Page 5 of Wolfish Heart (Billionaires of Wolfe Mountain #1)
KADEN
B lowing on my coffee, I take it to my new easy chair to watch the forest stretch awake. This corner of the office is now my favorite spot in the entire house, thanks to Zoe.
I’ve experienced some incredibly satisfying moments in my life: the day Wolfe Security was formed.
The day it hit a value of a million dollars.
Five hundred million. A billion. The day my house was completed and I was handed the keys.
The day my brothers and I handed the mayor a huge check to update City Hall.
But last night’s drive through Old Hemlock Valley with my arm around Zoe is going to stick with me as a milestone. Sure, some people stared at us because I’ve never been seen out with a girl before. And others are probably wondering what I’m doing with a stranger who is so new in town.
But everyone saw that she was with me . Which means now the entire town will treat her as one of their own.
I finish my coffee and get ready for the day, managing to get through the first urgent round of emails before Zoe texts and says she’s ready.
I hurry downtown and pick her up where she asked me to, at The Bakery On Main. When I get there, she’s waiting out front with her backpack, a white paper bag, and a strange expression on her face. I help her into the truck, then she gives me another odd look as I start to drive.
“The woman at the bakery knew all your favorites and started preparing them the second I walked in the door.”
“Well, I’ve lived here all my life. They know what I like.”
Zoe flashes me a look, accented with a raised eyebrow. “She knew I was bringing you food. Which means she already knows I’m with you – me, a total stranger. When I was there last week, I was just a normal customer. Today, she said that everything would go on your tab.”
“There are no strangers in Old Hemlock Valley, just friends we haven’t met yet,” I chuckle. “That’s what Grandma always says.”
I reach out to take her hand. “I guess I should have warned you properly. When I hugged you on the street the other day, it was so that men wouldn’t ogle you.
” I glance over to meet her eyes for a moment.
“For the record, men in this town treat women right. We collectively see to that. But it’s hard to stop wandering eyes when a woman as beautiful as you is bending over in a sundress. ”
“I do appreciate that you blocked me.”
“No man in town will ever try to do that again. They would never risk angering a Wolfe. Especially not me, or my brothers.” I smile over at her. “I also knew the ladies in the diner window would spread the word that you’re with me.”
I turn into the driveway, watching as Zoe bites her lip. “So the whole town is going to treat me differently now?”
“I’m sure everyone was already polite and friendly. Now they’re just going to be…a little extra.” I shrug. “It’s just a fact of life around here.”
“People fearing you?”
I park in front of the house, then turn to take her hand.
“It’s not that. At least, I sincerely hope not.
We’re good guys, and they know it. I guess it’s just…
” I shake my head. “I want to say…respect for the family? It started even before my brothers and I became rich, though that didn’t help.
It’s something that’s always been there, and there’s nothing I can do about it. ”
Zoe snorts loudly. “You’re like the princes of this little mountain town.”
Laughing with her, I nod. “Well…kind of.”
“Which means…” She trails off, staring down at our clasped hands.
The tension in her eyes causes a knot to form in my stomach. “Please. Say it.”
She sighs. “I don’t know if I’m cut out to be a princess. Not that I think we’d ever… you know… I mean, it’s summer, and who knows what might happen come fall. I guess I want to know what I’m getting into if…”
I jump out of the truck, run around to her side, and pull her into my arms. “We can take our time, baby. One step after another. See where we end up.”
My hands slide into the back of her hair as I tip her beautiful face up for a soft, gentle kiss. “The important thing for now is that you now have a fantastic office space for shooting those videos, right?”
“ Your space, that I’m borrowing. Yes.”
My hand slides down, and although I’m sorely tempted to squeeze her ass, I caress her hip instead. “Whatever. You know, I had my early morning coffee there today, in my special chair. It was amazing.”
Her lovely gray eyes glow. “I’m so glad.”
I help her get all her gear inside, then put on a pot of coffee to go with the pastries from the bakery. While we have breakfast, I work as her assistant, tweaking the window shutters and the camera angles so that the lighting is right for her shots.
“You mentioned these videos are for your mom’s company. What exactly does she do?”
Zoe pulls a few books slightly forward along the shelf, lining the spines up better. “Mom has a course to train graphic designers, interior designers, photographers, and virtual assistants for the restaurant industry. It’s pretty popular.”
“Makes sense. It sounds like it would be in high demand.”
“It really is. There are so many people who have taken graphic design courses or just noodled around with the programs on their own.” She shrugs.
“But either way, a lot of them don’t know how it relates to the restaurant industry.
There are some very specific things…signage, menu layouts, how to present the specials.
Every time you go to a restaurant, you probably don’t realize it, but you expect things to be a certain way.
Not to mention, everything has to complement the food and decor. ”
“And your mom teaches all of this?”
“She has a paid course with all the online presentations. Several years ago, she was ahead of the curve simply by having voiceover videos. Now everyone expects to see a talking head.”
She looks at me with a shrug. “Mom thinks she’s too old for on-camera work. So I kinda…volunteered.”
“You don’t want to do it?”
Zoe sighs. “Hm. It’s her thing, not mine. I mean, it helps a lot of people, and brings in enough money that we’re doing okay, but it’s hard to figure out what I want to do with my own life if I keep on working for her, you know?”
“Yeah. I really do.” Nodding as I stare off into space, I wonder briefly how much I should share.
Why not. I really do want Zoe to know all sides of me.
“You were right about my brothers and I being princes in this town. If we wanted to, we could just laze around and do nothing all day. But then nobody would like us, and we wouldn’t even like ourselves.
Which is kind of important, right?” I pause.
“We all make our own jobs, since we don’t need to worry about the salary.
One of my cousins, Jace, is a forest ranger, since he loves the woods.
He maintains trails and keeps people safe.
Another one, Josh, became a forester and goes out to people’s properties to help maintain the trees. ”
“So why did you guys pick computer security?”
My thumb reaches out to trace along her cheekbone.
“My brothers and I all love technology. We love the forest and the mountain, too, but we all kind of gravitated toward programming. When we realized that some people were blending organic input into the data to create algorithms, we realized that we had unlimited access to unique resources around here.”
I chuckle. “I think it’s kind of hilarious that right now the encryptions keeping a European data center safe are being generated by the splash of a river just north of us.”
Zoe bursts into laughter. “You’re right.”
Leaning down, I kiss her gently, instantly becoming lost in her softness. Then a thought blinks through my mind: I’ve taken this lovely woman through town to show her off, but I’ve never shown off my town to my girl.
“I’ll fix you a coffee, then stay out of your way while you work,” I murmur. “And then later, may I take you out to dinner?”
The dreaminess in her eyes strikes me right in the heart. “Sure.” Her eyes drop for a second. “Nowhere fancy though, okay?”
“I was thinking maybe pizza? There’s a great place downtown.”
Naturally I don’t mention that partly I want us to be seen together again. But I do. I want the entire mountain to know that Zoe is my girl.
And I want her to see how mellow our lives would be here if she chooses to stay.