“I hardly think I am qualified…” protested Linda.
Harold gave her an impatient huff. “Linda, you know how to do my work better than anyone. You deserve your own office and a pay increase.”
Over the past six weeks, it had become apparent that Harold needed to lessen his workload. He needed to spend more time with Christine, and as such, he had been heaping more and more on Linda. Giving her a promotion for the work she was already doing was a no-brainer.
Linda was pleased and annoyed at the same time – she liked the idea of the promotion and more money, but she wasn’t quite ready to relinquish her responsibilities as his assistant. She was a wee bit territorial over him – it was one of the things Christine said she liked so much about her.
“Well, I’ll be around to make sure my replacement does her job as well as me.”
He grunted before he heard the voice of Christine in his head. “No one will be as good as you.”
Linda beamed, and he knew it had been the right thing to say – it was what Christine would have said.
“Ah, Harold.”
His father strode into his office – without knocking as usual.
“Good news,” he declared, and Harold inwardly sighed – he never had good news. “I’ve found Linda’s replacement. This is Nora.”
He ushered in a wolf shifter round about his age. Harold looked up briefly and shook her hand.
“Do you have experience?”
Nora gave him a bright smile. Bright red lips spread across her face. Her hair was excessively coiffured and her suit a shade too tight, too low cut and the skirt too short. He didn’t admire women who spent hours on their hair and makeup, nor did he think tight clothes that displayed their bodies to bursting point to be appropriate work attire.
Christine usually just brushed her wild locks, and she was good to go. Sometimes she piled them up on her head, and small curls licked at the bottom of her neck… She didn’t wear overly tight clothes – just curve-clinging clothes that highlighted her natural sexiness, though he suspected she could look sexy wearing a potato sack.
“I’ve been working as the assistant to a record producer,” she replied in a breathy voice.
Harold scowled at his father. He had wanted to select his own assistant. Why his father chose this woman, he had no idea. A record producer? How absurd!
“Linda will show you what to do.” He nodded at his former assistant.
“Thank you,” said Nora, “I look forward to working for you.”
Linda led the woman out with a small look of disapproval.
“Aren’t you going to thank me?” asked his father.
“Why her?” Harold asked though he could guess the answer – his father had watched Nora’s retreating butt like a hawk.
Perhaps his father was tired of dallying with his own secretary and was looking for a new female.
“She’s very efficient, and a wolf shifter.”
His father wasn’t particularly tolerant of other species – if Nora had been a fox shifter, Harold doubted his father would have hired her. Even in spite of her looks.
“Why not hire a member of our pack?”
His father waved his hand dismissively. “I could not find someone qualified.”
Who asked him to look?
“Fine.”
If she proved as useless as her first impression suggested, he would get rid of her in a heartbeat.
“How is Christy?” asked his father.
Blooming and growing more beautiful every day – though somewhat annoyed at how much weight she was gaining.
“Very well,” he replied in a clipped tone.
“You keep missing the dinners your grandmother organizes.”
Yes, they hadn’t returned since the last they ran away from. Neither of them was in a rush to go back, his family dinners were as appetizing as visiting a slaughterhouse. But, they would probably have to go eventually. These family dinners were a new trend that Harold was not keen to encourage.
“We have been busy.”
“You should attend this Sunday,” his father decreed.
“I am not sure.”
“Harold. You will attend this Sunday.”
He met his alpha’s eyes, and they were locked for a few moments. His father squirmed a little, concerned that Harold would not back down. But, he did. He was not alpha yet, not officially, and nor was he ready. His time was taken up with Christine and the pup. Let his father be alpha for a while longer yet.
“We will be there.”
His father sagged a little. “Good.”
He nodded and left.
Joy. That was something to look forward to.
*
Christine patted her stomach self-consciously. Her bump was small but growing, and she was starting to notice the tightness of her clothes. Perhaps what surprised her most was the frank perusal of her body by Harold.
