Read Online The Beast in Him by Shelly Laurenston - Free Book Online

some time together.”
    “Forget it.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I’m not an idiot.”
    “Jessie Ann—”
    “It’s Jessica. Or Jess. No one calls me Jessie Ann.”
    “Except me.”
    “Look, are you letting me out of here, or do I have to start screaming for help?”
    “If you don’t want to go out with me, fine. But know that I’m not setting you up for anything. I wouldn’t do that to you, Jessie Ann. You of all people should know that about me.”
    Smitty pushed the button once more and walked out when the doors opened. Jess stared after him and, with a sigh of great annoyance, followed.
    Smitty stepped off the elevator and ignored the sighed, “Smitty. Wait.”
    Forced to use extreme measures and manipulations to get this difficult woman to give him what he wanted, Smitty utilized the hurt walk-away. It didn’t work on his sister, but Ronnie Lee fell for it every time.
    He headed toward Brendon and Mitch, who stood a few feet away raiding the vending machines, but he wasn’t remotely surprised to feel Jessie’s hand grab the sleeve of his jacket.
    “Smitty, hold on a sec.”
    He raised his eyebrows to Shaw and Mitch before facing her. “What?”
    “I wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings.”
    “Then you did a mighty good job.”
    “Are you actually... you’re serious? You’re really upset?”
    He just stared at her, making sure his expression didn’t change. A cool move he’d learned from Mace years ago. Cats did have interesting skills, if you were willing to learn.
    “Aw, Smitty, I wasn’t trying to—”
    Jessie stopped and looked over Smitty’s shoulders at the two cats standing there doing what they all did so well... staring. And eating.
    “Can I help you two with something?” she asked, obviously more than a little annoyed.
    “No,” Shaw answered. “We’re fine.”
    “You just keep talking,” Mitch added. “This is fascinating.”
    “No, fascinating is what I’m gonna do to that pretty face—”
    Smitty grabbed Jessie’s arms and pulled her back down the hallway toward the elevators. He’d forgotten about her temper. The girl could get mad at a bag of donuts.
    “Now, now, Jessie Ann. Just calm down.”
    “I will not calm—ooh! Chocolate.” And like that, Jessie wandered over to the nurses’ station desk to look over bars of chocolate someone had out to sell for their child. She never did stay angry long.
    Smitty remembered how it had taken him a while to figure out Jessie wasn’t some flaky pup wandering from thing to thing, like most dogs, looking for a new smell or something to eat. Once she focused on something, absolutely nothing would distract her. But you had to be interesting enough to hold her attention; otherwise, she’d wander away in the middle of a sentence.
    The thought that he might not be interesting enough to hold little Jessie Ann’s attention had his back teeth grinding. He simply wouldn’t allow her to dismiss him so easily. He wanted answers, dammit, and he’d get them.
    Determined, he walked over to the desk and leaned against it while Jessie talked to the nurse manning the station.
    “How much?” she asked.
    “Dollar a piece. My son’s class is trying to take a trip to DC this summer.”
    Jessie dug into her jeans pocket and pulled out a ten. “Here. I’ll take five.”
    “Let me get you change.”
    “Nah, put it toward his trip.”
    The nurse smiled. “Thank you.”
    “You’re welcome.”
    Carefully selecting from the bars in front of her, Jessie quickly had her five. She handed one to Smitty. “Caramel,” she said simply.
    She walked away and he stared at the candy in his hand. After all these years she remembered his favorite chocolate? He glanced at the stack left. There were chocolates with caramel and nuts. Caramel, nougat, and nuts. White chocolate with caramel. On and on it went. But he’d never liked any of that. He’d only liked chocolate-covered caramel.
    Slowly, Smitty turned and looked at Jessie Ann. Really looked at