~ Bella ~I froze as I heard Alpha Nikolai's deep, husky voice over the phone.The last time I'd heard his voice, he'd been growling at me.Right now his voice was uncharacteristically soft, almost appealing.But the memories from earlier continued to play in my head, causing the back of my neck to prickle in alarm."Bella?" he repeated. "Are you still there?"I shook myself back to attention. "Hello? Hum... yes I am. And yes, I got the necklace.""Did you like it?" he asked.I nodded then remembered that he couldn't see me. I cleared my throat."Yes, I did," I answered. "It's very beautiful. Thank you.""And did you get my note too?" he pressed."Yes, I did," I answered again. I was not giving him any leeway because to be honest I was a bit mad at him for what happened earlier."I meant it, Bella," he said. "I'm sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have lost control like that."I sighed. I couldn't even stay mad at him when he sounded this quiet and pertinent. I had a feeling not many p
~ Bella ~"What did she do this time by the way?" Maggie asked.I gave her a quick rundown of my encounter with Mrs Meyer at Parker's office earlier.Maggie threw her head back and laughed. "You have to give it up to her though. She really takes her job as your arch nemesis very seriously!""Well, I'm going to teach her a good lesson this time again. I guess she didn't learn her lesson last time. Remember how it went?" I asked, snickering.Maggie doubled over laughing, tears gathering at the corner of her eyes. "Girl, how could I forget?"The last time we'd decided to 'teach Mrs Meyer a lesson', I'd come up with an elaborately delicious plan.Maggie and I had enlisted the help of an old friend from back home to place a call to Mrs Meyer while we listened from the door. Even though we only got to hear one side of the conversation, it was highly rewarding.It'd gone something like this;"...Hello?" *Pause "...Yes, this is the office of Parker Smith." *Pause "...I am his secretary, Mrs
~ Nikolai ~I paced the length of my study. I had a lot on my mind lately.The content of the worrisome file in my desk was never completely out of my mind even when it was out of sight.Sooner or later, I would have to deal with the matter even though I was stalling.Making Bella prove to me that she could handle the case was just as much a ploy to delay the inevitable.Talking of Bella... it'd been about three days since I last heard from my mate.Ever since the day she'd hurriedly cut off the phone off when I'd slipped up and called her the nickname I only called her in my head...I knew for a fact that she hadn't gotten a new case yet which meant I had no excuse to call her or see her.I stalked over to my phone and dialled a number. It took a few rings but they finally picked up."Old friend, how are you these days?" I said into the receiver.By the time I dropped the receiver, I had a smile on my face. 'Dear Bella, looks like I'll be seeing you soon enough.'The next day, my ph
~ Bella ~"So here's the load down," I started. "Mr Charles Darl was an employee of Suave Accounting firm. He was dismissed three months ago as a result of an accounting mistake that resulted in a loss of $100,000."Alpha Nikolai nodded. He was listening so abruptly that I was actually surprised. I could almost think he was actually interested and not just trying to make my life more difficult by insisting on being involved in the case.When he'd said, "So where do we start?" earlier, I'd immediately started trying to convince him to trust me to do it on my own.I practically swore that I would get back to him later with all the details but he'd refused vehemently.So here we were. Sigh! At least he was listening."Now the thing is Mr Darl claimed it was an accounting error but the company suspected otherwise," I continued."A case of fraud?" he asked."Exactly!" I nodded. I gave him a smile to show I was pleased. "However, they couldn't find any concrete evidence to tie him to the c
"Start again," he commanded.Startled, my hand immediately flew back up to the buttons.He had such a quality around him that made you just obey him without thinking.I frowned, my face turning bright red with a mix of anger and embarrassment.This time, to avoid making the same mistake again, I was forced to actually look at what I was doing.As such, his chest was back in my line of sight. I swallowed.I practically had to hold my breath the entire time or risk running my hand over his fine skin. How could a man have such nice skin?Actually how could a werewolf have such nice skin? I'd never really known any werewolves personally but I'd just always imagined them to be very hairy and scary looking.There wasn't a single strand of hair on his chest and even though he looked dangerous, he was too fine to be considered scary-looking.I held my breath and finished up the buttoning as fast as I could. Halfway to the top, he grabbed my hand again."What now?" I whined."That's enough,"
~ Bella ~Insane! This alpha was insane!I didn't understand what kind of game he thought he was playing but I wasn't prepared to fall for it.Of course, he was an incredibly attractive man. Any woman with eyes could see that.So it wasn't a strange thing that I had a physical reaction to him but if he thought that I would ever do anything with him, he better have another thing coming on!Never in a thousand years would I cheat on Parker. Sweet old Parker! My crush for years!I didn't deserve him and I would ever do anything to hurt him. Even if that anything was a sexy werewolf with stunning abs trying to seduce me.He probably did this with every woman he met. I would be stupid to think he was acting this way towards me for any real reason.The more reason I couldn't afford to let him get to my head."How come you never kiss my ass?" he asked so close to my face that I felt his breath against my lips.I dipped my head under his arm and cut to the side, expertly removing myself fro
~ Bella ~ By the time we left Sauve Corp, we had more answers than I could ever hope to have gotten alone, thanks to Nikola.Thankfully, no other person proved as stubborn as that first man did but Nikolai's quiet presence behind me certainly had people talking more easily.The effect on women was vastly different. They moment they laid eyes on him, they instantly became super cooperative.Batting their eyes at him, coyly twisting their hair around their fingers and so on. So irritating! Ugh!At least he ignored them for the most part. In fact, for the more brazen ones, he fixed them with cold stares that could have melted iron."So what do we do now?" Nikolai asked."Now, we have to sit down and read through all of these," I pointed at the briefcase in his hands.He lifted his hand and glanced at his watch. "We still have enough time today to make a sizeable dent in it.""Today?" I said in horror."Why not?" he said. "It's barely 3 'o' clock. I reckon we'll get three-quarters throug
~ Nikolai ~"So now that we're finally alone, what do you want to do?" I asked in a voice that was purposely low and seductive. "What do you mean?" she asked in a gasp, holding her body as far away from me as much as possible in the tight space. Her body was so tightly wound that if I poked her with a finger, she would probably snap like a twig.I burst into laughter. She jumped at the sudden sound. Wow, she was really nervous. That was a good thing.I was only messing with her actually. For some reason, I found teasing her like this very entertaining.Almost as entertaining as actually kissing her... touching that delectable body.I moved my hand from around her chair before I turned that thought into action. I also moved my body away from her, deliberately putting space between our bodies. I couldn't trust myself otherwise."You should have seen the look on your face!" I said. "So funny!"She self consciously straightened my dress. "That was not a very funny joke," she said.I s