Things That Go Hump In The Night (86 page)

Chapter Four

MEGAN

Kalvin was still snoring on the couch when I awoke the next morning. He lay there, curled up and naked beneath a pair of sheets and an old blanket, looking nothing like the billionaire bear shifter that I now knew he was. If anything, he seemed small and innocent, something that didn’t quite mesh well with the massive amount of space his body took up. Still, it was an adorable sight, and one that I didn’t want to disturb.

Rather than wake him, I started a pot of coffee, scribbled down a note that I had to leave to take my exam, and offered him leeway to whatever he wanted in the kitchen. Then I jotted down that his shorts were in the dryer, and stuck the note on the door so he’d see it.

With a sigh, I gathered my backpack and sneaked out of the apartment, doing my best to avoid waking him up. Even if he was a shifter, the man still needed rest. Injuries like the ones he had last night were still pretty serious, it didn’t matter what branch of humanity you came from.

I made my way to the bus stop, my brain still reeling from the realization of who he was. What were the odds that I’d find Kalvin Dare, ultra-rich entrepreneur extraordinaire, bleeding in an alleyway? Slim to none, I’d bet. If I were a betting girl, that is.

It wasn’t that I’d found him, though, that most surprised me. No, what most surprised me was how
human
he had seemed. In fact, he’d come across as incredibly pleasant. It was a far cry from how the tabloids and media portrayed him. To the world, Kalvin Dare was a closed-off and often cold tech mogul. He’d built a tech empire that had grown to rival the likes of Apple in virtually no time at all, and in doing so had created some pretty bitter enemies in the corporate world. Kalvin Dare, to the world, was a cold, calculating, and sometimes conniving businessman. Period.

Except, that wasn’t all he was. At least as far as I could tell, he was just like any other person. If you ignore the shifting into a bear and engaging in some kind of weird underground fight club thing, I mean.

More than that, I kept coming back to the fact that Kalvin seemed to, I dunno,
like
me.

The way he’d kept looking at me last night, with a softness and desire in his eyes, had taken me off guard. And there was no way that he could hide the massive erection under the towel I’d given him. The thought that
I’d
done that to him had left me more than flustered. It was all I could do to fall asleep without my hand drifting to my own wetness while my mind centered on what was under that towel. If I had even half the courage as my inner goddess seemed to think I had, I’d have either climbed onto the couch with Kalvin, or dragged him back to my bedroom.

Maybe if he’s still there tonight…

I stopped myself. I was his caretaker. For all intents and purposes, I was his doctor and he was my patient. Even if I wasn’t licensed to practice medicine yet, I could at least practice basic ethics. And besides, what are the chances that the erection was for me? The guy was a
bear
for crying out loud. And one who had just survived a near-death experience, no less. His bones were probably jumping at the thought of staying alive, much less getting to know the random curvy girl who’d happened upon him.

I did my best to shake off the thoughts as I continued toward the bus stop. When I finally reached the stop, I took a seat on the bench and waited, all the time trying to focus on
anything
but the naked man in my apartment.

Chapter Five

KALVIN

My heart sank when I read Megan’s note. I knew that she would be leaving early in the morning, but that didn’t stop me from feeling dejected when I noticed that she was gone. It had been kind of her to start a pot of coffee and leave without waking me, but part of me wished she’d been a tad ruder. The rest of me wished that I wasn’t such a heavy sleeper. The thought of waking up and seeing her face first thing in the morning filled me with a warmth that I didn’t quite recognize, but the reality of waking up with her gone left me feeling lost and more than a little sad. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been looking forward to seeing her when I woke up.

Doing my best to get around the overbearing sense of dismay, I clambered around the apartment in search of the washing machine and dryer. I found them stacked in a tiny closet in the rear of the apartment, retrieved my shorts, and pulled them on. Still half-naked, I stumbled my way into the kitchen and poured myself a cup of the coffee Megan had brewed for me. Without adding any milk or sugar, I brought the cup to my lips and let the warm and bitter liquid sink into my belly.

