.”

  “Okay. Have a good evening.”

  “You do the same.”

  “Thank you.” Rory gave her a nod and headed out of her office.

  Joslyn’s sister’s mating ceremony was common knowledge among her pack, Blood Moon. It was the joining of two strong families. The alpha pair of Blood Moon would be in attendance, along with a few of the pack’s sentinels.

  Mariana was a sentinel’s daughter, which meant her mating ceremony warranted attendance by the high-ranking members of Blood Moon. Her pack lived in the northern half of Ridge Hollow. Their territory spilled over into the next small town, which was thriving despite the hit the economy had taken a few years back.

  Joslyn would be surprised when she discovered they were both shifters and their packs were allies. The alliance was old and kept in place by one thing, the blood of joint interests.

  * * * *

  As evening rolled in, Joslyn glanced at her watch. Cyanna had gone out shortly after Rory left her office, and hadn’t returned, so she gathered her things and prepared to leave. She’d talk to Cyanna tomorrow about their agreement.

  Thunder rumbled outside the window and her phone rang. Joslyn grabbed her phone from her desk. Seeing Seymour’s number, she connected. “Hi, Seymour.”

  “Hi.”

  “What’s going on?” she asked. She knew what he wanted, but she couldn’t really afford to get started with him. He would just take one friendly dinne
r to mean that she wanted to get back with him.

  “Nothing, much,” he answered. “I’m off early tonight, so I thought we could grab some dinner and catch up.”

  She peeped out of the window at the dark and ominous sky. It was going to pour down any second. “Umm, no. I’m already at home, and I don’t want to come out in the storm.”

  “Why don’t I just come over,” he suggested in a cajoling tone that made her purse her lips. She’d have to be firm with him. The only person she wanted to spend the evening with was already gone.

  “Actually, Misty will be here in a few minutes, and we just want a quiet evening to watch some chick flicks,” she said, and winced at the lie.

  “I don’t mind that,” he said congenially. “I could get to know Misty a little.”

  She rolled her eyes. Misty was gay, too. “Know what? That’s not a good idea. Misty’s—she’s—she had a fight with her lover. It’s just not a good night.”

  “Okay, well, let’s grab lunch tomorrow? I really would love a chance to find out what’s been going on with you.”

  “We’ll see,” she said. “Night, Seymour.” She disconnected quickly and shook her head. “Gods forgive me for that lie,” she murmured.

  Lightning flashed, and she grabbed her purse from her desk, deciding to hurry. She hadn’t brought her umbrella because she’d intended to already be gone. Her phone rang again, and she blew out a breath and shoved it into her purse after turning it off without checking the display.

  * * * *

  He stared at his phone, his lips pulling into a tight line. What the hell was her problem, letting his call go to voicemail? All he wanted to do was make sure she got home okay in the brewing storm.

  He punched in the number of the office. He knew she was still there, because the lights were on there and on the bottom floor of the store. He saw someone moving around inside there, too.