Palm Haven Shifters: Complete Five-Part Series Page 36

  “Angry beeping noises, huh?” He said, scratching his cheek thoughtfully.

  She nodded, hoping to seem confident. “Yeah. What could cause that?”

  He frowned. “I don’t know, I’ll have to take a look at it.”

  “Right!” Monica knew she sounded way too eager.

  Take it down a notch. Desperate much?

  “I mean… I’m right around the corner over here,” she gestured.

  He was busy rummaging in his desk drawer. When he re-emerged he had a protein bar in one hand and a notepad in the other.

  “Here,” he said, pushing the notepad and a pen at her as he unwrapped the protein bar and ate half of it in one bite. “Write down your name and desk number and your problems.”

  Monica did as he said while he munched down the other half of his snack. It wasn’t until she’d finished detailing her make-believe problems that she wondered what she was going to do when he actually came to her desk and nothing was wrong.

  “Okay, I’ve got a few things to clear up, but I’ll come over when I’ve got the time. It might not be until Monday.”

  Monica’s heart sank impossibly low — Hot IT guy coming to her desk on Monday wasn’t going to help cure her boredom tonight.

  “Right. Okay, thanks,” she said, lingering at his desk for another moment.

  After she stood there awkwardly for another moment too long, the guy looked up from his computer screen again. “Was there something else…” he picked up the notepad with her info, “Monica?”

  Her name on his lips made her fingers spark again as her chest fluttered in response.

  You idiot. You’re a witch!

  With her conundrum solved, she gave him her brightest smile.

  “Nope! Thanks.” She practically skipped back to her desk with every intention of making her computer spontaneously explode.

  Chapter 2

  REED

  Reed had to laugh to himself as he watched Monica walk away. He had to laugh, or he’d be forced to acknowledge the massive hard-on she’d given him.

  He studied the flowing loops of her handwriting, tracing the lines with his eyes over and over again as his bear roared at him to go after her.

  It’s your first day on the job. You don’t need a fucking sexual harassment complaint with HR on Day One.

  But, damn. Maybe it would be worth it for a shot with a girl like that.

  She seemed to exude sex appeal. The slinky purple dress she wore did nothing to hide those killer curves and it seemed downright scandalous compared with the demure business attire the other women wore.

  He didn’t really have a bunch of work to do ahead of her. He just couldn’t very well stand up from his desk with a raging erection straining his jeans.

  When was the last time a woman had turned him on this much just by being there? He was probably a teenager. He definitely felt like a horny teenager right now.

  Her swaying hips were only just out of sight when Reed thought about springing to his feet and chasing after her.

  Get a fucking grip. You’re at work and you can’t afford to lose this job.

  He’d been taking night classes for what seemed like forever to get his degree in IT and now that he was only a few credits away, he had enough experience for a job like this one. It was a calculated risk for him — construction work was steady and paid well, but wasn’t all that fulfilling. IT work was plentiful too, but it came with a hefty school price tag and his shifter abilities weren’t any help like they were with back-breaking labor.

  Reed sighed and raked a hand over his face, trying to wipe the memory of her bewildered expression, soft, parted lips, and luscious curves from his mind.

  Instead, his bear growled, bringing up images of Monica under his hands as he peeled that skin-tight dress from her body, circling her pebbled nipple with his tongue while she arched and panted beneath him.

  He throbbed with need for her, his bear clamoring to get to the surface, to claim her and mark her.

  Shit. This was not what he needed on his first day in his new career. A distraction could only spell disaster.

  The lights flickered throughout the office and heads popped up over cubicle walls all over. Most people were in the middle of a call, so they just looked around with questioning looks.

  Then a loud pop and all the lights went out.

  Auxiliary lights illuminated the office in faint reddish hues and the last head to pop up over the cubicles was, of course, Monica.

  Reed smelled the unmistakable bite of smoke.

  Monica’s panic-stricken gaze met his and she waved him over frantically.

  Somewhere in the background, Reed registered the handful of conversations around the office. Some wondering what happened, others hoping for an early start to the weekend.

  “Everyone remain calm!” Someone shouted with authority. “Building management should be turning the lights back on any moment.”

  Reed made his way through the maze of cubicles over to Monica’s desk and she quickly ducked down, her eyes wide, “I think that might have been my fault?” She whispered, making him lean in close to hear her.

  She smelled like honeysuckle and spring rain — holy shit was he really saying that about a girl?

  Focus. And you shut up, he grumbled internally to the bear that still clawed its way towards Monica.

  “What do you mean?”

  The acrid tang of smoke hit his nose again and Reed pulled out his keychain-sized flashlight to take a look at her computer tower.

  He only had to pop the case off to see the problem: the inside was completely scorched.

  “Were you trying to make s’mores on your motherboard?”

  “I… uh… what?”

  Reed shook his head. “Nothing, never mind. I don’t know how you managed this, but you’re going to need a whole new unit, most likely. I hope you back your stuff up regularly.”

  She nodded, ducking under the desk with him to look at the damage.

