Smitty swallowed, probably wondering who could move faster—Mace’s money was on his woman and her ability to draw her weapon. Then the hospital door opened and Smitty took his chance.

“It’s not my fault.” He pointed at the wild dog who’d just walked into the room. “It’s hers.”

Dez spun around, nailing Jessica Ward to the spot. But after a moment, the two women grinned, squealed, and ran into each other’s arms for a big hug.

“Jess!”

“Dez! Oh, my God, girl. How are you?”

“I’m fine. Fine.” Dez pulled back. “Look at you, Miss Too Rich to Remember Her Friends.”

“Oh, yeah, right. I was at the Christmas party at Moriharty’s. Where were you?”

Dez smirked and nodded toward Mace. “I’d just bred his little demon seed.”

Jess gasped in surprise. “You’re a mother?” That question was followed with another squeal that had both Smitty and Mace covering their ears in agony.

When Mace could hear again, the women were huddled over Dez’s wallet and pictures of Marcus—and her dumb dogs. He glanced at Smitty, who mouthed, “Asshole.” In response, Mace gave him the finger.

“So what happened?” Dez asked after the pair had gushed over how beautiful Marcus and those dumb dogs were.

“Bobby Ray is right,” Jess admitted. “It was my fault. I forgot Mace was coming to the office, and Danny was doing his usual lunch thing by letting our dogs take him around the office on his skateboard. They love doing that. Anyway, with a lion suddenly appearing in the office, they got a little spooked.”

Dez turned accusing eyes on Mace. “You scared her dogs?” she yelled.

“Wait. How did this become my fault?”

Jess stood around chatting with Dez until two more lions, mocking Llewellyn mercilessly, showed up. One of the big cats she knew: Brendon Shaw. Her company had done work for him on more than one occasion, she’d seen him at a few social events over the years, and the Pack’s much-loved Long Island property butted right up against Marissa Shaw’s and the Stark hyena Clan’s territories.

With Shaw came his brother. Not as big but just as handsome. She’d never met him before, but he seemed pleasant enough.

The problem wasn’t the brothers but the fact that Brendon brought flowers for Mace. As a joke sure, but Jess couldn’t find it funny. Since her allergic reaction to flowers could be considered colossal. She had small zipped cases in her backpack and key strategic places she frequented that held her allergy pills, nasal spray, and even an inhaler for those worst-case scenarios. Unfortunately, she hadn’t brought her backpack or coat with her. So she had no way of stopping one of her bouts unless she left the room in the next ninety seconds.

Not wasting any time, she whispered good-byeto Dez with promises to see her another time for lunch or dinner, before making her escape.

She pressed the button on the elevator and checked her e-mail from her phone. The elevator doors opened and she stepped inside. She pressed the ground floor button and went back to her phone. A rude reply from a rude client had her seeing blood red, and she immediately began typing a seriously vicious reply. Once she hit send it suddenly occurred to her the doors hadn’t opened. She glanced up and realized the floor numbers didn’t seem to be moving either.

“Took you long enough.”

Startled by the low voice—and damn him that sexy slow drawl—Jess snarled and slammed her back against the opposite elevator wall.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Don’t sneak up on me like that, Bobby Ray!”

“Sorry, darlin’. Didn’t mean to startle you into blaspheming. Though I’m never quite sure how you don’t know when someone’s standing right next to you. We’re supposed to have enhanced skills.”

“I was taking care of something.”

“So I could see. Man, those little fingers move fast.”

“They’re not little.”

He grabbed hold of her right forefinger and lifted her hand. “Like a leprechaun’s hands.”

Trying not to notice how good his rough fingers felt on hers, she snatched her hand back. After all these years—and with her at a cool five feet nine inches—Smitty still called her small. Of course, compared to those linebackers he called She-wolves...

“They are not like a leprechaun’s hands! Now, is there a reason you stopped the elevator?”

“I see you still have your allergy to flowers,” he said, stunning her that he actually remembered after all these years. “Is that why you left the room without talking to me?”

“Talk to you?”

“Yeah, remember? I told you I wanted to talk to you.”

“Okay.” Resigned to her fate, Jess waited for him to say something. After a good three minutes of mutual staring, she realized that wouldn’t be happening. “And what would you like to talk about, Bobby Ray?”

“First off, feel free to call me Smitty. Everyone does now. And second, I wanted to talk about you.”

“What about me?”

“I’d like to know what you’ve been doing all this time. Where you went. How you got here.”

Truly perplexed, she asked, “Why?”

“’Cause I’m interested.”

Jess gave a short shake of her head. “No.”

“No?”

“No.”

She hit the elevator button and the doors opened on the same floor, but Bobby Ray—Smitty—hit it again and the doors closed.