Swerve by Amarinda Jones Page A

her hand. Fine. Whatever. Who cares . Problem was she did care. Mary mentally slapped herself. You’re such an idiot. It was just sex. He’s rich. He doesn’t need you. He doesn’t have to promise forever . “Yes, Vernon is in. His office is the last on the left.” She watched as Simon acknowledged her words with a nod and strode down the corridor. “No, really, I’m fine. Last night?” she mumbled to herself.
    “No, of course I didn’t expect anything from you, at all.”
    “Mary, are you taking to yourself?” Duane, the IT nerd questioned.
    “Yes.”
    “That’s not normal.”
    Mary snorted. “Yeah, right, like this office is normal.”
    Thirty minutes later, Mary felt her skin start to goose bump. That was odd in Cairns. She considered maybe the air conditioning was on too high until she saw the man. Tall, blond haired with the palest blue eyes she had ever seen. She hadn’t even heard him come in. He seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
    “Is Simon Mayhew in?” he asked, stopping before her office door.
    “Why?” That wasn’t Mary’s normal response to people at her desk, but he made her feel instantly on edge and suspicious.
    “I’m an old friend.”
    “I think not.” When she heard the words come out of her mouth, she was surprised. Yet, she knew them to be true. An overwhelming feeling of malevolence was emanating from this man. “What do you want?”
    “Who are you to question me?”
    Mary snorted. “Sunshine, I can do what I like. Now state your reason, or get out.”
    Duane called out. “Maybe he wants to buy a shed, Mary.”
    “And maybe you should stop living at home with your mother,” Mary snapped back at him. She wasn’t surprised Duane didn’t stand up and say that or even make an effort to approach the man. Rarely did Duane interact with customers and to be honest there were times that Mary wondered what the hell he did.
    “I see,” the man responded as his gaze focused on hers.
    “What?” Mary could outstare the best of them but this man? It was like she was looking into a vortex.
    “You’re Mayhew’s woman.”
    Yes . That she thought that way surprised Mary. “I am my own woman.”
    The blond man leaned in close to her. Only the fake marble barrier of her desk separated them. “So you think.”
    Mary made herself keep eye contact. “So I know.”
    He laughed at her words. “I do want to like you, but arrogant women annoy me.”
    “Boo-hoo for you.”
    “Tell him I was here, Mary.”
    “And you are?” Mary asked coolly as she stood up to face him.
    “Sholto.”
    “As in ‘the magnificent?’” she responded in a smart ass manner to let him know she wasn’t scared of him.
    “You’re too much like Mayhew. That’s a problem. He cannot be allowed to mate with a like force.”
    Before Mary could ask what he meant, the blond man was gone. “Freaky.”
    “My mother wants me to live at home with her,” Duane’s reported in a weak, less than convincing voice.
    “Whatever.” It was then Simon appeared.
    “Where is he?” Simon had been trying to talk some sense to Vernon, which he found almost impossible as the man was scared of his own shadow, when he felt an evil presence lurking nearby. Instantly he thought of Sholto.
    “Who?” Mary’s tone was careful and cool as she stood up.
    Simon knew she wasn’t happy with his lack of recognition of her when he came into the office. He had wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her close, breathing in the scent of the woman he was addicted to. She was his soul mate. The problem with that was that brought danger to her. That Sholto had even come to this office meant he knew there was a link between them. “Sholto.”
    “He left just before you came out. How did you know he was here?”
    Simon could have said he felt the evil in the room and was desperate to ensure nothing happened to Mary but he wasn’t sure, in light of her cool attitude, how she would take that. Soon Mary would know more about his