Chapter 3

Roxy

Waking up, I rub my eyes sore from lack of sleep. Most of the night I tossed and turned since my mind was inundated with images of Blake half naked which did nothing but make my core tight and wetness creep between my legs.

I flatly willed myself not to touch myself or get my vibrator out. God, could you imagine me getting myself off over my stepbrother?

It’s time to get up as I look at my mobile and see it is already eight in the morning. Shit, I never lay in bed this late. Usually, I am an early riser up at around five, out for a run by half past. The flight and travel on top of the bad sleep have taken their toll on me.

Downstairs everything is quiet. I remember now my mother telling me when I finally caught up with her yesterday evening, that she has a checkup for her mammogram today. Nobody is around, it is perfectly silent. The coffee maker has been put on. I check the cupboards to find a mug and fine them to the left. From the cupboard I grab a mug that has cute cats on it and pour myself the coffee, adding creamer no sugar.

The doors of the vast chef’s kitchen open to the back yard. Okay, it’s more like a forest land to be perfectly honest. My stepfather being a billionaire owns a mansion with plenty of land around it.

I spot a couple of bunnies darting around. Man, I absolutely love wildlife hence the reason I work for National Geographic magazine. It was always my dream job. Some days I have to pinch myself that I landed a job with them and my editor, Susan is a perfect match for me. She drives me hard but pushes me to give her the best results.

The stillness is beautiful, yet I still feel restless. That kind of restless that you think you ought to be doing something. Being on vacation is alien to me, in fact I can’t recall the last time I took time out of my job.

I love chasing the wild and being out in nature. Here it feels as if all I will do is dodge family drama and of course my too good-looking stepbrother, Blake.

I quickly remind myself to make sure we are not in the house at the same time. Mm, dinners will be tricky!

For now, though I need to make the most of having the house to myself and luxuriate in the stillness with nobody, especially not Blake being around. My mother for all her goodness is pretty interfering. Always wanting to know if I’ve met a nice young man who is rich and can take care of me. That gets to me. I do not need a man to take care of me.

She still thinks that working for National Geographic is not a proper job, going round taking photographs and the such, Mom thinks is a hobby. Despite the magazine being one of the all-time, in the world most read.

Hopefully Blake is already out at practice so we don’t bump into one another. A door closes and I hear footsteps coming down. Too late the peace it would appear is about to end.

I step away from the glass doors and go to the coffee maker for a refill. Blake enters the kitchen wearing nothing but boxer shorts. “What is it with you? Do you always walk around half-naked?” I ask him.

He ignores me and goes to the cupboard for a mug. Not before I catch his blue eyes travelling down my body. Fuck, I knew I should have put a robe on over my short pajama shorts and camisole top.

Then he comes and stands beside me right at the coffee maker. I lean further into the counter top as he rests a hand either side of my body. My heart rate picks up; my mouth goes dry and I find myself squeezing my thighs together. What the hell is going on with me?

“This is my house, hot lips don’t question my attire,” he says in a low, husky voice. And why the hell does that make me tingle from my roots to my toes?

“Get away from me, Blake. You’re in my damn face,” I snarl at him.

“And don’t call me hot lips,” I add irritated he is making me all hot and bothered. I hate him!

God, he irritates me and then some. Hot lips the asshole! I’m wondering why on earth I bothered coming back home to Alaska for a vacation in the first place.

“Suit yourself, hot lips,” he says as I push him away from me. Blake chuckles. I fist my hands together. Seriously I could punch him in the face. Serve him right too if I did. However, I will not give the conceited, arrogant prick the satisfaction.

My mobile buzzes on the emperor brown, marble island where I left it. He grabs it before I can get to it. “Don’t read my messages, they’re personal,” I yell at him. He raises an eyebrow.

“What you have to hide then hot lips? A lover perhaps?”

Fuck him. I manage to swipe the mobile from his hand and read the message that I can see is from my editor, Susan.

“Confirmed wolf activity outside Anchorage. Locals say they’ve seen a large black wolf stalking the tree line. Can you get us some shots?”

"Wolves. In Blake’s backyard. Of course,” I mutter.

He swiftly turns around, his eyes narrowing. “What did you just say?”

“Nothing, none of your damn business.”  I take my coffee mug and my mobile and leave the shirtless wonder in the kitchen, feeling his eyes boring into my back.

Excitement builds inside me at the thought of getting outside and investigating if there is in fact a black wolf somewhere here in Anchorage.

As far as I am aware the biggest black wolf of them all, I left standing in the kitchen. Being the Alpha, Blake is the largest of them all even over his father. Only, Susan my editor has no idea that both Blake and I are shifters.