“No. No. My father is against divorce. We’ll pretend I’m looking for Chris. And since you’re being paid by your client, I won’t have to pay you too.”
Now he was really confused. “King Roger is against divorce?”
“He says it’s not the mer-way.”
Did he? But since Justine’s marriage was bigamous at best, obtaining a divorce wasn’t a possibility. Did she know about Hill’s other wives? More to the point, did the mer-king know that Christopher Hill was a con man with a long string of supposed marriages behind him?
No way Drew Wolfmann was going to be the one to enlighten Justine.
“Are you just going to gawk at me?” she snapped.
He pulled himself together. “You want me to tell people that I’m working for you? On your non-existent divorce?”
“That’s about the size of it.”
“I couldn’t do that,” he explained apologetically.
“Why not?”
“Client confidentially. If anyone asks what you were doing in here, I have to say, ‘I don’t discuss my visitors’.”
Those stormy eyes turned almost black. He reeled from their death ray. “Everyone knows Marlene Berry hired you to find her grandfather.”
“Then everyone knows wrong.”
“I heard you charged her a pretty penny too.”
Marlene had tramped into his office baying for blood. But since Ted Berry was known to wander off –– the poor old fellow had dementia –– locating him had been the responsibility of the Mystic Bay Search and Rescue Squad, of which Drew was a member in good standing.
Benoit, who headed the squad up, had been on the cusp of organizing said search, when old man Berry turned up on a whale-watching boat. It seemed he had forgotten he no longer worked for that outfit and had slipped aboard wearing his old uniform. He was returned to shore and Marlene without further incident.
“I don’t know how that story got around,” he continued, “But I didn’t tell anyone about Marlene’s visit. And I didn’t send her a bill.” Not for telling her to call S&R.
*Desired by the Dragon
CHAPTER THREE
Justine~
He was back. Sleeping under her window. Again. Well, not sleeping. Keeping watch. She had no reason to suspect that Drew Wolfmann wasn’t staying alert. She got out of her nice warm bed and slammed her window closed. But his scent had already permeated her room. It clouded her mind. Made her want what she couldn’t damn well have.
She got back under the covers and pounded her pillow with both fists. It wasn’t fair. She had the whole town talking about her dropping in on Wolfmann on her way to work. Speculation was running rampant. But since no one but her mother had asked, she couldn’t set the story straight.
Dad had been anxious to set the whole subject of Chris aside. Which was no different than usual. Since her brother’s return with a mermaid wife and kids*, Dad had been a whole lot less cranky and difficult. Except on the subject of her marriage to Chris Hill.
He just wanted the whole thing to go away. Which was irrational at best and deranged at worse. And yet, did she really want to risk her heart again? Not on your life. In lots of ways, this unwilling attraction to Wolfmann was better than a real relationship.
She never wanted to repeat the heartbreak she had known with Chris. The glory of those first few weeks, when he had made her feel like a queen, had been canceled by the pain of discovering that what he really wanted was her supposed fortune, not her plus-sized self.
Her cousins had thrown Chris off West Haven for smacking her around. But the emotional scars were far worse than the black eyes and bruises Chris had given her. She never wanted to be that vulnerable to a man ever again.
Besides, it had been downright embarrassing to march into Wolfmann Investigative Services ready to blast that werewolf to hell and back for pursuing her, only to find out he wasn’t interested in her personally. Just in finding Chris.
And why would Drew Wolfmann be interested in a hefty gal with a plain face and a boring job? He was probably used to glamorous city women. Nothing glamorous about Justine Merryman.
What was Drew doing in Mystic Bay, anyway? There were no other wolves on the island. As far as she knew, there never had been. Although, wasn’t the Lodge built on a finger of land called Wolf’s Neck? That B&B was way over on the north end of the island. But it was run by Rhys Gilmore and his wife, Alison, who were crystal readers, not wolves.
So maybe he was a lone wolf. It happened. Or so she’d heard. Only not to a Wolfmann. The law firm of Wolfmann, Wolfmann, and Drake were renowned in the Pacific Northwest. The firm had been founded by two werewolves and a dragon. And reputedly the partners and associates were still shifters. Hunters.
Despite Serena’s happiness with Anton, Justine was not planning to outrage her family with another mixed marriage. Or even a flagrant affair. Particularly with a predatory shifter. Her father had been heartbroken by her marriage to Chris. Bad enough she had not married a merman. Worse yet, the psychic she had married had turned out to be a scumbag. Her bad.
She had come through that whole episode with Chris and emerged a new woman. Less trusting. More focused. Right now job one was to make the Crab Hut the best family restaurant in Mystic Bay. And job two was to be the best aunt in the world. Her new niece was going to be the bright light of her life. Just as soon as she was born.
What was she going to do about the fact that she had a werewolf curled up in her front yard? Stop pretending it didn’t give her peace of mind. Even though she wasn’t defenseless. Even though she knew her kinsmen were watching. That the police had an All Points Bulletin out on Chris. It was Wolfmann’s presence that let her go to sleep.
If only he didn’t smell like all her wet dreams come to life. She gave her pillow a last thump, shut her eyes, and fell asleep with Wolfmann’s masculine aroma taunting her senses.
It wasn’t intruders that woke her. It was the pounding on her front door. She threw on her robe and peered through the peephole. Her father was raising his fist for another attack on the panels. She quickly pulled the door open.
With his other hand, Roger Merryman was shaking a gigantic wolf by the nape of the neck. A soaking wet and bedraggled giant wolf. Drew hung so limply, hind legs dragging on her front steps, that Justine was at first afraid that the werewolf was dead. But before her eyes he transformed himself into a man. A naked man.
Wolfmann’s lightning-fast shift caught her father off guard. He did something hard, quick, and savage. He wound up with his knee in Dad’s back and one arm pressing into his windpipe. Dad was bent backward, eyes bulging, immobile. Probably to prevent Wolfmann from breaking his spine.
“We’re going to going into the house, Merryman,” Drew growled. “If you’ll step aside, Ms. Merryman?” He frogmarched her father into her living room where he released him.
Dad massaged his throat with one hand and rubbed his low back with the other. “Get him a towel or something,” he snapped.
Justine tossed Wolfmann the throw off the couch and watched while he wound it around his waist. He was as furry as she had suspected. Mermen were as sleek and smooth as marble. Wolves apparently were throwbacks. Drew had lots of dark chest hair, furry legs, and a rampant black thicket that curled lovingly around his cock.
“What’s going on?” she asked as calmly as she could.
“I found this, this, wolf lurking outside your house,” Dad spat.
Wolfmann shrugged. “I guess you didn’t tell him I was on duty, Ms. Justine? I’ve been watching for Chris Hill, Mr. Merryman.”
“I did not,” Justine said. “The sheriff had already told Dad to keep an eye out for Chris. The mer-patrol had been alerted. I figured your presence in my front yard was hardly worth mentioning.” She sighed. “What brought you to my place so early, Dad?”
“I got a call –– an anonymous call – this morning to tell me you have been carrying on with this damned wolf.”
“And after we’d spent the nig
ht making the beast with two backs, I threw him out to sleep in the rain?” she demanded dryly.
*Beloved by the Bear
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About the Author
Isadora writes feel-good PNR stories about heroic shifters and the sexy, sassy BBWs who are their fated mates. She is the author of over 20 books. Join her for some rousing adventures and some spicy loving.
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Bedded by the Bear: A Shifters in Love Fun & Flirty Romance (Mystic Bay Book 6) Page 19