He was more… watchful than ever before. He seemed to be taking in every single detail of her and it made her a little self-conscious but also pleased. In those looks, she saw affection and more often than not lust. Her husband cared for her, and it warmed her, particularly considering how much she cared for him. She wasn’t going to put a label on it, but she honestly did not know how she would cope if anything ever came between them.
She stepped off the elevator onto Harold’s floor, and immediately everyone started smiling at her and saying hello. Automatically, their eyes dropped to her stomach. Probably thought she was cooking the future alpha inside her. Unless the baby was a girl… That thought made her uneasy. Under the mating agreement, they had five years to produce a son, but what if his family got impatient. What if they decided to get rid of Christine and mate Harold to someone else?
Harold wouldn’t allow it, she told herself firmly.
What if they were disappointed by the daughter? Christine knew she wouldn’t be – she loved the pup from the moment she knew he or she was brewing inside. But Harold’s father was already trying to get rid of her – would he just use this as an excuse? Leaving Christine and bubs to fend for themselves? She supposed she could go home to Texas – though returning to her parents wasn’t nearly as enticing as it had once been. She didn’t think she could stand her father’s bitterness toward Harold.
It was all a moot point anyway. Harold cared for her – for both of them. He wouldn’t let them go.
Christine paused at Linda’s desk. Instead of the matronly older wolf, there was a younger she-wolf there, grinning smugly. She was probably a year or two older than Christine but possessed an air of such well-pronounced sexuality that she made Christine feel like a twelve-year-old dressing up in her mother's clothes. The female was curvy and skinny in all the right places – and was wearing the perfect outfit to showcase all of her mighty assets. Christine was hardly underdeveloped, but this female made her look flat chested. She was distressingly beautiful and clearly knew it.
Christine noticed all the men in the office looking in her direction. The female also noticed them and perhaps that was why she was so smug.
“May I help you?” she asked in a husky voice.
Of course. Not only was she a walking wet dream, but she had a come-to-bed voice.
“Ah, is Linda here?”
“No, I am her replacement. What can I do for you?”
Her eyes raked up and down Christine’s too tight dress, which Christine smoothed out self-consciously.
“I’d like to see Harold.”
The lips curled even more. “Mr. Buchanan is busy right now. May I take a message?”
“He’ll want to see me,” said Christine trying to be firm.
“He doesn’t wish to see,” another eye rake, “anyone, right now.”
“Ah, Christy,” boomed Harold Sr.
He strode out of Harold’s office. “I see you’ve met Harold’s new assistant, Nora.”
“Yes,” said Christine quietly.
“Nora, this is Harold’s wife.”
“Oh, really?” Nora seemed surprised to hear it. “How nice to meet you, Mrs. Buchanan.”
“You too,” she replied with forced jollity.
“Go on in,” said Harold Sr. – though he was speaking directly to Nora’s boobs at the time.
“Thanks, bye,” she said hurriedly before fleeing into the office.
Harold looked up and smiled. “Christine.”
She immediately walked into his arms and hugged him.
“This is a nice surprise,” he chuckled.
“Just wondered if you wanted to get lunch.”
“I wish I could; I have a meeting over lunch.”
“I can wait until after?” she offered hopefully.
“No, you go eat with your friend – the female one,” he added gruffly. “Why don’t we go out to dinner instead?”
“Okay,” she murmured.
He gave her a concerned look. “Is everything okay?”
“Yep, of course.”
Harold tilted her head to look at him. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m fine,” she replied a little waspishly.
His eyes narrowed. “Your father has not called, has he?”
“No.” Just a spark of irrational jealousy at his new secretary. “I’m fine, I’ll see you later.”
He didn’t look convinced, but he kissed her and let her go, after eliciting a promise that she would contact him if anything were wrong.
She walked past Nora who beamed at her.
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Buchanan.”
“Nice to meet you,” she mumbled.
Christine didn’t know why she was uneasy about Nora. Logic told her she was jealous, but Harold worked with plenty of attractive women, and none of them seemed to pique his interest.
There was just something about Nora that she found… concerning.