Page 11 of The Beast's Baby
This wasn’t matchmaking and he didn’t need to scan through the chosen suitors to make sure they were up to par. This was serious. This was the entire future of the planet itself, and specifically of the human race. His race. His future. The fact that she seemed to shake loose sides to him he’d never fully looked at before was beside the point.
He straightened his back and unlocked her door.
She was eating breakfast, looking up as he entered, surprised that he was there at such an early hour. He’d decided to break with his normal schedule, though he’d still be in to see her in the afternoon as well.
“Hi,” he said.
She brightened at the greeting. He didn’t want to think it was because she was happy to see him. They had no relationship. She was just trying to make him think that they did. She wasn’t going to succeed. He was there to do his job, and that was it.
“Hi,” she replied. “What’s that?” she added at the folders.
“For you,” he said, stopping in front of the couch and holding them out to her.
“You know how to spoil a girl,” she quipped, putting down the spoon she’d been using to shovel yogurt into her mouth and accepting them. She opened the first one and hummed quietly, as if she was growing contemplative. “I see,” she said.
Did she sound disappointed?
He had a seat on the armchair next to her. “They’ve all been through Phase One,” he said.
“Yes, obviously,” she remarked, but she didn’t look at him. “So, this is the compromise?”
“It’s an offered admittance of fault,” he corrected. “We never considered that you might not care about the grand scale or the enormous stash of money or any of that.”
“So, what, all the other subjects are compliant?” she asked.
“Most of them don’t ask questions,” he divulged.
“They just… do as told?” she inquired, skepticism there.
“They’re underneath the rainbow,” he replied. “Keeping their eyes on that pot of gold.”
“That’s disturbing,” she muttered, flipping the first folder closed and moving onto the second one.
“A few have even come over to our way of thinking,” he said. “And some are… Well, they were onboard before we even explained everything to them explicitly.”
“And how do you decide when to explicitly explain what to whom?” she asked. “Took your time with me.”
“We had hoped… that you were the pot of gold type,” he admitted, which was true. She hadn’t seemed anything but compliant. She hadn’t said a word, hadn’t asked a question, for over a month. Of course, it’s always the quiet ones.
“I came for the pot of gold,” she said. “But I want to know what’s over the rainbow even if I’m standing under it looking up. Especially then.”
He nodded. “Yes, I get that vibe,” he agreed, offering her a half-smile that made their eyes entangle for a moment that was a little longer than he had expected.
Finally, he was the one to look away, focusing on the folder open on her lap instead. She seemed to follow his lead as she began shuffling the photographs around. A few personal ones taken off the subject’s social media. He was a good-looking guy, that much was for certain.
So, why did Jay feel as though he and Isobel had just shared the same thought? His fingers on her neck. Her breath in his ear if he pulled her to him rather than push away. Why had he felt as though she wanted him to?
“You seem calmer today,” he remarked.
“A good night’s sleep will do that,” she replied. “I was having nightmares the night before but last night, I don’t know… I slept like a baby.”
“Oh?” he asked.
“Maybe there was something to the promise of not having to drink that damn tea anymore,” she offered.
He’d actually forgotten. Her wolf was loose within her again, wide awake, and watching him. Was that what he had felt when their eyes caught like that? Had it not been an invitation from her but from the wolf within? Had it been a trick to lull him into thinking he was safe and should relax when really what the wolf wanted was the same as what she had clearly wanted the day before—to tear him to pieces?
She could try.