  “You can’t fix it?”

  Why was she down on the floor with him? On her hands and knees right next to him, her hips pressed into his side. If he looked over, her breasts were on full display down her low-cut neckline.

  Son of a bitch, he was rock hard again.

  And then the lights came back on.

  They both responded by trying to look up, and both of their heads collided with the bottom of her desk.

  “Ow,” she said.

  Reed rubbed the top of his head sorely and she mimicked the gesture with a wince and a laugh.

  Reed knew he had to get away from her as quickly as he could. In the full light, everyone would be able to see how turned on he was just being near her. He’d like to spare himself that embarrassment if possible.

  “Wait,” Monica said, standing from under the desk, settling a hand on his forearm. “When do you think it’ll be fixed?”

  Reed shrugged, trying to ignore the way his bear practically purred at her touch. “I’ll have to see if it’s even worth saving. I’ll bring in a loaner for you, but it probably won’t be up and running before the end of the day.”

  She frowned and, though it had nothing to do with him, Reed wanted to apologize for it. He wanted to see her smile again. Kiss her until she was giddy.

  What the hell?

  His bear grumbled an agreement.

  Fantasizing about making out with co-workers is not what you’re getting paid for.

  The bear huffed his annoyance.

  I didn’t ask for your input.

  With his bear still grousing, Reed unplugged all the cables and took the computer away.

  When he brought the replacement, Monica was sitting on her desk, one leg crossed over the other. Reed couldn’t stop his eyes from wandering up her long smooth legs all the way to her thighs and the clingy fabric bunched around them, nearly high enough to give him a glimpse of what she had underneath.

  Not that those thoughts were the least bit work-appropriate.

  “He
re’s your replacement,” he said, sliding it in place before he connected all the various cables.

  “Thanks,” Monica said, trailing off. “Hey, are you doing anything tonight? We normally all go out Friday night to blow off some steam if you’re interested?”

  Reed hesitated, his hand hovering on the cable to connect the monitor.

  “Who’s we? Where do you go?”

  As much as he wanted to jump at the chance to see Monica in her element with a few drinks in her, he had to be careful.

  Things weren’t safe for bears around town. Wolves had been on the prowl lately and random attacks of four or more wolves on one bear were becoming commonplace.

  Being out with a group of normal people might seem like a great cover, but Reed just saw a bunch of potential victims.

  Monica hmmed and ummed for a minute, twirling her silky hair between her fingers.

  Reed wanted to reach out and touch the curtain of flowing silk himself. Wanted to feel it between his fingers so soft and smooth.

  He curled his hand into a fist, letting his fingernails dig into his palms.

  “Normally, we go out to that roof-top bar on Seabreeze, but I’ve heard that someone’s rented the whole place out for a bachelor party or something.”

  For the best really. The place she was talking about was smack dab in the middle of tiger territory and they weren’t any friendlier than the wolves lately.

  Reed heard rumors — not that he put much faith in rumors — that one of the higher-up tigers was murdered.

  If Callan was to be believed, it was by a witch.

  Reed shook off an involuntary shudder.

  Witches freaked him out something terrible. When he was a kid, his dad had sat down with him for a screening of the Wizard of Oz and pointed out the Wicked Witch of the West and told Reed ‘That’s what witches look like and they’re all evil like that.’

  He never got to the part of the movie where they melted her until he was a teenager — the evil witch had always freaked him out too much to get that far.

  Nowadays, he was pretty sure witches didn’t have green skin. He wasn’t as clear on the broomstick issue. Or the flying monkeys.

  The flying monkeys probably weren’t real either, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

  Callan swore that his witchy mate couldn’t hurt a fly and certainly wasn’t capable of killing. According to Reed’s best friend, no witch should be able to.

  But that’s what was so damn scary about them, wasn’t it? No one knew what they could and couldn’t do and others were just supposed to accept that they were all good?

  Yeah right.

  “So, what about tonight, then?” He finally remembered the conversation at hand as he backed out from under the desk and found his face nearly pressed against her thigh.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Everyone’s busy it seems.”

  Reed stood and stretched, watching her eyes follow his body and he grinned. “So… this is less of a ‘workplace gathering’ and more of a ‘one-on-one’ thing, you’re proposing?”

  Monica stared at her nails now, trying to look disinterested, he’d guess, but she was doing a shitty job of it. He could see the shallow breaths moving her chest — and that lovely cleavage — and watched as her face turned the most delightful shade of pink.

  “Maybe?”

  Reed was tall enough to see over the tops of the other cubicles as he feigned a bigger stretch. He looked around and spotted most of the office packing up for the day. When he brought his arms down again, his hand settled on Monica’s bare thigh, just above her knee. He curled his fingers to tease the soft creamy flesh of the inside of her thigh and he could’ve sworn he heard her breath hitch in her throat.

  “Well, in that case, why don’t we skip the pretenses? I have drinks at my house.”

  Monica’s eyes widened and Reed thought for a moment he’d miscalculated.

  Well, be expecting that call from HR, after all.