My stomach let out a bear-sized growl and I doubled over from the sharpness of the hunger pangs. Being a bear meant having a huge appetite, and I hadn’t eaten in almost a full day. I scrounged around the kitchen, ultimately settling on an unopened bag of bagels, which I carried over to the couch with me and set on the coffee table alongside my drink.

Megan’s note had said to help myself to whatever I wanted and I was nothing if not a great listener. And besides, I’d be paying her back. Not only for the coffee and bagels, but for patching me up and offering me a place to stay. It was the least that I could do. Hell, if she gave me the chance, I’d pay off whatever loans and debts she needed handling. Even if my bear was still playing hooky, there was no doubt in my mind that Megan was my mate. She had to be.

I settled down on the couch, shoving a bagel into my mouth, and searched for the television remote. I found it on the coffee table and flipped on the TV, thumbing over to CNBC to check the latest stock prices. What I saw sent shivers down my spine and almost made me choke on my bagel.

Somehow, over night, my company’s stocks had plummeted.

It was the leading story on CNBC, and I flipped through to another 24 hour news channel to see if it had been picked up there as well. It had. In fact, it was on
all
of the news channels. My company was in free-fall and stockholders were pulling out at a breakneck pace.

Even worse, no one could locate the CEO for a statement or a solution. No one could locate
me
.

“Shit!” I cursed, flipping off the television and taking the remnants of my breakfast to the sink. With any luck, I’d be able to get the situation turned around and be back in time to see Megan again. As it stood, though, I didn’t have the time to sit around and wait for her to come home or to explain what was going on. All I could manage was a note. I scribbled a few short words down on a piece of paper and placed it on the counter where I hoped Megan would find it, then I ran out the door, still dressed in nothing but my shorts from the night before.

Without a phone, there was no way I could get in touch with my driver, or even order one of those on-demand taxis. Even worse, without any cash on me, I wouldn’t be able to hail an
actual
taxi. Even the bus would be off limits. That meant I had to get to the other side of the city, half-naked, in the middle of the day. Oh, and barefoot, because why the fuck not?

Any other day, I’d have risked shifting and taking to the streets as a bear. Today, though, sucked in that aspect too. Even with my human senses in complete disarray, my bear still refused to budge.

With no other options, I darted toward the nearest stairwell and began my descent. Fortunately, Megan only lived on the third floor of her building, which meant I was on the streets and running at a breakneck pace in a matter of seconds. With my lungs heaving and my body still aching from the night before, I raced toward my own penthouse apartment on the other side of town.

After what seemed like ages, I finally managed to reach my building. My chest was pounding and heart felt like it was going to explode, but I made it. Bloody blistered feet and all.

I strode up to the building, nodding at Jeffrey, the wide-eyed doorman, and entered. Minutes later, I was standing in my own bathroom, climbing into my own shower, and doing a rush-job at cleaning myself off.

Satisfied that I’d managed to erase the stench of my own sweat and blood, I clambered out of the shower, dried off, threw on some deodorant, and made for my closet. I grabbed the nearest suit off the rack - a charcoal colored name brand that cost more than most of Megan’s possessions put together - and threw it on over a light blue button-down. Ignoring the ties stacked neatly in their shelved cubes, I snatched a pair of socks and my shoes, then ran for the exit, grabbing my wallet and work cell-phone off the table in the hallway where I’d left them the day before.

The first thing I did while heading toward the elevator was dial my assistant, Jenna, and let her know that I was on my way to the office. She sounded more surprised that I was alive than anything, but I didn’t give her enough time to comment before hanging up and phoning my driver.

By the time I reached the ground floor, Tony was standing there waiting on me. My driver, Tony, is also my official bodyguard as well as one of the few friends that I had. In fact, after today, he might be my only friend. At a hair over six feet tall and just as muscled as myself, Tony made for quite the vicious shifter himself. Preferring to abstain from violence, however, Tony had settled into a much more docile lifestyle than I had. He was a powerful bear from an old and noble northwestern clan. Why he’d abandoned them for the city, I didn’t know. That was his business and until he decided otherwise, I was fine not knowing.

“Rough night?” Tony questioned, arching an eyebrow in half-curiosity, half-concern.

