Page 56 of Her Wolf

He was halfway through his second helping when Cora’s lawyer, Nick, exited the villa and headed for their table.

Lars pushed away the rest of his plate. “Jesus.”

“He doesn’t seem that bad,” Finn said beside him. He was still busy with his first plate, but on his second cup of coffee for the morning.

Bailey, it seemed, preferred to eat cereal. It shocked him there wasn’t a glass of goddamn milk to go with it.

Well, he stroked dick like a champ, and that was good enough for Lars.

Nick hesitated at the end of the table, as if unsure where he should sit. Cora waved him over, shooing Ana down one seat so Nick could sit at her left.

“How did you sleep?” Cora asked, taking a sip of coffee as she addressed the lawyer.

Nick bobbed his head. “Very well, thank you for asking.”

“Good,” Cora said. She wore a strappy little yellow dress today, hair down and carefully arranged about her shoulders as if she was trying to hide the massive hickey Finn had given her last night. She ran her eyes down their side of the table. When she caught Lars’s eye, she gave him a small smile.

Such an insignificant gesture shouldn’t have caused such a visceral response, but it did.

Christ, his stomach got all full of butterflies and shit.

He looked away, and found Ana watching him over the rim of her cup. She looked down, her blush deepening, and toyed with the food on her plate.

Christ…

“Nick,” Cora said, “you said if I needed funds, I could ask you, right?”

“Of course,” Nick said, snatching back a hand that had been reaching for a muffin. “To an extent, obviously.”

“How much?”

The table went quiet. It might have been coincidence, of course, but if he was straining to hear what the lawyer’s response was, then every else would be too.

“Uh…” Nick, master of suspense, poured himself a cup of coffee before replying. “One-fifty.”

Cora snorted. “A hundred and fifty bucks?” But then her eyes darted to Lars’s side of the table. “I can’t do anything with that, can I?”

He’d been taking a sip of his coffee, but the comedic concern etched between her dark eyebrows almost made coffee come out of his nose.

Spluttering, he put his coffee cup down just as Nick gave a polite cough and said, “One hundred and fifty thousand, Ms Rivera.”

“Oh,” Cora said. But her expression didn’t change much. The girl didn’t know the value of money, did she? Then again, had she ever gone and bought something in a shop like a regular person? Had to contend with watching her bank account’s balance dropping digits?

Cora glanced at Ana. “Would that work?”

Ana shrugged. “I guess I’ll have to tone it down a little, but yeah.”

“So no cocaine fountain then?” Lars said through a laugh.

“It might sound like a lot,” Ana said, sticking her nose in the air and then blushing again, “but this is all very last minute. Everyone expects a little extra for the effort.”

“And don’t forget danger pay,” Lars said, nudging Finn in the ribs. “Amiright?”

Finn gave him a grudging smile.

Holy fuck, what was wrong with him this morning? His chest felt too tight, his breath stilted. He drained the last of his coffee, pushed back his chair, and reconsidered leaving.

Neo stepped out of the patio doors, sunglasses shielding his eyes. But there was nothing to be done with the swagger. If Neo hadn’t been wearing three-quarter shorts and some soccer team’s sports shirt, he’d have been the spitting image of Javier.

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