Jaxson(12)

In his preoccupation with Olivia, he had forgotten Jared was conducting interviews this afternoon. His brother was in the main conference room—which was simply the open space in the center of the office. The three River brothers, along with the rest of the pack, had their offices around the perimeter, but they conducted all their meetings in the breezy open space in the middle. Jared was sitting there now, grilling a thin girl who appeared barely old enough to vote. With Jared’s oversized bulk, rolled up sleeves, and camouflage pants, he was barraging her with questions. His boots were still muddy from the weekend in the Olympics. Jaxson could see the interviewee’s slender fingers shake from halfway across the room.

He rubbed a hand across his forehead. Why hadn’t he seen this coming?

“We’ll have to do a background check on you, of course. Better if you tell us up front now about any illegal drug use, contraband smuggling, compromising affairs—”

“Jared?” Jaxson put enough point in his voice to interrupt his brother.

He threw a scowl at Jaxson, then pressed on, ignoring him. “Compromising affairs could be virtually any liaison with a foreign national, someone in cyber security, or even—”

“Jared.” He put more bite in his voice but then blasted a full-watt smile for the terrified job candidate. “What my brother’s saying is that we’ll be contacting you shortly if we need more information to move forward.” Jaxson gestured her up from her seat.

The girl shot out of it like she was escaping prison.

“We’re not done here,” Jared said, his tone only half angry… the other half was bewildered as to why Jaxson was interrupting him.

“Oh yes, we are.” Jaxson turned to Olivia. “Could you see our young friend out?” Her quick nod showed she was already completely clued-in to the Jared dynamic. Olivia put on a smile and gently on tugged the girl’s elbow to usher her toward the front. Jaxson’s gaze lingered a beat longer than necessary on Olivia’s delicious rear-end and the way her skirt hugged her curves. He didn’t know which turned him on more: the sway of her walk or the fact that she managed to get the freaked-out applicant to smile again before they disappeared around the corner.

Jaxson whipped back to his brother—he only had a few seconds before she returned. “How about if you don’t terrify our new office assistant?”

“Terrify?” Jared pulled an almost comical expression of confusion. “Was she really scared?”

“Jared, she was shaking like a ninety-year-old man with palsy,” Jaxson said, patiently, like he did every time his brother seemed oblivious to the people around him.

“Oh.” Jared frowned, and this was the part that tore out Jaxson’s heart. Because his brother had killed men from miles away with deadly sniper skills honed by both the Army and his own natural shifter talents… but he wouldn’t hurt a fly otherwise. Not intentionally.

Jared still seemed confused. “I was just explaining—”

“Yeah, well, don’t,” Jaxson whispered quickly. Olivia’s footsteps scuffed the carpet behind him, so he put on a smile and turned to her.

Olivia hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “I tried to tell her you guys were harmless. Kind of doubt she’ll be back, though.”

“That’s all right.” Jaxson turned to present her to Jared. “Olivia, this is my brother, Jared. He’s generally in charge of operations, and we keep him far from the toner supply. Jared, meet Olivia Lilyfield, our new office assistant.”

Jared’s face opened in surprise, but only momentarily. Then it shut down like a bank vault closing. He rose, slowly. He was the largest of the three of them—and none of the River brothers were small—and he towered over Olivia.

She seemed undaunted, just smiling and sticking out her hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Jared.”

Jared nodded and held her hand briefly, as if it were made of porcelain, and he might break it. Then he dropped his gaze to the floor and stared at his boots, still caked with mud from the Olympic mountains.

Jared nodded at his boots like he’d just now noticed them. “I better go get cleaned up.” Then he lumbered away without another word.

Jaxson sucked in a slow breath and hoped his brother would actually go home and get a shower, not trek back to the mountains, dejected and depressed. Again.

The rest of the office was still pretty quiet—Jared must have worked the pack pretty hard to have so many MIA on a Monday. But at least that left Jaxson and Olivia alone.

Once Jared disappeared around the corner, Olivia said, “Yeah… he doesn’t like me.”