Savannah walked to the mechanics to start her first day on the job, thinking hard about her time last night with Tom. His alpha bear was strong, its muscles rippling under his dark coat. The way he carried himself was almost noble, as though he anticipated respect. Thinking about what it would be like to have Tom protect her, Savannah felt heat creep into her cheeks.
She barely slept last night, tossing and turning until the early hours of the morning when she eventually gave up and chose to get up for the day. For some, inexplicable reason, she couldn’t get Tom out of her head. There had been times when the nerves she’d felt had changed into something more… pleasurable, but she was unable to work out what. It had only been this morning, when she had time to sort through her emotions, that she eventually admitted to herself that she was attracted to him, in both his forms.
It was an attraction she was going to have to ignore, that was for sure. Since Savannah hadn’t really met other shifters, apart from the Northern Wind pack, she told herself that her attraction to Tom was probably the way most shifters felt when they met an alpha. There was something about them being so dominant, she guessed. Savannah had never met an alpha before. Lucas was a large bear, sure, but he wasn’t an alpha, as much as he wanted to be. Alphas were different. Although, that being said, his human skin wasn’t exactly bad looking either, if she ignored the way his lip constantly curled when he saw her. She hated that he had exactly the same response each time he saw her. It was as if his hackles rose. She’d thought her bear would be equally as hostile, but to her surprise, it had just been interested. There wasn’t any fear or any anger either. Just…interest.
Shaking her head, Savannah walked up to the office door, determined to get all thoughts of Tom out of her head. The last thing she needed was to feed her attraction to him. She had to remember why she was here, and the very important fact that Tom had, most likely, been involved in Dan’s death. The only reason she was here so that Lucas, in whatever way he chose, could have his revenge on Tom and Nick. There was no point in getting close to him – or to any of them.
“Good morning!” Jo smiled, the moment Savannah walked in. “Nice to see you here bright and early.”
“I didn’t want to be late on my first day,” Savannah replied, smiling as Jo laughed. She was finding that she quite liked Jo, despite everything in her telling her she shouldn’t. “What do I need to do?”
“First, let’s get a coffee and then I’ll show you what you need to do on a daily basis. We need a few more supplies and Tom is going to take you to the store later, to show you where everything is.”
“I’m sure I can go myself,” Savannah replied, quickly. “I don’t want to put Tom out when I’m sure he’s really busy.”
Jo shook her head. “No, no, he’s really happy to go with you. You’re our employee now so we need to make sure we treat you well! We don’t want another mechanics to steal you.”
Savannah opened her mouth to say that she didn’t think there was another mechanics nearby, only to catch the gleam in Jo’s eye. “Very funny,” she replied, weakly. “Seriously, though, I’m sure I can manage on my own.”
“He wanted to take you,” Jo said, off hand. “Anyway, the coffee pot is freshly made up and you’re welcome to help yourself at any time.”
Savannah followed Jo around to behind the front desk, thanking her for the cup of steaming coffee she handed to her.
"So, the first thing is the accounts," Jo explained. "Any jobs that have been done over the weekend need invoices, so that needs to be caught up on. After that, there's a whole pile of receipts – incomes and outgoings – that we'll need to work through to get a clear picture of exactly how well this place is doing."
“As well as make sure they’re paying the right amount of tax,” Savannah murmured, her eyes scanning a few pieces of paperwork that Jo handed to her.
“Yes, exactly.” Jo let out a sigh. “Those two don’t seem to care much about things like that, they just like to do the work, get paid and move on to the next thing!”
Savannah laughed, despite herself. “Leaving you a trail of things to pick up after them.”
Jo rolled her eyes, grimacing. “Unfortunately, yes.” Handing Savannah a few more folders, she indicated the computer to Savannah’s left. “You’re welcome to work there. The computer is ready for you to use and no-one will bother you – well, not too much.”
“Thanks,” Savannah murmured, moving towards it and sitting down in a rather creaky chair.
Shaking her head, Jo let out a sigh of exasperation. "That chair's going to fall to pieces any minute, I can tell. We'll need to order you in a proper computer chair, Savannah. You can't sit on that all day. Just as well, I'm decorating and reorganizing this place! Tom won't be able to argue."
Turning around, Savannah gave Jo a quick smile. “I’m going to be honest, I don’t I’m going to be able to sit in this chair all day.” The chair was made from wood and splinters seemed to be sticking out all over the place, making it incredibly hard to sit on. She was already uncomfortable.
“Then that’ll be the first thing on Tom’s list,” Jo said with a grin, just as Tom came in from outside, wiping his hands on a rag.
“What list?” he growled, his eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at Jo.
Jo grinned at him, unrepentant. “The list of things you need to buy when you go into town. Order in a new chair, a proper one, Tom. Not some rickety old thing you made yourself. Savannah needs to have a computer chair to sit on, since she’s going to be working at the computer all day.”
Tom threw her a glance, and Savannah caught her breath. He was already hot and sweaty, even though it was early in the day, but clearly, he'd been hard at work. He only wore a vest and she could see faint traces of grease and oil smeared across his biceps. His dark eyes were intense as they caught hers. She gave him a quick smile, but he only clenched his jaw, but that still didn't dampen the surge of attraction that ran through her.
Turning away to focus on the pile of paperwork on her desk, Savannah's ears were still listening to every single thing Tom and Jo were saying. Her ears couldn't help but listen, and her nose sniffed just a little to catch Tom's scent. He smelled of pine from the woods and oil from the shop, but there was an underlying scent she couldn't quite place. It made her heart begin to pick up its pace, and a burst of warmth pooled from her core. Her attraction to Tom wasn’t exactly going away, no matter how hard she tried to ignore him.
“Yes, you have to take her,” she heard Jo hiss. “Just stop being a grouch and get on with it.”
Savannah heard Tom's footsteps and briefly closed her eyes to compose herself. She didn't want him catching even a hint of how she was feeling about him, and just hoped she wasn't going to start letting off a scent of bear pheromones or something. Tipping her head, she turned in her chair and looked up at him. He didn't smile.
“I hear we’re going to the store,” she said, brightly.
“Yeah. I’ve just got to finish up a repair and then we’ll head out. Can you be ready in an hour?”
“Sure.”
"Great." He didn't exactly sound pleased, but Savannah was going to take whatever chance she could get to grow closer to him. She'd decided that this was the only way he would eventually learn to trust her and, since that was what Lucas wanted, that was what she would do. Her eyes lingered on him as he walked away, taking in every taut muscle on display. She'd known he was strong but certainly hadn't imagined that there would be so much obvious strength in his form.
“Good looking, isn’t he?”
Savannah snapped her head up, catching Jo’s quick grin.
“I – uh,”
“You don’t have to pretend,” Jo laughed, her eyes sparkling. “I won’t tell. Tom’s a good man, once you get to know him. Just give him more time. He’ll smile soon, I promise.”
Savannah didn’t know what to say, heat filling her face as she turned back to her desk. Forcing herself to concentrate on the numbers in front of her, she heard Jo begin to hum to herself as she got on with redecorating. If Jo had noticed her watching Tom, then she was going to have to be a lot more careful.