Dreaming of the Wolf (Heart of the Wolf #8)(89)

“Drive-in?” Alicia asked, hating that she sounded so suspicious.

He chuckled. “No. Nothing happened between us. She’s very much in charge and loves her job, her life here in the city, and her pack. She wouldn’t have ever considered moving to a small place like Silver Town. There was never any spark between us. It was just a mutual friendship.”

So why had Jake been reluctant to mention her to anyone?

“She thought it was more than that?” Alicia asked.

“Let’s say she wanted more than that. But her fascination with me was more that I was someone new, an alpha, a challenge. I let her know I wasn’t interested in anything more than friendship. She didn’t like being turned down. I felt it was akin to her losing a case.”

“You don’t happen to know any male attorneys who could help me out, do you?” Alicia asked wistfully.

“She knows her role in our society. Protect the wolf kind. She won’t do anything to get you into any kind of trouble.”

At least not more than Alicia was already. Wait until Sherry Slate learned Alicia was pregnant with Jake’s triplets!

***

As soon as Jake called Sherry, she cleared her schedule for the afternoon, but when he told her what it was about, he could tell she was ready to rethink her afternoon plans.

“She needs your help,” Jake said, pleading. Hell, Sherry was a professional. He wanted to tell her to act like it. “Unless you know another lawyer in the Denver area that might be able to help her.” Like one of Sherry’s partners, if any were werewolf types and had the time.

He swore he could hear Sherry’s spine stiffening. He imagined she did not easily give up difficult cases.

“I’ll speak with her.” Sherry’s tone was clipped.

Jake was afraid Alicia was in for an even rougher time of it. But they didn’t have a whole lot of choice.

When they arrived at the office, Jake assumed from the waiting room that the law firm was doing well. The luxurious seating was on leather couches and chairs, much more ostentatious than at the law offices in Silver Town. A pretty receptionist sat at the counter, with blond hair in curls down to her shoulders and bright green eyes. She smiled at Jake and Tom, raised her brow at Peter, undoubtedly because he was wearing his uniform, and gave a cursory glance in Alicia’s direction.

The first thing Jake noticed about her was her feminine wolf smell. Plus a number of wolf scents had been left in the reception area. Just the place Alicia needed to be, among their own kind where they would protect her with whatever they could.

“You’re here to see Ms. Slate? She’ll be out in just a moment. If you’d like to take a seat…” The receptionist motioned to the chairs.

Jake sat with Alicia on one of the couches while Peter and Tom took seats in nearby chairs. And then they waited. And waited. And waited.

After half an hour, Jake rose and walked over to the counter. “Maybe there’s someone else who has more time and could see us?”

The woman glanced back at the door that led to the offices down the hall. “Let me check with Ms. Slate and see if that’s acceptable.” She punched in some numbers and said, “Ms. Slate, Mr. Jake Silver was asking if it would be much longer.”

He was amused the receptionist didn’t tell Sherry that he would seek another lawyer in her place if she didn’t get her butt in gear.

“I’ll be there,” Sherry snapped over the phone.

Jake was afraid the animosity in her voice spelled more trouble for Alicia.

After a few more minutes, Sherry walked into the reception area, looking professional and long-legged and wearing an expensive-looking black skirt and jacket and black high-heeled shoes. A smile was pasted on her face for Jake. She took hold of his hand and held on as if momentarily claiming him and said, “So good of you to see me again.” Then she glanced at Tom and her smile broadened.

Someone new to switch her attention to?

Her gaze slid to Peter, her smile never changing, and then she shifted her attention to the object of her annoyance, no doubt.

“Miss Greiston, I presume,” Sherry said with chilly politeness, her smile instantly fading. She looked Alicia over as if trying to figure out why Jake had picked her over herself. “Come on back to my office, if you would.”

Jake took Alicia’s ice-cold hand and followed Sherry, who he swore swayed her hips more than she’d done the last couple of times he’d seen her. In fact, his impression of her had always been one of professional detachment, as if she was trying to maintain a businesswoman’s appearance no matter where she was or what she was doing.

In sharp contrast, Alicia wore a robin’s egg blue skirt that softly swirled below her knees with her every step and a matching top of some kind of silky fabric that he enjoyed touching and sliding his fingers over. She wore heels, but not as high as Sherry’s, and they were strappy, sexy, and much more appealing. And while Sherry’s hair was pulled back in a severe twist of curls at the back of her head, Alicia’s softly caressed her shoulders in an inviting way. Sherry was elegant in a professional way, while Alicia was enticing in a feminine way.

When they reached Sherry’s office, she motioned to a chair in front of her desk and Alicia took the seat as Jake sat beside her.

“Well, as you probably know, Jake filled me in on your story. Quite a tale,” Sherry said, with a biting edge to her words as she took a seat behind her desk.