  Then she drew her bottom lip between her teeth and gave a hesitant nod. “Sounds good.”

  The tight constriction holding onto his chest relaxed and so did Reed.

  “Here,” he scribbled his address on a pad of sticky notes on her desk. “See you tonight. Wear something I can rip off.”

  She nodded mutely and Reed took his chance to walk away while his bear preened. That was probably up there with one of the stupider things he’d done.

  But hey, it worked, didn’t it?

  And she was coming on pretty strong.

  It was going to be fine.

  He needed to get her out of his system ASAP. He couldn’t be expected to function at work with a permanent erection. At least once he had her, he’d be over her.

  The bear protested that sentiment, but Reed knew better. No woman ever kept his attention for more than a night. Not even a knock-out like Monica.

  At least he was pretty sure tonight wouldn’t be boring.

  Chapter 3

  MONICA

  What the…

  Monica watched the sexy IT guy walk away from her desk and looked down at the messy scrawl he’d left her.

  Reed.

  That wasn’t a terrible name. Easy enough to remember with her ankles behind her ears.

  She admired his ass, cupped so perfectly by the jeans he wore, and imagined her fingernails digging into his muscles, drawing him into her.

  Her hands trembled with the force of magic flowing through her, trying to escape.

  Normally, when she was turned on, her powers sizzled and sparked.

  This was… different.

  Like she was on the operating table and they’d just stuck the paddles to her chest and yelled ‘Clear!’

  Reed was a jolt to her entire system and she felt more alive than she had in a long time. Juiced, charged, amped up and ready to go.

  Five o’clock could not come soon enough.

  Wear something I can rip off.

  She shivered with the tremor of arousal that coursed through her from those words. Monica was so used to being the aggressive one. Men were typically so thrilled to be the one hit on that they let her do all the work — from first drink to ‘hey, you wanna get out of here?’

  But Reed saw straight through that and took the reins from her.

  And Monica was surprised to find she liked it.

  She flicked her eyes toward the time and groaned.

  Only 4:30.

  What was she going to do with the next half hour?

  She crossed and uncrossed her legs, a new zip of excitement going through her as she realized how wet he’d made her.

  This was all so wrong. They shouldn’t be acting like this at work.

  And yet…

  She did have half an hour to kill.

  And Monica so hated to let someone else have the last word.

  Besides, her computer was stuck updating or whatever it was doing. She felt bad for frying the other one, but there were always a few casualties in this game.

  She took a manila envelope from her desk drawer and craned her neck around the corner of her cubicle to make sure no one was coming.

  Most of the office had cleared out thanks to the brief power outage, but Harris hadn’t told her she could leave early.

  Just as well.

  If she wasn’t in the office, she wouldn’t have the opportunity to do what she was thinking about.

  After confirming her whole half of the office was deserted, Monica scooted the chair under her desk and carefully wriggled out of her arousal-dampened panties. In the blink of an eye, she shoved the barely-there red thong into the envelope and secured the metal closure at the top.

  Her heart thumped wildly and for a moment, Monica thought she might pass out from the dizzying thrill of it all.

  She walked casually past Reed’s desk and he didn’t notice her at first, his head down, examining the damage to her poor charred computer.

  Monica cleared her throat, a buzzing electricity in her chest making it hard
to breathe.

  When he didn’t look up, she frowned, losing some of her bravado.

  Then she noticed the earbuds nestled in his ear and she reached over to tap him on the shoulder.

  Reed looked up at her, startled, something wild and fierce in his green-gold eyes for a brief moment. He pulled one of the earbuds free and Monica was sure her heart was going to beat straight through her chest and fly across the room.

  “I… uh…” She slid the envelope across his desk, suddenly flustered now that she was faced with him again.

  He opened the envelope and started to pull her panties free before he realized what it was and shoved the garment back into the envelope with a look of surprise.

  “One less thing to rip off,” Monica said in what she hoped was a husky sexy voice.

  Normally she didn’t have any trouble pulling off sexy without any effort at all. But Reed made her feel scrambled and discombobulated. And so very hot.

  Before he could respond, she hurried off in the other direction, the slick friction between her legs only serving to stir her magic to life even more.

  Plans were definitely looking up for the night.

  By the time 4:59 rolled by, Monica was a little disappointed that Reed hadn’t retaliated. Maybe he was saving his devious ideas for when she showed up at his house.

  Or maybe she’d come on a little too strong?

  But since when did a guy turn his nose up at a sure thing?

  She was just getting insecure because there was that something about him. Something that inflamed her powers and whispered of possibilities she’d never considered.

  But she was getting way ahead of herself. It was just the novelty of meeting her match that had her frazzled.

  The clock ticked over to five and Monica nearly sprinted out of the building, turning on her cell phone for the first time since that morning — no service in the building was a drag, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

  As soon as her phone powered on, Monica’s stomach plummeted.

  Seven missed calls. Two voicemails. 23 Unread Text Messages.

  The notifications kept popping up every time she dismissed them and they all had one thing in common: the Coven.