Page 4 of Mated to the Pride

“Hey, no problem. That’s what you’re advertising for, right?”

“I think this is beyond the scope of one person’s daily duties,” he said, throwing me a sheepish look over his shoulder. God, he had a handsome smile. “We’ve just been a little busy getting ready for our trip, that’s all. It’s kind of mounted up. I’m Hale, by the way.”

We stepped into a living room space, with a huge corner couch and huge bay windows. Of course, the room wasn’t really what I paid attention to — because as well as Hale, there were three other intimidatingly good-looking men scattered around the place.

Holy shit.What do theydo…?

“Alright,” said Hale, clapping his hands together. “Jessica. Like I said, I’m Hale. This is Preston, with the piercings. Stone’s the bottle blonde.”

Stone threw him a withering look and shook his head at me. “The shit I get from this guy,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe.”

“And I’m Blake.”

My eyes shifted away from Stone’s easygoing smile to a much more serious face. His deep grey eyes seemed to carry a lot of weight, and his dark, short-shaven hair had a pretty military aesthetic. All this, and he also had muscular arms even thicker than the rest of his colleagues. He looked almost dangerous. The kind of guy you’d like to have on your side, and definitely wouldn’t want as an opponent.

“We appreciate you coming down here on such short notice,” said Blake, gesturing at an armchair that sat beside the couch. I dropped down into it, trying not to look nervous or outnumbered — though of course, I definitely was outnumbered. “We know it’s a fast turnaround. We really should have started looking a long time ago, but… as you can see, we haven’t been fully organized for a little while.”

I smiled, appraising the room around me. It was a little messy, sure, but nothing too heinous. I didn’t feel uncomfortable, or felt like I’d need to take a shower as soon as I stepped outside. “It’s not so bad,” I insisted. “Hale was telling me that you’ve been pretty busy getting ready for these three months away.”

Blake nodded. “That’s right. And we’d like to tell you more about that, but… before we do, I just want to point out that what we do is pretty serious work. It’s classified, and we’ll need you to sign non-disclosure forms and complete background checks if you’re successful.”

“Don’t worry about all that,” Stone advised. “It’s just government rules. If we trust you, we trust you. We like to think we’re pretty good judges of character.”

I nodded, taking it all in. “I understand. It’s fine with me, anyway. I’ve got nothing to hide.”

“Open book, huh?” said Stone.

I smiled, spreading my hands. “What can I say?”

Casual as I was acting, this was all very strange. Government rules. Classified. Maybe the ‘military’ feel I had detected on Blake wasn’t far off the mark. What exactly had I walked into?

“You wouldn’t be doing anything dangerous yourself, of course,” Blake continued. “What we described in the ad is exactly what we’re looking for. While we focus on the reason we’re out there, you’ll be helping us by keeping everything running smoothly in a domestic sense.”

“Right,” I agreed. “Making sure there’s food on the table and clean clothes to wear.”

“Honestly, we’re not real fussy,” Hale added. “We’re not going to expect shiny sinks and three-course dinners. Probably, we’ll be able to take care of a lot of things ourselves. We just want to make sure we’ve got you there to handle the basics if we’re pulling really long hours.”

“I get you,” I said. “That makes sense.”

My eyes flicked over the four men again. Stone seemed the least scary, but he was still the kind of model-pretty you’d follow right away on Instagram. The one with the fleck of premature grey in his hair and the ear piercings — Preston? — hadn’t spoken at all, but he was definitely paying attention. I felt he was observing me, not in a creepy way, but it still made me a little hot under the collar. I hoped those blue eyes found that I was up to par.

“We’re leaving in one week exactly now,” said Blake. He spared a glance at each of his colleagues, then turned back to me. “Since the location is classified, you’ll need to travel with us, and we really would need you to stay for the full three months. Could even be longer, depending on how things go for us. Will that be okay with you?”

I nodded, listening. Then I realized something.

“Oh. Does that mean I got the job…?”

My cheeks flushed. That was quite an assumption to make, but something in the tone of his voice sounded like he was making an offer — not checking, just in case. I looked at each of the team members again, hoping I hadn’t made a fool of myself.

“If our terms work for you, and you’re still interested,” said Blake, with a little smile. “Then yes. We’d love to have you join the team.”

I flushed. They hadn’t even discussed it. How could they possibly know that I was the right person for the job? But despite the fact that this didn’t make sense, I couldn’t fight the happy feeling that was flooding through my chest. As certain as I had been only twenty minutes ago that this was a pointless endeavor, I was thrilled. In fact, I was already composing my letter of resignation. Hopefully one week’s notice would be enough.

If not, well… tough.

“I’d be happy to,” I said despite myself, feeling the hair on the backs of my arms stand up. This was sheer madness, but at the same time, it felt soright. “Thank you so much. I’ll start making my preparations right away.”

My Uber driver on the way home wasn’t nearly as talkative. It was then that I realized I hadn’t even asked about the pay. No wonder they offered me the job on the spot. They probably thought I was the dumbest candidate they’d seen — but even so, I still couldn’t bring myself to regret accepting their offer. Something feltgoodabout that group of men, even beyond how painfully attractive they were. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it yet, but… hey.

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