“Something like that,” I answered, gesturing toward the building’s exit as I continued walking. “Car ready?”

“Gassed up and running,” he shot back. After a few steps, he stuck an arm out at me, stopping me in my tracks, and said, “You could have called.”

On any other day, my bear would have roared at his affront. Instead, I just shook my head emphatically, “Didn’t have a phone. Don’t remember your number.”

Tony harrumphed and pulled back, “After you,
sir
.”

Every now and then, when I got on Tony’s nerves, he’d start with the passive-aggressive role-playing. Any other time I was Kal. When Tony was pissed off, sir. When he got
really
peeved, he’d even taken to calling me master.

Rolling my eyes, I continued on my way, exiting the building and walking up to the black Mercedes parked on the street. I climbed into the passenger seat as Tony made his way around the car, checking my phone as I did. I had over a dozen missed calls, both from co-workers and family, as well more texts and emails than I bothered to count. Judging by everyone’s reactions, one would think that I’d been missing for months. But for one night?

“What the hell is going on?” I asked Tony when he finally got settled behind the wheel.

“Seriously?” Tony asked flatly, pulling away from the curb and starting us toward the office.

I nodded.

“Huh. It started last night. Talks of a coup or a hostile takeover, whatever. Then, this morning, when the market opened, Hammer Industries started buying
everything
.”

“Wait.
Hammer
is buying out everything? No fucking way Chase is trying to buy us out. His own company is in shambles.” In fact, the last I’d heard, Chase Hammers had disappeared with some girl in Appalachia.

Tony shook his head, “Apparently, Chase Hammers no long owns or runs Hammer Industries. Word is, he sold all of his shares and signed over his rights. There’s some new guy in charge over there, and he’s apparently pretty vicious.”

“Damn,” I mumbled. Chase and I, while direct competitors, had always been amicable. “How did they manage this?”

“Dunno,” Tony shrugged. “But there’s talk it was prearranged. Very sketchy.”

I closed my eyes and squeezed the bridge of my nose in an attempt to stave off an oncoming headache, riding in silence the rest of the way to the office.

Tony parked and I climbed out of the car, doing my best to shield my eyes from the midday sun. My body was still catching up with me, and the last thing I needed was to be seeing spots when I addressed the board.

Forcing myself through a line of media hounds waiting by the building’s entrance, I stepped inside the building and made for the nearest elevator. Fortunately, the elevator was empty, giving me enough time to gather my thoughts.

Okay. Hostile takeover. Hammer Industries. What else?

Before I could answer myself, though, the elevator dinged at my destination and the doors opened, revealing a crowd of employees with frazzled appearances and bloodshot eyes. It felt like walking into a funeral as I stepped through the hallways. Everyone was eerily silent, barely bothering to glance at me as I walked toward my corner office.

I nodded at Jenna as I passed by her, receiving the same half-glance that I’d gotten from everyone else in the office. Inside the office waited the three men I least wanted to see at the moment.

“Jesus, Kalvin, you couldn’t even bother to brush your hair?” Mark Elliot, my CFO, shot at me from behind his thick and graying mustache.

“At least he finally bothered to show up,” Brandon Myers, the head of development, snorted while fingering his horn-rimmed glasses.

“Yeah,
finally
.” Jason Monroe, the company’s vice president, remarked. Of all the people I’d ever known, Jason had the face that most begged to be bashed in. Something about that sharp, crooked nose and those tombstone colored teeth.

“Enough,” I spat, doing my best to assert my dominance in the room. These men worked for
me.
Were wealthy because of
me
. Even if my bear didn’t want to participate, I wasn’t about to be derided by the likes of them. “Catch me up.”

Mark just shook his head, staring at me with a scowl on his face. The others followed suit, each with their own special brand of asshole invisibly stamped on their forehead.

“Fine,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I know about Hammer. Know about the takeover attempt.”

“Attempt?” Jason questioned, arching his eyebrow and
somehow
managing to look even more like the makings of a human punching bag. “No, Kalvin. Not attempt. They
succeeded
. Dare International is
done for
.”